Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glenmore Community Action Plan 2024

WEL­COME TO AVIEMORE Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030

Com­piled Spring 2024

Sup­por­ted by

Aviemore & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil Aviemore Com­munity Enter­prise Aviemore & Glen­more Com­munity Trust Aviemore Primary School Par­ent Coun­cil Aviemore Churches B&S Com­munity ConnXions

VABS

Facil­it­ated by Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strathspey

Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 1 of 26

Con­tents

1. Sum­mary 3

2. The Com­munity 4

3. The Pro­cess 5

4. Com­munity Engage­ment 9

5. Sur­vey Responses 9

6. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants 10

7. Spa­tial Pri­or­it­ies 16

8. Next Steps 17

9. Thanks 19

10. Appen­dices 20

i. What do you like about liv­ing in Aviemore, Rothiemurchus, Glen­more? ii. What changes would you like to see for Aviemore, Rothiemurchus, Glen­more by 2030? iii. What new/​existing pro­jects would you like to see hap­pen­ing in the community?

Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 2 of 26

1. Sum­mary In Spring 2024, Aviemore & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil togeth­er with Aviemore Com­munity Enter­prise, Aviemore & Glen­more Com­munity Trust, Aviemore Primary School Par­ent Coun­cil, the Aviemore Churches and B&S Com­munity Con­nXions, decided that they wished to carry out a review of the com­munity action plan for the vil­lage, which had been pre­vi­ously under­taken in 2017. The pur­pose of revis­it­ing and updat­ing the plan was primar­ily aimed at giv­ing these key com­munity organ­isa­tions, along with a range of oth­er groups in the com­munity, plus pub­lic and private sec­tor stake­hold­ers, a strong man­date to move for­ward with tack­ling cur­rent and emer­ging issues, as well as lead­ing on new com­munity pro­jects, iden­ti­fied as pri­or­it­ies by the res­id­ents of Aviemore dur­ing the pro­cess in spring 2024.

With sup­port from Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch & Strath­spey, the com­munity-led steer­ing group, com­pris­ing rep­res­ent­a­tion from the organ­isa­tions lis­ted above, agreed that they would seek the views of loc­al res­id­ents on a num­ber of key ques­tions. This was achieved via a sur­vey which was per­son­ally delivered to every house­hold by volun­teers as a paper copy, which was also access­ible online. In addi­tion, the ques­tions con­tained in the sur­vey were also raised with some tar­geted groups that were iden­ti­fied as being harder to get accurate/​quality inform­a­tion from. This was under­taken by mem­bers of the steer­ing group going out with the sur­vey ques­tions to places and events where it was con­sidered that indi­vidu­als or groups fall­ing into this cat­egory might be approached.

The pro­cess was entitled Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030. In pre­vi­ous action plan­ning car­ried out by the com­munity, the focus was on activ­ity mostly with a 2 – 3 year timespan. Giv­en the increased need now to also focus on longer-term goals, par­tic­u­larly in rela­tion to the envir­on­ment and the eco­nomy, res­id­ents and busi­nesses were asked to con­sider where they and the com­munity wanted to be by 2030, so gen­er­at­ing a more exten­ded set of plans and aspirations.

Examples of recent suc­cesses in Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more with com­munity pro­jects and action plan­ning include: • Upgrade of the Vil­lage Green • Ice rink in the vil­lage • Com­munity acquis­i­tion of Glen­more Vis­it­or Centre • Out­door classroom at Milton Wood • Exten­ded path net­work • Enhance­ment of War Memori­al & area • Com­munity sup­port net­work dur­ing pan­dem­ic • Sea­son­al events eg Christ­mas parade, hanging bas­kets, winter lights

To help add to these achieve­ments, res­id­ents were encour­aged to take part in the com­munity action plan review in 2024. How­ever, this time round people were invited to think not only about what might be achieved togeth­er, but that the pro­jects the vil­lage was being asked to con­sider, would be ones that would help Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more devel­op a more sus­tain­able future. This is set against a back­drop of life post-lock­downs, the chal­lenge Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 3 of 26

of find­ing new volun­teers, plus the chan­ging eco­nom­ic and cli­mate situ­ation we find ourselves in. The Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more com­munity action plan­ning pro­cess adhered to the Nation­al Stand­ards for Com­munity Engage­ment to ensure all of the fol­low­ing ele­ments were fully taken into account dur­ing the com­munity-led ini­ti­at­ive: Impact, Com­mu­nic­a­tion, Meth­ods, Work­ing togeth­er, Plan­ning, Sup­port and Inclu­sion. See Sec­tion 4. Com­munity Engage­ment for fur­ther details on the 7 Standards.

1. The Com­munity Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more are situ­ated at the heart of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and in the centre of Badenoch and Strath­spey. This com­munity area extends from the Mon­adh­liath Moun­tains in the west through the ancient Cale­do­ni­an pine forest of Rothiemurchus to Glen­more and Cairngorm in the east.

Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more togeth­er make up a com­munity of approx­im­ately 3000 people and are demo­graph­ic­ally con­sidered to be the ​‘young­est’ com­munity in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, with res­id­ents aged under 40 mak­ing up over 50% of the total res­id­en­tial pop­u­la­tion. Most of the inhab­it­ants reside in Aviemore vil­lage which has grown from a small rail­way junc­tion in the 19^th cen­tury to an inter­na­tion­ally recog­nised ski resort, which now also offers an increas­ingly large num­ber and vari­ety of indoor and out­door sports and activ­it­ies. With this diverse range of winter and sum­mer activ­it­ies, togeth­er with a year-round pro­gramme of fest­ivals and events, Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more are now ​‘open’ for 52 weeks of the year.

For a pop­u­la­tion of this size, the com­munity punches well above its weight, attract­ing more than I mil­lion vis­it­ors every year. Aviemore itself has come a long way from its early begin­nings and the redevel­op­ment of the resort since the start of the Mil­len­ni­um has seen both res­id­en­tial and vis­it­or num­bers rising sig­ni­fic­antly, with growth in both tour­ism and con­ser­va­tion activ­ity. Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more play a vital part in the Scot­tish tour­ist industry and the area is the eco­nom­ic driver for Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The area is eas­ily access­ible by air, rail and road, and, due to the wide choice of accom­mod­a­tion pro­vi­sion, plays host to an increas­ing num­ber of inter­na­tion­al and high-status con­fer­ences and events, through­out the year.

Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more has a strong record of con­ser­va­tion in terms of the care for the coun­tryside and indeed con­ser­va­tion is import­ant in many of the busi­nesses and com­munity trusts. There are two Nation­al Nature Reserves and much of the rest of the area has envir­on­ment­al designations.

Prin­cip­al loc­al attrac­tions and key employ­ers in the com­munity are: • Mac­Don­alds Aviemore Resort, which site has been provid­ing hos­pit­al­ity and leis­ure ser­vices to loc­als and vis­it­ors since the 1960s. Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 4 of 26

• Strath­spey Rail­way, part of the old High­land line to Forres which was reopened in 1973 by a rail­way pre­ser­va­tion soci­ety to provide jour­neys by steam train. • Cairngorm Brew­ery foun­ded on the Dal­faber Indus­tri­al Estate in 2000 and export­ing their craft beers around the world. • Rothiemurchus Estate and Glen­more Forest park offer a range of activ­it­ies from water sports, walk­ing and bird-watch­ing to fish­ing, canoe­ing and moun­tain bik­ing. • Cairngorm Moun­tain: ski and snow­board sta­tion with funicu­lar rail­way and lifts, flood­lit slopes and equip­ment hire.

A new primary school and com­munity centre opened in 2012 and the new-build Aviemore Com­munity Hos­pit­al serving the strath opened its doors to patients in Septem­ber 2021. Oth­er not­able fea­tures in the vil­lage are The Olympi­ans Statue which was unveiled on the vil­lage green in 2007 to com­mem­or­ate the dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of Olympic medal win­ners who came from Badenoch and Strath­spey, while a gold-painted pil­lar box on Grampi­an Road com­mem­or­ates the gold medal won by row­er Dav­id Smith at the Lon­don Para­lympics of 2012.

Com­munity Organ­isa­tions There are a sig­ni­fic­ant num­ber of com­munity organisations/​groups which work for the bene­fit of the com­munity and are almost entirely run by volun­teers. These include: Aviemore & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil, Aviemore Com­munity Enter­prise, Aviemore & Glen­more Com­munity Trust and Aviemore Primary School Par­ent Coun­cil amongst others.

Com­munity Assets Vil­lage Green & Band­stand Ice Rink River­side Park Loc­al Busi­nesses Glen­more Vis­it­or Centre (from Nov 2024) Com­munity noticeboards

There are numer­ous loc­al busi­nesses, across many sec­tors, oper­at­ing in the vil­lage, although there is cur­rently no loc­al business/​tourism asso­ci­ation to rep­res­ent the voice of com­mer­cial activ­ity in Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glenmore.

1. The Pro­cess The Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more com­munity con­sulta­tion peri­od ran from Janu­ary to March 2024 and dur­ing this time, the way in which the com­munity action plan­ning pro­cess was car­ried out, broadly fell into four stages. These were: 1) Gath­er­ing Inform­a­tion 2) Data Sort­ing and Col­la­tion 3) Involving People & Refin­ing Ideas 4) Com­munity Action Plan (CAP) doc­u­ment production

With­in the four stages of the pro­cess, the steer­ing group asked the fol­low­ing ques­tions: Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 5 of 26

Gath­er­ing Inform­a­tion • What do we want to know? • What ques­tions will we ask? • What meth­ods will we use? • How will we do it? Data Sort­ing • What does it involve? • How will we do it? • Who will do / assist with this? • In what form will we present it back to the com­munity? Involving People & Refin­ing Ideas • What stake­hold­er groups do we need to involve? • How (& where) will we present the inform­a­tion gathered so far? • How will people in the com­munity help refine the inform­a­tion? • Who will assist with this? CAP doc­u­ment pro­duc­tion • What will it include? • Who will put it togeth­er? • How will it be presen­ted to the com­munity? • What hap­pens to it next?

In addi­tion, the steer­ing group also con­sidered what times­cales and key dates they wanted to aim for and how they would deal with com­mu­nic­a­tions & pub­li­city — ensur­ing that these ele­ments were robust, so the pro­cess was as inclus­ive as it could be.

The fifth and most cru­cial stage of the whole action plan­ning ini­ti­at­ive, involves deliv­ery of the plan by the Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more com­munity and oth­er stake­hold­ers. Essen­tially this deals with ques­tions such as: • Who will take respons­ib­il­ity for the CAP? • How will it be driv­en for­ward? • How will it be mon­itored and evaluated?

There is more detail on how this can be achieved in Sec­tion 8. Next Steps.

Gath­er­ing Inform­a­tion There was a lot of dis­cus­sion about the nature and pre­cise word­ing of ques­tions in the sur­vey, as the steer­ing group wanted to revis­it ques­tions asked in pre­vi­ous com­munity-led action plan­ning, to re-estab­lish what spe­cif­ic things people liked about Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more and wanted to keep in the com­munity. They also wished to encour­age the com­munity to look to a 5 to 10-year hori­zon, and con­sider how it might tackle some of the trick­i­er issues such as care for the envir­on­ment, sup­port­ing young­er and older res­id­ents, employ­ab­il­ity and trans­port. So ques­tions were employed which were broadly framed, to allow respon­ders to bring up a wide range of issues and ideas without being led. Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 6 of 26

The paper ver­sion covered just two sides of A4 and the sur­vey asked 3 ques­tions: 1) What do you like about liv­ing in Aviemore, Rothiemurchus, Glen­more? 2) What changes would you like to see for Aviemore, Rothiemurchus, Glen­more by 2030? (Per­haps con­sider how as indi­vidu­als, or as a com­munity, we can improve the envir­on­ment, address the cli­mate emer­gency, devel­op our loc­al eco­nomy, increase social and leis­ure oppor­tun­it­ies and widen loc­al cul­tur­al exper­i­ences) If you could improve just ONE of these things, what would it be? 3) Are there any new pro­jects (large or small) that you would like to see hap­pen­ing in the com­munity? Or any exist­ing pro­jects that need to be sustained?

The sur­vey also asked: Would you be will­ing to get involved in any pro­jects you are inter­ested in? YES / NO If Yes, please provide con­tact details.

This last addi­tion­al ques­tion was included to try to encour­age more people to come for­ward to help with pro­jects that were of par­tic­u­lar interest to them, in order to coun­ter­act the reduc­tion in volun­teer num­bers, that had come about in recent years and espe­cially fol­low­ing the ²⁰²⁰⁄₂₁ pan­dem­ic lockdowns.

It was decided that all 1600 house­holds would receive a paper copy of the sur­vey through their let­ter­box and this was car­ried out by a team of com­munity volun­teers, who over a peri­od of a few days, delivered cop­ies out into all areas of the com­munity. This meth­od helped to deliv­er an inclus­ive pro­cess of com­munity engage­ment, where every­one had the oppor­tun­ity to respond to the sur­vey if they wished and they were able to do this via hard copy, which could be depos­ited back into one of the cent­rally loc­ated sur­vey boxes, or online via QR code which enabled the com­munity to access the sur­vey on a range of devices.

Data Sort­ing All of the responses came in either online via Sur­vey Mon­key, by hard copy into CAP-branded boxes left at vari­ous loc­a­tions in the vil­lage, or from inform­a­tion col­lated at events put on for spe­cif­ic groups in the vil­lage. Sur­veys were returned from the community’s school pupils and these responses high­lighted the ideas and opin­ions of young people liv­ing in the area.

Every com­ment was recor­ded and cat­egor­ised, so that every­one would be able to ​‘see’ their voice in the dis­played res­ults. The inform­a­tion was sor­ted into 4 main themes: Social, Envir­on­ment­al, Eco­nom­ic and Cul­tur­al and the num­ber of times a par­tic­u­lar issue or idea was men­tioned was noted, so pri­or­it­ies could rise to the top of the lists in each themed cat­egory. These lists were then pre­pared for dis­play (see Sec­tion 6. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants and Sec­tion 10. Appen­dices), so every mem­ber of the com­munity could see what had been said and get involved in the next stage, when ideas were refined and solu­tions to issues sought. Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 7 of 26

Involving People & Refin­ing Ideas The pro­cess cul­min­ated in the Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Big Con­ver­sa­tion, which took place on a Fri­day and Sat­urday in March 2024 at the Aviemore Com­munity School. At this drop in event, the res­ults were offered back to the com­munity and time giv­en for reflec­tion and dis­cus­sion around the top­ics. Dur­ing the event, all of the res­id­ents who atten­ded were asked to con­sider the top pri­or­it­ies that had been iden­ti­fied from the pro­cess under the head­ings of Aviemore, Rothiemurchus, Glen­more: • A Socially Con­nec­ted Com­munity • A Cli­mate Con­scious Com­munity • An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing Com­munity • A Cul­tur­ally Vibrant Community

They were asked to look at those areas of par­tic­u­lar interest to them and write on action plan tem­plates aimed at refin­ing ideas by look­ing at ques­tions such as: What spe­cif­ic action needs to be taken to achieve this pri­or­ity and Who needs to be involved?

CAP doc­u­ment pro­duc­tion All of the com­ments and pieces of inform­a­tion giv­en by the pub­lic dur­ing the Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Big Con­ver­sa­tion event were col­lec­ted and incor­por­ated into this report, which now belongs to the Aviemore, Rothiemurchus, Glen­more com­munity and will be used as the basis for ongo­ing com­munity devel­op­ment over the next 5 – 8 years, with sup­port from the community’s organ­isa­tions and all oth­er rel­ev­ant stake­hold­ers from the pub­lic, private and vol­un­tary sector.

Also a list of all those who came for­ward offer­ing to volun­teer their help with cer­tain pro­jects was com­piled and will be held by the team tak­ing the action plan for­ward (referred to as Team Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more for the pur­poses of this report). Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 8 of 26

1. Com­munity Engage­ment The Nation­al Stand­ards for Com­munity Engage­ment are good-prac­tice prin­ciples designed to improve and guide the pro­cess of com­munity engagement.

They are clear prin­ciples that describe the main ele­ments of effect­ive com­munity engage­ment. They provide detailed per­form­ance state­ments that every­one involved can use to achieve the highest qual­ity res­ults and the greatest impact.

The stand­ards are par­tic­u­larly help­ful for com­munit­ies — their organ­isa­tions and groups — to help them involve their mem­bers or the wider com­munity in Inclu­sion We will identi­fy and involve the people and organ­isa­tions that are affected by the focus of the engage­ment. Com­mu­nic­a­tion We will com­mu­nic­ate clearly and reg­u­larly with the people, organ­isa­tions and com­munit­ies affected by the engage­ment. Impact We will assess the impact of the engage­ment and use what has been learned to improve our future com­munity engage­ment. Sup­port We will identi­fy and over­come any bar­ri­ers to par­ti­cip­a­tion. Plan­ning There is a clear pur­pose for the engage­ment, which is based on a shared under­stand­ing of com­munity needs and ambi­tions. Meth­ods We will use meth­ods of engage­ment that are fit for pur­pose. Work­ing Togeth­er We will work effect­ively togeth­er to achieve the aims of the engage­ment. shap­ing the ser­vices and changes they need, and to make sure they accur­ately rep­res­ent mem­bers’ or the community’s views in the decision-mak­ing processes.

1. Sur­vey Responses Thanks go to the 615 res­id­ents in Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more who con­trib­uted so mean­ing­fully and thought­fully to the com­munity sur­vey – this num­ber rep­res­ents 20% of the community’s pop­u­la­tion and includes responses from school age res­id­ents. Also to the people who atten­ded the Big Con­ver­sa­tion drop-in event at the com­munity school over the two days.

For a full list of what came out of the sur­vey responses, see Sec­tion 10. Appen­dices (list of appen­dices below). These show all com­ments made by the com­munity in answer to the sur­vey ques­tions, pri­or­it­ised in order of the num­ber of people who men­tioned them.

Appendix I What do you like about liv­ing in Aviemore, Rothiemurchus, Glen­more? Appendix ii What changes would you like to see for Aviemore, Rothiemurchus, Glen­more by 2030? Appendix iii What new/​existing pro­jects would you like to see hap­pen­ing in the com­munity? Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 9 of 26

1. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants Pro­ject Themes and Pri­or­it­ies The CAP sets out the community’s vis­ion for the longer term (up to 10 years) with more detailed activ­ity across the 4 spe­cified themes: • A Socially Con­nec­ted Com­munity • A Cli­mate Con­scious Com­munity • An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing Com­munity • A Cul­tur­ally Vibrant Com­munity itemising pri­or­ity out­comes and actions which are shown in the rel­ev­ant tables below.

It is import­ant to note that some of the pro­ject out­comes will be a ​“quick win” where­as oth­ers will some­times take sig­ni­fic­antly more time to plan and execute. To achieve res­ults and out­comes in the short, medium/​longer term each high pri­or­ity project/​outcome will have its own activ­ity plan which will be Spe­cif­ic, Meas­ur­able, Achiev­able, Real­ist­ic and Timely (SMART) and determ­ined and agreed in the first part of the CAP implementation.

The 4 themes were taken and put into sep­ar­ate group­ings, show­ing what the pri­or­it­ies are for each theme. With­in each pri­or­ity, pro­jects have been lis­ted that have been drawn from the high pri­or­it­ies that came out of the sur­vey data. Fur­ther views and inform­a­tion for each pri­or­ity were sought from those who atten­ded the drop-in events and sug­ges­ted actions, togeth­er with any addi­tion­al inform­a­tion are out­lined below each section.

AVIEMORE: A SOCIALLY CON­NEC­TED COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Provide hous­ing that people who want to live and work here can afford • Hous­ing must be really ​‘afford­able’: mix of shared own­er­ship, social rent, self build avail­able for our young people & to sup­port key busi­nesses • Lobby for social hous­ing stock to remain in perpetuity

Pri­or­ity: Improve leis­ure facil­it­ies for res­id­ents • Have com­munity access for loc­al res­id­ents to loc­al swim­ming pool • Upgrade play parks/​areas, espe­cially devel­op­ment of Burn­side play park • Devel­op Dal­faber site: bike park/​pump track • Fin­ish Out­door Classroom

Pri­or­ity: Estab­lish a Com­munity Hall • Space for loc­al groups to meet eg Scouts/​Guides, tod­dler groups • Provide a loc­al ven­ue (com­munity-owned) for vari­ety of social, leis­ure and learn­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al res­id­ents Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 10 of 26

PRI­OR­ITY: PROVIDE HOUS­ING THAT PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LIVE AND WORK HERE CAN AFFORD Hous­ing must be really ​‘afford­able’: mix of shared own­er­ship, social rent, self build avail­able for our young people & to sup­port key busi­nesses • Import­ant for ​‘afford­able’ to relate to loc­al wage levels to sup­port loc­al employ­ment. • Include pro­vi­sion for single per­son accom­mod­a­tion. • Incor­por­ate more sheltered / sup­por­ted hous­ing. • Provide care home spaces.

Lobby for social hous­ing stock to remain in per­petu­ity • Work with Registered Social Land­lords to ensure aware­ness of community’s wishes.

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE LEIS­URE FACIL­IT­IES FOR RES­ID­ENTS Have com­munity access for loc­al res­id­ents to loc­al swim­ming pool • Needs to be afford­able for loc­als. • Is a life skill which all should have access to – need to work with key part­ners eg HLH, THC to pur­sue this actively.

Upgrade play parks/​areas, espe­cially devel­op­ment of Burn­side play park • Involve young people in design and pro­vi­sion of any new facilities.

Devel­op Dal­faber site: bike park/​pump track • Involve young people in design, pro­vi­sion and main­ten­ance of any new facilities.

Fin­ish Out­door Classroom • Work with key part­ners to over­come bar­ri­ers and com­plete project.

PRI­OR­ITY: ESTAB­LISH A COM­MUNITY HALL Space for loc­al groups to meet eg Scouts/​Guides, tod­dler groups • Explore pos­sible use of Cadet Hall as a com­munity ven­ue that can be shared by oth­er uni­formed groups.

Provide a loc­al ven­ue (com­munity-owned) for vari­ety of social, leis­ure and learn­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al res­id­ents • Look fur­ther into pos­sible site devel­op­ment on Dal­faber Road with pub­lic agency part­ners and com­munity. • Con­firm with THC that old health centre is not going to be avail­able due to hous­ing devel­op­ment plans. • Increase com­munity aware­ness of what space is avail­able to them in cur­rent com­munity build­ing. Work with HLH to improve the offer­ing to loc­al groups where pos­sible. • Need to estab­lish an over­arch­ing and inclus­ive com­munity group with the right skill set and determ­in­a­tion to see such a pro­ject through. Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 11 of 26

AVIEMORE: A CLI­MATE CON­SCIOUS COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Improve pub­lic trans­port to reduce need for/​use of cars (leis­ure and work) • Com­mis­sion elec­tric buses for reg­u­lar access to Glenmore/​Cairngorm Moun­tain • Allowance/​space for bikes on buses • Ensure timetables are integ­rated and can be relied upon

Pri­or­ity: Loc­al allot­ments for rent and per­haps a com­munity orch­ard • Provide loc­al, access­ible place for per­son­al food pro­duce eg fruit and veget­ables and place for a com­munity orchard

Pri­or­ity: Pro­mote Act­ive Travel net­work (and sig­nage) • Look at all dif­fer­ent ways and places to encour­age res­id­ents & vis­it­ors to cycle/​walk through the town rather than drive • Improve sec­tion between Dou­gal Drive and Braeriach Court • Segreg­ate cycle lane through Aviemore • Con­nect Aviemore to Carrbridge

Pri­or­ity: Main­tain & improve loc­al path net­work (and sig­nage) • Improve loc­al paths as lis­ted, where possible

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE PUB­LIC TRANS­PORT TO REDUCE NEED FOR/USE OF CARS (LEIS­URE AND WORK) Com­mis­sion buses (to poten­tially include elec­tric) for reg­u­lar access to Glenmore/​Cairngorm Moun­tain • Work with CNPA & CBP to explore this poten­tial pro­ject fur­ther. • Sug­ges­tion of a nov­elty ​‘road train’ to get people between Aviemore and Cairngorm. Would be sea­son­al only and would need to invest­ig­ate feasibility.

Allowance/​space for bikes on buses • Work with the B&S Com­munity Part­ner­ship Trans­port Group to push for this.

Ensure timetables are integ­rated and can be relied upon • Lobby for this and improved fre­quency of pub­lic trans­port to oth­er villages.

PRI­OR­ITY: LOC­AL ALLOT­MENTS FOR RENT AND COM­MUNITY ORCH­ARD Provide loc­al, access­ible place for per­son­al food pro­duce eg fruit and veget­ables and place for a com­munity orch­ard • A tem­por­ary site has become avail­able for allot­ments (behind the new com­munity hos­pit­al) but a per­man­ent site is still sought. Need to con­tin­ue to work with THC and CNPA to find a suit­able site. • Work with small loc­al sites for com­munity orch­ard pro­vi­sion, maybe in 2 or 3 smal­ler loc­a­tions. Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 12 of 26

PRI­OR­ITY: PRO­MOTE ACT­IVE TRAVEL NET­WORK (AND SIG­NAGE) Look at all dif­fer­ent ways and places to encour­age res­id­ents & vis­it­ors to cycle/​walk through the com­munity rather than drive • Work with CNPA Act­ive Travel team on oppor­tun­it­ies to encour­age beha­viour change. • Improve sec­tion between Dou­gall Drive and Braeriach Court – is basic­ally the ​‘pave­ment’, but not useable cur­rently. • Segreg­ate cycle lane through Aviemore. • Con­nect Aviemore to Carrbridge.

PRI­OR­ITY: MAIN­TAIN & IMPROVE LOC­AL PATH NET­WORK (& SIG­NAGE) Improve loc­al paths as lis­ted, where pos­sible • Craigel­lach­ie up path with pos­sible exten­sion to view­point. • Install a con­nect­ing path through Craigel­lach­ie reserve to Kina­kyle, to join the Kincraig/​Aviemore path. • Craigowrie to Bad­aguish (down path to Bad­aguish). • Steal­lan Dubh to Craigel­lach­ie link path. • Orbit­al exten­sion on west side of A9 from High Burn­side to main Craigel­lach­ie path. • Orbit­al path improved for all abilities/​wheelchair access. • Rein­state path between Cairngorm car park and Glen­more. • Inver­druie to Glen­more via Foot­bridge over Allt Druidh. • Foot­bridge from golf course to Rothiemurchus. • Orbit­al path cross­ing at Achantoul needs upgrad­ing and improved sig­nage. • Spey­side Way from Dou­gall Drive to Dal­faber Drive.

AVIEMORE: AN ECO­NOM­IC­ALLY THRIV­ING COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Improve oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al employ­ment / busi­nesses • Rebal­ance pro­vi­sion of loc­al accom­mod­a­tion with 2^nd homes/short-term lets to help sup­port loc­al busi­nesses to attract a sus­tain­able work­force • Great­er con­trol of non-licensed lets in the area • Sup­port for new/s­mall/­pop-up busi­nesses (near the main street) • Cre­ate small office or work­shop space for small businesses

Pri­or­ity: Encour­age devel­op­ment of derel­ict sites that have lain for too long • Laurel Bank, across from Myr­tle­field, by Happy Haggis

Pri­or­ity: Increase park­ing avail­ab­il­ity or bet­ter bus ser­vice for work­ers in the town (2 – 3hr max mostly) • Park & Ride scheme? Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 13 of 26

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE OPPOR­TUNTITES FOR LOC­AL EMPLOY­MENT / BUSI­NESSES Rebal­ance pro­vi­sion of loc­al accom­mod­a­tion with 2^nd homes/short-term lets to help sup­port loc­al busi­nesses to attract a sus­tain­able work­force • Com­munity Coun­cil to work with loc­al pub­lic agen­cies to improve on cur­rent situation.

Great­er con­trol of non-licensed lets in the area • Com­munity Coun­cil to work with loc­al pub­lic agen­cies to improve on cur­rent situation

Sup­port for new/s­mall/­pop-up busi­nesses (near the main street) • Explore poten­tial interest in take up of this idea.

Cre­ate small office or work­shop space for small busi­nesses & key com­munity organ­isa­tions • Explore poten­tial interest in take up of this idea.

PRI­OR­ITY: ENCOUR­AGE DEVEL­OP­MENT OF DEREL­ICT SITES THAT HAVE LAIN FOR TOO LONG • Laurel Bank, across from Myr­tle­field, by Happy Hag­gis • Estab­lish own­er­ship of sites and any exist­ing plans and timelines. • Ref land oppos­ite Myr­tle­field: con­tin­ue to push for­ward with ACE’s plans for devel­op­ment. Need ongo­ing sup­port from THC and CNPA to smooth a Com­munity Asset Trans­fer of this site.

PRI­OR­ITY: INCREASE PARK­ING AVAIL­AB­IL­ITY OR BET­TER BUS SER­VICE FOR WORK­ERS IN THE TOWN (2 – 3HR MAX MOSTLY) Park & Ride Scheme • Invest­ig­ate feas­ib­il­ity and level of take up by those work­ing in the vil­lage who require longer-term park­ing. • Com­bine with EV char­ging points. • Work with loc­al busi­nesses and THC. Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 14 of 26

AVIEMORE: A CUL­TUR­ALLY VIBRANT COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Main­tain and have more use of Vil­lage Green • More live music events in sum­mer • Remove poor qual­ity trees/​hedge at rear. Replant with nicer nat­ive altern­at­ives • Improve light into the area • Devel­op into a fam­ily-friendly area with more seat­ing, flower plant­ing and maybe a water feature

Pri­or­ity: Ice Rink • Find a new per­man­ent site • Extend the types of activ­it­ies it can provide (skat­ing, curl­ing, ice hockey) • Offer seat­ing and a café

Pri­or­ity: Cairngorm Moun­tain • Sus­tain Activ­it­ies to be oper­ated by the com­munity • Remove funicu­lar railway/​get altern­at­ive lift­ing in • All abil­it­ies access • Gon­dola install­a­tion from Hay­field to base station

In Addi­tion to the ideas lis­ted above, par­ti­cipants in the big Con­ver­sa­tion event also added the fol­low­ing sug­ges­tions to this section.

PRI­OR­ITY: MAIN­TAIN AND HAVE MORE USE OF VIL­LAGE GREEN • Pro­mote more to loc­al groups and net­works eg schools, art & craft groups, Feis Spe. • Try and find a group to work/​volunteer on pro­mot­ing an events sched­ule and man­aging book­ings. • Com­munity work­ing group to main­tain the space eg weed­ing, snow clearing.

PRI­OR­ITY: ICE RINK • Envir­on­ment­ally this should go hand in hand with a pool. Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 15 of 26

1. Spa­tial Pri­or­it­ies The maps below illus­trate the spa­tial pro­pos­als to help real­ise Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glenmore’s com­munity vis­ion and Com­munity Action Plan. They dis­play com­ments which were provided by Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more res­id­ents and busi­nesses dur­ing the two-day Big Con­ver­sa­tion drop-in event. They refer to the pri­or­it­ies that have come out of the Com­munity Action Plan (CAP) responses and help express the community’s aspir­a­tions and solu­tions for devel­op­ment and use of land with­in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. This reflects the loc­al plan­ning policy which aims to cre­ate sus­tain­able, live­able and pro­duct­ive places as expressed in Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (2023).

Aviemore CAP map:

Aviemore A9 Con­nect Aviemore to Carr Bridge with act­ive travel infra­struc­ture SP side Wo 000000 North Improve act­ive travel infra­struc­ture between Dou­gall Drive and Braeriach Court Fin­ish out­door classroom Encour­age devel­op­ment of Laurel Bank Identi­fy site for com­munity hall 2000 Devel­op Dal­faber site: skate / bike / boul­der­ing park / com­munity hub Upgrade play parks / areas, espe­cially devel­op­ment of Burn­side play park Loc­al allot­ments for rent and per­haps a com­munity orch­ard Segreg­ated cycle lane through Aviemore Devel­op Vil­lage Green into fam­ily-friendly area with more seat­ing, flower plant­ing, and improved light­ing 0 Turn area of grass and hard­stand­ing next to retail park into com­munity green space / Identi­fy per­man­ent site for ice rink Identi­fy loc­a­tion for park and ride scheme recre­ation space Sup­port new / small / pop-up busi­nesses 8 Kilo­met­ers Con­tains Ord­nance Surv data Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024 Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 16 of 26

The map shows the community’s ideas and pri­or­it­ies for the future devel­op­ment of the Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more area, as well as help­ing the com­munity to devel­op and deliv­er its own projects.

The pur­pose of the maps is to: • Com­ple­ment the CAP by show­ing how the Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more com­munity could look in the future once the vis­ion and CAP have been imple­men­ted. • Help the Aviemore & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil, High­land Coun­cil and CNPA con­sider the impact of plan­ning applic­a­tions on the com­munity. • Inform CNPA’s review of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. • Influ­ence invest­ment from pub­lic bod­ies, fun­ders, landown­ers and busi­nesses, in ways that sup­port the community.

1. Next Steps: Deliv­ery Steps to deliv­er the Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan The next steps to start work­ing with the action plan and look­ing at how parts can start to be delivered will be sub­ject to some dis­cus­sion with­in Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glenmore’s com­munity organ­isa­tions, but broadly involves col­lect­ively: • Set­ting up a Team Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more (see below) to take the plan for­ward. Agree­ing a chair for a spe­cified peri­od at a time, so will rotate after X months or after X meet­ings • Agree­ing to adopt the Val­ues and Prin­ciples laid out below • Agree­ing what pri­or­it­ies will be taken for­ward ini­tially • Man­aging the pro­ject volun­teer list that has come out of the pro­cess • Involving all key stake­hold­ers (organ­isa­tions & indi­vidu­als) in co-design of pro­ject deliv­ery • Draw­ing up a more detailed deliv­ery action plan for each pri­or­it­ised pro­ject, identi­fy­ing aims, actions, mile­stones, who needs to be involved, key deliv­er­ables. (VABS has a tem­plate for this.) • Com­mu­nic­at­ing pro­gress with the com­munity • Review­ing pro­gress on a reg­u­lar basis • Revis­it­ing the action plan as required

Val­ues and Prin­ciples The fol­low­ing val­ues and prin­ciples will under­pin the way in which this action plan is rolled out and imple­men­ted: 1) A plan for all — it is the respons­ib­il­ity of the whole com­munity (indi­vidu­als and groups) to unite and work togeth­er for pro­ject ambi­tions to be real­ised 2) Trans­par­ency — all ideas should be planned and researched openly with a com­mit­ment to co-pro­duc­tion where groups con­trib­ute to the ideas as they devel­op 3) Part­ner­ship — work­ing togeth­er with a shared agenda will be at the heart of any activ­ity arising from this plan Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 17 of 26

4) Inclu­sion — every­one is invited to par­ti­cip­ate and every­one bene­fits, regard­less of age and abil­ity 5) Impact — the suc­cess of this plan will be judged on activ­it­ies which have a pos­it­ive influ­ence on people and com­munit­ies 6) Involve­ment — ensur­ing the com­munity is mean­ing­fully involved in decisions that affect their lives.

Team Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more It is very import­ant to ensure the effect­ive deliv­ery of this action plan, for the whole com­munity to work togeth­er to imple­ment it, ie a full com­munity approach not just one or two organ­isa­tions. This approach has been called Team Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more in this report, but of course the com­munity will decide on its own name for these purposes.

Team Aviemore, Rothiemurchus & Glen­more will be the for­um for agree­ing on how the Steps at the start of this sec­tion are taken for­ward, as well as where respons­ib­il­ity will sit in terms of deliv­er­ing on the Val­ues and Prin­ciples out­lined above. It will not have a sep­ar­ate leg­al iden­tity, but simply be a for­um called maybe two or three times a year, per­haps by a rotat­ing chair. It should com­prise as a min­im­um, rep­res­ent­at­ives from the organ­isa­tions who ini­tially steered the action plan­ning pro­cess, togeth­er with any oth­er com­munity groups who wish to be involved