Dalwhinnie Community Action Plan 2023

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030

Com­piled Sum­mer 2023

Sup­por­ted by Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Coun­cil Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust Dal­whin­nie Vil­lage Hall Dal­whin­nie Businesses

Facil­it­ated by Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strathspey

Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 1 of 17

Con­tents

1. Sum­mary 3
2. The Com­munity 4
3. The Pro­cess 5
4. Com­munity Engage­ment 8
5. Sur­vey Responses 8
6. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants 9
7. Next Steps 13
8. Thanks 15
9. Appen­dices 16 i. What do you like about liv­ing in Dal­whin­nie? ii. What changes would you like to see for Dal­whin­nie by 2030?

Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 2 of 17

1. Sum­mary In Spring 2023, Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Coun­cil, togeth­er with Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust, Dal­whin­nie Vil­lage Hall and Dal­whin­nie busi­nesses (The Api­ary, Dal­whin­nie Ser­vice Sta­tion, Balspor­ran Guest House, Dal­whin­nie Hostel), decided that they wished to carry out a review of the com­munity action plan for the vil­lage, which had been pre­vi­ously under­taken in 2009. 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, iden­ti­fied as pri­or­it­ies by the res­id­ents and busi­nesses of Dal­whin­nie dur­ing the pro­cess in spring 2023.

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 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 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 Dal­whin­nie 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, res­id­ents and busi­nesses were asked to con­sider where they and the com­munity wanted to be by 2030, so gen­er­at­ing, more or less, an 8‑year set of plans and aspirations.

Examples of Dalwhinnie’s recent suc­cesses with com­munity pro­jects and action plan­ning include:

1. Improvements/​Activities at the Vil­lage Hall
2. Café in the village
3. Bet­ter water qual­ity & sup­ply & screening
4. More trees planted
5. Bet­ter (vis­it­or) inform­a­tion via Dal​whin​nie​.org
6. Winter lights upgraded
7. More dog foul­ing bins
8. Old café demolished
9. Recyc­ling area cleaned up

To help add to these achieve­ments, res­id­ents were encour­aged to take part in the com­munity action plan review in 2023. How­ever, this time round people were invited to think not only about what might be achieved togeth­er, but that the pro­jects the vil­lage was being asked to con­sider, would be ones that would help Dal­whin­nie devel­op a more sus­tain­able future. This Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 3 of 17

is set against a back­drop of life post-Cov­id, the chal­lenge of find­ing new volun­teers plus the chan­ging eco­nom­ic and cli­mate situ­ation we find ourselves in. The Dal­whin­nie 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 Dal­whin­nie is a small vil­lage of around 80 people, situ­ated at the south­ern end of Badenoch, at an alti­tude of 351m, near the foot of Ben Alder. It lies in a glen with the Mon­adh­liath Moun­tains on one side and the Forest of Atholl, the Cairngorms and the Grampi­ans on the oth­er. Its wide, open wil­der­ness provides a healthy envir­on­ment that res­id­ents value highly and also encour­ages many vis­it­ors to return to the area year after year. Dal­whin­nie is recog­nised as one of the cold­est vil­lages in the UK, hav­ing an aver­age annu­al tem­per­at­ure of 6.5°C, which makes it ideally suited to winter walk­ing and moun­tain­eer­ing. This spe­cial nat­ur­al envir­on­ment also allows for a wide vari­ety of oth­er recre­ation­al activ­it­ies such as moun­tain bik­ing, fish­ing and white water kayak­ing which serve to attract the many tour­ists that pass through the vil­lage in the sum­mer months.

Dis­tin­guished as hav­ing the highest work­ing dis­til­lery in Scot­land, Dal­whin­nie is steeped in a rich his­tory cre­ated over many gen­er­a­tions. The pop­u­la­tion of this set­tle­ment is small, yet act­ively com­mit­ted to com­munity life, main­tain­ing a strong sense of inde­pend­ence partly owing to their ​‘bra­cing’ geo­graph­ic location.

Dal­whin­nie enjoys close links with the Ben Alder Estate which provides a main­stay of employ­ment for the area and the estate’s sus­tain­able approach to man­aging the sur­round­ing land­scape is highly regarded by the loc­al pop­u­la­tion. Res­id­ents are aware that their loc­al amen­it­ies are lim­ited and vul­ner­able and in response to these par­tic­u­lar issues, Dal­whin­nie would like to see new hous­ing ini­ti­at­ives intro­duced, which will allow young fam­il­ies to move into and remain in the area long term. Bet­ter trans­port links to oth­er com­munit­ies both north and south of the vil­lage, are seen as addi­tion­ally neces­sary to improve Dalwhinnie’s chances of remain­ing a viable ​‘lived in’ com­munity, provid­ing work and leis­ure oppor­tun­it­ies to help it thrive as a loc­a­tion of choice.

New ini­ti­at­ives are con­tinu­ally being taken for­ward by com­mit­ted com­munity mem­bers, such as the refur­bish­ment and activ­it­ies at the vil­lage hall, bet­ter facil­it­ies and inform­a­tion for vis­it­ors to encour­age them to stay longer in the vil­lage and ongo­ing care for the envir­on­ment, both in and sur­round­ing the com­munity. These are just some of the ways in which the res­id­ents them­selves feel they can help to sup­port the fra­gile tour­ist trade and con­sequently the ongo­ing future well­being of the vil­lage. Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 4 of 17

Com­munity Organ­isa­tions There are a num­ber of com­munity organisations/​groups which work for the bene­fit of the com­munity and are almost entirely run by volun­teers. These include: Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Coun­cil, Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust and Dal­whin­nie Vil­lage Hall amongst others.

Com­munity Assets Vil­lage Hall Vil­lage website

Loc­al Busi­nesses There are numer­ous loc­al busi­nesses, across many sec­tors, oper­at­ing in the vil­lage, although there is cur­rently no loc­al business/​tourism asso­ci­ation to rep­res­ent the com­mer­cial activ­ity in the village.

Dal­whin­nie busi­nesses include the whisky dis­til­lery, hotel, hostel and self-cater­ing accom­mod­a­tion, gar­age, food and gift out­lets. These, along with a num­ber of trades­people, farm­ers, people employed on estates and car­ry­ing out oth­er kinds of envir­on­ment­al work, make up the work­ing heart of this community.

1. The Pro­cess The Dal­whin­nie com­munity con­sulta­tion peri­od ran from March to June 2023 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?

Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 5 of 17

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 Dal­whin­nie 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 Dal­whin­nie and wanted to keep in the com­munity. They also wished to encour­age the com­munity to look to an 8 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 Dal­whin­nie? 2) What changes would you like to see for Dal­whin­nie 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? Or any exist­ing pro­jects that need to be sustained?

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. Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 6 of 17

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 50 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 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 loc­a­tions in the vil­lage, or from inform­a­tion col­lated at events put on for spe­cif­ic groups in the vil­lage. 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 3 main themes: Social, Envir­on­ment­al and Eco­nom­ic 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 Dalwhinnie’s Big Con­ver­sa­tion, which took place dur­ing an even­ing in June 2023 at the Dal­whin­nie Vil­lage Hall. At this drop in event, the res­ults were offered back to the com­munity and time giv­en for reflec­tion and dis­cus­sion around the top­ics. Dur­ing the event, all of the res­id­ents who atten­ded were asked to con­sider the top pri­or­it­ies that had been iden­ti­fied from the pro­cess under the head­ings of Dalwhinnie:

• A Socially Con­nec­ted Community
• A Cli­mate Con­scious Community
• An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing 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 Dal­whin­nie com­munity and will be used as the basis for ongo­ing com­munity Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 7 of 17

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 Dal­whin­nie for the pur­poses of this report).

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 Thanks go to the 34 res­id­ents and busi­nesses in Dal­whin­nie who con­trib­uted so mean­ing­fully and thought­fully to the com­munity sur­vey — this num­ber rep­res­ents 42% of the community’s pop­u­la­tion and includes responses from school age res­id­ents. Also to the people who atten­ded the Big Con­ver­sa­tion drop-in event at the vil­lage hall.

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 Dal­whin­nie? Appendix ii What changes would you like to see for Dal­whin­nie by 2030? Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 8 of 17

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 activ­ity across the 3 spe­cified themes:
   • A Socially Con­nec­ted Community
   • A Cli­mate Con­scious Community
   • An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing Com­munity itemising pri­or­ity out­comes and actions which are shown in the rel­ev­ant tables below.

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 3 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 events and sug­ges­ted actions, togeth­er with any addi­tion­al inform­a­tion are out­lined below each section.

DAL­WHIN­NIE: A SOCIALLY CON­NEC­TED COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Sus­tain­able pub­lic trans­port pro­vi­sion to get people out of cars more

• Lobby for more train stops at Dal­whin­nie station
• Improve bus ser­vices with bus stops in village
• Explore a com­munity link minibus option, work­ing with Lag­gan so we can con­nect to New­ton­more and more fre­quent service
• On demand stop for Megabus/​Gold bus ser­vices at A9 Dal­whin­nie stop Pri­or­ity: Address speed­ing in village
• 30mph speed lim­it through whole vil­lage, or at least from cycle path to distillery
• Inter­act­ive Speed cam­era signs at north and south ends of vil­lage, (show­ing speed of passing vehicles for traffic calm­ing measure)
• Speed lim­it of 40mph to be exten­ded to rail bridge at north of vil­lage from vil­lage hall Pri­or­ity: Improve village’s amenities/​facilities
• More com­munity use of the vil­lage hall
• ATM facil­ity
• More EV char­ging points Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 9 of 17

PRI­OR­ITY: SUS­TAIN­ABLE PUB­LIC TRANS­PORT PRO­VI­SION Con­tin­ue lob­by­ing for bet­ter pro­vi­sion of bus & train ser­vices for the community

• More train stops
• Invest­ig­ate bus ser­vices in vil­lage and with Megabus

Explore a com­munity link minibus option, work­ing with Lag­gan so we can con­nect to New­ton­more and more fre­quent service

• See if Lag­gan organ­isa­tions would be will­ing to try and get a joint pro­ject going for both com­munit­ies’ benefit

PRI­OR­ITY: ADDRESS SPEED­ING IN THE VIL­LAGE 30mph speed lim­it through whole vil­lage, or at least from cycle path to dis­til­lery Inter­act­ive Speed cam­era signs at north and south ends of vil­lage, (show­ing speed of passing vehicles for traffic calm­ing meas­ure) Speed lim­it of 40mph to be exten­ded to rail bridge at north of vil­lage from vil­lage hall

• Com­munity Coun­cil to work with Police, PKC and oth­ers to imple­ment as many of these traffic calm­ing meas­ures as pos­sible (includ­ing ​‘police’ mannequin)

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE VILLAGE’S FACIL­IT­IES / AMEN­IT­IES More com­munity use of the vil­lage hall

• Offer taster ses­sions of dif­fer­ent activ­it­ies includ­ing talks?
• Increase facil­it­ies to enable loc­als to enjoy more / dif­fer­ent activ­it­ies in the hall
• Provide inter­net connection

ATM facil­ity

• Explore if this is some­thing one of the loc­al busi­nesses might offer

More EV char­ging points

• Work with PKC and CNPA to increase cov­er­age in the area Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 10 of 17

DAL­WHIN­NIE: A CLI­MATE CON­SCIOUS COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Reduce energy con­sump­tion as a vil­lage / for households

• Loc­al green waste recyc­ling plot for loc­als’ garden waste
• Advice on house­hold fuel alternatives
• Turn off street lights to cre­ate a dark skies des­tin­a­tion Pri­or­ity: Improve village’s visu­al appearance
• Keep vil­lage tidy and lit­ter free (Main St, behind RSG yard, behind garage)
• More plant­ing in vil­lage: trees, shrubs and flowers
• Replace dam­aged young trees along main road
• More lit­ter bins & dog waste bins, emp­tied more fre­quently Pri­or­ity: Act­ive Travel
• Find solu­tion to rein­stall ancient drovers’ route across Ben Alder Crossing
• Cycle track link to Laggan
• Path out of Dal­whin­nie lead­ing to the Pit­lo­chry cycle track / bus stop on A9
• Defined walk­ing path around vil­lage for loc­als & vis­it­ors to appre­ci­ate village

PRI­OR­ITY: REDUCE ENERGY CON­SUMP­TION AS A VIL­LAGE / FOR HOUSEHOLDS

• Loc­al green waste recyc­ling plot for loc­als’ garden waste
• Invest­ig­ate viab­il­ity of this ini­ti­at­ive – con­tact sim­il­ar pro­jects in Highland/​CNP/​Scotland to see what’s involved in poten­tially set­ting up

Advice on house­hold fuel alternatives

• Invest­ig­ate advice/​support avail­able – set up an inform­a­tion event at hall for loc­al res­id­ents and busi­nesses to drop in. Work with Lag­gan CC who want to do similar.

Turn off street lights to cre­ate a dark skies destination

• Talk with oth­er com­munit­ies who have gone this route eg Tomintoul
• Get advice from CNPA and PKC on possibilities

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE VILLAGE’S VISU­AL APPEAR­ANCE Keep vil­lage tidy and lit­ter free (Main St, behind RSG yard, behind garage)

• Reduce num­ber of signs around vil­lage where possible
• Tidy up gar­age, Green Shed site, road verges

More plant­ing in vil­lage: trees, shrubs and flowers

• Plant wild flowers and bulbs
• Replace dam­aged young trees along main road Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 11 of 17

More lit­ter bins & dog waste bins, emp­tied more fre­quently * PRI­OR­ITY: ACT­IVE TRAVEL Find solu­tion to rein­stall ancient drovers’ route across Ben Alder Cross­ing Cycle track link to Laggan

• Talk with CNPA and Lag­gan Act­ive Travel group, to explore possibilities

Path out of Dal­whin­nie lead­ing to the Pit­lo­chry cycle track / bus stop on A9

• Cre­ate a cycle lane between gar­age and exist­ing Route 7

Defined walk­ing path around vil­lage for loc­als & vis­it­ors to appre­ci­ate village

• Explore with landown­ers and get sup­port for path routes from them and community

DAL­WHIN­NIE: AN ECO­NOM­IC­ALLY THRIV­ING COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Increase oppor­tun­it­ies to attract tour­ism and busi­ness to the loc­al area

• Set up a loc­al busi­ness for­um to sup­port busi­nesses in the village
• Find a site for des­ig­nated campervan/​motorhome park­ing, with rel­ev­ant sup­port facilities
• New vil­lage website

Pri­or­ity: Improve oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al development

• Address plan­ning issues for the vil­lage to help pro­posed busi­ness and res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment in and around A889
• Fibre broad­band to be installed through­out vil­lage, for improved home­work­ing and busi­ness use

PRI­OR­ITY: INCREASE OPPOR­TUN­IT­IES TO ATTRACT TOUR­ISM & BUSI­NESS TO LOC­AL AREA Set up a loc­al busi­ness for­um to sup­port busi­nesses in the village

• Bring loc­al busi­nesses togeth­er to see what form of group might work best to bene­fit all
• Agree on scope of any for­um and what its key pur­poses are eg mobile bank vis­it, tour­ism sig­nage on A9, park­ing facil­it­ies in vil­lage Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 12 of 17

Find a site for des­ig­nated campervan/​motorhome park­ing, with rel­ev­ant sup­port facilities

• Talk with com­munity and CNPA plan­ning re Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan about pos­sible sites and facilities

New vil­lage website

• Seek sup­port from part­ners to access fund­ing and be informed on best prac­tice to devel­op a new website

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE OPPOR­TUN­IT­IES FOR LOC­AL DEVEL­OP­MENT Address plan­ning issues for the vil­lage to help pro­posed busi­ness and res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment in and around A889

• Engage with CNPA and THC plan­ners togeth­er, to resolve the issues that are con­trib­ut­ing to plan­ning being denied for devel­op­ment of hous­ing and busi­ness use

Fibre broad­band to be installed through­out vil­lage, for improved homeworking/​business use

• Invest­ig­ate options and poten­tial fund­ing routes

1. Next Steps: Deliv­ery Steps to deliv­er the Dal­whin­nie 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 Dalwhinnie’s com­munity organ­isa­tions, but broadly involves collectively:
   • Set­ting up a Team Dal­whin­nie (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 Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 13 of 17

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

Team Dal­whin­nie 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 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 Dal­whin­nie 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 Dal­whin­nie, 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. Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 14 of 17

• 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 Dal­whin­nie 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:
   • Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Council
   • Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust
   • Dal­whin­nie Vil­lage Hall
   • Loc­al Busi­nesses, espe­cially The Api­ary, Dal­whin­nie Ser­vice Sta­tion, Balspor­ran Guest House, Dal­whin­nie Hostel.
   • 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 Dal­whin­nie 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 to VABS to facil­it­ate the com­munit­ies’ CAP pro­cess is provided by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 15 of 17

1. Appen­dices Appendix i What do you like about liv­ing in Dalwhinnie?
   • Vil­lage with spec­tac­u­lar scenery and views
   • Nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, wild and yet beau­ti­ful, close to lochs and mountains
   • Hills and trails right on our doorstep
   • Good access to any part of Scot­land via A9, train, long dis­tance cycle route
   • Safe & peace­ful vil­lage with strong sense of com­munity, pleas­ant for all ages
   • Fant­ast­ic wildlife
   • The out­door life
   • Com­munity feel and spir­it: friend­li­ness of people, great neigh­bours, lovely res­id­ents and friends
   • The loc­al businesses
   • Prox­im­ity to oth­er parts of the Nation­al Park
   • Peace­ful rur­al living
   • Loc­al GP surgery
   • The Api­ary café

Appendix ii What changes would you like to see for Dal­whin­nie by 2030?

ECO­NOM­IC

• Set up a loc­al busi­ness for­um, so there is a route to sup­port busi­nesses in the village.
• Address plan­ning issues for the vil­lage to help pro­posed devel­op­ment in and around A889.
• Place for des­ig­nated camper­van parking
• Faster broad­band (fibre)
• New vil­lage website

ENVIR­ON­MENT­AL

• Loc­al green waste recyc­ling plot for loc­als’ garden waste.
• Find solu­tion for rein­stall­a­tion of the ancient drovers’ route across the Ben Alder Cross­ing and resolve lack of access for all per­sons (Net­work Rail to unlock).
• Walk and cycle paths for all levels:
  • cycle track link to Laggan
  • path com­ing out of Dal­whin­nie lead­ing to the Pit­lo­chry cycle track / bus stop on A9
  • a defined walk­ing path around the vil­lage for loc­als and vis­it­ors to appre­ci­ate the village.
• Advice on house­hold fuel alternatives.

• Turn off the street lights, so sav­ing energy and cre­at­ing dark skies. Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 16 of 17

• Carry out more tree plant­ing in the vil­lage to help obscure the indus­tri­al units, yard and water works.

• Sol­ar light or form of on-demand light­ing at bus stops on A9.
• Nego­ti­ate with Ben Alder as a com­munity, to use the ground imme­di­ately west of the rail­way tun­nel as a car park for walk­ers and cyclists.
• Replace the dam­aged young trees along the main road.
• EV char­ging points.
• More lit­ter bins & dog waste bins emp­tied more frequently.

SOCIAL

• Upgrade Dalwhinnie’s pub­lic trans­port links to help get people out of their cars more:
  • lobby for more train stops at Dal­whin­nie station
  • improve bus ser­vices. Explore a com­munity link minibus option, work­ing with Lag­gan so we can con­nect to New­ton­more and more fre­quent service
  • On demand stop for Megabus/​Gold bus ser­vices at A9 Dal­whin­nie stop.
• Re-assess and improve speed lim­its in village:
  • 30mph speed lim­it through the whole vil­lage, or at least applied from the cycle path to the distillery
  • Inter­act­ive Speed cam­era signs at north and south ends of vil­lage, (show­ing speed of passing vehicles for traffic calm­ing measure)
  • Speed lim­it of 40mph to be exten­ded to rail bridge at north of vil­lage from vil­lage hall.
• Gen­er­al clean and tidy up of the vil­lage, espe­cially Main Street, behind RSG yard and behind gar­age. At the minute it’s not look­ing any­where near its best.
• Fibre broad­band to be installed for bet­ter service.
• Loc­al shops and more houses, to extend the village!
• Try to find more com­munity use of the vil­lage hall.
• New vil­lage website.
• ATM facil­ity.
• A squat rack in the gym along with some free weights. Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 17 of 17