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Approved Performance Minutes - 12 December 2025

Minutes of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own-on-Spey Hybrid 12 Decem­ber 2026 at 01.15pm

Present in person

  • Kenny Deans (Chair)
  • Steve Mickle­wright (Deputy Chair)
  • John Kirk
  • Michael Wil­li­am­son
  • Sandy Brem­ner
  • Elean­or Mackintosh

Present online

  • Ann Ross

In attend­ance

  • Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer
  • Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Services
  • Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place
  • Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Conservation
  • Kar­en John­stone, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies

None

Wel­come and introduction

  1. The Chair wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee, giv­ing a spe­cial wel­come to Michael Wil­li­am­son on his first meeting.

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meetings

  1. The draft minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing held on 12 Septem­ber 2025 were approved with the fol­low­ing amend­ments: a) At para­graph 3 — change to ​“The Chair of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee ques­tioned when the Park Author­ity will con­sider the fig­ures and fund­ing of the cli­mate adapt­a­tion fund. CEO explained that they will share with the Com­mit­tee who was alloc­ated funds and can look fur­ther into fund­ing alloc­a­tions and pro­ject types once all fund­ing is in place and bring this back to the Committee.”

  2. The draft con­fid­en­tial minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing held on 12 Septem­ber 2025 were approved with no amend­ments. a) The Chair ques­tions if Head of Cairngorms 2030 had atten­ded the last Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group meet­ing. CEO con­firmed that he had atten­ded the meeting.

Mat­ters arising not covered elsewhere

  1. The Chair men­tioned a pre­vi­ous dis­cus­sion on provid­ing more inform­a­tion regard­ing baseline checks and enhance­ments achieved on peat­land res­tor­a­tion, such as biod­iversity gain and where water is being stored. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices explained the peat­land team have dis­cussed next year’s pro­gramme and poten­tial budget alloc­a­tions and this ele­ment will be included in future report­ing; a paper will be brought to either the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee or Form­al Board early 2026.
ACTIONStatus
Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meetings
13 Decem­ber 2024
AOCB
At para 26
i. Ranger ser­vice update to be incor­por­ated into the Act­ive Cairngorms action plan paper.Closed
Update:

Annu­al update paper will be taken to Form­al Full Board in Novem­ber 2025.

Declar­a­tions of interest

  1. There were no declar­a­tions of interest.

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee 2026 Annu­al Agenda (Paper 1)

  1. Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices intro­duced the paper which presents the pro­posed work­plan and asso­ci­ated agenda for the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee in 2026 as well as set­ting out the terms of ref­er­ence for Com­mit­tee members.

  2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Com­mit­tee agreed to the pro­posed agenda for 2026.

  3. Action Points Arising: None.

Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme update: quarter three 2025 (July — Septem­ber (Paper 2)

  1. Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices intro­duced the paper which presents the status of the Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) pro­gramme and risk man­age­ment, based on inform­a­tion in pro­ject reports for the peri­od from July to Septem­ber 2025, and updated where appro­pri­ate to reflect cur­rent pos­i­tion as at the time of writ­ing, and the planned work to end Decem­ber 2025.

  2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A Board Mem­ber raised con­cern regard­ing the health and well­being out­door demen­tia centre, ques­tion­ing where the fund­ing came from and if this would be sus­tain­able. CEO explained this pro­ject was fun­ded through the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) which will cov­er the demen­tia centre until 2028⁄29. Dis­cus­sions are ongo­ing with Alzheimer’s Scotland’s brain health team to cre­ate a leg­acy plan from 2030 onwards as well as work­ing on how to embed the pro­gram into NHS High­land and to be able to expand this fur­ther. b) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned if there was any­thing in the deliv­ery phase of the act­ive trans­port com­munity pro­jects that would prove dif­fi­cult. CEO explained they would need to apply for fund­ing from Trans­port Scot­land for the next phase, which due to elec­tions would likely not be alloc­ated until Septem­ber, giv­ing them a lim­ited amount of time to com­plete the works. c) A Board Mem­ber recom­men­ded an organ­isa­tion who provides fund­ing for demen­tia pro­jects. Mem­ber agreed to email this to CEO. d) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned the level of engage­ment with­in the future farm­ing pro­ject, ask­ing if farm­ers have found this help­ful. CEO explained there has been two events this year, one in Atholl with about 20 attendees and one in Boat of Garten with about 30 attendees. The feed­back from these events have been pos­it­ive, shar­ing what dif­fer­ent people are doing in dif­fer­ent areas, which has been use­ful. e) CEO noted that there would be a fund­ing applic­a­tion open­ing in Janu­ary to provide con­sultancy time and help with under­stand­ing fund­ing options avail­able as well as fund­ing to attend con­fer­ences. A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned how this would work along­side advisors in the Nation­al Park offer­ing the same ser­vices. CEO explained the Park Author­ity would high­light what fund­ing is avail­able, then farm­ers could choose who they go to, how­ever this will be con­firmed and inform­a­tion provided at the next com­mit­tee. f) A Board Mem­ber noted there was a fin­an­cial meet­ing in Novem­ber, ask­ing for an update from this meet­ing. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices explained that Head of Cairngorms 2030 met with High­lands and Island Enter­prise (HIE) for a final assess­ment of the poten­tial HIE fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tions to the pro­gramme which was pos­it­ive. HIE are keen to be involved with the pro­jects, giv­ing gen­er­al com­mit­ment. A con­firm­a­tion is likely to come in early 2026.

  3. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note pro­gress to date and future plans for Cairngorms 2030 deliv­ery. b) Note spe­cif­ic points of Cairngorms 2030 deliv­ery risk. c) High­light any issues arising that mem­bers may feel need spe­cif­ic con­sid­er­a­tion by staff from a stra­tegic and board perspective.

  4. Action Points Arising: i. CEO to con­firm if applic­ants of the new fund are able to choose the ser­vices / pro­viders them­selves with the fund­ing allocated.

Bring­ing beavers back pro­ject (Paper 3)

  1. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion intro­duced the paper which presents the latest deliv­ery updates on the Bring­ing beavers back project

  2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A Board Mem­ber com­men­ted that the num­bers of beavers now are man­age­able, how­ever as they devel­op this will get more dif­fi­cult. Head of Con­ser­va­tions explained the key thing is not to track every indi­vidu­al beaver, but to keep track of ter­rit­or­ies, and with the staff, rangers, gil­lies and pub­lic help­ing with this, the Park Author­ity are con­fid­ent that they can track beavers well. b) A Board Mem­ber noted that some gil­lies’ jobs are cur­rently under threat, there­fore if they can be saved through the beaver net­work, this would be bene­fi­cial. Head of Con­ser­va­tion explained that NatureScot are run­ning train­ing for Park Author­ity staff, rangers and gil­lies on dam remov­al, which is pos­it­ive for the future of gil­lies. c) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned how far the beavers are spread­ing out from where they were released, ask­ing if they are tagged. Head of Con­ser­va­tion explained the beavers are micro­chipped but can­not be tagged. It was noted that the beavers are largely in the upper Spey catch­ment, two indi­vidu­als have moved, how­ever beavers will stay where there is good hab­it­at which is mainly around the upper Spey. d) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned if there was any aware­ness around giar­dia. CEO explained this was dis­cussed at the pre­vi­ous Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion group meet­ing, high­light­ing that all beavers go through a thor­ough health check, there­fore no beaver will be released if test­ing pos­it­ive for giar­dia. CEO went on to explain that giar­dia is already in the envir­on­ment and Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA), Scot­tish Water and the Park Author­ity need to share this mes­sage to make the pub­lic aware. e) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned the long-term mon­it­or­ing plans to under­stand the changes to hab­it­at and biod­iversity impacts. Head of Con­ser­va­tion explained there are vis­ible impact sur­veys done through drone work. Most of the mon­it­or­ing will be done through part­ner­ships, such as links with the Fish­ery Board, Aber­deen Uni­ver­sity and Stirl­ing Uni­ver­sity embed­ding this mon­it­or­ing into research pro­grammes that are already under­way. f) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned the rela­tion­ships between the Park Author­ity and the Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion Group. Head of Con­ser­va­tion explained the meet­ings are gen­er­ally pos­it­ive, provid­ing a space for dis­cuss­ing issues, shar­ing inform­a­tion and high­light­ing areas for improve­ment. There is a clear remit of the group, and the rela­tion­ship con­tin­ues to improve. g) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned if there was a con­cern on the spend for mit­ig­a­tion. Head of Con­ser­va­tion explained there hasn’t been a huge amount spent on mit­ig­a­tion and all well with­in the budget.

  3. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Pro­gress towards the project’s object­ives. b) Any stra­tegic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on deliv­ery of the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Authority’s Cor­por­ate Plan and Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP). c) Any mater­i­al impacts on the Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk management.

  4. Action Points Arising: None.

Cairngorms Nature Action Plan (Paper 4)

  1. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion intro­duced the paper which presents an update on the devel­op­ment of the next Cairngorms Nature Action Plan.

  2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Head of Con­ser­va­tion high­lighted that recom­mend­a­tions b and c should not have been included in the paper. It was also noted the word ​“part­ners” was miss­ing from first box in the dia­gram on page 4. b) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned staff capa­city for deliv­er­ing this as it is a large amount of cru­cial work all hap­pen­ing at the same time. CEO explained this is all sub­ject to what the Park Author­ity do in the NPPP, not­ing deliv­ery mech­an­isms on the NPPP may change over the next year. The aim is to sim­pli­fy this, how­ever there are a lot of com­plex issues involved. Head of Con­ser­va­tion explained the Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group now has a bet­ter link with Cairngorms Agri­cul­tur­al Advis­ory Group (CAAG) and Cairngorms Upland Advis­ory Group (CUAG), and feed­back from them was to incor­por­ate com­munity bene­fits and designs into this. Anna­belle Dav­id­son-Knight, Com­munity Bene­fits from Nature Advisor is work­ing to help to empower com­munit­ies and improve involve­ment. c) A Board Mem­ber asked for examples of com­munity bene­fits. Head of Con­ser­va­tion explained that there are already train­ing events for bird and plants help­ing to improve hab­it­ats. CEO explained as part of the Cairngorms 2030 Nature Recov­ery pro­ject, there are funds going into skills and train­ing to help com­munit­ies. d) Dis­cus­sions were had around com­munity bene­fits, eg reduc­tion in flood risks is nature based but can help to reduce insur­ance costs, deer man­age­ment can improve jobs in cer­tain places, skills and train­ing, togeth­er with fur­ther down­stream bene­fits of actions which ulti­mately have pos­it­ive impacts for com­munit­ies. Com­munity bene­fits are not always about fin­an­cial gain, but wider bene­fits to com­munit­ies and indi­vidu­als. It was noted that the Park Author­ity need to ensure they do not set expect­a­tions high­er than what can be delivered. e) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned if the Park Author­ity is now car­bon neut­ral as they are work­ing towards being car­bon neg­at­ive. Head of Plan­ning and Place explained they will be meet­ing with Small World Con­sult­ing in Janu­ary, they have gathered recent stats to show where the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is on the curve. It was noted that the data will be two years behind. f) A Board Mem­ber sug­ges­ted using a dif­fer­ent term for ​“com­munity bene­fits” as it is the bene­fit for people through invest­ing in nature. Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and Officer’s agreed that this is some­thing that should be considered.

  3. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note the revised timeline for production.

  4. Action Points Arising: i. Con­sider a new term for ​“com­munity benefits”.

AOCB

  1. None

Date of Next Meeting

  1. The date of the next meet­ing is 03 April 2026 online.

  2. The meet­ing con­cluded at 14.08

ACTIONStatus
Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meetings
12 Decem­ber
Approv­al of minutes
At para 2a
i. CEO to share with the Com­mit­tee who was alloc­ated funds through the Cli­mate Adap­tion Fund includ­ing fund­ing alloc­a­tions and pro­ject types.
Update:
Cairngorms Nature Action Plan
At para 19f
i. Con­sider a new term for ​“com­munity benefits”.
Update: