LOAF paper 2 - Update and forward look - March 2026

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access Forum

Paper 2 — Update and for­ward look

Pre­pared by: Adam Streeter-Smith, Recre­ation and Access Manager

Pur­pose

This paper provides an update on the main areas of work both under­taken and planned.

1. Stat­utory Duties

Core Paths Plan review

• Com­ments from con­sulta­tion all reviewed and on basis of decisions Draft Core Paths Plan produced
• Review of core paths on road and pave­ments under­taken and amend­ments made to draft plan accordingly
• Equal­it­ies Impact Assess­ment com­pleted and signed off. Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (SEA) scop­ing report con­cluded a full SEA not required. Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tion Assess­ment underway.
• Next steps
  • Board approves draft plan to go out to consultation
  • Form­al 12-week con­sulta­tion on draft plan (May-July)
    • Con­sulta­tion issues report (provide inform­a­tion on key decisions made and why)
    • Own­er / occu­pi­er notices
• LOAF to con­sult on draft plan dur­ing July meeting

Pro­mo­tion of Scot­tish Out­door Access Code

Wild­life dis­turb­ance sig­nage: Caper­cail­lie map signs pro­duced for Anagach woods and Din­net. Wader map signs and wader signs pro­duced for Tomin­toul and Loch Muick.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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2. Fire byelaw

Work is under­way to revise and revamp both the Tread Lightly in the Park and Fires leaf­lets. The Park Author­ity has been work­ing with a cre­at­ive agency and design­ers to devel­op a new brand and asso­ci­ated social media and paper resources to go with the launch of the byelaw. Finally, a con­tract has been let to install Vari­able Mes­saging Signs at key loc­a­tions in the Park. In due course these will be replaced with per­man­ent signs.

3. Devel­op­ment and Man­age­ment of core paths

Spey­side Way

Works to upgrade the sec­tion behind Insh to Inver­u­glass has been com­pleted by ACT Heritage.

Path Pro­mo­tion

Access­ible Paths: Toolkit for land man­agers on access­ible paths draf­ted, (sum­mary of path cri­ter­ia, how to assess and audit poten­tial access­ible paths). Hope to have some fund­ing to sup­port small improve­ments to improve access­ib­il­ity of paths. Access­ible and ​‘easy access’ paths to be pro­moted in own sec­tion on website.

Path leaf­lets: Final draft of updated Tomin­toul leaf­let (includ­ing new map) sent to com­munity for sign off. Plans to update Nethy Bridge and Boat of Garten or Grant­own-on-Spey next.