241113 Paper 1 Fire Bylaw

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 6

Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access For­um Title: Sea­son­al Fire Man­age­ment Bylaw Pre­pared by: Grant Moir, CEO

Pur­pose Since the Loc­al Out­door Access For­um (LOAF) meet­ing in June, the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Board has approved the prin­ciple of a sea­son­al fire man­age­ment bylaw. The Board sub­sequently approved a pub­lic con­sulta­tion on the form­al word­ing of the fire man­age­ment bylaw (see annex 1) at their meet­ing on the 13^th of Septem­ber. The pub­lic con­sulta­tion on the draft word­ing star­ted on the 23 Septem­ber and will con­tin­ue until 16 Decem­ber 2024. LOAF Mem­bers are invited to com­ment and advise on the word­ing of the bylaw.

Back­ground Earli­er this year, the Park Author­ity con­sul­ted on the poten­tial intro­duc­tion of a fire bylaw. Over 1,600 people took part, with 79% sup­port­ing the intro­duc­tion of a bylaw, 16% against and 5% unsure. The Park Author­ity did not express a pref­er­ence dur­ing this con­sulta­tion, but the res­ults gave the Park Author­ity a man­date for change.

Draw­ing on feed­back from the gen­er­al pub­lic, landown­ers and part­ners, the Park Author­ity board agreed on 28 June 2024 to devel­op a sea­son­al fire man­age­ment bylaw, which would last from 1 April to 30 Septem­ber each year. This decision was based on feed­back from the con­sulta­tion, which sug­ges­ted that the approach should be easy to com­mu­nic­ate, not per­ceived as heavy-handed and cov­er the peri­od with the greatest risk.

By law, the Park Author­ity must now con­sult on the spe­cif­ic word­ing of the bylaw, as set out in the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000.

Stra­tegic Con­sid­er­a­tions A num­ber of poten­tial issues were raised by the Board in their con­sid­er­a­tion of the prin­ciple of a fire man­age­ment bylaw. These have been addressed in the draft word­ing being con­sul­ted upon but two that are access related are detailed here in order to assist the LOAF in their con­sid­er­a­tion of the pro­posed word­ing as set out in Annex 1.

Dates — The abil­ity of the Park Author­ity to change the dates that the bylaws cov­er is con­strained by the legis­la­tion. Changes to dates would need to go back out to con­sulta­tion and fol­low the estab­lished stat­utory pro­cess. The evid­ence that the Park Author­ity has is that recre­ation­al fires

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 2 of 6

are low in March and Octo­ber and so the dates of 01 April to 30 Septem­ber are the most appro­pri­ate for the bylaws.

Form­al Out­door Groups — The pro­vi­sions of clauses 4(d) and 5© cov­er scout groups, out­door edu­ca­tion groups etc provided they are on private prop­erty and have the approv­al of the landowner.

Times­cale and next steps

1. Fol­low­ing the form­al con­sulta­tion, the Park Author­ity Board will con­sider the feed­back and agree the final bylaw word­ing to be sub­mit­ted to Scot­tish Min­is­ters in Janu­ary 2025.

2. The earli­est imple­ment­a­tion date is likely to be 01 June 2025 for the bylaw to allow sig­nage, com­mu­nic­a­tions and Scot­tish Min­is­ters approv­al to be factored in.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 6

Annex 1 Fire man­age­ment bylaw

Gen­er­al

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, con­sti­tuted under the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Des­ig­na­tion, Trans­ition­al and Con­sequen­tial Pro­vi­sions (Scot­land) Order 2003, and hav­ing its prin­cip­al offices at 14 The Square, Grant­own-on-Spey, Moray, PH26 3HG (“the Author­ity”), in exer­cise of the powers con­ferred upon it by Para­graph eight of Sched­ule Two to the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 hereby makes the fol­low­ing bylaws:

Cita­tion and applic­a­tion a) These bylaws may be cited as The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Fire Man­age­ment Bylaws 2025.

1. These bylaws shall apply between the dates of 01 April and 30 Septem­ber in each cal­en­dar year (both dates inclus­ive) with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (“the Nation­al Park”).

Defin­i­tions and inter­pret­a­tions In these bylaws, the fol­low­ing words, phrases and expres­sions are prin­ted in bold wherever they appear, and they have the inter­pret­a­tion and mean­ing hereby assigned to them, respect­ively: a) ​“Avoid­able dam­age” means any dam­age res­ult­ing from fire where that fire that has not been prop­erly planned, con­trolled and / or man­aged in recog­ni­tion of the loc­al ground ter­rain, veget­a­tion, access­ib­il­ity and weath­er con­di­tions between the time of igni­tion to when the fire is fully extinguished.

1. “Bar­be­cue” means an appli­ance or rack on which food is cooked out of doors over an open fire and shall include a dis­pos­able bar­be­cue, wheth­er man­u­fac­tured as such or oth­er­wise. It shall not include a gas barbecue.
2. “Bothy” means a build­ing of no more than two storeys which: Does not have any form of mains elec­tri­city, piped fuel sup­ply and piped mains water sup­ply. Is 100 metres or more from the nearest pub­lic road (with­in the mean­ing of Sec­tion 151 of the Roads (Scot­land) Act 1984). Is 100 metres or more from the nearest hab­it­able building.
3. “Cur­til­age” means land which is used for the com­fort­able enjoy­ment of a build­ing and which serves the pur­pose of that build­ing in some neces­sary or reas­on­ably use­ful way.
4. “Dwell­ing­house” means a res­id­en­tial prop­erty, includ­ing a build­ing con­tain­ing one or more flats, or a flat con­tained with­in such a building.

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1. “Fire­place” means a struc­ture (includ­ing wood burn­ing stove) that is designed to con­tain a fire and is made of brick, stone, met­al or any oth­er material.
2. “Land man­ager” means: i. A landown­er, ten­ant or part­ner law­fully author­ised by or on behalf of such landown­er or ten­ant to man­age land with­in the Nation­al Park; and in the case of a landown­er, ten­ant or oth­er per­son that is a body cor­por­ate or unin­cor­por­ated body, any indi­vidu­al who has the power to con­trol the affairs of that body, by whatever means.
3. “Landown­er” means the own­er of any land or build­ing with­in or con­nec­ted to the Nation­al Park.
4. “Licensed” means hold­ing a val­id licence issued under the Cara­van Sites and Con­trol of Devel­op­ment Act 1960.
5. “Occu­pi­er” means any per­son who is occupy­ing a dwell­ing­house or prop­erty with the con­sent of the landowner.
6. “Part­ner” means a sport­ing part­ner engaged in the man­age­ment of any land with­in the Nation­al Park.
7. “Prop­erty” includes both land and built infrastructure.
8. “SFRS” means the Scot­tish Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice (SFRS), estab­lished in terms of the Fire (Scot­land) Act 2005 and its stat­utory successors.
9. “Ten­ant” means the ten­ant of any land with­in the Nation­al Park leased or let to such ten­ant under a lease of one year or more.

Fire It shall be an offence under these bylaws for any per­son without law­ful author­ity to light a fire in the Nation­al Park, or place or throw or let fall a lighted match, fire­work or any oth­er thing so as to be likely to cause a fire, unless the fire is wholly con­tained: a) With­in the cur­til­age of a private dwell­ing­house and is under the con­trol of the landown­er, ten­ant or occu­pi­er of the dwell­ing­house so as to safe­guard against dam­age or danger to any per­son, wild­life, build­ing, struc­ture, tree, shrub or vegetation.

1. In a fire­place in a bothy so as to safe­guard against dam­age or danger to any per­son, wild­life, build­ing, struc­ture, tree, shrub or vegetation.
2. In a licensed cara­van site so as to safe­guard against dam­age or danger to any per­son, wild­life, build­ing, struc­ture, tree, shrub or veget­a­tion, has per­mis­sion from the own­er of the site and is not tak­ing place dur­ing a time of high fire risk, as determ­ined by SFRS.
3. With­in private prop­erty, is under the con­trol of the landown­er, ten­ant or occu­pi­er of the prop­erty so as to safe­guard against dam­age or danger to any per­son, wild­life, build­ing, struc­ture, tree, shrub or veget­a­tion, has the con­sent of the landown­er and is not tak­ing place dur­ing a time of high fire risk, as determ­ined by SFRS.

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These bylaws shall not pre­vent the use of a camp­ing stove man­u­fac­tured as a camp­ing stove or cook­er, provided it is used in such a man­ner as not to cause danger of, or dam­age by, fire.

Bar­be­cues It shall be an offence under these bylaws for any per­son without law­ful author­ity to light or use a bar­be­cue any­where in the Nation­al Park, unless the bar­be­cue is wholly con­tained: a) With­in the cur­til­age of a private dwell­ing­house and is under the con­trol of the landown­er ten­ant or occu­pi­er of the dwell­ing­house so as to safe­guard against dam­age or danger to any per­son, wild­life, build­ing, struc­ture, tree, shrub or vegetation.

1. In a licensed cara­van site so as to safe­guard against dam­age or danger to any per­son, wild­life, build­ing, struc­ture, tree, shrub or veget­a­tion, has per­mis­sion from the own­er of the site and is not tak­ing place dur­ing a time of high fire risk, as determ­ined by SFRS.
2. With­in private prop­erty, is under the con­trol of the landown­er, ten­ant or occu­pi­er of the prop­erty so as to safe­guard against dam­age or danger to any per­son, wild­life, build­ing, struc­ture, tree, shrub or veget­a­tion, has the con­sent of the landown­er, and is not tak­ing place dur­ing a time of high fire risk, as determ­ined by SFRS.

These bylaws shall not pre­vent the use of a gas bar­be­cue, provided it is used in such a man­ner as not to cause danger of, or dam­age by, fire.

Pro­vi­sion of details It shall be an offence under these bylaws for any per­son to refuse to provide their full name and address to any per­son author­ised in writ­ing by the Author­ity who has reas­on­able grounds for believ­ing that such per­son has com­mit­ted an offence under these bylaws.

Pen­al­ties and offences No per­son shall obstruct any per­son author­ised in writ­ing by the Author­ity in the exe­cu­tion of their duties in rela­tion to these bylaws.

Any per­son who con­tra­venes any of the fore­go­ing bylaws shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on sum­mary con­vic­tion to a fine not exceed­ing Level two on the Stand­ard Scale in respect of each offence.