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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 1 of 10

Minutes of the Form­al Board Meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey

In Per­son

28 June 2024 at 10.00am

Present

Sandy Brem­ner (Con­vener) Chris Beat­tie Jack­ie Brier­ton Kenny Deans John Kirk Bill Lob­ban Dr Fiona McLean Duncan Miller Ann Ross

Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Con­vener) Geva Black­ett Peter Cos­grove Paul Gibb Rus­sell Jones Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Xan­der McDade Steve Mickle­wright Derek Ross

In Attend­ance

Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change Colin McCle­an, Head of Land Man­age­ment Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices Oliv­er Dav­ies, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Kar­en John­stone, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies

Dr Han­nah Grist

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 2 of 10

Wel­come and introduction

1. Sandy Brem­ner, the Board Con­vener, wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing. Apo­lo­gies were noted. Con­vener exten­ded a spe­cial wel­come to new board mem­ber Jack­ie Brierton.

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meetings

1. The draft minutes of the last meet­ing held on the 22 March 2024 were agreed with no amendments.

Mat­ters arising not covered elsewhere

1. The Board Con­vener provided an update on the action points from Septem­ber 2023 minutes:

ACTION	Status
Draft Minutes – 8 Septem­ber 2023
Paper 2: Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Annu­al Update
At para 14
i.The CEO con­firmed that we will speak with Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and dis­cuss their long-term plans and come back to the Board with an update.	Com­pleted
Paper 4: Caper­cail­lie Conservation
At para 21
i.Strategic aspects of the plan come back to the Board for approv­al and Per­form­ance Com­mit­tees for reg­u­lar updates, this was seconded by Gaen­er Rodger and Doug McAdam.	On Agenda
Draft Minutes 22 March 202
Paper 1 CEO report
At para 7
ii.CEO, to pre­pare a brief­ing note on farm­ing activ­ity and stat­ist­ics with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and dis­trib­ute to the Board.	In hand
iii.Murray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place to write to the Scot­tish Canoe Soci­ety about access to the River Spey.	Com­pleted

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 3 of 10

Paper 2 Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity budget and oper­a­tion­al plan for 2024⁄25
At para 9
i.A list of com­munity grants to be pub­lished on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Web­site and cir­cu­lated with Members.	Com­pleted
Paper 3 Man­aging deer for cli­mate and nature: consultation
At para 13
ii.Colin McCle­an to add a para­graph to the con­sulta­tion on the issue of roe deer in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.	Com­pleted
iii.Colin McCle­an to expand the Cairngorms Nation­al Parks response around the close season.	Com­pleted

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. No declar­a­tions of interest.

CEO Report

1. Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive, intro­duced the paper which was to high­light to board mem­bers the main stra­tegic areas of work that are being dir­ec­ted by the Man­age­ment Team. These are areas where sig­ni­fic­ant staff resources are being dir­ec­ted to deliv­er with part­ners the aspir­a­tions of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) Board mem­bers praised the hard work and improve­ments made from Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) staff and part­ner organ­isa­tions on areas such as new policies, path improve­ments, floor improve­ment work and gain­ing LGBT Charter status. b) A board mem­ber noted at point 10, that some entry points gran­ite mark­ers are in poor con­di­tion and need atten­tion. The CEO acknow­ledged this and would be fol­lowed up, ensur­ing the signs and sur­round­ings are improved. c) A board mem­ber sought examples of good infra­struc­ture pro­jects tak­ing place at the moment. The CEO noted that he can­not announce the Cli­mate Adaptation

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 4 of 10

Fund recip­i­ents pub­licly at the moment will inform board mem­bers when able to do so.

1. The Board noted the Paper. The Con­vener thanked the Chief Exec­ut­ive and all staff on behalf of the Board.

2. Action Points Arising: i. Ensure main­ten­ance of signs and sur­round­ings on gran­ite mark­ers entry points.

Fire Man­age­ment byelaws

1. The board Con­vener expressed that as a Board and the Nation­al Park author­ity this stage has been reached reluct­antly. The byelaw has to be con­sidered to reduce the risk of wild­fires after try­ing to edu­cate and pro­tect loc­al com­munit­ies and nat­ur­al her­it­age, a sig­ni­fic­ant minor­ity con­tin­ue to ignore the guid­ance put in place, risk­ing nature, prop­erty and people’s lives. Fol­low­ing this, the Park Author­ity under­took a pub­lic con­sulta­tion which res­ul­ted in the biggest response they have ever received. The Board Con­vener thanked every­one for their con­tri­bu­tion and noted that if the byelaw was sup­por­ted, there would be fur­ther con­sulta­tion as part of the stat­utory process.

2. Grant Moir, CEO intro­duced the paper which out­lines the Park Author­ity have car­ried out an extens­ive con­sulta­tion on poten­tial fire man­age­ment byelaws for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park fol­low­ing the board decision on 24 Novem­ber 2023, the res­ults of which gives the Park Author­ity a man­date for change.

3. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) It was noted there was a typo at point 4 say­ing a decision was made in 2024, which should read 2023. The CEO noted this. b) Dis­cus­sions were had around sup­port­ing the byelaw as board mem­bers feel the fire risk is very high and can cause so much dam­age to people, homes, com­munit­ies and wild­life. c) Con­cerns were raised by board mem­bers as they do not like the idea of byelaws and asked if there were any inten­tions to intro­duce oth­er byelaws in CNPA. The CEO stated that there were no inten­tions at the moment and the fire byelaw is a reac­tion to the evid­ence base, pre­vi­ous fires, cli­mate change and to try and pre­vent future damage.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 5 of 10

d) Board mem­bers quer­ied the dates on the fire byelaw, con­cerned that April was too late and sug­gest­ing March could also be a high fire risk month. The CEO noted that the byelaw will be worded to allow flex­ib­il­ity in the date. e) Board mem­bers asked for cla­ri­fic­a­tion on how the byelaw would be com­mu­nic­ated with the pub­lic. It was con­firmed that this would start with edu­ca­tion from train­ing in schools, to edu­ca­tion from rangers out in the Park. There would be a strategy from the Com­mu­nic­a­tions team, shar­ing it on many plat­forms and sig­nage in and around the Park mak­ing it clear for res­id­ents and vis­it­ors. f) Board mem­bers quer­ied how the byelaw will be man­aged and what train­ing will be put in place. The CEO explained that the Rangers will con­tin­ue to edu­cate the pub­lic about the risks firstly and work along­side the police to give fixed pen­alty notices. CNPA will ensure that the rangers receive full train­ing and are prepared.

1. The Board noted the paper and approved.

2. Action Points Arising: None

Update on the Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan

1. Colin McCle­an, Head of Land Man­age­ment, intro­duced the paper which sets out the devel­op­ment of an Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. This paper dis­cusses pro­gress in the pre­par­a­tion of the Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) A board mem­ber high­lighted that there are few­er fire breaks in forests than pre­vi­ously. Colin McLean, Head of Land Man­age­ment agreed and cited the example of watch towers no longer exist­ing. b) A board mem­ber sought clar­ity on the defin­i­tion of land hold­ings to help man­age expect­a­tions and under­stand­ing for land man­agers. Head of Land Man­age­ment noted this would be made clear in the plan. c) A board mem­ber asked what amount of time, skills, equip­ment and train­ing will be required and sug­ges­ted land man­agers are sup­por­ted in this going for­ward. The CEO high­lighted that there is a train­ing require­ment through the wild­fire man­age­ment and muir­burn bill, this might put a strain on train­ing in fire

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 6 of 10

man­age­ment as a high num­ber will require to go through this pro­cess in a one-year peri­od. d) Board mem­bers com­men­ted that the plan should include con­sid­er­a­tion of fire ponds and equip­ment such as slurry tankers. Head of Land Man­age­ment noted that fire ponds would be con­sidered, as would an asset register includ­ing means of get­ting water to the front line of a fire.

1. The board noted the paper and the progress.

2. Action Points Arising: ii. The board mem­ber high­lighted there was a need to cla­ri­fy under­stand­ing of land hold­ings to help man­age expect­a­tions and under­stand­ing for land managers.

Adop­tion of the Gael­ic Lan­guage Plan 2024 — 28

1. Oliv­er Dav­ies, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment intro­duced the paper which sum­mar­ises the res­ults of a six-week con­sulta­tion on our new Gael­ic Lan­guage Plan 2024 — 28 and out­lines changes made as a res­ult of pub­lic feedback.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) Board mem­bers con­grat­u­lated the Com­mu­nic­a­tions team on their suc­cess on enga­ging with so many people, espe­cially the young­er pop­u­la­tion. b) Ques­tions were raised regard­ing board mem­ber train­ing to which Oliv­er Dav­ies, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment noted the board train­ing would be a half-day ses­sion com­bin­ing back­ground into the Gael­ic lan­guage and cul­ture that would teach basic phrases and research and resources would be made avail­able. c) A board mem­ber ques­tioned the low response from loc­al busi­nesses and asked if this was related to the costs involved with trans­la­tion. Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment high­lighted that loc­al trans­lat­ors are very afford­able and noted that this is some­thing they could com­mu­nic­ate with loc­al busi­nesses. d) Some board mem­bers high­lighted that they felt the fund­ing for the Gael­ic lan­guage plan seemed low and would like to see more inves­ted in this in the future.

3. The Board adop­ted the lan­guage plan and noted the siz­able response to the papers.

4. Action Points Arising:

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 7 of 10

i. Share afford­ab­il­ity of trans­la­tion with loc­al businesses.

Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan

1. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change intro­duced a paper which sets out the scope of activ­ity and over­all fund­ing strategy con­tained with­in the cos­ted spa­tial plan i.e. Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan. Board mem­bers were asked to agree the ele­ments of the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan as presen­ted in the paper.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) Dis­cus­sions were had around the amount of pub­lic money being spent on caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion and wheth­er the res­ults were reflect­ing this. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change noted that the pub­lic fund­ing was not being spent solely on caper­cail­lie but was deliv­er­ing a wide range of pub­lic bene­fit, from which caper­cail­lie bene­fit­ted. The CEO noted that pub­lic mon­ies are from a range of exist­ing sources. Park Author­ity budget spe­cif­ic to the pro­ject is rel­at­ively small with oth­er fund­ing comes from oth­er organ­isa­tions, private or char­it­able dona­tions. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change noted that the money already inves­ted will draw in third party investors. All costs are stated in the fund­ing strategy. b) A board mem­ber raised con­cerns that there has not been as much caper­cail­lie suc­cess and invest­ig­a­tion should be done on rein­tro­duc­tion or trans­lo­ca­tion pro­ject. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change con­firmed that this is not a straight­for­ward pro­cess but noted the con­cern and, whilst cur­rently ref­er­enced in the plan, this can be high­lighted to rein­force the point. c) Board mem­bers ques­tioned only receiv­ing the con­tents page, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change noted the board were asked to con­sider the stra­tegic aspect of the plan hence the scope of activ­ity was included with the paper, not the detailed con­tent of the plan as developed by expert stake­hold­ers and aca­dem­ics. d) Dis­cus­sions were had around the impact of pine martens and how can this be man­aged, if trans­lo­ca­tion or leth­al con­trol would be an option. The CEO noted that Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment reques­ted the Park Author­ity to pro­duce the plan as scoped, which did not include pine marten con­trol. Car­ry­ing out a sur­vey to bet­ter under­stand the num­ber of pine martens is the first step to invest­ig­at­ing the prac­tic­al­it­ies, policy tests and prin­ciples which would need to be applied before the con­trol of a pro­tec­ted spe­cies can take place. The Dir­ect­or of Nature and

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 8 of 10

Cli­mate Change explained that redu­cing the impacts of pred­a­tion is part of the scope of the plan and ele­ments of this were included. e) Dis­cus­sions were had around diver­sion­ary feed­ing, the Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change high­lighted that this was one of the four actions recom­men­ded by the sci­entif­ic advis­ory com­mit­tee to pur­sue in pred­at­or man­age­ment. Recent, peer reviewed evid­ence shows that diver­sion­ary feed­ing res­ul­ted in 82.5% increase of nest sur­viv­al. f) A board mem­ber reques­ted a suc­cinct sum­mary of wider bene­fits of fund­ing, e.g. expan­sion of wood­land bene­fits of biodiversity

1. The Board noted the paper and con­tent to sup­port the recom­mend­a­tion with the key pro­vi­sions that a pine marten sur­vey is pri­or­it­ised to provide an evid­ence base to take any actions to pro­tect caper­cail­lie and the Con­vener of the Board to write to the min­is­ter to reflect con­cerns expressed by the Board and ask for a dis­cus­sion. Con­vener will give feed­back to the Board when available.

2. Con­tent on this basis.

3. Action Points Arising: i. Board Con­vener to write to the min­is­ter to pri­or­it­ise a pine marten sur­vey reflect­ing con­cerns expressed by the board and ask­ing for a meet­ing. ii. Suc­cinct sum­mary of wider bene­fits of fund­ing, e.g. expan­sion of wood­land bene­fits of biodiversity

Board Com­mit­tee Minutes

1. The board Con­vener intro­duced the paper that presents the approved minutes of the Resources Com­mit­tee and Per­form­ance Committee.

2. The Board noted the minutes.

3. Action Points Arising: None

12.52, Kenny Deans left. 12.55, Kenny Deans returned.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 9 of 10

1. The Chair of the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee gave an update to the board on the Committee’s con­sid­er­a­tion of an intern­al audit report which had high­lighted a num­ber of urgent intern­al con­trol improve­ments required to update the Park Authority’s pro­cure­ment con­trols not­ing that the Com­mit­tee had agreed an action plan and that the com­mit­tee will con­tin­ue to review pro­gress and update the board as necessary.

2. Action Points Arising: None

AOCB

None.

Date of Next Meeting

The date of the next meet­ing is Fri­day 13 Septem­ber in person.

The meet­ing con­cluded at 12.56pm

Action	Status
Paper 1 – CEO Report
At para 7
i. Ensure main­ten­ance of signs and sur­round­ings on gran­ite mark­ers entry points
Paper 3 — Update on the Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan
At para 13
i. The board mem­ber sug­ges­ted high­lighted there was a need to cla­ri­fy on land hold­ings to show expect­a­tions for land managers.
Paper 4 – Gael­ic Lan­guage Plan
At para 16
i. Share afford­ab­il­ity of trans­la­tion with loc­al businesses.
Paper 5 — Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan
At Para 20
i. Board Con­vener to write to the min­is­ter to pri­or­it­ise a pine marten sur­vey reflecting

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Minutes 28 June 2024 Page 10 of 10

con­cerns expressed by the board and ask­ing for a meeting.
ii. Suc­cinct sum­mary of wider bene­fits of fund­ing, e.g. expan­sion of wood­land bene­fits of biodiversity