241122Paper1CEOReport

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 1 of 11

For Inform­a­tion Title: CEO Report and Con­vener Update Pre­pared by: Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer

Pur­pose

1. To high­light to Board Mem­bers the main stra­tegic areas of work that are being dir­ec­ted by Man­age­ment Team. These are areas where sig­ni­fic­ant staff resources are being dir­ec­ted to deliv­er with part­ners the aspir­a­tions of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

Nature and Cli­mate Change

1. Peat­land res­tor­a­tion – The Peat­land team have worked on 17 pro­jects across the Park in 2024 — 25. Four of these are now com­plete and work on the ground is cur­rently on-going on eight pro­jects. A fur­ther five pro­jects are at vari­ous stages of pre­par­a­tion but may start this year. At this point in time, we hope to exceed our annu­al tar­get of 1500 hec­tares which will be the largest num­ber of hec­tares per year achieved to date.

2. Cairngorms Agri­cul­tur­al Advis­ory Group (CAAG) — Focussed on the Cairngorms 2030 Future Farm­ing pro­gramme at the meet­ing on 31 Octo­ber. Dis­cus­sions focussed on some of the tech­niques being tri­alled, oppor­tun­it­ies to meas­ure car­bon sequest­ra­tion as well as emis­sions, col­lat­ing biod­iversity data at a region­al scale, and using the learn­ings from the pro­gramme to high­light the effect­ive­ness of Agri-Envir­on­ment and Cli­mate Scheme (AECS) schemes in deliv­er­ing cli­mate resi­li­ence and biod­iversity gain in the Cairngorms.

3. Deer man­age­ment – The West Grampi­an Deer Man­age­ment Group (DMG) which includes much of the south of the Park, has recently agreed a hind cull plan which, if delivered, will pro­duce a sig­ni­fic­ant deer reduc­tion par­tic­u­larly in the area east of Glen Tilt. This cull plan has evolved from the Stra­tegic Land Use Plan­ning pro­cess which was part of the C2030 Devel­op­ment Phase. Estates across the Group will likely qual­i­fy for the Cairngorms Ven­ison Sub­sidy Scheme.

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 2 of 11

1. Beaver — Three of the four ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ pro­posed beaver releases have taken place, two on Wild­land Ltd and one on a private land­hold­ing between Kin­gussie and Aviemore. Loch Mor­lich will be pro­gressed in the com­ing weeks. The flood bank sur­veys to estab­lish baseline con­di­tion are almost com­plete. The Upper Spey Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion Group met in Octo­ber. Two sea­son­al rangers have been appoin­ted as Beaver Rangers for three months (Novem­ber — Janu­ary) to sup­port with monitoring.

Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel

1. Paths and long-dis­tance routes – Dir­ec­tion­al sig­nage on the Spey­side Way between Aviemore and the Park bound­ary is cur­rently being updated and will upgrade the remainder of the dated brown posts to new green posts in line with the rest of the trail. The works are expec­ted to be com­pleted by the end of 2024. A ten­der­ing exer­cise is being under­taken to remove, modi­fy or replace a num­ber of gates along the same sec­tion that cur­rently act as a bar­ri­er to access. A con­tract to realign a sec­tion of the route near Kin­craig that is very steep has been with work pro­grammed dur­ing Novem­ber. The Charter Chest path link­ing Brae­mar and Kei­loch is now com­plete and was offi­cially opened on 01 Novem­ber 2024.

2. Ranger ser­vices – Ranger patrols con­tin­ued until the end of Octo­ber which also marked the end of sea­son for the sea­son­al rangers. While there were some spikes in vis­it­or activ­ity most of the late sum­mer / autumn peri­od saw rel­at­ively few issues repor­ted. More details on ranger activ­ity are included as part of the end of sea­son report being presen­ted at the Board meeting.

3. Vis­it­or infra­struc­ture – Grant offers were made to a num­ber of part­ners who had bid for Vis­it­or Infra­struc­ture Improve­ment Pro­gramme fund­ing towards infra­struc­ture improve­ments and all offers have now been agreed. In one case – a replace­ment bridge on Mar Lodge Estate has already been com­pleted. With the excep­tion of a pro­ject in Glen Clova which is at the design stage all oth­er pro­jects are under way.

4. Volun­teer­ing and health walks – Health walk refer­ral num­bers con­tin­ue to rise with 13 new refer­rals since begin­ning of August 2024, 10 of whom are act­ively par­ti­cip­at­ing. Pro­mo­tion­al mater­i­als and wel­come packs have been developed to raise aware­ness loc­ally and dir­ect con­tact has also been made with vari­ous Health and Social Care teams. A drop-in inform­a­tion event is being arranged for Decem­ber at Aviemore Hospital.

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 3 of 11

1. Act­ive and sus­tain­able trans­port – Fol­low­ing sur­vey work under­taken in the spring con­tracts are in the pro­cess of being let for a series of small-scale improve­ments to the Old Log­ging Way to improve safety. Fur­ther pre­par­a­tions includ­ing award­ing con­tracts for topo­graph­ic­al and eco­lo­gic­al sur­veys are under way for the sec­tion of the route between Inver­druie and Coylumbridge with a view to a pro­ject to provide improved cycle pro­vi­sion. This sec­tion pre­vi­ously formed part of the Nation­al Cycle Net­work (NCN) but was recently declas­si­fied as it no longer meets the nation­al stand­ard for NCN routes but this work, being pro­posed jointly with Sus­trans is inten­ded to bring the sec­tion up to the required standard.

Invit­a­tion to tender doc­u­ments have been pro­duced for detailed design work for Act­ive Travel Infra­struc­ture in Boat of Garten and Dul­nain Bridge and should be pub­lished pri­or to the date of the Board meet­ing. These will be the first two trans­port pro­jects to reach this stage through the Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) pro­gramme and are prov­ing to be a valu­able intro­duc­tion to an area of more tech­nic­al con­tract­ing than has pre­vi­ously been under­taken by the Park Author­ity. A con­tract has been let to a loc­al social enter­prise to deliv­er ele­ments of the Cairngorms 2030 beha­viour change and cycle friendly Cairngorms pro­jects includ­ing con­fid­ence build­ing activ­it­ies, cycle main­ten­ance skills and work with young people in schools.

Plan­ning and Rur­al Development

1. Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan — Work con­tin­ues on build­ing the evid­ence base for the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, with ongo­ing engage­ment on evid­ence top­ic papers and staff attend­ing pub­lic engage­ment ses­sions and loc­al events (Have Your Say Today — Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan — Com­mon­place). Recent con­sulta­tion on top­ic papers cov­er­ing digit­al infra­struc­ture, tour­ism, and land use, soils and resources. A youth engage­ment ses­sion has been under­taken with S1 pupils at Kin­gussie High School, and the school has reques­ted fur­ther ses­sions with oth­er age groups fol­low­ing the suc­cess of this. An annu­al update to the Devel­op­ment Plan Scheme, which sets out the timetable for pro­du­cing the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, is presen­ted to this Board meet­ing for approv­al under sep­ar­ate cover.

2. Plan­ning case­work — The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee has met twice since the last Board meet­ing on 13 Septem­ber. The Com­mit­tee has approved the Park Authority’s con­sulta­tion response to the Scot­tish Government’s Energy Con­sents and Deploy­ment Unit on amended pro­pos­als for the Rothes III wind­farm. It has also received reports for inform­a­tion on a Pro­pos­al of Applic­a­tion Notice for an upcom­ing plan­ning applic­a­tion for 35 homes near Lettoch Road in Nethy Bridge, and the

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 4 of 11

out­come of a recent appeal against an enforce­ment notice issued by the Park Author­ity for a site at Tolquhonie Woods near Car­rbridge. The Park Author­ity has recently called-in plan­ning applic­a­tions for the devel­op­ment of 14 afford­able homes at Mor­lich Court, Aviemore, and four homes at Deshar Court, Boat of Garten.

1. Vis­it­or and res­id­ents’ sur­veys — Pro­mo­tion con­tin­ues on both sur­veys, with over 1,000 responses received to date on the vis­it­or sur­vey (a mix­ture of in-per­son inter­views and online responses) and over 600 res­id­ent atti­tudes sur­vey responses received so far. Pro­mo­tion of these has been impacted by ongo­ing budget restric­tions but we will con­tin­ue with organ­ic activ­ity over the next few months.

Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engagement

1. Com­munity and stake­hold­er engage­ment – On 29 Octo­ber the final Cairngorms 2030 road­show of the year was hos­ted in Kin­gussie, with excel­lent turn out of over 100 com­munity mem­bers, includ­ing a num­ber of board mem­bers. It fea­tured the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan con­sulta­tion, nature res­tor­a­tion, nature-friendly farm­ing and peat­land pro­jects, the res­id­ent and vis­it­or sur­veys, and fam­ily-friendly nature activ­it­ies. A full report is in pro­gress, but feed­back so far has been pos­it­ive, with a real buzz in the room.

The second agri­cul­tur­al news­let­ter was sent out in early Novem­ber. It included items on the latest Cairngorms Agri­cul­tur­al Advis­ory Group (CAAG) meet­ing, grass­land work­shops, the Cairngorms Future Farm­ing pro­ject and a call for farm­ers and land man­agers to con­sider plant­ing aspen on their land.

1. Cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions – News stor­ies over the peri­od included the launch of the caper­cail­lie emer­gency plan, stat­ist­ics on winter tour­ism, the latest on beavers, and a call for applic­a­tions for next year’s artists in res­id­ence pro­ject in Glen Tanar. The Wee Whit­tler, who received a Cairngorms Youth Action Fund grant last year, was among those fea­tured in Cairngorms Voices to encour­age applic­a­tions to this year’s fund. Oth­er updates included a sea­son­al ranger round-up, the open­ing of the Charter Chest Path at Brae­mar, the Cairngorm Nature Action Plan and the latest on the fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel res­tor­a­tion project.

The caper­cail­lie emer­gency plan was picked up by a mix of loc­al and nation­al news out­lets, includ­ing Sky News, BBC News, Scot­tish Field and the Strath­spey Her­ald. September’s Park Talk column in the Strath­spey Her­ald focused on the suc­cess of

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 5 of 11

the Your Future Here careers fair, and a seg­ment on the event aired on Land­ward on BBC Scot­land on 14 Novem­ber and BBC One Scot­land on 15 November.

1. Web­site and social media – The web­site pro­ject con­tin­ues to pro­gress, albeit with some delays to the cre­ation and edit­ing of con­tent (nearly 400 pages in total are cur­rently in pro­duc­tion). The team are work­ing col­lab­or­at­ively with the rest of the organ­isa­tion to gen­er­ate, cre­ate, edit, review and amal­gam­ate con­tent pri­or to migra­tion. A pro­to­type of the con­tent find­er — our advanced search mech­an­ism with mul­tiple fil­ter options that allows audi­ences to find their desired con­tent quickly and eas­ily — has been built and fin­essed, along­side con­tin­ued design and development.

We’ve man­aged a busy pro­gramme of social media con­tent through­out this peri­od, with high­lights includ­ing Your Future Here, which received more than 186,000 impres­sions and 22,000 engage­ments alone, the fire man­age­ment con­sulta­tion and the res­id­ents’ survey.

As part of con­tin­ued work to cel­eb­rate voices from across the Nation­al Park, we marked Fèis Week by spend­ing time with loc­al young people, shar­ing a piece on the import­ance of cul­tur­al her­it­age and Gael­ic arts in an inter­view with Mairi Brown, chair of Fèis Spè, along­side nature rich con­tent like our reg­u­lar beaver blog, updates on peat­land res­tor­a­tion as part of C2030, and out on the ground updates with part­ner rangers in the Angus Glens.

Between 30 July and 29 Septem­ber – thanks to a com­bin­a­tion of paid-for and organ­ic con­tent – we reached over 1.6 mil­lion impres­sions (up 174% on 2023), 66,105 engage­ments (up 179% on 2023), 246,104 video views (up 580% on 2023) and an engage­ment rate of 4% (up 1.8% on 2023). Our total audi­ence grew to 60,084 (up 2,171). Face­book was our highest per­form­ing chan­nel in terms of engage­ment, which is home to our biggest res­id­ent audi­ence. Since April 2024, we have seen our res­id­ent audi­ence (defined as being with­in the Nation­al Park and the sur­round­ing cit­ies, towns and vil­lages) increase from 17% to 20.3%, a pos­it­ive indic­a­tion that our con­tent on Face­book is res­on­at­ing with loc­al audiences.

Our com­munity man­age­ment plan and rota are now in place and has res­ul­ted in increased qual­ity of engage­ment and inter­ac­tion. This has achieved the sub­stant­ive aim of gen­er­at­ing more pos­it­ive inter­ac­tions; how­ever, the exact nature of our approach remains under review in terms of capa­city implications.

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 6 of 11

1. Brand­ing and pub­lic­a­tions – The winter edi­tion of Cairn has gone to print, and res­id­ents can expect to receive it through their let­ter­boxes at the end of Novem­ber. This issue includes key remind­ers for people to take part in the fire byelaws and loc­al devel­op­ment plan con­sulta­tions, as well as the new res­id­ent atti­tudes sur­vey. Cairn also includes fea­tures art­icles on the first year of Cairngorms 2030, a look back at the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject and a range of nature and com­munity news.

Oth­er print pro­jects dur­ing the peri­od include a Strath­don path leaf­let; how­ever, due to an ongo­ing budget freeze a num­ber of pro­jects – includ­ing the Dal­whin­nie path leaf­let and mul­tiple inter­pret­a­tion pan­els – have had to be put on hold.

Organ­isa­tion­al Development

1. Staff­ing update — Since Septem­ber, the fol­low­ing staff changes took place: a) Staff leav­ing the organisation:

   i. 	All seasonal rangers left at the end of October, with the exception of Rhona Garry and Emily Alsford whose contracts were extended to the end of January 2025, to support work in the Beaver team. All departing rangers were invited to apply for the contract extensions which were appointed following an interview process
   

   b) New staff join­ing the organisation:

   i. 	There were no new joiners in the reporting period.
   

   c) Staff appoint­ments fol­low­ing a robust intern­al recruit­ment process:

   i. 	Dot Harris was appointed to the Planning Assistant role
   

   d) Live extern­al recruitment:

   i. 	We are currently recruiting a Graduate Planner, and Agricultural Adviser. Both posts generated significant interest, with interviews scheduled for the end of November
   

2. Youth employ­ment — a) The Human Resources (HR) team hos­ted a Park Author­ity stand at the Your Future Here — Careers in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park con­fer­ence. Staff from sev­er­al areas of the organ­isa­tion were in attend­ance to talk to young people about their own career jour­neys. Through this event we held an open recruit­ment pro­cess to sup­port two, two-week-long work exper­i­ence oppor­tun­it­ies. Both oppor­tun­it­ies were suc­cess­fully appoin­ted b) The HR team has been invited to and atten­ded sev­er­al sec­ond­ary school careers events, includ­ing at Grant­own Gram­mar School and Aboyne Academy. The team is host­ing a group of young people from Inverness Roy­al Academy, as well as a

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 7 of 11

group of Black Pro­fes­sion­als UK sponsored stu­dents. These events focus on roles employed by the Park Author­ity, poten­tial school sub­ject choices, and high­er / fur­ther edu­ca­tion courses that may sup­port careers in those roles.

c) The Park Authority is hosting a Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) intern for eight weeks, working alongside our Conservation Officers
d) We are also hosting a local young person to be in the office one day per week working alongside the admin team, to build skills and confidence in the workplace.

1. Equal­it­ies — a) The Park Author­ity adop­ted two new policies, fol­low­ing staff con­sulta­tion. These were the Men­stru­al Health and Endo­met­ri­os­is Sup­port Policy, and the Fer­til­ity Treat­ment Policy. b) The Dig­nity at Work Policy was revised fol­low­ing the recent changes to the Equal­ity Act 2010 — Intro­duc­tion of Work­er Pro­tec­tion Act 2023, which states that with effect from 26 Octo­ber 2024, employ­ers must take reas­on­able steps to pre­vent sexu­al har­ass­ment of work­ers in the course of their employ­ment. Addi­tion­al staff train­ing on sexu­al har­ass­ment has been launched and risk assess­ments are being updated where appro­pri­ate. c) We are in the pro­cess of devel­op­ing a new set of Equal­ity Out­comes (2025 — 2029), as per our respons­ib­il­it­ies under the Pub­lic Sec­tor Equal­ity Duty. We aim to present these out­comes to the board early in 2025.

2. Pro­cure­ment a) Pro­gress is being made in the deliv­ery of the Pro­cure­ment Action Plan with monthly updates to the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee. The recruit­ment of the new pro­cure­ment officer has made a sig­ni­fic­ant dif­fer­ence for the Park Authority.

Grant Moir, 05 Novem­ber 2024 grantmoir@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 8 of 11

Title: Convener’s update Pre­pared by: Sandy Brem­ner, Board Convener

Pur­pose To high­light to board mem­bers and Seni­or Man­age­ment Team (SMT) and staff of the meet­ings and events the Board Con­vener has been attend­ing since the last Form­al Board meeting.

1. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment – Had indi­vidu­al dis­cus­sions with the First Min­is­ter and Deputy First Min­is­ter on a range of issues includ­ing pro­pos­als to improve the sup­ply of afford­able hous­ing, and pro­gress achieved in meet­ing min­is­teri­al objectives.

2. Cab­in­et Sec­ret­ary – Met with Cab­in­et Sec­ret­ary for Rur­al Affairs, Land Reform and Islands to dis­cuss issues includ­ing oppor­tun­it­ies to sup­port people who live and work in the Nation­al Park, the devel­op­ment of pro­pos­als for Fire Man­age­ment byelaws, the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan and related pred­a­tion issues, future fund­ing, and pro­gress in meet­ing Min­is­teri­al object­ives in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

3. Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter – Met with Min­is­ter for Agri­cul­ture and Con­nectiv­ity to dis­cuss the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan, issues around cur­rent and future pred­a­tion con­trol, and deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

4. Careers — Opened and spent the day meet­ing attendees and employ­ers at the Your Futures Here careers fair at Aviemore, wel­com­ing hun­dreds of young people from across the Nation­al Park. This was the first event of its kind.

5. UK Nation­al Parks – Atten­ded the UK Nation­al Parks 2024 con­fer­ence. This included dis­cus­sion of how Parks can best serve the needs of those who live and work in them, and vis­it, and spoke at the clos­ing ses­sion of the con­fer­ence, look­ing ahead to 2026 when Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity is due to host the event.

6. Hous­ing Sum­mit – Atten­ded all-day Hous­ing Chal­lenge Sum­mit, hos­ted by High­land Coun­cil, and dis­cussed dir­ectly with the Hous­ing Min­is­ter the oppor­tun­it­ies to improve sup­ply at a time of sig­ni­fic­ant challenges.

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 9 of 11

1. Hous­ing Part­ner­ship – Met with a rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Cairngorms Hous­ing Part­ner­ship, review­ing obstacles to the devel­op­ment of afford­able hous­ing and poten­tial next steps.

2. Con­ven­tion of the High­lands and Islands (COHI) – Atten­ded the Octo­ber meet­ing of COHI and spoke about bar­ri­ers to the deliv­ery of afford­able hous­ing and spe­cif­ic oppor­tun­it­ies to increase sup­ply through Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment / pub­lic-private sec­tor col­lab­or­a­tions, and the poten­tial for flex­ib­il­ity in the applic­a­tion of rent con­trols. In anoth­er ses­sion on digit­al con­nectiv­ity, I urged the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to intensi­fy dis­cus­sions with UK coun­ter­parts to avoid inap­pro­pri­ate plan­ning applic­a­tions for masts in the rol­lout of the Shared Rur­al Net­work in some of our most sens­it­ive land­scapes, with no sig­ni­fic­ant bene­fit to people who live and work in the Park, and those who vis­it, so avoid­ing waste of pub­lic money.

3. King’s Found­a­tion – Co-hos­ted with the King’s Found­a­tion an all-day event for landown­ers and man­agers from across the Nation­al Park, explor­ing issues around land man­age­ment and the sup­ply of afford­able hous­ing. The exer­cise was aimed at look­ing at how the cur­rent Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan is delivered, what the bar­ri­ers might be, and what could be done to aid delivery.

4. Fire Man­age­ment – Met with a rep­res­ent­at­ive of a major sport­ing estate, dis­cuss­ing the oppor­tun­it­ies to re-pur­pose exist­ing resources to tackle wild­fires across the Nation­al Park.

5. Spon­sors Team – Met with Spon­sor Team man­ager regard­ing Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity / Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment / stake­hold­er liaison.

6. Busi­ness – Met with the Chair and Chief Exec­ut­ive of the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, and seni­or Park man­agers, dis­cuss­ing stra­tegic col­lab­or­a­tions, work with part­ners and stake­hold­ers, oppor­tun­it­ies for future joint work­ing, and the poten­tial of the pro­posed Tour­ism Levy.

7. Tour­ism — Met VisitScotland’s Dir­ect­or of Busi­ness and Events, dis­cuss­ing issues around pro­pos­als for a Tour­ism Levy.

8. Croft­ing — Met Chief Exec­ut­ive and Con­vener of the Croft­ing Com­mis­sion, to dis­cuss com­mon issues includ­ing the sup­ply of afford­able housing.

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 10 of 11

1. Crown Estate – Met the Chair and Chief Exec­ut­ive of Crown Estate Scot­land, dis­cuss­ing fund­ing issues and work to meet the goals of the Park Authority’s Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP).

2. Dee Resi­li­ence – Atten­ded the Park Authority’s‑convened River Dee Resi­li­ence Strategy Group and under­lined the urgency with which the Nation­al Park wants to see pro­gress in mit­ig­at­ing against the impact of major floods and ser­i­ous droughts which have been affect­ing homes, busi­nesses and nat­ur­al her­it­age in the catch­ment. All part­ners agreed to a state­ment of intent as a step towards hasten­ing the deliv­ery of objectives.

3. Dee Dis­trict Sal­mon Fish­ery Board (DDSFB) – Updated the pub­lic ses­sion of the DDSFB Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing on pro­gress at the River Dee Resi­li­ence Strategy Group.

4. Fresh Water Pearl Mus­sels (FWPM) – Met Audrey Nicoll MSP, Scot­tish Par­lia­ment spe­cies cham­pi­on for FWPM, review­ing work in the Nation­al Park to safe­guard the spe­cies in the face of mul­tiple cli­mate impacts.

5. Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) – Atten­ded launch of a NLHF ini­ti­at­ive to mark 30 years of the fund, and the sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion of the Park Author­ity in meet­ing her­it­age objectives.

6. Media — Ful­filled a series of media com­mit­ments includ­ing columns for loc­al news­pa­pers and inter­views for nation­al media includ­ing The Sun news­pa­per on the range of pro­jects being delivered as part of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme with NLHF funding.

7. Fin­ance — Atten­ded Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Envir­on­ment and Forestry Divi­sion meet­ing to dis­cuss an update on the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment budget pos­i­tion in the cur­rent fin­an­cial year and in devel­op­ment of next year’s budget. Under­lined the import­ance of main­tain­ing multi-year fund­ing for pro­jects key to meet­ing NPPP targets.

8. Kin­gussie – Atten­ded com­munity con­sulta­tion on the devel­op­ment and deliv­ery of Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects, and ini­tial stages in pre­par­a­tion of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

Form­al Board Paper 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 11 of 11

1. Brae­mar – Met with Chair of Brae­mar Com­munity Coun­cil as the organ­isa­tion pre­pares to devel­op its Com­munity Action Plan on the themes of vis­it­or exper­i­ence, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, traffic man­age­ment, cli­mate change and housing.

2. Mar Flood­plain – Atten­ded the final stage of pub­lic con­sulta­tion on the Mar Flood­plain res­tor­a­tion, at Brae­mar Vil­lage Hall, and met with com­munity and landown­er representatives.

3. Deeside Way – Opened the Charters Chest (Brae­mar to Old Bridge of Dee) sec­tion of the Deeside way, in con­junc­tion with loc­al mem­ber Geva Black­ett and rep­res­ent­at­ives of the Out­door Access Trust for Scot­land and Brae­mar Com­munity. I re-con­firmed the Nation­al Park’s com­mit­ment to work­ing to com­plete the Deeside Way, as out­lined in the NPPP.

4. Aud­it­ors – Met with our aud­it­ors as part of a routine gov­ernance review of Cairngorms 2030 delivery.

5. Tour­ism — Atten­ded North East Tour­ism Con­fer­ence, an all-day event in Aberdeen.

6. Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship (NPP) – Atten­ded NPP annu­al gen­er­al meet­ing online.

7. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Liais­on – Atten­ded weekly liais­on meet­ings with the Park Authority’s Deputy Con­vener, CEO and Deputy CEO.

8. Nation­al Park Con­veners – Met reg­u­larly with Con­vener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs Nation­al Park to dis­cuss issues of mutu­al interest.

9. All meet­ings were in addi­tion to indi­vidu­al meet­ings and dis­cus­sions with Board mem­bers on a wide range of subjects.

Sandy Brem­ner, 05 Novem­ber 2024 Sandybrember@​cairngorms.​co.​uk