Boat of Garten Community Action Plan 2025

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Boat of Garten Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030

Com­piled spring 2025

Sup­por­ted by

Boat of Garten & Vicin­ity Com­munity Council

Boat of Garten Com­munity Hall

Deshar Primary School Par­ent Council

Boat of Garten Com­munity Company

VABS Facil­it­ated by Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strathspey

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Con­tents

1. Sum­mary 3

2. The Com­munity 4

3. The Pro­cess 7

4. Com­munity Engage­ment 10

5. Sur­vey Responses 10

6. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants 11

7. Spa­tial Pri­or­it­ies 17

8. Next Steps 20

9. Thanks 22

10. Appen­dices 23 i. What do you like about liv­ing in Boat of Garten ii. What changes would you like to see for Boat of Garten? iii. What new/​existing pro­jects would you like to see hap­pen­ing in the community?

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1. Sum­mary In spring 2025, Boat of Garten & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil togeth­er with Boat of Garten Com­munity Hall, Deshar Primary Par­ent Coun­cil and Boat of Garten Com­munity Com­pany, decided that they wished to carry out a review of the com­munity action plan for the vil­lage, which had been pre­vi­ously under­taken in 2018. 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 sug­ges­tions by the res­id­ents of Boat of Garten dur­ing the pro­cess in early 2025.

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 Boat of Garten 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 Boat with com­munity pro­jects and action plan­ning include: • Estab­lish­ing a new Nurs­ery • Build­ing the Pump Track • Cre­at­ing the All-Abil­it­ies Path • Hub at the rail­way sta­tion • Pro­du­cing the Ark of Cale­don • Set­ting up the Repair Café • Pro­vi­sion of vil­lage benches • Build of Hall Per­gola to cre­ate out­door space • Hall & PC col­lab­or­a­tion to run Sum­mer Fun Day • Intro­duc­tion of Hall Asso­ci­ate Membership

To help add to these achieve­ments, res­id­ents were encour­aged to take part in the com­munity action plan review in 2025. How­ever, this time round people were invited to think not only about Boat of Garten Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 3 of 27

what might be achieved togeth­er, but that the pro­jects the vil­lage was being asked to con­sider, would be ones that would help Boat devel­op a more sus­tain­able future. This is set against a back­drop of life post-lock­downs, the chal­lenge of find­ing new volun­teers, plus the chan­ging eco­nom­ic and cli­mate situ­ation we find ourselves in.

The Boat of Garten 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 Boat of Garten is a charm­ing vil­lage loc­ated in the Scot­tish High­lands, situ­ated at the heart of Badenoch and Strath­spey, with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The name Boat of Garten or Coit a’ Ghar­tain in Scot­tish Gael­ic means ​‘ferry from the cul­tiv­ated place’ refer­ring to the nearby site of the old ferry over the River Spey. Often referred to as simply ​“Boat,” it is known for its pic­tur­esque set­ting on the River Spey close to the Cairngorm Mountains.

Bey­ond the vil­lage of Boat of Garten, the wider com­munity area extends from Kin­veachy Estate in the west to the edge of the Cale­do­ni­an pine­woods of RSPB Aber­nethy in the east. The com­munity area is bisec­ted by the icon­ic River Spey. The largest landown­er in this com­munity area is Seafield & Strath­spey Estates who own the major­ity of the land sur­round­ing the village.

The com­munity area of Boat of Garten, covered by Boat of Garten Com­munity Coun­cil, also cov­ers Dru­muil­lie, Deshar, Kin­veachy and Street of Kin­cardine, which togeth­er con­sti­tute a com­munity of approx­im­ately 700 people. Demo­graph­ic stat­ist­ics show that Boat of Garten’s pop­u­la­tion is com­prised of 13% 0 – 20-year-olds, 53% 20 – 64-years olds, 34% over 64-years old, mean­ing Boat of Garten has a some­what older pop­u­la­tion than oth­er set­tle­ments in Badenoch and Strath­spey includ­ing Aviemore, Grant­own on Spey, and Kingussie.

Boat of Garten began as a small clachan or farm­ing com­munity, but grew with the devel­op­ment of the Perth and Inverness Rail­way Com­pany in 1863 and sub­sequent sta­tion cre­ation in Boat of Garten. With its impress­ive con­nectiv­ity to Aber­deen, Perth, Inverness and bey­ond, Boat of Garten became a pop­u­lar tour­ist des­tin­a­tion in the late 19^th cen­tury, par­tic­u­larly with pro­fes­sion­al classes from the south. Today, the rail­way sta­tion still serves as a remind­er of the area’s his­tory, as it is the ter­minus of the her­it­age rail­way route oper­ated by the Strath­spey Rail­way. Tour­ism still makes up an import­ant part of the loc­al eco­nomy with the Boat Hotel and oth­er hos­pit­al­ity, accom­mod­a­tion, and out­door activ­ity pro­viders run­ning busi­nesses in the area.

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Boat of Garten has deep con­nec­tions to nature; it sits on the bank of the River Spey and is sur­roun­ded by moun­tains, forests and farm­land. Some of the land in the wider com­munity area is recog­nised as a being of nation­al and inter­na­tion­al con­ser­va­tion import­ance, with mul­tiple des­ig­na­tions present (Nation­al Nature Reserve Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest, Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Area etc.) Boat of Garten is known as the ​‘Osprey Vil­lage’ and with a sum­mer pop­u­la­tion of ospreys breed­ing and hunt­ing in the wider area, includ­ing at the nearby RSPB Loch Garten Nature Reserve. Not­ably, it was here that this impress­ive bird of prey first rein­tro­duced itself in the 1950s after becom­ing extinct as a breed­ing bird in the UK more than a hun­dred years ago. Oth­er not­able spe­cies present in the area include Twin­flower, Caper­cail­lie, Cres­ted Tits, and a host of oth­er pine­wood spe­cial­ist spe­cies, as well as a her­onry at Milton Loch.

As a res­ult of its stun­ning nat­ur­al assets and prox­im­ity to the Cairngorm moun­tains, Boat of Garten is a pop­u­lar spot for out­door enthu­si­asts. Loc­als and vis­it­ors enjoy a wide range of activ­it­ies, includ­ing hik­ing, cyc­ling, canoe­ing, golf, fish­ing, and bird­watch­ing. The Spey­side Way and Route 7 cycle route pass through the vil­lage, provid­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for long- dis­tance and loc­al use. The recent com­munity-led pro­ject to cre­ate the impress­ive ​‘Wood­land Wheels’ pump track has added a fur­ther act­ive asset to vil­lage, which is well-used by loc­als and vis­it­ors alike.

Boat of Garten is defined by its warm, caring, and act­ive com­munity. With a remark­able com­munity hall, primary school, church, post office and shop, hotel, res­taur­ant, gal­lery and café, the vil­lage main­tains a lively and com­munity-focused feel. Events at the Hall reg­u­larly attract vis­it­ors from across Badenoch and Strath­spey and bey­ond, mak­ing Boat of Garten a social hub for the wider area.

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: Boat of Garten & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil, Boat of Garten Com­munity Hall, Boat of Garten Com­munity Com­pany, Deshar Primary School Par­ent Coun­cil and Boat of Garten Church.

Com­munity-Owned/Leased Assets Com­munity Hall, play­ing field and play park Milton Loch Com­munity Garden Sta­tion Square Hub Ark of Cale­don Pump track

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Loc­al Busi­nesses Loc­al busi­nesses oper­ate across vari­ous sec­tors in the vil­lage eg the Shop & Post Office, Golf and Ten­nis Club, Ander­sons Res­taur­ant and Pizza takeaway, 1896 Gal­lery, Ride Scot­land, Osprey Café, Boat Hotel, Boat of Garten steam rail­way sta­tion, plus a cara­van and camp­site and B&B accom­mod­a­tion businesses.

Boat of Garten Com­munity Coun­cil Area Map The com­munity area of Boat of Garten, covered by Boat of Garten Com­munity Coun­cil, includes Dru­muil­lie, Deshar, Kin­veachy and Street of Kin­cardine. The map below shows this geo­graph­ic area, marked with a bold, black outline.

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1. The Pro­cess The Boat com­munity con­sulta­tion peri­od ran from Janu­ary to March 2025 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: 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 Boat 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?

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There is more detail on how this can be achieved in Sec­tion 8. Next Steps. Gath­er­ing Inform­a­tion There was 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 Boat of Garten 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.

The paper ver­sion covered just two sides of A4 and the sur­vey asked 3 ques­tions: 1) What do you like about liv­ing in Boat of Garten?

2) What changes would you like to see for Boat of Garten 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? Plus any pro­jects, clubs or organ­isa­tions that you wouldn’t want to lose?

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 700 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

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spe­cif­ic groups in the com­munity. 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 5 main themes: Social, Envir­on­ment­al, Eco­nom­ic, Young People and Cul­tur­al and the num­ber of times a par­tic­u­lar issue or idea was men­tioned was noted, so sug­ges­tions 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.

Involving People & Refin­ing Ideas The pro­cess cul­min­ated in the Boat of Garten Big Con­ver­sa­tion, which took place on a Fri­day and Sat­urday in March 2025 at Boat of Garten Com­munity Hall. At this drop-in event, the res­ults were offered back to the com­munity and time giv­en for reflec­tion and dis­cus­sion around the top­ics. 87 loc­al res­id­ents atten­ded the event and provided valu­able insight discussion.

Dur­ing the event, all of the res­id­ents who atten­ded were asked to con­sider the top sug­ges­tions that had been iden­ti­fied from the pro­cess under the head­ings of:

• A Socially Con­nec­ted Community
• A Cli­mate Con­scious Community
• An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing Community
• Sup­port­ing Our Young People
• 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 Boat of Garten Big Con­ver­sa­tion event were col­lec­ted and incor­por­ated into this report, which now belongs to the Boat 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 Boat for the pur­poses of this report).

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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 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 res­id­ents in Boat of Garten who con­trib­uted so mean­ing­fully and thought­fully to the com­munity sur­vey. 206 responses were received, rep­res­ent­ing at least 29% of the community’s pop­u­la­tion and includes responses from school age res­id­ents. Also, thanks go to the people who atten­ded the Big Con­ver­sa­tion drop-in event at the Com­munity Hall 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 Boat of Garten? Appendix ii What changes would you like to see for Boat of Garten by 2030? Appendix iii What new/​existing pro­jects would you like to see hap­pen­ing in the community?

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1. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants Pro­ject Themes and Sug­ges­tions The CAP sets out the community’s vis­ion for the longer term (up to 10 years) with detailed sug­ges­tions and pos­sible actions shown in the rel­ev­ant tables and text below. These have been cat­egor­ised across 5 spe­cified themes:
   • A Socially Con­nec­ted Community
   • A Cli­mate Con­scious Community
   • An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing Community
   • Sup­port­ing Our Young People
   • A Cul­tur­ally Vibrant Community

These themes, adap­ted from Place Plan­ning guidelines, have been used in this Com­munity Action Plan to cat­egor­ise the community’s sug­ges­tions. These themes demon­strate the breadth and strength of com­munity ambi­tion, and provide a tool to struc­ture the community’s vis­ion, group­ing related pro­jects togeth­er across key aren­as of com­munity life: the social, envir­on­ment­al, eco­nom­ic, young people and cultural.

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 5 themes were taken and put into sep­ar­ate group­ings, show­ing what the sug­ges­tions are for each theme. With­in each sug­ges­tion, 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 sug­ges­tion were sought from those who atten­ded the drop-in events and sug­ges­ted actions, togeth­er with any addi­tion­al inform­a­tion are out­lined below each section.

At the drop-in event, fur­ther oppor­tun­ity was giv­en for res­id­ents to sig­nal their pri­or­it­ies from the lists shown in the Appen­dices. These pri­or­it­ies are shown in bold to indic­ate how the pub­lic voted at the event.

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BOAT OF GARTEN: A SOCIALLY CON­NEC­TED COM­MUNITY Top Sug­ges­tions: More afford­able (rent­al) hous­ing for loc­al people and businesses • Invest­ig­ate options for mak­ing more hous­ing available

Bet­ter pub­lic transport • Liaise to devel­op a timetable that sup­ports more people to use the bus for work and social purposes

Speeding/​Parking issues • Traffic calm­ing solu­tion on main road • Move speed sign to start of vil­lage where new houses are • Stop park­ing on junc­tions and corners eg Church Drive • Improve park­ing options by shop, pump track, takeaway

Help the Eld­erly network Explore options handyper­son scheme garden tidy­ing IT issues get­ting to health appointments

SUG­GES­TION: More afford­able hous­ing for loc­al people and busi­nesses Invest­ig­ate options for mak­ing more hous­ing avail­able • Request a Hous­ing Needs Ana­lys­is for those who want to con­tin­ue liv­ing in or return to the vil­lage, and for loc­al busi­nesses that need work­er accom­mod­a­tion • Explore pos­sible plots and zoned areas for hous­ing in the vil­lage – work with CNPA and loc­al estates • Ensure any new hous­ing is afford­able and energy effi­cient • Look into need for sheltered hous­ing in village

SUG­GES­TION: Bet­ter pub­lic trans­port Liaise to devel­op a timetable that sup­ports more people to use the bus for work and social pur­poses • Sur­vey need among Boat & Vicin­ity res­id­ents for trans­port tim­ings and routes for work, social and leis­ure pur­poses • More use of small minibus trans­port (ref Moray) doing loop along the strath • Coordin­a­tion of ser­vices with train arrivals/​departures and inter­city buses • Capa­city to take bikes on buses • More shel­ters at vil­lage bus stops – hard in winter with no cov­er • Car share scheme for trips to Inverness and oth­er places • Reas­on­able fares for loc­als to use steam rail­way as a pub­lic trans­port option

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SUG­GES­TION: Speed­ing / Park­ing issues • Church Drive: look into why people are park­ing there; pre­vent park­ing on junc­tions; double yel­lows on junc­tion with Birch Grove; explore options to park in church car park • Zebra cross­ing at the Green/​Grampian Cres­cent for safety when cross­ing main road (safe route to school) • Encour­age res­id­ents to park in their drive­ways and not on the road • Dis­abled bay x 2 only out­side PO – people can park safely a little fur­ther up the road • Slow down vehicles with addi­tion­al traffic calm­ing meas­ures (com­mer­cial vehicles, tract­ors, lor­ries espe­cially) • White line on stretch from Ander­sons to bus stop to stop park­ing which makes exit from drive­ways dan­ger­ous. Encour­age pump track users to park at hall What has happened to Act­ive Travel pro­ject? All above have been con­sul­ted on and actions agreed.

SUG­GES­TION: Help the Eld­erly net­work • Explore options for: handyper­son scheme garden tidy­ing IT issues get­ting to health appoint­ments (encour­age sign up to Com­munity Con­nXions) intergen­er­a­tion­al events to help each oth­er cre­ate a list of what is avail­able and com­mu­nic­ate it to those who need it

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BOAT OF GARTEN: A CLI­MATE CON­SCIOUS COM­MUNITY Top Sug­ges­tions: Con­tin­ued improve­ments to Act­ive Travel links • Cycle/​foot path from Dru­mul­lie to Boat • Com­plete path to Spey­side Way bey­ond the bridge Gen­er­ally more cycle friendly routes to reduce fric­tion with road traffic • Bike route to Car­rbridge • Exten­sion to all-abil­it­ies path • Path across the moor from Craigie Aven­ue to Milton loch • Bet­ter links around Milton loch to old mill to cre­ate orbit­al path around Boat • Scheme to reduce num­ber of cars doing school run every day • Abil­ity to take bikes on buses

Improve our village’s biodiversity • More biod­i­verse hab­it­at on Grampi­an Cres­cent (grassed area) — run by volun­teers • Inform­a­tion event/​s (walks and talks) — how to enhance Boat’s envir­on­ment (nature net­work) • Work with High­land Coun­cil to change verge cut­ting regimes • Cre­ate wild hedgerows

Com­munity food growing • Allot­ments / grow­ing spaces • Com­munity orchard

SUG­GES­TION: Con­tin­ue improve­ments to Act­ive Travel links Improve cycle path­ways and facil­it­ies In addi­tion to spe­cif­ic sug­ges­tions lis­ted in table above: • Foot­path all the way to Loch Garten junc­tion from Bridge over Spey to avoid walk­ing on road • Com­munity E‑bike scheme • Bike bus to school • Adult cycle con­fid­ence classes

SUG­GES­TION: Improve our village’s biod­iversity • More biod­i­verse hab­it­at on Grampi­an Cres­cent (grassed area) – run by volun­teers • Com­munity group to help tidy flower beds as High­land Coun­cil doing less of this • Inform­a­tion event/​s (walks / talks) — how to enhance Boat’s envir­on­ment (nature net­work) eg No Mow May (but NOT at Cres­cent) • Work with High­land Coun­cil to change verge cut­ting regimes • Cre­ate wild hedgerows • Shrubs/​flowers around bird hide walk to attract wild­life • Tidy benches at Milton Loch – make safer to access them • Peri­od­ic­ally put goats on ground by Milton Loch to improve regen­er­at­ive grazing

SUG­GES­TION: Com­munity Food Grow­ing • Explore site options (not on the Cres­cent) • Fruit trees on Grampi­an Cres­cent but not grow­ing spaces • Com­munity food grow­ing pro­ject under­way – sup­port this

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BOAT OF GARTEN: AN ECO­NOM­IC­ALLY THRIV­ING COM­MUNITY Top Sug­ges­tions: Small units for businesses • Could be a use for saw­mill site

Small indus­tri­al units or lock ups for loc­al busi­nesses need­ing extra storage • Could be a use for saw­mill site

Wrap­around child­care for work­ing parents

Camper­van area for vis­it­ors with waste and water facilities • Identi­fy best loc­a­tion for this poten­tial project

SUG­GES­TION: Small units for busi­nesses; indus­tri­al units or lock ups • Invest­ig­ate space at the sta­tion, saw­mill, stead­ing at Milton Farm for some • Need to ensure that they are afford­able for loc­al busi­nesses • Use of ship­ping con­tain­ers? • Pos­sible Tool Share facil­ity sited some­where • Saw­mill access with main road needs to be improved if more traffic using that site eg roundabout

SUG­GES­TION: Loc­al Child­care • Pro­vi­sion might need to be through a loc­al com­munity pro­ject or seek sup­port from CALA eg Break­fast Club 8 – 9am, after school 14.55 to 17.00 • Play scheme for school hol­i­days espe­cially summer

SUG­GES­TION: Ser­viced camper­van site • Explore site just out of vil­lage eg saw­mill or near station/​golf club • Simple facil­it­ies with hon­esty charging

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BOAT OF GARTEN: SUP­PORT­ING OUR YOUNG PEOPLE Top Sug­ges­tions: • Youth club • Improve­ments / exten­sion to the play park: Zip wire, maze, obstacle course, bas­ket­ball hoop • Hangout place options for late afternoon/​early evening • Bus stop and shel­ter at Deshar Primary School

SUG­GES­TIONS: Youth Club • Needs par­ent volun­teers mostly to run it • Ask the kids what they would like to do in it

Play Park improve­ments • Con­sider as lar­ger pro­ject with improve­ments to foot­ball field • Doesn’t need to be com­plic­ated: Deshar Primary School came up with some simple ideas • Wood­land play­park with hut for groups to use • Bas­ket­ball hoop(s) for older kids • Open hall toi­lets for access by play­park users

Hangout place • Osprey Café? • Com­munity BBQ area • Youth café at hall • Hangout for all ages at same time • Shed/​container at pump track

Addi­tion­al com­ments: • New toi­lets at Deshar Primary School PLEASE!!! • Improve safety at Chapelton/​school junction

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BOAT OF GARTEN: A CUL­TUR­ALLY VIBRANT COM­MUNITY Top Sug­ges­tions: • Renew signs com­ing into village • Rein­state Bon­fire Night • Art piece on main green

SUG­GES­TIONS: Renew signs com­ing into vil­lage • Refur­bish or renew entry signs and dig out/​replant plant­er area. Move one that is hid­den (RH side) near­er to the road. • School/​community com­pet­i­tion to design new signs? Need some­thing more cur­rent • Get rid of dam­aged brown sign on A95 • Cut Broom back from entry signs

Rein­state Bon­fire Night • Use drones instead of tra­di­tion­al fire, as embers are fire haz­ard to hous­ing and moor • Would need to find volun­teers to take on

Art Piece on the Green • Con­sider liv­ing Christ­mas tree • Art piece with seat­ing around so people can social­ise there • Out­side pic­nic area • Nat­ur­al play equip­ment area with benches

1. Spa­tial Pri­or­it­ies The maps below illus­trate the spa­tial pro­pos­als to help real­ise Boat’s com­munity vis­ion and Com­munity Action Plan. They dis­play com­ments which were provided by Boat of Garten res­id­ents and busi­nesses dur­ing the two-day Big Con­ver­sa­tion drop-in event. They refer to the sug­ges­tions 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).

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The maps show the community’s ideas and sug­ges­tions for the future devel­op­ment of the Boat of Garten area, as well as help­ing the com­munity to devel­op and deliv­er its own projects.

The pur­poses of the maps are to: • Com­ple­ment the CAP by show­ing how the Boat com­munity could look in the future once the vis­ion and CAP have been imple­men­ted. • Help Boat of Garten, High­land Coun­cil & Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity con­sider the impact of plan­ning applic­a­tions on the com­munity. • Inform Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s review of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. • Influ­ence invest­ment from pub­lic bod­ies, fun­ders, landown­ers and busi­nesses, in ways that sup­port the community.

Spa­tial Pri­or­ity Map for Boat of Garten This map shows the community’s ideas and sug­ges­tions for the future devel­op­ment of the Boat of Garten area, across the broad range of social, envir­on­ment­al and eco­nom­ic themes.

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Act­ive Travel Map Spa­tial Pri­or­ity Map for Boat of Garten This map shows the community’s ideas and sug­ges­tions for the future devel­op­ment of the Boat of Garten area in regards to Act­ive Travel specifically.

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1. Next Steps: Deliv­ery Steps to deliv­er the Boat of Garten 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 Boat’s com­munity organ­isa­tions, but broadly involves col­lect­ively: • Set­ting up a Team Boat (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 sug­ges­tions 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 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 Boat 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 Boat in this report, but of course the com­munity will decide on its own name for these purposes.

Team Boat 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

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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.

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 Boat of Garten 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 Boat of Garten 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 sug­ges­tions fall into two main groups and will require to be tackled in a dif­fer­ent way: • 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 Boat 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.

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1. Thanks & Acknow­ledge­ments Thanks for all their involve­ment and hard work in help­ing to make the pro­cess a suc­cess must go to:
   • Boat of Garten & Vicin­ity Com­munity Council
   • Boat of Garten Com­munity Hall
   • Deshar Primary School Par­ent Council
   • Boat of Garten Com­munity Company
   • Boat of Garten Church
   • 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 Boat 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 in part­ner­ship by 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.

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1. Appen­dices Appendix i What