Skip to content
Please be aware the content below has been generated by an AI model from a source PDF.

Cairngorms Economic Steering Group meeting notes - June 2026

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 3

Cairngorms Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group Hybrid meet­ing via Teams and in-per­son, at Grant­own-on- Spey, on 25 June 2026 at 3pm

Present: Jack­ie Brier­ton Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (chair) Gav­in Miles Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Eilidh Todd Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Kelly Wilt­shire Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Ian Robertson Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land Nadia Fyvie-Feld­mann Fed­er­a­tion of Small Busi­nesses Gareth Rud­dock Grow­Biz Susan Con­sid­ine The High­land Coun­cil Alice Fogg Vol­un­tary Action Badenoch & Strathspey

Apo­lo­gies: Paul Macari Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Craig Mills Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship Kirsti Conti Moray Coun­cil Julia Latto Scot­tish Enter­prise Michelle Har­die The High­land Council

Wel­come and apologies Jack­ie Brier­ton wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing, gave apo­lo­gies, and all mem­bers in attend­ance intro­duced them­selves to the group.

Note of last meet­ing and mat­ters arising The note of the last meet­ing was agreed and there were no mat­ters arising.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2027 – 2032

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 2 of 3

Gav­in Miles out­lined the pro­cess for the devel­op­ment of the next Part­ner­ship Plan for 2027 – 2032 and talked the group through rel­ev­ant sec­tions of the draft plan which at this stage was con­fid­en­tial. Although the cur­rent plan ends in 2027 the long-term vis­ions set out in the cur­rent plan will con­tin­ue. The inten­tion is for the new plan to be action ori­ent­ated and is set out around 3 missions.

  1. Nature and cli­mate resilience
  2. Com­munit­ies
  3. Park for all The new plan is cur­rently in very draft format and will be shared with part­ners at high level meet­ings over the next few months pri­or to the form­al con­sulta­tion peri­od Octo­ber 2026 to begin­ning of Janu­ary 2027. It is import­ant that opin­ions are gathered on the con­tent of the plan, agree a way of mon­it­or­ing the plan and agree­ing how we focus and deliv­er work on what we want to hap­pen. To help pin this down a joint meet­ing between the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group (ESG) and the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Part­ner­ship will be arranged for some time dur­ing the con­sulta­tion peri­od. Mem­bers also sug­ges­ted that it would be good for the ESG to have a half-day ses­sion every year to focus on big picture/​visionary land­scape. Mem­bers were broadly in agree­ment with the over­all dir­ec­tion of the draft plan and made the fol­low­ing comments:
    • Would be sup­port­ive of demo­crat­ic busi­ness models.
    • Would wel­come more capa­city build­ing around com­munity wealth build­ing for busi­nesses and communities.

Part­ner Updates

  • Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scotland
    • Have launched Rur­al Employ­ab­il­ity Scheme (2‑year struc­tured pro­gramme designed to help upper-sec­ond­ary pupils and school leav­ers trans­ition from school and pre­pare for the world of work in their chosen rur­al related indus­tries) and aim to start deliv­ery when schools return in August. Hope to achieve 20 case stud­ies per region over the next 2 years.
    • Youth Advis­ory Group has been established.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 3

  • Vol­un­tary Action Badenoch and Strathspey

    • Con­tin­ue to sup­port groups around income gen­er­a­tion and sustainability.
    • Fol­low­ing up with com­munity action plan­ning work.
    • Build­ing com­munity wealth build­ing into work streams.
    • Large num­ber of CICs in the Nation­al Park and work under­way to see if those with sim­il­ar remits have the poten­tial to work in partnership.

  • Aber­deen­shire Council

    • Work con­tin­ues around Region­al Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ships and Invest­ment Zones.
    • Vis­it­or levy pro­pos­al is being progressed.
    • Devel­op­ing a Good Food Nation Plan.
    • Busi­ness Gate­way is happy to sup­port Nation­al Park busi­nesses in Aber­deen­shire and is look­ing to be more vis­ible with events in the Nation­al Park.

  • Grow­Biz Scotland

    • Grow­Biz has sup­por­ted more than 500 busi­nesses across the Nation­al Park. They are grow­ing the ment­or­ing pro­gram in the Nation­al Park.
    • Grow­Biz has moved to a single CEO mod­el with Gareth as cur­rent CEO and Kar­en Mar­tin and Jane Mason as Deputy CEOs.

  • Fed­er­a­tion of Small Businesses

    • Are run­ning more events and enga­ging more people in the area.
    • Con­tinu­ing Pro­fes­sion­als in the Park with the next event tak­ing place in Septem­ber. The over­arch­ing theme is resi­li­ence — what does a busi­ness land­scape look like?

  • Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

    • Fire bylaw mes­saging is prom­in­ent on Park Author­ity social media feeds.
    • Cairngorms 2030 Com­munit­ies Fund is planned to go live in August.

Next meet­ing Thursday 24th of Septem­ber at 10am, hybrid meet­ing on Teams or in-per­son at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grantown-on-Spey.