CAR­RBRIDGE

Car­rbridge Com­munity Action Plan:

Look­ing to 2030

Com­piled Spring 2022

Sup­por­ted by Car­rbridge Ahead Car­rbridge & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil Car­rbridge Vil­lage Hall Car­rbridge Primary Par­ent Council

Facil­it­ated by Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strathspey

Car­rbridge Com­munity Action Plan: look­ing to 2030

VABS

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Con­tents

1. Sum­mary 3
2. The Com­munity 3
3. The Pro­cess 4
4. Com­munity Engage­ment 8
5. Sur­vey Responses 8
6. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants 9
7. Next Steps 15
8. Thanks 17
9. Appen­dices 18 i. What do you like about liv­ing in Car­rbridge? ii. If you could improve one thing in Car­rbridge … iii. What would you like to see for Car­rbridge by 2030? (activ­ity, pro­jects, new approaches)

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1. Sum­mary

Early in 2022, Car­rbridge Ahead, togeth­er with Car­rbridge & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil, Car­rbridge Vil­lage Hall and Car­rbridge Primary Par­ent Coun­cil, decided that they wished to carry out a review of the com­munity action plan for the vil­lage, which had been pre­vi­ously under­taken in 2016. 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 as iden­ti­fied by the res­id­ents and busi­nesses in Car­rbridge in spring 2022.

With sup­port from Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch & Strath­spey, the com­munity-led steer­ing group, com­pris­ing rep­res­ent­at­ives from the four 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 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 Car­rbridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030. 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, the Car­rbridge com­munity were asked to con­sider where they and the vil­lage wanted to be by 2030, so gen­er­at­ing, more or less, an 8 to 10-year set of plans and aspirations.

Suc­cesses from Carrbridge’s pre­vi­ous action plan­ning include: upgrades of the vil­lage hall (includ­ing kit­chen exten­sion) and the main play park; lob­by­ing to secure NMU from Car­rbridge to Aviemore; cre­ation of com­munity pump track in the vil­lage; plans to restart the Youth Club, more afford­able hous­ing for fam­il­ies & young people and a con­clu­sion on the Stru­an Hotel site’s future after many years of com­munity petitioning.

The 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

Car­rbridge vil­lage is loc­ated in the west of the scen­ic Cairngorms Nation­al Park and falls with­in the High­land Coun­cil loc­al author­ity area. It has a pop­u­la­tion of just over 700 people accord­ing to the 2011 census, liv­ing in approx­im­ately 470 households.

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Carrbridge’s most fam­ous land­mark is the old pack­horse bridge — the old­est stone bridge in the High­lands — dat­ing from 1717 and from which the vil­lage gets its name. Car­rbridge Vil­lage Hall, Car­rbridge Primary School and Car­rbridge Par­ish Church, all occupy cent­ral pos­i­tions with­in the vil­lage and play sig­ni­fic­ant roles in many aspects of life here.

The river Dul­nain runs straight through the heart of the vil­lage and Carrbridge’s imme­di­ate sur­round­ings include a stun­ning nat­ur­al land­scape with many wood­land trails on offer for a vari­ety of recre­ation­al purposes.

The vil­lage is well known for play­ing host to two long-run­ning and pop­u­lar annu­al com­pet­i­tions: The Golden Spurtle World Por­ridge Mak­ing Cham­pi­on­ship and the Carve Car­rbridge Scot­tish Open Chain­saw Carving Com­pet­i­tion. These events offer keen but friendly com­pet­i­tion, draw­ing entrants and spec­tat­ors from all over the world, so put­ting Car­rbridge firmly on the map.

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: Car­rbridge and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil, Car­rbridge Ahead, Car­rbridge Vil­lage Hall, Car­rbridge Primary Par­ent Coun­cil, Car­rbridge Youth Club, Car­rbridge Par­ish Church, Car­rbridge Golf Club, Car­rbridge Bowl­ing Club, Car­rbridge Bike Park.

Com­munity Assets Vil­lage Hall Pub­lic Toi­lets Bike Park Play­ing Field Golf Club River­side Bowl­ing Club Mar­ie Ander­son Memori­al Pavil­ion Curl­ing Pond Play Parks Com­munity stor­age facility

Loc­al Busi­nesses There are a con­sid­er­able num­ber of loc­al busi­nesses oper­at­ing out of Car­rbridge and many of these are rep­res­en­ted by Car­rbridge Tour­ist and Busi­ness Asso­ci­ation, again run by loc­al volun­teers car­ry­ing out com­mer­cial activ­ity in the vil­lage. Busi­nesses include the loc­al gar­age, hotels, guest houses and B&Bs, retail and food out­lets amongst oth­ers, with Land­mark Forest Adven­ture Park, which occu­pies a site close to the heart of the vil­lage, bring­ing in a sig­ni­fic­ant num­ber of vis­it­ors to the nature-based theme park every year.

Car­rbridge is an extremely act­ive and engaged vil­lage, deliv­er­ing a sub­stan­tial amount of com­munity bene­fit for its res­id­ents through a con­sid­er­able num­ber of activ­it­ies and ini­ti­at­ives. It is well known for its innov­at­ive and cre­at­ive activ­ity — recog­nised as a thriv­ing, high achiev­ing com­munity, as evid­enced by well-sup­por­ted com­munity events such as the World Porridge

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Cham­pi­on­ships, Carve Car­rbridge and the com­munity helpline and free-swap site dur­ing the Cov­id pan­dem­ic, to name but a few. People make these events hap­pen and as a vil­lage, there is a strong sense of com­munity and a can-do atti­tude to deliv­er­ing pro­jects and events, which has served them well in the past and con­tin­ues to do so today.

1. The Pro­cess

The com­munity con­sulta­tion peri­od ran from Feb­ru­ary to April 2022 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

• 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.

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The fifth and most cru­cial stage of the whole action plan­ning ini­ti­at­ive, involves deliv­ery of the plan by the Car­rbridge 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 Car­rbridge and wanted to keep in the vil­lage. They also wished to encour­age the com­munity to look to an 8 to 10-year hori­zon, and con­sider how Car­rbridge 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 4 ques­tions: 1) What do you like about liv­ing in Car­rbridge? 2) If you could improve one thing in Car­rbridge (more if you like), what would it be? 3) What would you like to see for Car­rbridge in 2030? (You might want to think about how as indi­vidu­als, or as a vil­lage, we can improve the envir­on­ment, impact of cli­mate change, our loc­al eco­nomy, social and leis­ure oppor­tun­it­ies and Carrbridge’s cul­tur­al exper­i­ences.) 4) Are there any pro­jects (large or small) that you would like to see hap­pen­ing in the village?

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 500 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.

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Data Sort­ing All of the responses came in either online via Sur­vey Mon­key, by hard copy into CAP-branded boxes left at busy loc­a­tions in the vil­lage, or from inform­a­tion col­lated at events put on for spe­cif­ic groups in the vil­lage. Sur­veys were returned from the village’s primary and sec­ond­ary school pupils and these responses were dis­played sep­ar­ately to high­light the ideas and opin­ions of Carrbridge’s young people.

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 4 main themes: Social, Envir­on­ment­al, Eco­nom­ic and Cul­tur­al 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 Carrbridge’s Big Con­ver­sa­tion, which took place over 3 days in March 2022 at the Vil­lage Hall. At this exten­ded drop in event, the res­ults were offered back to the com­munity and time giv­en for reflec­tion and dis­cus­sion around the top­ics. Dur­ing the 3 days, all of the 123 res­id­ents who atten­ded were asked to con­sider the top pri­or­it­ies that had been iden­ti­fied from the pro­cess under the head­ings of Carrbridge:

• A Socially Con­nec­ted Community
• A Cli­mate Con­scious Community
• An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing Community
• 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 Big Con­ver­sa­tion event were col­lec­ted and incor­por­ated into this report, which now belongs to the Car­rbridge 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 Car­rbridge 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

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.

1. Sur­vey Responses

245 indi­vidu­al sur­veys were returned both online and via hard copy, rep­res­ent­ing 35% of the vil­lage residents.

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 Car­rbridge Appendix 2 If you could improve one thing in Car­rbridge Appendix 3 What would you like to see for Car­rbridge by 2030 (themed priorities)

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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 pri­or­ity activ­ity across the 4 spe­cified themes, itemising out­comes which are cat­egor­ised in col­our in the tables below for when they will be achieved: short term (1−3 years), medi­um to longer term (4 ‑10 years).

It is import­ant to note that some of the pro­ject out­comes will be a ​“quick win” where­as oth­ers will take 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.

These 4 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 event and sug­ges­ted actions, togeth­er with any addi­tion­al inform­a­tion are out­lined below each section.

CAR­RBRIDGE: A SOCIALLY CON­NEC­TED COMMUNITY

Pri­or­ity: Flex­ible and access­ible com­munity meet­ing spaces

Com­munity arts and leis­ure hub (car­bon- neut­ral), includ­ing a com­munity-run café and paid staff

Multi use sports facil­ity (like Tomatin)

Gath­er­ing space for young people

Pri­or­ity: Increase social events and activ­it­ies for all ages

A com­munity-run events group deliv­er­ing for all ages and activ­it­ies (eg music, talks, tour­ing artists, films etc)

Sup­port youth work with activ­it­ies and ser­vices for young people in the village

Pri­or­ity: Care for older residents

Com­munity pro­ject to sup­port older res­id­ents at home

Loc­al care home to keep fam­il­ies together

PRI­OR­ITY: FLEX­IBLE AND ACCESS­IBLE COM­MUNITY MEET­ING SPACES

Com­munity arts and leis­ure hub (car­bon-neut­ral), includ­ing a com­munity-run café & paid staff • • • • Feas­ib­il­ity study to look at wheth­er the vil­lage hall can be adap­ted for this pur­pose or a new ​‘hub’ is required. To include costs of upgrade/​build and busi­ness plan. Invest­ig­ate wheth­er the bowl­ing club can become a sports hub and café Look at the church hall and what more it can offer the com­munity Lot­tery and wind­farm for funding

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Multi use sports facil­ity (like Tomat­in) • Site vis­it to Tomat­in to under­stand their ​‘jour­ney’, cur­rent ongo­ing chal­lenges and an eval­u­ation of the bene­fits it has brought. • To include ten­nis courts and skate park • Covered out­door space includ­ing all weath­er pitch • Lot­tery and wind­farm for funding

Gath­er­ing space for young people

PRI­OR­ITY: INCREASE SOCIAL EVENTS AND ACTIV­IT­IES FOR ALL AGES

A com­munity-run events group deliv­er­ing for all ages and activ­it­ies (eg music, talks, tour­ing artists, cinema etc) • Dis­cos for young people • Teen even­ing held in café • Repair Café • Start a knitting/​crafts group • Reg­u­lar board games ses­sion for older res­id­ents – Scrabble, chess etc to get people out of the house • Gym • Monthly ceilidh • Wild­life appre­ci­ation – talks and sup­port for nature activ­it­ies eg put­ting up swift boxes, whole com­munity involve­ment in Big Garden Bird­watch • Intergen­er­a­tion­al pro­ject to sup­port older res­id­ents with digit­al tech­no­logy • Pro­mote bowl­ing club • Fest­iv­al of Music

Sup­port youth work with activ­it­ies and ser­vices for young people in the vil­lage • Work with HLH Youth Work Ser­vice to devel­op some pro­act­ive approaches to sup­port­ing and devel­op­ing youth work in the vil­lage • More vol­un­tary sup­port and activ­ity ideas needed for newly-restar­ted vil­lage youth club, includ­ing vis­its to oth­er places • Ensure our young people are involved in devel­op­ing vil­lage pro­jects, so they know how they hap­pen and can con­trib­ute ideas

PRI­OR­ITY: CARE FOR OLDER RESIDENTS

Com­munity pro­ject to sup­port older res­id­ents at home • Befriend­ing pro­ject • Ser­vice sim­il­ar to com­munity Cov­id help for older res­id­ents • Com­munity Alarm Service

Loc­al care home to keep fam­il­ies togeth­er • Carry out feas­ib­il­ity study into viab­il­ity of loc­al care home

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• • Feas­ib­il­ity study into pro­vi­sion of sheltered hous­ing for downs­iz­ing and sup­por­ted liv­ing, so avoid­ing need to move out of vil­lage Com­munity Care Centre, based in pur­pose built build­ing with carers and sup­port work­ers Poten­tial for loc­al employment

CAR­RBRIDGE: A CLI­MATE CON­SCIOUS COMMUNITY

Pri­or­ity: Make the most of our nat­ur­al environment

Deliv­er the NMU to Aviemore

Devel­op NMU route through to Grantown

Paths: improve main­ten­ance, sig­nage, all abil­it­ies, links to dif­fer­ent parts of vil­lage. Devel­op cir­cu­lar path down­stream from village

Pri­or­ity: Use our nat­ur­al assets to devel­op enter­prise, busi­ness and tour­ism opportunities

Explore har­ness­ing renew­able energy for loc­al use (hydro/​wind)

Devel­op com­munity garden, orch­ard, allotments

Com­munity-led devel­op­ment and use of saw­mill area for com­mer­cial use

Pri­or­ity: Build up our com­munity resilience

Devel­op a Car­rbridge resi­li­ence plan to cope with extreme weath­er con­di­tions (flood, snow, storms, fire), pan­dem­ic, road/​station closures

Imple­ment pro­posed 20mph

Com­munity pro­jects to sup­port car­bon reduc­tion in our homes

PRI­OR­ITY: MAKE THE MOST OF OUR NAT­UR­AL ENVIRONMENT

Deliv­er the NMU route (non-motor­ised users) to Aviemore Devel­op NMU route through to Grant­own • A route only requires a final link from Duthil past Muck­rach into Dul­nain Bridge for this to be achieved

Paths: improve main­ten­ance, sig­nage, all abil­it­ies, links to dif­fer­ent parts of vil­lage. • Stra­tegic review of sig­nage and inter­pret­a­tion around vil­lage • Cre­ate a path main­ten­ance group and devel­op a path main­ten­ance plan with cos­ted fund­ing — look at improv­ing access­ib­il­ity and also involve moun­tain bike trails asso­ci­ation • Repair Snakey bridge • Devel­op a path net­work along river to east of vil­lage (poten­tially includ­ing river cross­ing for cir­cu­lar walk) • Estab­lish river bank ​‘beaches’ for safe access to water • Revis­it path plans and con­sider a new approach to not lose all the good work • More benches for older res­id­ents to sit • Link river­side path to Inverness Road houses via old right of way • Cam­paign to encour­age loc­al dog own­ers to ​‘pick up’ and stop dog foul­ing • Open up and improve sig­nage along old paths behind golf course

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PRI­OR­ITY: USE OUR NAT­UR­AL ASSETS TO DEVEL­OP ENTER­PRISE, BUSI­NESS AND TOUR­ISM OPPOR­TUN­IT­IES • Explore har­ness­ing renew­able energy for loc­al use (hydro/​wind) • Speak with CNPA for sup­port with pos­sible hydro pro­ject using the Dul­nain and also com­munity wind tur­bines • Buy com­munity shares in a loc­al wind­farm / Add I extra Wind Tur­bine Gen­er­at­or to devel­op­ment next to Tom nan Clach eg Fintry own­er­ship mod­el, to provide income to vil­lage for fur­ther pro­jects • Speak with ​‘Big Dave’ re a pos­sible Dul­nain hydro pro­ject (lives in Tomat­in oppos­ite old church, south of Telford bridge)

Devel­op com­munity garden, orch­ard, allot­ments • See how many people would like/​use an allot­ment • Find and acquire suit­able location/​land for these pro­jects (maybe saw­mill site or near play­ing field?) • Set up a Grow­ing Spaces com­munity group to include garden­ers, school, loc­al farm­ers, DIY-ers • Pro­duce loc­al food to sell in loc­al shops • Start a Garden­ers’ Mar­ket • Include shared spaces for sit­ting and encour­aging loc­als to stop by • Gen­er­at­ing skills in young­er pop­u­la­tion and passing on know­ledge via intergen­er­a­tion­al pro­ject onsite • Con­sider buy­ing a com­munity-owned wood­land area also

Com­munity-led devel­op­ment and use of saw­mill area for com­mer­cial use • Pos­sible site for multi-use sports facil­ity • Site for sol­ar pan­els for energy stor­age for whole village

PRI­OR­ITY: BUILD UP OUR COM­MUNITY RESI­LI­ENCE Devel­op a Car­rbridge resi­li­ence plan to cope with extreme weath­er con­di­tions (flood, snow, storms, fire), pan­dem­ic, road / rail sta­tion clos­ures • Car­rbridge Resi­li­ence Plan is in the pro­cess of being drawn up by com­munity organ­isa­tions • Install­a­tion of EV char­ging points at main car park • Need a cam­paign advising and encour­aging res­id­ents to look at noticeboards/​website for cur­rent inform­a­tion • Reg­u­lar com­munity lit­ter picks – includ­ing young people • Devel­op a com­munity self-reli­ance pro­gramme eg basic car main­ten­ance, cook­ing easy & healthy meals • Exploit com­munity pur­chase power to secure cheap deals from exist­ing electricity/​oil pro­viders • Intro­duce food waste recyc­ling • Install a com­munity fridge

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Imple­ment pro­posed 20mph • Traffic calm­ing needed on Inverness Rd • Re-eval­u­ate yel­low lines – are they in the right places • Ensure 20mph bene­fits are pro­moted and lim­its are adop­ted by all • Plant­ing and ped­es­tri­an areas to help slow traffic

Com­munity pro­jects to sup­port car­bon reduc­tion in our homes • Host an Energy Effi­ciency event (with experts) for advice, products, installers and sources of fin­an­cial sup­port. Espe­cially for those with older homes • Com­munity know­ledge-share of ideas for heating/​insulation of homes • Con­tact Energy Sav­ing Trust, Com­munity Energy Scot­land, CARES, Loc­al Energy Scot­land for support

CAR­RBRIDGE: AN ECO­NOM­IC­ALLY THRIV­ING COMMUNITY

Pri­or­ity: Improve sup­port and assist­ance for loc­al busi­nesses & people try­ing to get into work

Loc­al people giv­en afford­able hous­ing priority

Lobby for more trains stop­ping at Car­rbridge and bet­ter bus ser­vices eg later night

Sup­port for busi­ness start-ups and exist­ing loc­al businesses

Cre­ate employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies for young people (improve digit­al skills for employment)

Pri­or­ity: Increase oppor­tun­it­ies to attract tour­ism and busi­ness to the loc­al area

Have a des­ig­nated and sup­por­ted site for camper­vans (waste, recyc­ling and elec­tric charging)

Com­munity-run camp­site for campers and tourers

Redevel­op the Stru­an for com­munity benefit

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE SUP­PORT AND ASSIST­ANCE FOR LOC­AL BUSI­NESSES & PEOPLE TRY­ING TO GET INTO WORK Loc­al people giv­en afford­able hous­ing pri­or­ity • For loc­al young people and also those loc­als who are older and downs­iz­ing. • Need to cap 2^nd homes – ask CNPA for support

Lobby for more trains stop­ping at Car­rbridge and bet­ter bus ser­vices eg later night • Bus stop on Inverness Road • Fre­quent small elec­tric buses link­ing the com­munit­ies • Mega­bus stop in Car­rbridge • Train and bus timetables to be bet­ter integ­rated, so train doesn’t leave just before bus arrives • Even­ing bus ser­vice to the vil­lage • More stop­ping trains at Car­rbridge sta­tion • Cam­paign / Reas­ons for people to use bus and train ser­vices that are backed up by suit­able timetabling

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Sup­port for busi­ness start-ups and exist­ing loc­al busi­nesses • Need to react­iv­ate the Car­rbridge Tour­ist & Busi­ness Asso­ci­ation (CBTA) – to be more than just for accom­mod­a­tion pro­viders • Accom­mod­a­tion pri­or­ity for staff work­ing in loc­al busi­nesses • Invest­ig­ate saw­mill site for busi­ness park

Cre­ate employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies for young people (improve digit­al skills for employment)

PRI­OR­ITY: INCREASE OPPOR­TUN­IT­IES TO ATTRACT TOUR­ISM AND BUSI­NESS TO THE LOC­AL AREA Have a des­ig­nated and sup­por­ted site for camper­vans (waste, recyc­ling and elec­tric char­ging) • Start with waste dis­pos­al first as pri­or­ity • When con­sid­er­ing a site, take into account the effects of more people/​domestic anim­als on the area • Elec­tric hook up less import­ant than oth­er facil­it­ies eg bin, water, grey and brown water waste

Com­munity-run camp­site for campers and tour­ers • Explore pos­sib­il­ity of old cara­van site (dis­used for 40+years) or saw­mill area

Redevel­op the Stru­an for com­munity benefit

CAR­RBRIDGE: A CUL­TUR­ALLY VIBRANT COMMUNITY

Pri­or­ity: Devel­op a her­it­age trail

Sculp­tures

Inter­pret­a­tion

Update carving trail

Pri­or­ity: Enhance Bridge area

New stair­way

Cre­ate view­ing plat­form (on gar­age side)

Increase vis­ib­il­ity by keep­ing down vegetation

Pri­or­ity: Curl­ing Pond area

Explore future of curl­ing pond area, so it can be used for curl­ing and/​or oth­er activ­ity or facility

PRI­OR­ITY: DEVEL­OP A HER­IT­AGE TRAIL • Carry out an audit of what already exists in the vil­lage re sculp­tures and inter­pret­a­tion and identi­fy what needs to be changed, updated, added to • Update carving trail with appro­pri­ate sig­nage — be aware of sens­it­iv­it­ies around sculp­tures in people’s private gar­dens. More carvings/​sculptures along paths in vil­lage with info. Speak with Kin­gussie CDC for advice as they have done this.

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PRI­OR­ITY: ENHANCE BRIDGE AREA • New stair­way for safety – with handles • Cre­ate view­ing plat­form (on gar­age side) • Increase vis­ib­il­ity by keep­ing down veget­a­tion • Tidy up the bridge area • Ensure bridge struc­ture is secure • Avoid park­ing con­ges­tion at bridge – sig­nage to dir­ect vis­it­ors to car park, no park­ing area at bridge, ped­es­tri­an­isa­tion meas­ures (change kerbs and sur­face) • Provide access to beach area for locals/​visitors

PRI­OR­ITY: CURL­ING POND AREA • Work with Car­rbridge Curl­ing Club re any work/​proposed changes • Feas­ib­il­ity study to explore future of curl­ing pond area, so it can be used for curl­ing and/​or oth­er activ­ity or facil­ity eg skate park, ten­nis court • Involve young people in decision making

1. Next Steps: Delivery

Steps to deliv­er the Car­rbridge 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 Carrbridge’s com­munity organ­isa­tions, but broadly involves col­lect­ively: • Set­ting up a Team Car­rbridge (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 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

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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 Car­rbridge 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 Car­rbridge in this report, but of course the com­munity will decide on its own name for these purposes.

Team Car­rbridge 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 4 organ­isa­tions who ini­tially steered the action plan­ning pro­cess, togeth­er with oth­er sig­ni­fic­ant com­munity organ­isa­tions such as CBTA and the Youth Club.

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.

Deliv­er­ing pro­jects A num­ber of com­ments were made at Carrbridge’s Big Con­ver­sa­tion about the pos­sib­il­ity of tak­ing on a Devel­op­ment Officer for the vil­lage to help organ­isa­tions and volun­teers to deliv­er some of the pri­or­ity pro­jects. Sug­ges­tions were that this post could be fun­ded ini­tially (from wind­farm or oth­er com­munity mon­ies) but find ways to gen­er­ate income for the long-term sus­tain­ab­il­ity of such a post.

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 Car­rbridge CAP Volun­teer list is a vital part of 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.

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Levels of Sup­port The sur­veys have giv­en the key com­munity organ­isa­tions in Car­rbridge, 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: • 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 Car­rbridge 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:
   • Car­rbridge Ahead
   • Car­rbridge & Vicin­ity Com­munity Council
   • Car­rbridge Vil­lage Hall
   • Car­rbridge Primary Par­ent Coun­cil and School
   • Car­rbridge Hotel (for the con­tinu­ous sup­ply of refresh­ments dur­ing the Big Conversation)
   • All the deliv­ery volun­teers who put sur­veys through every household’s door
   • Mar­garet Pasch­ke (for her work on the pub­li­city for the process)

Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strath­spey (VABS), as an inde­pend­ent com­munity and volun­teer­ing devel­op­ment char­ity, sup­por­ted the Car­rbridge 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 for the CAP pro­cess in these cases is provided by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

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1. Appen­dices Appendix i What do you like about liv­ing in Car­rbridge? • • Friendly atmo­sphere & com­munity spir­it, help­ful and sup­port­ive The pub • The shop & post office • Good size of vil­lage • Easy access to the coun­tryside • The primary school • The wood­lands & beau­ti­ful forests / green space / forest walks /​ancient forest • Loc­a­tion — prox­im­ity to A9 / train links / Inverness • Good path net­work for walk­ing / cyc­ling • Peace­ful and quiet • All the amen­it­ies: gar­age, golf course, bowl­ing club, school, vil­lage hall, play park, bike park, Land­mark • Wild­life • Fam­ily & friends • Events like Carve Car­rbridge and Por­ridge Cham­pi­on­ship • • Approach­able, people friendly Com­munity Coun­cil Car­rbridge Free Swap FB page • Over 65’s vouch­er was a great idea • Plenty groups to join in • • • Prox­im­ity to wild places Gen­er­a­tion­al mix­ing Meet­ing loc­als to hear stor­ies of past and present

Nurs­ery & Primary pupils Beau­ti­ful scenery / Pretty place Nice vil­lage — every­one is kind Woods for dog walk­ing Play­park Going on bike Land­mark — dino­saurs Tall trees Sec­ond­ary school pupils Lots of good walks / green space Bike Park Land­mark changes Job oppor­tun­it­ies Pub­lic Trans­port Peace­ful place Places to eat at The bridge It’s quiet Wild­life Sledging on the golf course Play­park Rivers The school & the teach­ers Being part of an his­tor­ic vil­lage Shop Good swim­ming in the Dul­nain Primary School Jump park The woods Chance to get a job Istan­bul take away (Bossman’s) Good foot­ball pitch Amaz­ing bike trails Golf course Bike park Access­ible to the out­doors Foot­ball pitch

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Appendix ii If you could improve one thing in Car­rbridge • Re-open a café/​coffee shop • • • • • • • Improve some vil­lage paths includ­ing wheel­chair access­ible and kid-friendly (Bad­den­gorm, Snakey bridge, path par­al­lel with old A9). Con­sider annu­al main­ten­ance Hous­ing: sheltered for older people, downs­iz­ing options, sup­port for people with demen­tia so don’t need to leave village/​spouse/​family; change legis­la­tion to sup­port loc­al & young people to pur­chase, rent and stay in the vil­lage; few­er hol­i­day homes & 2^nd homes; end to party houses Final resolution