Minutes of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own-on-Spey Hybrid 13 June 2025 at 02.30pm

Present in person Kenny Deans (Chair) John Kirk Sandy Brem­ner Elean­or Mackintosh

Present online Steve Mickle­wright (Deputy Chair) Ann Ross

In attend­ance Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices Oliv­er Dav­ies, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment Adam Streeter-Smith, Recre­ation and Access Man­ager Kar­en John­stone, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies Chris Beattie

Wel­come and introduction

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

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meetings

1. The draft minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing held on 14 March 2025 were approved with no amendments.

Mat­ters arising not covered elsewhere

1. The Chair of the Com­mit­tee asked if a pre­vi­ous action involving mak­ing con­tact with Angus Coun­cil con­tacts regard­ing the vol­un­tary dona­tions had been com­pleted. Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer (CEO) and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices con­firmed ini­tial con­tact has been made and this action is cur­rently in hand.

ACTION	Status
Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meetings
13 Decem­ber 2024
Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme update quarter 3 2024 (July — Septem­ber) (Paper 1) At para 8
i. Azets report when final­ised to be brought to a future meet­ing of the per­form­ance com­mit­tee for information.	Closed
Update: Azets report on C2030 agreed by Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee can be found here: Microsoft Word — CNPA Cairngorms 2030 FINAL.docx
AOCB At para 26
i. Ranger ser­vice update to be incor­por­ated into the Act­ive Cairngorms action plan paper.	Open
Update: Annu­al update paper will be taken to Form­al Full Board in Novem­ber 2025.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. There were no declar­a­tions of interest.

Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ (Paper 1)

1. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change and Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place intro­duced the paper which provides an update to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee on the alloc­a­tion of fund­ing from the Cairngorms Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund, which awar­ded a total of £370,000 to 20 recip­i­ents in ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅. The pur­pose of the fund­ing was to sup­port imme­di­ate and impact­ful actions that address the chal­lenges of cli­mate adapt­a­tion with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Clar­ity was sought if the cur­rent year fund was still open for applic­ants to apply. Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place explained that the first phase of applic­a­tions are now closed. Officers are hope­ful that some pre­vi­ous applic­ants who did not meet the cri­ter­ia will reapply after mak­ing neces­sary improve­ments to their applic­a­tions. b) Dis­cus­sions were had around the fund­ing already alloc­ated, if there were res­ults from these pro­jects avail­able, and if there was a record to ensure a vari­ety in pro­jects. It was noted that due to a sig­ni­fic­ant amount of fund­ing avail­able, it will attract a lot of applic­ants, and the Park Author­ity want to ensure sup­port is giv­en to pro­jects that will be a bene­fit. Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place con­firmed officers are review­ing the pro­jects already awar­ded fund­ing, allow­ing them to eval­u­ate the impacts. CEO noted that the bene­fit of this being a broad fund allows for a wide range of pro­jects / applic­ants to apply. If there is anoth­er fund avail­able, officers can guide them towards this fund instead allow­ing the Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund to help with many dif­fer­ent aspects. c) Cred­it was giv­en to the pan­el and officers who have worked on this fund, acknow­ledging this was a great example of people and nature thriv­ing togeth­er and the Park Author­ity mak­ing a great dif­fer­ence with a diverse fund.

3. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note the pro­gress on the deliv­ery of pro­jects and achieve­ment of the Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund object­ives from alloc­a­tions made in the ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ fin­an­cial year.

4. Action Points Arising: None.

Web­site update (Paper 2)

1. Oliv­er Dav­ies, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment intro­duced the paper which presents an update of cur­rent web­site activ­ity includ­ing a stra­tegic risk register and accom­pa­ny­ing mit­ig­a­tion measures.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A ques­tion was raised regard­ing the risk register and if there were any sig­ni­fic­ant new issues from the pro­cess of the web­site role out. Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment explained there had been noth­ing sig­ni­fic­ant, how­ever there were some snag­ging ele­ments that will be tackled over the next month, which will require more resources on a short-term basis.

3. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Review activ­ity on the web­site, includ­ing pro­cure­ment pro­cess fol­lowed / budget pos­i­tion. b) Review the accom­pa­ny­ing risk register to ensure key risks are cap­tured and that mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are appropriate.

4. Action Points Arising: None.

Bring­ing beavers back pro­ject (Paper 3)

1. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change 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 ques­tion was raised regard­ing how the Park Author­ity worked with the mit­ig­a­tion group: was it a col­lab­or­at­ive approach to devel­op the pro­ject or simply provid­ing inform­a­tion to the group. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate change explained that the Park Author­ity and the mit­ig­a­tion group work col­lab­or­at­ively on over­see­ing deliv­ery of the man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion plan. Whilst there are some dif­fer­ences of opin­ion and dis­agree­ments over policy, the oppor­tun­ity for open dia­logue is cre­at­ing a a much val­ued, improv­ing and increas­ingly effect­ive relationship.

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. c) Any mater­i­al impacts on the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk management.

4. Action Points Arising: None

Deliv­ery of stat­utory duties as con­ferred by the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003 (Paper 4)

1. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel, and Adam Streeter-Smith, Recre­ation and Access Man­ager intro­duced the paper which updated mem­bers on deliv­ery of the Park Authority’s stat­utory duties under the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003. While activ­ity is delivered by officers with annu­al report­ing to the Loc­al Out­door Access For­um, as this is a stat­utory func­tion it is also con­sidered appro­pri­ate that there is an ele­ment of Board over­sight and scru­tiny of related casework.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Dis­cus­sions were had around the high num­ber of obstruc­tion cases on bar­ri­ers and gates, ques­tion­ing if the issues were with landown­ers not under­stand­ing their respons­ib­il­it­ies. Recre­ation and Access Man­ager explained that landown­ers have con­cerns about stock and forestry gates, not­ing there was noth­ing mali­cious and dis­cus­sions with landown­ers nor­mally res­ult in a swift res­ol­u­tion. b) Dis­cus­sions were had around the Loc­al Out­door Access For­um (LOAF) not­ing a Board Mem­ber cur­rently sit­ting on the group has not been able to attend some meet­ings. Board Con­vener agreed to take this for­ward. c) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned if there was a water-based per­son sit­ting on LOAF. Recre­ation and Access Man­ager explained a lot of mem­bers and a range of roles and are involved with water, how­ever agreed to take this as a point to identi­fy someone from the pad­dling com­munity to join LOAF. d) Clar­ity was sought on Vol­un­tary Action Badenoch and Strath­spey (VABS) and Mar Area Part­ner­ship (MAP) involve­ment in the deliv­ery of one of the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan actions. Recre­ation and Access Man­ager explained VABS was used as a resource to gath­er inform­a­tion from lots of dif­fer­ent com­munit­ies and groups that may be involved in out­door access related pro­jects, not just com­munity path groups. It was high­lighted that it was import­ant to ensure this work picked up on any aspir­a­tions in the vari­ous com­munity action plans, and the sup­port of these organ­isa­tions helped ensure this was achieved. Next step would be to pull togeth­er a pro­gram for a sum­mit con­fer­ence / gath­er­ing for the paths groups to move for­ward with it. It was high­lighted that VABS and MAP are a part­ner that provides com­munity engage­ment activ­it­ies which the Park Author­ity pay for, and there­fore a good resource to util­ise in sup­port­ing this area of work. The Park Author­ity are aware of com­munity and groups work­ing on paths, how­ever VABS and MAP have link with a wider range of com­munity groups and this allows officers to ensure they have cap­tured as much inform­a­tion as possible.

3. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note the sum­mary of access case­work under­taken by the Access and Infra­struc­ture Team. b) Con­sider find­ings, trends and oth­er rel­ev­ant issues arising.

4. Action Points Arising: None.

AOCB

1. Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Chair asked for an update for upcom­ing Agen­das. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices explained there will be a Cairngorms 2030 update, with a deep dive into a theme, and Peat­land Action update com­ing to the next meet­ing. It was noted there was a Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment paper due; how­ever, this will be going to the full Board on 27 June.

Date of Next Meeting

1. The date of the next meet­ing is 12 Septem­ber 2025.

2. The meet­ing con­cluded at 3.35pm

ACTION	Status
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.