Cairngorms Local Outdoor Access Forum meeting notes

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Loc­al Out­door Access Forum

Held online on 21 Feb 2024

Present: Adam Streeter-Smith (AQSS) Park Author­ity Ben Dol­phin (BD) LOAF Colin Simpson (CS) Park Author­ity Douglas Stew­art (DS) Park Author­ity Grant Moir (GM) Park Author­ity Hil­ary Quick (HQ) LOAF Mark John­ston (MJ) LOAF Sara Den­ner (notes) Park Author­ity Tre­vor Thorn­ley (TT) LOAF Vicky Hilton (VH) Park Authority

Apo­lo­gies: Pete Wright

Wel­come and Minutes of last meet­ing on 13^th Septem­ber 2023 Dis­cussed Action

• CS- wel­comed group in absence of JG (con­nec­tion issues)
• JG- Minutes of the last meet­ing approved. Both actions discharged.
• CS- Act­ive Cairngorm Action Plan has gone to Board and been approved.

Paper 1 Fire Man­age­ment Con­sulta­tion Dis­cussed Action

• GM- Provided back­ground on increas­ing vis­it­or num­bers to Park with increase in recre­ation­al fires and num­ber of fires extin­guished and pres­sures on SFRS staff to attend mul­tiple incid­ents over large geo­graph­ic­al areas. Aim for draft of Integ­rated Fire Man­age­ment Plan to be com­pleted in the Spring and final­ised in time for the Fire Man­age­ment Con­fer­ence in Novem­ber in Aber­deen. Over­all, there are cur­rently 3 options in the con­sulta­tion; firstly to increase edu­ca­tion and com­mu­nic­a­tion, secondly to intro­duce bylaws for no fires dur­ing high fire risk peri­ods, and thirdly a

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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• bylaw stip­u­lat­ing no fires at all. Lots of excep­tions to these, land man­agers have options. Cla­ri­fied that at present CNPA do not have a pref­er­ence and are keen to hear opin­ions and feedback.
• CS- Checked that group under­stood and asked for feedback.
• Group dis­cussed vari­ous options and con­cerns and broadly the group were of the opin­ion that a bylaw dur­ing high fire risk was the pre­ferred option at this stage.
• Exper­i­ence in the LOAF high­lighted that there is chal­lenge around when peri­ods of ​“high fire risk” end and how to com­mu­nic­ate that.

Paper 2 LOAF review and refresh

• AQSS- Opened dis­cus­sion with group on how to encour­age new mem­bers, and areas where LOAF may not be needed to be involved. Feed­back was that group can be daunt­ing to join and mis­con­cep­tion that a good all round know­ledge was required in order to be a mem­ber. Sug­ges­tions included invit­ing new people from vary­ing back­grounds, induc­tion peri­ods and meet­ing in social capa­city out with meet­ings once a year.

Paper 3 Casework

• DS- Described the key changes in report­ing and approach to report­ing of case­work. Taken broad range of issues and quer­ies and sep­ar­ated them out under Sec­tions 13 and 14. Graph on page 5 gives sum­mary of where we are now com­pared to pre­vi­ously. High­lighted two sig­ni­fic­ant cases.

Paper 4 Update Dis­cussed Action

• AQSS- Provided group with update on works in pro­gress on Spey­side way and in Aviemore. GIS tech­ni­cian has cap­tured data on core paths across the Park, will be invited to future meet­ing. Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject has been exten­ded and pilot

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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• devel­op­ing in Boat of Garten for dog walk­ing com­munity. Will update the group with out­come. AQSS
• MJ/AQSS- Dis­cussed con­sid­er­ing cli­mate change when plan­ning upgrades. AQSS will send MJ a report from NatureScot. AQSS
• CS- Advised that addi­tion­al cap­it­al fund­ing for 2024/2025 may be alloc­ated to cli­mate resi­li­ence fund.

AOCB

• AQSS- Advised group that Mur­ray is retir­ing and recruit­ment ongo­ing. Will invite replace­ment to LOAF. AQSS
• CS- Cairngorms 2030 fund­ing has meant that AQSS and VH are now per­man­ent posts.
• JG- Expressed thanks to Mur­ray for help over many years.
• TT- Dis­cussed leav­ing group as has been a mem­ber for 6 years, agreed to phase in changes for remainder of year.

Date of next meet­ing-TBC Meet­ing closed 20:36