Cairngorms Local Outdoor Access Forum meeting - paper 2: membership and election of new convener - 12 November 2025

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access For­um Paper 2 — Mem­ber­ship and elec­tion of a new Con­vener Adam Streeter-Smith 3 Novem­ber 2025

Pur­pose Mem­bers of the Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access For­um are invited to advise on mem­ber­ship of the LOAF and acknow­ledge that the cur­rent Con­vener is step­ping down in Feb­ru­ary 2026 there­after there will be an appoint­ment of a new Convener.

Advice Sought For­um mem­bers are invited to give advice on the fol­low­ing points:

a) LOAF mem­bers are invited to advise on ways to recruit new mem­bers b) LOAF Mem­bers are invited to com­ment and agree on how to appoint a convener.

Back­ground

1. As of the end of 2025 one mem­ber of the LOAF has stood down and two mem­bers includ­ing the con­vener have exceeded their 6‑year terms. Fur­ther­more, the cur­rent Pub­lic Agency rep has secured a new pos­i­tion and will be mov­ing on. Extend­ing mem­bers terms was agreed by the LOAF con­sid­er­ing chal­lenges asso­ci­ated with the pan­dem­ic. In 2024 and 2025 four new mem­bers have joined. Park Author­ity staff are in con­tact with anoth­er pro­spect­ive mem­ber who has yet to con­firm if they wish to be involved.

Recruit­ment

1. Rep­res­ent­a­tion as per the Oper­at­ing Prin­ciples (annex 1) is nom­in­ally split between; Land Man­agers; Com­munity Interests; Recre­ation­al Users; and Pub­lic Agen­cies. Cur­rently rep­res­ent­a­tion is: a. Land Man­agers- three

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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b. Com­munity Interests- three c. Recre­ation­al Users-three d. Pub­lic Agen­cies- One

1. Geo­graph­ic rep­res­ent­a­tion is: e. Badenoch and Strath­spey – five f. Deeside – One g. Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et-one h. Atholl and Angus – One i. Pub­lic agency is deemed to be Park wide

2. Whilst it is recog­nised that mem­bers bring a broad range of exper­i­ence across sec­tors to the LOAF with a fur­ther two mem­bers due to step down rep­res­ent­a­tion will be: a. Land Man­agers- three b. Com­munity Interests- One c. Recre­ation­al Users-three d. Pub­lic Agen­cies- One (NB this will be a replacement)

3. Going for­ward it is advised that great­er rep­res­ent­a­tion is sought from Deeside, High­land Perth­shire and Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et prin­cip­ally rep­res­ent­ing ​“com­munity interests” LOAF mem­bers are invited to advise on sug­ges­ted ways to recruit new members

LOAF Con­vener

1. Firstly the Park Author­ity would like to acknow­ledge and thank John Gri­er­son for his com­mit­ment and exper­i­ence as con­vener of the LOAF.
2. Secondly mem­bers are asked to con­sider how they wish to elect a new con­vener post the Feb­ru­ary 2026 meet­ing. Annex 2 sets out a pro­cess by which a con­vener could be elec­ted. LOAF Mem­bers are invited to com­ment and agree on how to appoint a convener.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Annex 1 CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM OPER­AT­ING PROCEDURES

The Cairngorms Loc­al Access For­um is estab­lished under sec­tion 25 of the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003. It will have a max­im­um of 12 mem­bers and include one CNPA Board mem­ber. The For­um will com­prise mem­bers appoin­ted to it by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. The CNPA and the For­um itself will keep mem­ber­ship of the For­um under review, includ­ing a review of the pub­lic agency involvement.

Name and area of operation

1. The group will be called the CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM (referred to below as the Forum)
2. The Forum’s area of oper­a­tion will include all land and water with­in and includ­ing the bound­ary of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Object­ives and Func­tions The object­ives and func­tions of the For­um shall be:

1. To act as the loc­al access for­um for Cairngorms Nation­al Park and to under­take the func­tions of that body in terms of Sec­tion 25 of the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003; 11​.To advise the Author­ity in the review of the Core Paths Plan;
2. To advise the Author­ity in the review of its Out­door Access Strategy or Plan;
3. To advise the Author­ity and any oth­er per­son or body con­sult­ing it, on the exist­ence and delin­eation of rights of way and the exer­cise of access rights;
4. To pro­mote respons­ible access and land man­age­ment through assist­ing the Author­ity in pub­li­cising the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code;
5. To pro­mote dis­cus­sion and the shar­ing of know­ledge, aware­ness and good prac­tice in out­door access matters;
6. To sup­port the pro­vi­sion of appro­pri­ate infra­struc­ture that improves respons­ible access to the coun­tryside for all; and
7. To offer advice that will assist in the res­ol­u­tion of out­door access disputes.

Struc­ture and Membership

1. The For­um con­sists of such per­sons as are appoin­ted to it by the Park Author­ity and in line with good prac­tice shall include rep­res­ent­a­tion from the fol­low­ing key sec­tors: Land Man­agers; Com­munity Interests; Recre­ation­al Users; and Pub­lic Agencies;

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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1. The For­um shall elect a Con­ven­or to serve a term of three years. Mem­bers can stand as Con­vener for up to, but not exceed­ing six years;
2. For­um mem­bers are appoin­ted for a three-year peri­od. After this dur­a­tion, For­um mem­bers will be invited to extend their mem­ber­ship for one to three years, by self-selec­tion ini­tially, but organ­ised so as to achieve a bal­ance of three-year mem­ber­ships to six-year memberships;
3. No mem­ber shall serve more than six con­tinu­ous years on the For­um but may reapply after stand­ing down for a min­im­um peri­od of one year;
4. If a rep­res­ent­at­ive fails to attend three con­sec­ut­ive meet­ings their mem­ber­ship may be res­cin­ded and the CNPA asked to instig­ate selec­tion of a replacement;
5. Dur­ing the course of a For­um meet­ing mem­bers are required to declare an interest in an item at the point at which the item is raised. This may not exclude them from the discussion;
6. The pub­lic agen­cies are charged with the respons­ib­il­ity for nom­in­at­ing a suit­able officer to attend meet­ings, or del­eg­ate a sub­sti­tute if the main mem­ber is unable to attend.

Pro­ceed­ings of meetings

1. The For­um will hold meet­ings no few­er than three times year- two vir­tu­al and one face to face. Meet­ings may be res­ched­uled but not cancelled;
2. The loc­a­tion of For­um meet­ings will cir­cu­late around the Cairngorms Nation­al Park;
3. A review of the oper­a­tion of the For­um will take place every five years. The review will take the form of an agenda item and discussion.

Admin­is­tra­tion of meet­ings 28.CNPA staff will be respons­ible for the admin­is­trat­ive sup­port, accom­mod­a­tion and facil­it­ies for meet­ings of the Forum;

1. The CNPA may provide sec­ret­ari­at for For­um sub-groups at its own discretion.
2. Meet­ing agen­das shall be reviewed and agreed between the Con­ven­or and the CNPA staff as sec­ret­ari­at. Any mem­ber may have an input to the agenda through the Con­ven­or. A short brief­ing paper shall also be sup­plied to the Con­vener on all papers sub­mit­ted in advance of the meet­ing; 31.All For­um mem­bers shall receive busi­ness papers by both email and by post to be cir­cu­lated no less than 5 work­ing days before the next meeting;
3. Com­ments on papers received pri­or to the meet­ing from mem­bers who are unable to attend, will be cir­cu­lated to the whole Forum;
4. Minutes shall be kept of all For­um meetings;
5. Parties with dir­ect involve­ment in cases being dis­cussed by the For­um will have the right to make short writ­ten sub­mis­sions at the dis­cre­tion of the Convenor.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Sub­mis­sions will have to be sub­mit­ted to the Sec­ret­ari­at for cir­cu­la­tion sev­en work­ing days in advance of the For­um meeting.

Com­mu­nic­a­tion issues

1. The For­um will endeav­our to com­mu­nic­ate with organ­isa­tions and indi­vidu­als that have an interest in out­door access by:
2. Mak­ing minutes and agen­das of meet­ings widely avail­able to the pub­lic through the CNPA web­site. 37.Setting up work­ing groups to address spe­cif­ic top­ic or area based access issues where appro­pri­ate. The sub­groups may con­sist of For­um mem­bers, extern­al inter­ested parties, spe­cial­ist advisers and oth­ers as agreed by the Forum.

Annex 2 1. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh METH­OD FOR ELECT­ING A CON­VENER Page 6 of 7

The For­um shall elect a Con­vener from amongst its mem­ber­ship. The pro­cess of elec­tion will be as fol­lows: α) b) c) d) Mem­bers may pro­pose them­selves as Con­vener, but anoth­er mem­ber must second the nom­in­a­tion for it to be val­id. Can­did­ates togeth­er with the names of their second­er must be noti­fied in writ­ing to the Sec­ret­ari­at two weeks in advance of the For­um meet­ing at which the elec­tion will take place if there is more than one can­did­ate. Mem­bers who are absent from the meet­ing may nom­in­ate them­selves for elec­tion, provided they have indic­ated to the Sec­ret­ari­at in writ­ing their wish to be nom­in­ated and have the appro­pri­ate back­ing. If they wish, their writ­ten state­ment may be cir­cu­lated at the meet­ing in lieu of a verbal state­ment. Mem­bers who are intend­ing to be absent from the elec­tion meet­ing may vote. In this case, names of the can­did­ates; short state­ments from the can­did­ates (if avail­able) and vot­ing slips will be cir­cu­lated to them no less than sev­en days before the elec­tion meet­ing. Vot­ing slips will be returned in sealed envel­opes and these votes revealed and coun­ted at the elec­tion meet­ing once the mem­bers present have scored their list of can­did­ates. e) f) Each can­did­ate will have the oppor­tun­ity to make a short verbal state­ment to the meet­ing (max­im­um 5 minutes). The state­ment may be writ­ten for cir­cu­la­tion to absent mem­bers who are eli­gible to vote by post. Elec­tion will be as fol­lows: • The elec­tion for the Con­vener • All vot­ing will be by secret bal­lot. • • • • Mem­bers will score the can­did­ates in des­cend­ing order of pref­er­ence for example, if there are four can­did­ates their pre­ferred can­did­ate will receive four points; second choice, three points; third choice, two points and last choice, one point. The can­did­ate with the over­all highest num­ber of points in each elec­tion will be the Con­vener. If votes are tied, mem­bers who are present will have one vote for their pre­ferred can­did­ate. Mem­bers vot­ing by post will have their vote ascribed to the tied can­did­ate who scored highest on their vot­ing slip. If the votes are still tied then the decision will be made by cut­ting a pack of play­ing cards, the can­did­ate with the highest card will win. An ace is

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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• con­sidered as a low card. If any of the can­did­ates are absent, anoth­er mem­ber will be assigned to cut the cards for them by proxy. In the event of only one val­id can­did­ate, they will auto­mat­ic­ally be con­firmed as Con­vener. The dur­a­tion of office for the first Con­vener. 2. 3. 4. 5. Notes There­after the dur­a­tion of the office will be 3 years (unless the mem­ber con­cerned ceases to be a Mem­ber of the For­um, or resigns from the pos­i­tion of Con­vener before the end of the peri­od). For cases in which a Con­vener resigns or ceases to be a Mem­ber, the above pro­cess will apply, as the first item of busi­ness, at the next For­um meet­ing fol­low­ing the vacancy arising. The Con­vener will preside over meet­ings and in his or her absence mem­bers will decide who will preside. At the second last For­um meet­ing before the term of office of a cur­rent Con­vener expires, elec­tion of the next Con­vener shall take place.

Para 1b) Agency staff are the only mem­bers of the For­um with sub­sti­tu­tion rights, which is incom­pat­ible with the need for a Con­vener who are con­sist­ent indi­vidu­al mem­bers of the For­um Para 2) This ties in with the length of time of For­um mem­ber­ship for the inaug­ur­al term Para 3) This ties in with length of appoint­ment for future terms of membership