240614DRAFTPerfCmteMinutes

Cairngorms Draft Minutes of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 June 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 7

Draft Minutes of the Per­form­ance Committee

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey

Hybrid

14 June 2024 at 1.00pm

Present Kenny Deans (Con­vener) Chris Beat­tie Sandy Brem­ner John Kirk Steve Mickle­wright Elean­or Mack­in­tosh Ann Ross 

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030 Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or for Nature and Cli­mate Change Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion Kar­en John­stone, Clerk to Board

Apo­lo­gies None

Wel­come and introduction

1. The Chair wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Per­form­ance Committee.

Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meetings

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 26 April 2024 were approved with no amendments.

Cairngorms Draft Minutes of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 June 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 2 of 7

Mat­ters Arising

1. Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meet­ings: a) 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022 i. Item 3.13a1 an accur­ate record of Vis­it Scot­land fund­ing ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ will be brought to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee in due course as extern­al aud­it­ors are still work­ing through records.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. None

13.02pm Ann Ross joined the meeting.

Bring back beaver’s pro­ject (Paper 1)

1. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion, intro­duced the paper which presents the latest deliv­ery updates on the Bring­ing back beaver’s project.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Board mem­bers ques­tioned how often the board and pub­lic were get­ting updates on the beavers’ move­ments. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion reas­sured the com­mit­tee that there was a mon­it­or­ing group in place to mon­it­or when beavers are mov­ing, and the Beaver Pro­ject Man­ager would inform landown­ers imme­di­ately if beavers were on their land. b) Ques­tions were raised about the impact of staff time and costs for this pro­ject and how this is being man­aged. The com­mit­tee were reas­sured that this has only been flagged as a poten­tial risk in the future, how­ever, rangers, volun­teers and future release site part­ners will help. c) A board mem­ber ques­tioned the longer-term plan for beavers. The Head of Con­ser­va­tion noted that they have a five-year license, solely focused on the Spey catch­ment. d) Board mem­bers ques­tioned what the beaver pop­u­la­tion is likely to reach and how this would be man­aged. The Head of Con­ser­va­tion con­firmed that it was hard to give a fixed num­ber, how­ever, NatureScot have car­ried out mod­el­ling frame­work to try and estab­lish how the pop­u­la­tion is likely to grow over time, based on estab­lished territories.

Cairngorms Draft Minutes of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 June 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 7

e) A board mem­ber asked if beavers leave the Nation­al Park, who would be respons­ible for them. Head of Con­ser­va­tion high­lighted that we want the beaver pop­u­la­tion to expand with­in the catch­ment. There is a Nation­al Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion frame­work that NatureScot imple­ment that sets out how beaver’s will be man­aged out with the bound­ar­ies of the Nation­al Park.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: none.

Cairngorms 2030: Q1 2024 (Jan – Mar) (Paper 2)

1. Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030, intro­duced the paper which updates the Park Author­ity Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee on the risks under man­age­ment with­in the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme. This paper presents the peri­od from Janu­ary to March 2024 and the planned work to the end of June 2024.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Grant Moir, CEO, added a com­ment related to the trans­port aspect; he will be meet­ing with Bet­tina Size­land, Dir­ect­or in Trans­port Scot­land and Dave Signorini, Dir­ect­or of Envir­on­ment and Forestry, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment (SG) on 27 June to dis­cuss Cairngorms 2030 fund­ing. b) A board mem­ber ques­tioned the con­nectiv­ity of cycle paths between loc­a­tions in Badenoch and Strath­spey ask­ing when these will be going ahead. The CEO stated that routes and cost­ings are in place, we are wait­ing for con­firm­a­tion on a start date. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vice, stated that Dul­nain Bridge and Grant­own on Spey are com­munity led pro­jects, cur­rently at stage four, the Park Author­ity will pick up from stage five. c) Com­ments were made on the inform­a­tion that has been repor­ted, with mem­bers feel­ing it was dated. The CEO stated that Cairngorms 2030 has been divided into three themes to come to com­mit­tee in rota­tion: Trans­port, Com­munity and Nature themes will be presen­ted which will provide a for­ward look of plans with­in each theme. Board mem­bers high­lighted that due to pub­lic per­cep­tion, they would need to have an insight into what’s com­ing up. The CEO respon­ded to say that they will share a for­ward look with the board, giv­ing mem­bers more of an insight. The Deputy CEO emphas­ised the import­ance of scru­tiny of pro­gramme deliv­ery, which formed the basis of the terms of ref­er­ence for the Com­mit­tee and ensured

Cairngorms Draft Minutes of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 June 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 4 of 7

appro­pri­ate scru­tiny was giv­en to pro­gramme man­age­ment, risk and resource implic­a­tions, and deliv­ery. the Chair noted that a meet­ing had been arranged with the Deputy CEO and Head of Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme to agree the future cov­er­age of the pro­gramme by this Com­mit­tee. Mem­bers sup­por­ted this action. d) A board mem­ber raised a ques­tion regard­ing budget that was approved but deferred for a year. The CEO stated that SG has the same amount of act­ive travel budget between Trans­port Scot­land and Sus­trans: it’s who admin­is­ters this budget and alloc­a­tion pro­cesses that have changed. How­ever, the Park Author­ity is look­ing to secure funds for this year for the design phase of the pro­ject. This will be dis­cussed at the meet­ing on 27 June with Trans­port Scot­land referred to earlier.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: i. Chair of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee and Deputy CEO to dis­cuss and make a plan for how best to share with the Board Mem­bers the for­ward look doc­u­ment to allow them to see what’s com­ing up.

Deliv­ery of stat­utory duties as con­ferred by the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003 (Paper 3)

1. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel presen­ted the paper which updates mem­bers on deliv­ery of the Park Author­it­ies stat­utory duties under the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003. While activ­ity is delivered by officers with some report­ing to the Loc­al Out­door Access For­um, as a stat­utory func­tion it is also con­sidered appro­pri­ate that there is an ele­ment of Board over­sight and scru­tiny of related casework.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A board mem­ber raised a ques­tion of wheth­er com­mit­tee gets sight of case­loads and issues on an annu­al basis. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices noted that they plan to bring over­view inform­a­tion to the com­mit­tee such as numer­ic­al ana­lys­is of cases and sum­mar­ies of types of cases dealt with.

Cairngorms Draft Minutes of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 June 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 5 of 7

b) Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices gave the com­mit­tee an update on the access to the area of the Spey, and the report they had under­taken in Autum. This has now been recon­sidered and will go back out to gath­er more inform­a­tion over the com­ing weeks.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: none

Cairngorms and Glen­more Strategy 2016 (Paper 4)

1. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel presen­ted the paper which updates mem­bers on deliv­ery of the actions con­tained in the 2016 strategy and to con­sider the role the Park Author­ity should take to lead on coordin­ated deliv­ery of actions in the Cairngorm and Glen­more area in future.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A board mem­ber ques­tioned the slow pro­gress on park­ing man­age­ment between The High­land Coun­cil (THC) and Forestry and Land Scot­land (FLS). Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel stated that they would use a hol­ist­ic solu­tion such as bar­ri­ers and park­ing facil­it­ies. There has been dis­cus­sion about cla­ri­fy­ing leg­al and man­age­ment respons­ib­il­it­ies on the mat­ter and the leg­al times­cales for res­ol­u­tion of ques­tions has slowed the pro­cess down.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action Point Arising: none

Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject (Paper 5)

1. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change presen­ted the paper which presents the final report on the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A board mem­ber com­men­ted on the pro­ject receiv­ing cri­ti­cism due to lack of sig­nage for those with dogs not on leads and hav­ing received com­ments from people who ended up being approached by the police. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of

Cairngorms Draft Minutes of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 June 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 6 of 7

Nature and Cli­mate Change noted that the police may have stopped people regard­ing the Lek it Be cam­paign as they sup­por­ted this in the early morn­ings to stop people dis­turb­ing the Leks. There was also Peer to Peer work­ing in the dog walk­ing com­munity, and this is pos­sibly where the con­flict or mis­com­mu­nic­a­tion comes from. b) Board mem­bers felt there are high­er num­bers of ticks in the area. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change, respon­ded by stat­ing that ticks and pred­at­ors have been dis­cussed as part of this pro­ject and this goes into the Leg­acy Plan. Grant Moir, CEO men­tioned that we need to con­tin­ue to inform the pub­lic on tick risks, so they are aware how to check them­selves and what to look out for. c) Board mem­bers raised ques­tions about the capa­city to keep the Caper­cail­lie mes­sage out there and what is included in the Leg­acy Plan. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change stated that the Leg­acy Plan is the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan, this will be dis­trib­uted at the Form­al Board in June. d) A board mem­ber men­tioned that they feel there has been a lot of money spent on Caper­cail­lie with little res­ult. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change noted that fund­ing strategy is laid out in the emer­gency plan, there is a sig­ni­fic­ant price tag, but they put pub­lic money into those actions with mul­tiple bene­fits and long-term benefits.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: None

AOCB

1. Date of net meet­ing 20 Septem­ber 2024

The meet­ing closed at 14.19pm

Cairngorms Draft Minutes of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 June 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Action Points: ACTION Status Draft Minutes – 14 June 2024 Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meet­ings In hand 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022 ii. Item 3.13a1 an accur­ate record of Vis­it Scot­land fund­ing ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ will be brought to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee in due course as extern­al aud­it­ors are still work­ing through records. Paper 2 — Cairngorms 2030: Q1 2024 (Jan – Mar) At para 9c i. Chair of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee, Kenny Deans and Deputy CEO, Dav­id Camer­on to dis­cuss and make a plan for how best to share with the Board Mem­bers the for­ward look doc­u­ment to allow them to see what’s com­ing up. Page 7 of 7