Blair Atholl Community Action Plan 2023

Blair Atholl Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030

Com­piled Sum­mer 2023

Sup­por­ted by Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Coun­cil Blair Atholl & Stru­an Ini­ti­at­ive Blair Atholl Vil­lage Hall Blair Atholl Primary School Blair Atholl Coun­try Life Museum Atholl Estates Loc­al Businesses

Facil­it­ated by Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strathspey

Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 1 of 21

Con­tents

1. Sum­mary 3
2. The Com­munity 4
3. The Pro­cess 5
4. Com­munity Engage­ment 8
5. Sur­vey Responses 9
6. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants 10
7. Next Steps 15
8. Thanks 17
9. Appen­dices 18 i. What do you like about liv­ing in Blair Atholl & Stru­an? ii. What changes would you like to see for the com­munity by 2030?

Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 2 of 21

I. Sum­mary In Janu­ary 2023, Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Coun­cil, togeth­er with Blair Atholl & Stru­an Ini­ti­at­ive, Blair Atholl Vil­lage Hall, Blair Atholl Primary School, Blair Atholl Coun­try Life Museum, Atholl Estates and loc­al busi­nesses, decided that they wished to carry out a review of the com­munity action plan for the vil­lage, which had been pre­vi­ously under­taken in 2014. 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 vil­lage, 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 and busi­nesses of Blair Atholl & Stru­an dur­ing the pro­cess in spring 2023.

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 and busi­nesses 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 Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to

1. In pre­vi­ous action plan­ning car­ried out by the com­munity, the focus was on activ­ity mostly last­ing up to a 5‑year span. 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, more or less, an 8‑year set of plans and aspirations.

Examples of Blair Atholl & Struan’s recent suc­cesses with com­munity pro­jects and action plan­ning include:

1. Upgrade to the Vil­lage Hall
2. Increased free pub­lic toi­let provision
3. Com­munity orch­ard in the park
4. More flor­al displays
5. Improve­ments to Stru­an cara­van site
6. Social lunches in the Hall
7. Work start­ing on com­munity garden

To help add to these achieve­ments, res­id­ents were encour­aged to take part in the com­munity action plan review in 2023. 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 Blair Atholl & Stru­an devel­op a more sus­tain­able future. This is set against a back­drop of life post-Cov­id, the chal­lenge of find­ing new volun­teers plus the chan­ging eco­nom­ic and cli­mate situ­ation we find ourselves in. Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 3 of 21

The Blair Atholl & Stru­an 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 Blair Atholl is loc­ated in High­land Perth­shire, and built about the con­flu­ence of the Rivers Tilt and Garry in one of the few areas of flat land in the midst of the Grampi­an Moun­tains. The Gael­ic place-name Blair, from blàr, ​‘field, plain’, refers to this loc­a­tion. Blair Atholl incor­por­ates Stru­an, Calv­ine and Bru­ar and is a some­what unique place in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, as here the coun­tryside, eco­nomy and com­munity are greatly influ­enced by Blair Castle and its related activ­it­ies through Atholl Estates. This ancient seat of the Dukes and Earls of Atholl with its private army, is prob­ably one of the best known of the Scot­tish castles and the mag­ni­fi­cent build­ing is an icon­ic centrepiece in this landscape.

The char­ac­ter­ful vil­lage of Blair Atholl sits in a tra­di­tion­al rur­al set­ting where hill farm­ing is an ongo­ing occu­pa­tion and this is echoed in its vis­it­or attrac­tions and archi­tec­ture. The Atholl Coun­try Life Museum in the vil­lage has dis­plays on the social his­tory of the area and can be vis­ited through­out the sea­son. The prox­im­ity of the much acclaimed House of Bru­ar retail out­let, provides the area with a second major employ­er as well as an addi­tion­al draw for tour­ists who are the corner­stone of the community’s economy.

The river Garry flows through the heart of the area, link­ing the com­munit­ies togeth­er and it is clear that this area has a rich mil­it­ary his­tory, much of it cent­ral to Scotland’s his­tory. The com­munity is keen to main­tain its tra­di­tion­al char­ac­ter, evid­ent in the look and lay­out of the main street, the vil­lage hall, the ancient water­mill and the Atholl Arms Hotel.

Blair Atholl res­id­ents and in par­tic­u­lar those involved in tour­ist sec­tor busi­nesses, also recog­nise the need how­ever for ongo­ing growth in hous­ing, job oppor­tun­it­ies for young­er people and the strength­en­ing of the trade sec­tor involving ser­vice and tour­ist indus­tries, which is a chal­lenge par­tic­u­larly due to the bound­ing nature of the loc­al geo­graphy (River Tilt) and the con­ser­va­tion status the whole vil­lage enjoys with­in the estate walls.

Res­id­ents see them­selves as self-reli­ant with a strong sense of com­munity and a ​‘do it ourselves’ atti­tude, in no small part due to their being slightly dis­tant from oth­er set­tle­ments. Loc­al busi­nesses pro­mote Blair Atholl as the gate­way to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park which they feel increases its tour­ism poten­tial significantly.

In look­ing to the future, res­id­ents want to enjoy a bal­anced com­munity life with an adequate num­ber of fam­il­ies and facil­it­ies retained in the vil­lage. Busi­nesses want their brand of tour­ism to meet the needs and expect­a­tions of a com­pet­it­ive mar­ket, keep­ing the loc­al Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 4 of 21

eco­nomy buoy­ant and well main­tained. This togeth­er with a con­tin­ued strong con­nec­tion with the land will in turn ensure that Blair Atholl con­tin­ues to thrive as a viable community.

Com­munity Organ­isa­tions There are a con­sid­er­able num­ber of com­munity organisations/​groups which work for the bene­fit of the com­munity and are almost entirely run by volun­teers. These include: Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Coun­cil, Blair Atholl & Stru­an Ini­ti­at­ive, Blair Atholl Vil­lage Hall, Blair Atholl Coun­try Life Museum and Blair Atholl Primary School Par­ent Coun­cil, amongst others.

Com­munity Assets Vil­lage Hall (recently refur­bished to a high stand­ard) Memori­al Park includ­ing play area and sports pitch Pub­lic Toilets

Loc­al Busi­nesses There are numer­ous loc­al busi­nesses, across many sec­tors, oper­at­ing out of the Blair Atholl / Bridge of Tilt area, which over many years have been extremely well rep­res­en­ted by The Atholl Glens (TAG), the loc­al business/​tourism asso­ci­ation. At the time of com­pil­ing this report, the TAG com­mit­tee and web­site are under review in order to eval­u­ate how best to advert­ise and sup­port the community.

Blair Atholl & Stru­an busi­nesses include hotel and self-cater­ing accom­mod­a­tion, gift and food out­lets. A num­ber of trades­people, togeth­er with farm­ers, crofters, people employed on estates and car­ry­ing out oth­er kinds of envir­on­ment­al work plus artis­an indus­tries make up the work­ing heart of this community.

So there is a lot to appre­ci­ate about Blair Atholl, this pic­tur­esque High­land Perth­shire vil­lage of approx­im­ately 600 people.

1. The Pro­cess The Blair Atholl & Stru­an com­munity con­sulta­tion peri­od ran from March to June 2023 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 fol­low­ing ques­tions were asked by the steer­ing group. Gath­er­ing Inform­a­tion Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 5 of 21

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 Blair Atholl & Stru­an 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 7. 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 Blair Atholl & Stru­an and wanted to keep in the com­munity. They also wished to encour­age the com­munity to look to an 8 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.

The paper ver­sion covered just two sides of A4 and the sur­vey asked 3 ques­tions: 1) What do you like about liv­ing in Blair Atholl & Stru­an? 2) What changes would you like to see for the com­munity by 2030? Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 6 of 21

(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 oppo#rtunities 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 pandemic.

It was decided that all 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 280 cop­ies out into 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 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 3 main themes: Social, Envir­on­ment­al and Eco­nom­ic 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 9. 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.

Involving People & Refin­ing Ideas The pro­cess cul­min­ated in Blair Atholl & Struan’s Big Con­ver­sa­tion, which took place over a full day in June 2023 at the Blair Atholl Vil­lage Hall. At this 10 hour drop in event, the res­ults were offered back to the com­munity and time giv­en for reflec­tion and dis­cus­sion around the top­ics. Dur­ing the day, all of the res­id­ents who atten­ded were asked to con­sider the top pri­or­it­ies that had been iden­ti­fied from the pro­cess under the head­ings of Blair Atholl & Stru­an: Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 7 of 21

A Socially Con­nec­ted Com­munity A Cli­mate Con­scious Com­munity An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing 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 Big Con­ver­sa­tion event were col­lec­ted and incor­por­ated into this report, which now belongs to the Blair Atholl & Stru­an com­munity and will be used as the basis for ongo­ing com­munity devel­op­ment in the vil­lage over the next 10 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 Blair Atholl for the pur­poses of this report).

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 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. Meth­ods We will use meth­ods of engage­ment that are fit for pur­pose. 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. Work­ing Togeth­er We will work effect­ively togeth­er to achieve the aims of the engage­ment. mem­bers or the wider com­munity in 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.

Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 8 of 21

1. Sur­vey Responses Thanks go to the 136 res­id­ents and busi­nesses in the Blair Atholl & Stru­an area who con­trib­uted so mean­ing­fully and thought­fully to the com­munity sur­vey this num­ber rep­res­ents 23.4% of the community’s pop­u­la­tion and includes responses from school age res­id­ents. Also to the 37 people who atten­ded the Big Con­ver­sa­tion drop-in event at the vil­lage hall.

For a full list of what came out of the sur­vey responses, see Sec­tion 9. 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 Blair Atholl & Stru­an Appendix ii What changes would you like to see for the com­munity by 2030?

Sweet Shop ba Good Omar­gar W water Pork 0000 elec­tri­city biys being less Expens­ive Draw­ings done by Blair Atholl Primary School pupils to show what they like about liv­ing here. Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 9 of 21

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 3 spe­cified themes: A Socially Con­nec­ted Com­munity A Cli­mate Con­scious Com­munity An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing 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 3 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. BLAIR ATHOLL: A SOCIALLY CON­NEC­TED COMMUNITY

Pri­or­ity: Sus­tain­able pub­lic trans­port pro­vi­sion • To con­tin­ue lob­by­ing for bet­ter pro­vi­sion of bus & train ser­vices for com­munity • Explore pos­sib­il­ity of Dial-A-Bus scheme (com­munity-run?) Pri­or­ity: Hav­ing afford­able places to live • Invest­ment in more afford­able hous­ing for loc­al people to rent or buy, new or exist­ing stock or vacant prop­erty Invest­ig­ate com­munity-owned options for hous­ing development

Pri­or­ity: Sus­tain­able com­munity spaces, deliv­er­ing for com­munity needs • Memori­al Park: invest in the space for future gen­er­a­tions through access­ible paths, upgrade of activ­ity areas and plant­ing. Estab­lish ​‘Friends of the Park’? Devel­op social oppor­tun­it­ies for com­munity to come togeth­er after Cov­id • BA Vil­lage Hall: fur­ther devel­op what’s on offer and increase usage • BA Rail­way sta­tion: pre­ser­va­tion of build­ing and improve surroundings/​road Pri­or­ity: Access to qual­ity Health Care • Cre­ate a co-ordin­ated health care strategy for access to GP and nurs­ing care Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 10 of 21

PRI­OR­ITY: SUS­TAIN­ABLE PUB­LIC TRANS­PORT PRO­VI­SION To con­tin­ue lob­by­ing for bet­ter pro­vi­sion of bus & train ser­vices for the com­munity • More train stops at BA • Ser­vice from BA to Pit­lo­chry with return at reas­on­able times • • • Explore ways of bet­ter integ­ra­tion between bus and rail ser­vices Dir­ect ser­vice from vil­lage to Perth (bus sta­tion?) at least once a week Bet­ter main­ten­ance of bus stops & access to timetables Explore pos­sib­il­ity of Dial-A-Bus scheme (com­munity-run?) • See if Pit­lo­chry com­munity bus can be used/​shared/​borrowed at some times each week, or if there is a pos­sib­il­ity to run some­thing more loc­ally PRI­OR­ITY: HAV­ING AFFORD­ABLE PLACES TO LIVE Invest­ment in more afford­able hous­ing for loc­al people to rent or buy, new or exist­ing stock or vacant prop­erty • • • • Pro­vi­sion of ded­ic­ated accom­mod­a­tion for key work­ers in health and edu­ca­tion Also for pro­vi­sion of accom­mod­a­tion to encour­age sup­port for loc­al busi­nesses who are offer­ing employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies Ensure there are leg­al con­di­tions in place to pre­vent hous­ing revert­ing to open mar­ket, so becom­ing lost as ​‘afford­able’ hous­ing for the vil­lage Identi­fy which prop­er­ties are vacant or derel­ict and con­tact own­ers to try and bring back into use see Eco­nom­ic Pri­or­ity I Invest­ig­ate com­munity-owned options for hous­ing devel­op­ment • Work with CNPA, PKC and Com­munit­ies Hous­ing Trust to explore pos­sib­il­it­ies to pur­chase land at reas­on­able price PRI­OR­ITY: SUS­TAIN­ABLE COM­MUNITY SPACES, DELIV­ER­ING FOR COM­MUNITY NEEDS Memori­al Park: invest in the space for future gen­er­a­tions through access­ible paths, upgrade of activ­ity areas and plant­ing • Estab­lish ​‘Friends of the Park’ • Explore with park users to map out where all sug­ges­tions might be sited in the park Devel­op social oppor­tun­it­ies for com­munity to come togeth­er after Cov­id • • • • Identi­fy people in vil­lage who might help deliv­er com­munity events in line with their skills/​interests Start a Youth Club for after school activ­it­ies Add to the ​‘Voices of Atholl’ pro­ject Con­sider com­munity com­pet­i­tions to engage our chil­dren and young people Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 11 of 21

BA Vil­lage Hall: fur­ther devel­op what’s on offer and increase usage • Increase facil­it­ies to enable loc­als to enjoy sports in the hall • Provide inter­net con­nec­tion • Provide more dis­abled facil­it­ies eg toi­lets BA Rail­way sta­tion: pre­ser­va­tion of build­ing and improve surroundings/​road • Estab­lish a work­ing group to explore pos­sible uses of build­ing for com­munity use • Con­tin­ue to invest­ig­ate own­er­ship / improve­ments for sta­tion road PRI­OR­ITY: ACCESS TO QUAL­ITY HEALTH CARE Cre­ate a co-ordin­ated health care strategy for access to GP and nurs­ing care • Provide an occa­sion­al loc­al sur­gery (if per­man­ent re-open­ing is not feas­ible) eg a weekly mobile sur­gery in the vil­lage or church hall • Mobile unit for flu vac­cin­a­tions and baby clin­ic BLAIR ATHOLL: A CLI­MATE CON­SCIOUS COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Improve village’s visu­al appear­ance • Resolve The Lade issue: rebuild the weir • Tidy, clean, paint in The Square • Fix pot-holed roads and dam­aged walls • Reg­u­lar lit­ter picks Pri­or­ity: Act­ive Travel • Cross­ing bridge over the Tilt – improve for ped­es­tri­ans and cyc­lists • Bet­ter path net­work link­ing Blair Atholl to House of Bru­ar • Path exten­sion to Calv­ine • Improve foot­paths around vil­lage for all abil­it­ies, incl. to ​‘Wasted Degrees’ bar • Replace/​repair foot­bridge on west bank of River Tilt, adja­cent to cara­van park • Con­tin­ue to allow Rights of Way & make access­ible at Cara­van site at Stru­an • Hand­rail at steps at east end of river bridge Pri­or­ity: Allow Nature to thrive • Improve biod­iversity at vari­ous loc­a­tions: more plant­ing and aware­ness rais­ing PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE VILLAGE’S VISU­AL APPEAR­ANCE Resolve The Lade issue: rebuild the weir • Work with the Estate and PKC to put pres­sure on SEPA Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 12 of 21

Tidy, clean, paint in The Square • Sup­port con­veni­ence store to improve extern­al appear­ance • More dog waste bins and sig­nage • Clear kerbs of rub­bish and weeds Fix pot-holed roads and dam­aged walls • Resolve tar­mack­ing issue lead­ing to sta­tion & improve with flor­al dis­plays. Explore com­munity takeover of approach road to ensure improve­ments Reg­u­lar lit­ter picks • Way to get more people involved – young­er people? Ask for sup­port from Atholl Ranger Ser­vice PRI­OR­ITY: ACT­IVE TRAVEL Cross­ing bridge over the Tilt – improve for ped­es­tri­ans and cyc­lists • Estab­lish a bet­ter sys­tem for walk­ers and cyc­lists to cross • Traffic lights to con­trol traffic Bet­ter path net­work • • • • • • • Link­ing Blair Atholl to House of Bru­ar Path exten­sions from Blair Atholl to Calv­ine & also to Pit­lo­chry (safer access to and on cycle path) Foot­paths around vil­lage for all abil­it­ies, includ­ing to ​‘Wasted Degrees’ bar Restore Right of Way at Stru­an Cara­van site – replace removed stile See vil­lage trails under Eco­nom­ic Pri­or­ity 2 Replace/​repair foot­bridge on west bank of River Tilt, adja­cent to cara­van park Install a hand­rail at steps at east end of river bridge PRI­OR­ITY: ALLOW NATURE TO THRIVE Improve biod­iversity at vari­ous loc­a­tions: more plant­ing and aware­ness rais­ing • More wild­flower plant­ing • Install com­munity bird feed­ers at key loc­a­tions • Vil­lage ​‘Open Gar­dens’ week • • • • • Illus­trated inform­a­tion boards on loc­al wild­life Estates to main­tain access to walks Devel­op com­munity garden / wild­flower mead­ow at park Loc­al wild­life group – offer­ing talks to increase aware­ness Tour­ism Man­age­ment Strategy to pro­tect envir­on­ment Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 13 of 21

BLAIR ATHOLL: AN ECO­NOM­IC­ALLY THRIV­ING COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Bring vacant build­ings back into use • Invest in old buildings/​sites (school/​garage/​surgery) for com­munity bene­fit Pri­or­ity: Increase oppor­tun­it­ies to attract tour­ism and busi­ness to the loc­al area • Con­tin­ue lob­by­ing for com­ple­tion of A9 dualling (road safety improve­ments) • Refur­bish­ment of Round House & Tilt Hotel to be com­pleted • Improve vis­it­or inform­a­tion across vil­lage and at House of Bru­ar / Pit­lo­chry, to bring more people into the vil­lage to attrac­tions and for things to do • Vil­lage trail for vis­it­ors Pri­or­ity: Improve oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al employ­ment / busi­nesses • Explore options for increased child­care pro­vi­sion in area • Con­tin­ue upgrade of digit­al con­nectiv­ity for res­id­ents and busi­nesses PRI­OR­ITY: BRING VACANT BUILD­INGS BACK INTO USE Invest in old buildings/​sites for com­munity bene­fit • BA rail­way sta­tion • • Stru­an Primary (address own­er­ship ie PKC (build­ing) & estate (land)) Manse • Calv­ine Primary • Estate houses (unused) • Fin­an­cial sup­port for the com­munity to ren­ov­ate with eco-friendly fea­tures – role for BAASI? PRI­OR­ITY: INCREASE OPPOR­TUN­IT­IES TO ATTRACT TOUR­ISM & BUSI­NESS TO LOC­AL AREA Con­tin­ue lob­by­ing for com­ple­tion of A9 dualling (road safety improve­ments) Refur­bish­ment of Round House & Tilt Hotel to be com­pleted • Sup­port own­ers to com­plete Improve vis­it­or inform­a­tion across vil­lage and at House of Bru­ar / Pit­lo­chry, to bring more people into the vil­lage to attrac­tions and for things to do • • Seek sup­port from CNPA and Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship on how to do this Regen­er­ate TAG • More spe­cif­ic tour­ism sig­nage off the A9 for the vil­lage – not just Bru­ar Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 14 of 21

• Work on identity/​USP for the vil­lage – make it dif­fer­ent from Pit­lo­chry Vil­lage trail for vis­it­ors • Replace maps in vil­lage (TAG?) • Devel­op nature trails in and around BA • Look into a trail sim­il­ar to the wild­cat trail in New­ton­more – with a dif­fer­ent (loc­al) focus PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE OPPOR­TUN­IT­IES FOR LOC­AL EMPLOY­MENT / BUSI­NESSES Explore options for increased child­care pro­vi­sion in area • Engage with res­id­ents and busi­nesses to dis­cov­er extent and type of need • Explore pos­sible child­care pro­viders in area • Could vil­lage hall be used as a centre for this dur­ing work hours? Con­tin­ue upgrade of digit­al con­nectiv­ity for res­id­ents and busi­nesses • More EV char­ging points

1. Next Steps: Deliv­ery Steps to deliv­er the Blair Atholl & Stru­an 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 Blair Atholl & Struan’s com­munity organ­isa­tions, but broadly involves col­lect­ively: • • • • • • • • Set­ting up a Team Blair Atholl (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 Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 15 of 21

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 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 Blair Atholl 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 vil­lage approach not just one or two organ­isa­tions. This approach has been called Team Blair Atholl in this report, but of course the com­munity will decide on its own name for these purposes.

Team Blair Atholl 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 6 organ­isa­tions who ini­tially steered the action plan­ning pro­cess, togeth­er with any oth­er com­munity organ­isa­tions who wish to be involved.

Ongo­ing com­munity engage­ment A pro­cess for secur­ing com­munity man­dates for pro­jects at key mile­stones is advis­able, so that pro­jects can enjoy broad com­munity sup­port, fol­low best prac­tice in terms of co-design and allow for those who will be most impacted by a project’s deliv­er­ables to be involved in the activity.

Volun­teer lists A list of people who have come for­ward to volun­teer in gen­er­al or for spe­cif­ic pro­jects, has been com­piled from a ques­tion in the sur­vey and also inform­a­tion giv­en by res­id­ents at the Big Con­ver­sa­tion event. The Blair Atholl & Stru­an CAP Volun­teer list is a vital part of deliv­er­ing on the action plan­ning pro­cess and those on the list need to be kept informed of how things are being pro­gressed and what part they might be able to play in that.

Levels of Sup­port The sur­veys have giv­en the key com­munity organ­isa­tions in Blair Atholl & Stru­an, a lot of detailed inform­a­tion com­ing from a wide sec­tor of the com­munity, regard­ing their thoughts on issues and ideas for pro­jects that they would like to see taken for­ward on their behalf.

The pri­or­it­ies fall into two main groups and will require to be tackled in a dif­fer­ent way: Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 16 of 21

• • pro­jects which, although some are mid to longer term, are pos­sible for the com­munity to take for­ward them­selves, with some min­im­al sup­port from the rel­ev­ant key agen­cies or sup­port organ­isa­tions. large, com­plex issues around employ­ment, hous­ing, trans­port, busi­ness sup­port and infra­struc­ture, where the com­munity will require a great deal of long term assist­ance from vari­ous pub­lic, third and some­times private sec­tor organ­isa­tions in order to take these for­ward and make a not­able dif­fer­ence. Mon­it­or­ing, Audit­ing and Eval­u­ation of the Com­munity Action Plan Mon­it­or­ing, audit­ing and eval­u­ation are essen­tial require­ments of any Com­munity Action Plan to ensure it is being imple­men­ted. Team Blair Atholl will meet reg­u­larly to review pro­gress on the plan. Keep­ing records against each theme and pro­ject will be a use­ful tool to ensure pro­gress is being main­tained. These meet­ings will be open and access­ible to all groups and indi­vidu­als. Eval­u­ation provides an oppor­tun­ity to reflect and learn from activ­it­ies, assess the out­comes and effect­ive­ness of a pro­ject and think about new ways of doing things.

1. Thanks & Acknow­ledge­ments Thanks for all their involve­ment and hard work in help­ing to make the pro­cess a suc­cess must go to:  Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Coun­cil Blair Atholl & Stru­an Initiative  Blair Atholl Vil­lage Hall Blair Atholl Primary School Blair Atholl Coun­try Life Museum Atholl Estates Loc­al Busi­nesses All the deliv­ery volun­teers who put sur­veys through every household’s door Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strath­spey (VABS), as an inde­pend­ent com­munity and volun­teer­ing devel­op­ment char­ity, sup­por­ted the Blair Atholl & Stru­an com­munity through this com­munity action plan­ning pro­cess and facil­it­ated the steer­ing group meet­ings, but always fol­low­ing the community’s lead in how they wished to proceed.

Com­munity Action Plan­ning (CAP) is car­ried out with all of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park com­munit­ies on a reg­u­lar basis at the community’s request. Fund­ing to VABS to facil­it­ate the com­munit­ies’ CAP pro­cess is provided by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 17 of 21

1. Appen­dices Appendix i What do you like about liv­ing in Blair Atholl & Stru­an? • • • • • • • • • Safe & peace­ful place with strong sense of com­munity, pleas­ant for all ages Friend­li­ness of people, great neigh­bours, close to fam­ily Peace­ful rur­al liv­ing, access to beau­ti­ful scenery, stun­ning coun­tryside, land­scape & beau­ti­ful views Well con­nec­ted to rest of the coun­try: North & South via A9, bus & rail links The close access to outdoors/​nature and nat­ive mix­ture of trees / forests, espe­cially along river Tilt Excep­tion­ally good facil­it­ies eg fuel pumps, res­taur­ants, small loc­al shops and House of Bru­ar Easy park­ing & beau­ti­ful walks avail­able Slow pace of life, quiet Sur­roun­ded by his­tor­ic attrac­tions (Blair Castle & Water Mill) and lovely his­tor­ic archi­tec­ture • Beau­ti­ful place to live • • • • • Good things for tour­ists to do and great scope for increased tour­ism School is great & chil­dren can walk to primary school, lots of out­door learn­ing MPs and MSPs make them­selves vis­ible and avail­able Super­fast broad­band is very pos­it­ive for the area (indi­vidu­als, fam­il­ies and busi­nesses) Land man­age­ment and con­ser­va­tion work of Atholl Estates and oth­ers in area has cre­ated a work­ing coun­tryside, which is also pleas­ant for leis­ure • Free from pol­lu­tion • Good response of emer­gency ser­vices to incid­ents on A9 • Award win­ning gar­age and ser­vice sta­tion • Hol­i­day park facil­it­ies open to gen­er­al pub­lic • • • It’s been home most of my life Pro­vi­sion of com­munity rangers dur­ing & post Cov­id pan­dem­ic has been pos­it­ive for vis­it­ors to under­stand how to respect and enjoy the area The micro­brew­ery Appendix ii What changes would you like to see for the com­munity by 2030? ECO­NOM­IC • • • • • Restore closed and deteri­or­at­ing build­ings: Stru­an primary, Calv­ine pet­rol sta­tion, BA doctor’s sur­gery (use for accom­mod­a­tion or oth­er com­munity bene­fit?) Con­tin­ue lob­by­ing Scot­tish Exec­ut­ive to com­plete dualling the A9 Round House to be com­pleted and refur­bish­ment of Tilt Hotel (or use for hous­ing) Explore pos­sib­il­it­ies for increased child­care pro­vi­sion in the area for pre-nurs­ery ages Keep sup­port­ing the range of shop­ping options in Blair Atholl & Bridge of Tilt Blair Atholl & Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 1