Approved minutes Performance Committee 131224

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Minutes 13 Decem­ber 2024 Page 1 of 10

Minutes of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey Hybrid 13 Decem­ber 2024 at 1.00pm

Present in per­son Kenny Deans (Con­vener) Chris Beat­tie Sandy Brem­ner Rus­sell Jones (sub for John Kirk) John Kirk Steve Mickle­wright Elean­or Mackintosh

Present vir­tu­ally Ann Ross

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030 Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Man­ager Alix Hark­ness, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies None.

Wel­come and introduction

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

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Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meetings

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 20 Septem­ber 2024 were approved with no amendments.

ACTION Status Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meet­ings 14 June 2024 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022 ii. Item 3.13a1 an accur­ate record of Vis­it Closed Scot­land fund­ing ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ will be brought to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee in due course as Update below extern­al aud­it­ors are still work­ing through records.

Vis­itScot­land through Rur­al Trans­port Infra­struc­ture Fund­ing which had been car­ried in deferred income deployed in ²³⁄₂₄ to: Glen­more toi­let refur­bish­ment £35,000 Path sur­vey work £12,339 Oth­er pro­jects £6,371 Action points arising from this meet­ing 20 Septem­ber 2024 Cairngorms Peat­land ACTION Pro­gramme (Paper Closed 2) At para 13c Update below i. Updated on car­bon cred­it work under­taken with­in the sec­tor between aca­dem­ic insti­tu­tions and landowners.

Oxford Uni­ver­sity have bought an estate out­side the Nation­al Park with an object­ive to off­set car­bon through peat­land res­tor­a­tion pro­jects and oth­er land man­age­ment approaches. St Andrews Uni­ver­sity have entered into a long-term fin­an­cial agree­ment with Cor­rour Estate where some of the costs of run­ning the estate will be

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paid by the Uni­ver­sity in exchange for car­bon cred­its. Anoth­er uni­ver­sity is in dis­cus­sion with a west coast estate to devel­op a sim­il­ar partnership.

Mat­ters Arising

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO advised that the Cairngorms Trust received a fur­ther £160k alloc­a­tion for com­munity led devel­op­ment that needs to be spent by end March 2025. He repor­ted that the team were work­ing hard towards award­ing that to pro­jects that will spend by the deadline.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. None

Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme update quarter 3 2024 (July – Septem­ber) (Paper 1)

1. Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030 intro­duced the paper which presents the status of pro­gramme man­age­ment, includ­ing risk man­age­ment status, based on inform­a­tion in pro­ject reports for the peri­od from July to Septem­ber 2024, updated where appro­pri­ate to reflect cur­rent pos­i­tion as at the time of writ­ing, and the planned work to end Decem­ber 2024.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) The Con­vener thanked the Head of Cairngorms 2030 for the report which high­lights how much work had been car­ried out and echoed the thanks to the vari­ous teams who made it hap­pen. He com­men­ted that it was pos­it­ive that the pro­gress had not only been noted by the Nation­al Lot­tery but also by oth­er asso­ci­ated part­ners such as the NHS. b) A request was made to see the film that was made in Whitby that fea­tured the Board Con­vener. c) The Con­vener repor­ted that he had been inter­viewed by the intern­al aud­it­or Azets and they had com­men­ded this Committee’s approach of teas­ing out one of the ele­ments at a time and tak­ing a deep­er dive into these. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO advised that he had had sight of the first draft of that report which does high­light that Board mem­bers were inter­viewed as part of

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col­la­tion of evid­ence. He advised that it was recog­nised with­in the report that the Board Com­mit­tees have been evolving their report­ing struc­tures and are becom­ing more for­ward look­ing. He added that once it had been final­ised it would go to Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee for dis­cus­sion then to this Com­mit­tee for inform­a­tion. d) Would nature recov­ery be added to the Stra­tegic Risk Register and the uncer­tainty of landown­ers enga­ging in com­munity bene­fits? Head of Cairngorms 2030, provided a back­ground and explained that in the devel­op­ment phase they had worked with 3 deer man­age­ment groups to cre­ate stra­tegic land use man­age­ment plans which were now in place. The next stage was to work through what those options could be for indi­vidu­al estates with­in those group­ings and how those options would best fit with the aims and ambi­tions of Cairngorms

1. A num­ber of draft options were on the table and there was work going through an assess­ment of those, identi­fy­ing the nature object­ives and how the people aspect can be integ­rated into that to enable people and nature to thrive togeth­er. e) Head of Cairngorms 2030 added that there was £1.5million fund­ing avail­able and if that was not alloc­ated the first time round then it would be opened up in phase two to the wider land man­age­ment estate com­munity across the Nation­al Park and applic­a­tions would be invited next sum­mer (2025).

2. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Pro­gramme risk level remains at amber due to the delay in receiv­ing Sus­trans Places for Every­one design fund­ing. The deliv­ery risk will likely remain at this level until end March 2025. b) A revised pro­gramme cash flow fore­cast has been pre­pared, which is show­ing a tem­por­ary £1.2m income short­fall. This short­fall will be resolved in the next fin­an­cial year when trans­port fund­ing is expec­ted to be rein­stated. c) A £600,000 fund­ing applic­a­tion to High­lands and Islands Enter­prise (HIE) is pro­ceed­ing with the Ini­tial Stra­tegic Assess­ment approved by HIE on 11 Novem­ber 2024. The form­al applic­a­tion and due dili­gence pro­cess has com­menced. d) Azets Ltd have under­taken an intern­al gov­ernance and risk report­ing audit of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme. The per­form­ance com­mit­tee Chair was inter­viewed as part of that pro­cess and the find­ings will be repor­ted to Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee and covered sub­sequently at Per­form­ance Committee.

3. Action Point Arising:

i. ii. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Minutes 13 Decem­ber 2024 Page 5 of 10 Her­it­age Lot­tery Fund film, filmed in Whitby to be cir­cu­lated to the Board when avail­able. Azets report when final­ised to be brought to a future meet­ing of the per­form­ance com­mit­tee for information.

Cairngorms 2030 trans­port theme over­view (Paper 2)

1. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel intro­duced the paper which presents and wide range of work on trans­port with­ing the C2030 pro­gramme to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee. The paper con­sequently cov­ers a large volume of inform­a­tion. A brief­ing note was pre­pared for Com­mit­tee mem­bers to high­light the key areas for con­sid­er­a­tion, includ­ing present­ing some inform­a­tion on the Trans­port Theme in advance of the present­a­tion to the meeting.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) With regards to buses on the Deeside cor­ridor, a plea made to approach Stage­coach to ask them to ensure they have reli­able buses and look to adapt their buses to make them cycle friendly. b) A board mem­ber com­men­ted that the drivers of the buses in Badenoch and Strath­spey do not have many work­ing hours because of the lim­ited timetable. Sug­ges­tion made to influ­ence the bus pro­viders. Reli­ab­il­ity of buses was flagged as major issues. Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel advised that real time signs being explored will hope­fully provide increased con­fid­ence to users. c) A mem­ber repor­ted that the bus stop at the Co-op in New­to­more stands back from the street and the bus did not stop when he had waited for it. Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel noted this and advised he would ensure that it was con­sidered as part of the pro­ject and / or referred to the form­al trans­port author­ity. d) The Board Con­vener advised that he was aware of the fund­ing chal­lenges at Sus­trans and provided the Com­mit­tee with the assur­ance that he had stressed this to the cab­in­et sec­ret­ary and pressed for more fund­ing to be awar­ded for the deliv­ery phase. He added that the trans­port sec­ret­ary had provided con­firm­a­tion this would be looked at. e) A mem­ber com­men­ted that the Stage­coach app was really good and high­lighted the need for more bike spaces on trains. f) Were there any plans in New­ton­more where you come out of the High­land Folk Museum? Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel advised that it was not a pro­ject that was spe­cific­ally flagged in the bid. There are bits around the projects

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that are with­in the applic­a­tion that we can still pick up and work with part­ners on, so Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel provided assur­ance that this would be looked into. g) Recog­ni­tion that BMW were fund­ing elec­tric char­ging points in Nation­al Parks car­parks. As the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity do not own car parks was there any poten­tial for else­where? Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel con­firmed that there was poten­tial for some elec­tric char­ging points namely at Glen­more, Carr-Bridge at Land­mark, Nethy-Bridge and Crath­ie h) Sug­ges­tion made to con­tact Tomin­toul bowl­ing club to fit elec­tric­al vehicle char­ging point in their car park. i) Com­ment made that it would be good to see elec­tric buses run­ning instead of double deck­er buses. Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel advised that reas­on for their use was for the school run con­tract a 53-seat­er is required. CEO added that dis­cus­sions with the High­land Coun­cil were tak­ing place around buses in the Glen­more cor­ridor. j) Cla­ri­fic­a­tion sought into the mean­ing of non-motor­ised user route. Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel cla­ri­fied that it was not just for walk­ing and cyc­ling on but also for horse rid­ing, wheel­chair and push chair use.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tion: a) Note the pro­gress towards deliv­ery of the trans­port pro­jects in the Cairngorms 2030 programme.

2. Action Points Arising: i. Unre­li­ab­il­ity of buses and pro­vi­sion of cycle friendly buses to be raised with bus pro­viders as part of the project.

Bring­ing beavers back pro­ject (Paper 3)

1. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion intro­duced the paper which presents the latest deliv­ery updates June — Novem­ber 2024 on the Bring­ing back beaver’s project.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: b) A mem­ber quer­ied the fact that the flood bank sur­vey had been com­pleted in col­lab­or­a­tion with one loc­al farm­er while she thought the sur­vey was with all the land man­agers. Head of Con­ser­va­tion cla­ri­fied that an indi­vidu­al from the loc­al farm­ing com­munity, as a farm­ing rep­res­ent­at­ive, had assisted with the sur­vey, act­ing as an advisor help­ing source land own­er­ship inform­a­tion and arranging

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access. The sur­vey was com­pleted in col­lab­or­a­tion with landown­ers through­out the sur­vey area. Head of Con­ser­va­tion added that the draft report flood bank report pro­duced by CBEC will be shared with landown­ers in the new year. c) A mem­ber asked to be provided with inform­a­tion to sup­port con­ver­sa­tions at loc­al com­munity coun­cil meet­ings. Head of Con­ser­va­tion advised that the monthly updates provided to mem­bers of the beaver man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion group can be for­war­ded onto the mem­bers request­ing them. d) Mem­bers dis­cussed the long-term plan for the beavers includ­ing spe­cies mon­it­or­ing and mon­it­or­ing of con­di­tion of the flood banks. e) Mem­bers dis­cussed the tour­ism sur­round­ing the beavers and acknow­ledged that loc­al com­pan­ies are offer­ing activ­it­ies such as vis­its to beaver sites and selling beaver merchandise.

John Kirk left the meet­ing at 14.10

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Pro­gress towards the project’s object­ives was noted. b) There were no stra­tegic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on deliv­ery of the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Authority’s Cor­por­ate Plan, Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan or stra­tegic risk register to be escalated.

2. Action Point Arising: ii. Head of Con­ser­va­tion to share monthly updates provided to Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion group with the Board Mem­bers request­ing information.

Cairngorms Nature Action Plan (Paper 4)

1. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion intro­duced the paper which presents an out­line timetable for the devel­op­ment of the 2025 – 2030 Action Plan.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Mem­bers had a dis­cus­sion around tar­get set­ting for spe­cies focused action: did the approach accur­ately reflect the extern­al factors respons­ible for pop­u­la­tion dynam­ics and wheth­er the mean­ing of this ele­ment of the plan was adequately clear.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recommendations:

a) b) Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Minutes 13 Decem­ber 2024 Page 8 of 10 Noted achieve­ments and les­sons learnt from deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 — 2024 Noted timeline and mile­stones for devel­op­ment of Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2025 – 2030

1. Action Point Arising: None.

Com­mit­tee Annu­al Report (Paper 5)

1. Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Man­ager / Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices intro­duced the paper which presents the Annu­al Report of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee to members.

2. The Com­mit­tee agreed the paper.

3. Action Point Arising: None.

AOCB

1. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO reminded the Com­mit­tee of the for­ward look of items com­ing over the course of next year and invited thoughts on that.

2. The Com­mit­tee dis­cussed this, and a sug­ges­tion was made to have a paper on Youth action in the sum­mer­time. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices agreed and said it would com­ple­ment a Com­munity Loc­al Led devel­op­ment update and both could be brought to the Com­mit­tee to their Septem­ber 2025 meet­ing. A sug­ges­tion was made to incor­por­ate the Ranger ser­vice into report­ing on the Act­ive Cairngorms action plan,

3. Action Points Arising: i. Paper on youth action to com­ple­ment a paper on com­munity loc­al led devel­op­ment to be sched­uled for Septem­ber 2025. ii. Ranger ser­vice update to be incor­por­ated into the Act­ive Cairngorms action plan paper.

4. Date of next meet­ing 14 March 2025

5. The meet­ing closed at 14.21.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Action Points: ACTION Status Action points arising from this meet­ing 13 Decem­ber 2024 Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme update quarter 3 2024 (July – Septem­ber) (Paper 1) At para 8 i. Her­it­age Lot­tery Fund film, filmed in Whitby to be Closed — cir­cu­lated to the Board when avail­able. dis­trib­uted ii. Azets report when final­ised to be brought to a Open future meet­ing of the per­form­ance com­mit­tee for inform­a­tion. Cairngorms 2030 trans­port theme over­view (Paper 2) At para 12 i. Unre­li­ab­il­ity of buses and pro­vi­sion of cycle friendly buses to be raised with bus pro­viders as part of the pro­ject. Bring­ing beavers back pro­ject (Paper 3) At para 16 ii. Head of Con­ser­va­tion to share monthly updates provided to landown­ers with Board Mem­bers at their request. AOCB At para 26 i. Paper on youth action to com­ple­ment a paper on com­munity loc­al led devel­op­ment to be sched­uled for Septem­ber 2025. Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Minutes 13 Decem­ber 2024 Page 9 of 10

ii. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Ranger ser­vice update to be incor­por­ated into the Act­ive Cairngorms action plan paper. Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Minutes 13 Decem­ber 2024 Page 10 of 10