Draft Minutes 12 December 2025

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee 12 Decem­ber 2025 Page 1 of 8

Draft minutes of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own-on-Spey Hybrid 12 Decem­ber 2026 at 01.15pm

Present in person

• Kenny Deans (Chair)
• Steve Mickle­wright (Deputy Chair)
• John Kirk
• Michael Wil­li­am­son
• Sandy Brem­ner
• Elean­or Mackintosh

Present online

• Ann Ross

In attend­ance

• Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer
• Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Services
• Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place
• Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Conservation
• Kar­en John­stone, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies

None

Wel­come and introduction

1. The Chair wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee, giv­ing a spe­cial wel­come to Michael Wil­li­am­son on his first meeting.

Page 2 of 8

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meetings

1. The draft minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing held on 12 Septem­ber 2025 were approved with the fol­low­ing amend­ments: a) At para­graph 3 — change to ​“The Chair of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee ques­tioned when the Park Author­ity will con­sider the fig­ures and fund­ing of the cli­mate adapt­a­tion fund. CEO explained that they will share with the Com­mit­tee who was alloc­ated funds and can look fur­ther into fund­ing alloc­a­tions and pro­ject types once all fund­ing is in place and bring this back to the Committee.”

2. The draft con­fid­en­tial minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing held on 12 Septem­ber 2025 were approved with no amend­ments. a) The Chair ques­tions if Head of Cairngorms 2030 had atten­ded the last Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group meet­ing. CEO con­firmed that he had atten­ded the meeting.

Mat­ters arising not covered elsewhere

1. The Chair men­tioned a pre­vi­ous dis­cus­sion on provid­ing more inform­a­tion regard­ing baseline checks and enhance­ments achieved on peat­land res­tor­a­tion, such as biod­iversity gain and where water is being stored. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices explained the peat­land team have dis­cussed next year’s pro­gramme and poten­tial budget alloc­a­tions and this ele­ment will be included in future report­ing; a paper will be brought to either the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee or Form­al Board early 2026.

ACTION	Status
Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meetings
13 Decem­ber 2024
AOCB
At para 26
i. Ranger ser­vice update to be incor­por­ated into the Act­ive Cairngorms action plan paper.	Closed
Update:

Page 3 of 8

Annu­al update paper will be taken to Form­al Full Board in Novem­ber 2025.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. There were no declar­a­tions of interest.

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee 2026 Annu­al Agenda (Paper 1)

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices intro­duced the paper which presents the pro­posed work­plan and asso­ci­ated agenda for the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee in 2026 as well as set­ting out the terms of ref­er­ence for Com­mit­tee members.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Com­mit­tee agreed to the pro­posed agenda for 2026.

3. Action Points Arising: None.

Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme update: quarter three 2025 (July — Septem­ber (Paper 2)

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices intro­duced the paper which presents the status of the Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) pro­gramme and risk man­age­ment, based on inform­a­tion in pro­ject reports for the peri­od from July to Septem­ber 2025, and updated where appro­pri­ate to reflect cur­rent pos­i­tion as at the time of writ­ing, and the planned work to end Decem­ber 2025.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A Board Mem­ber raised con­cern regard­ing the health and well­being out­door demen­tia centre, ques­tion­ing where the fund­ing came from and if this would be sus­tain­able. CEO explained this pro­ject was fun­ded through the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) which will cov­er the demen­tia centre until ²⁰²⁸⁄₂₉. Dis­cus­sions are ongo­ing with Alzheimer’s Scotland’s brain health team to cre­ate a leg­acy plan from 2030 onwards as well as work­ing on how

Page 4 of 8

b)  to embed the program into NHS Highland and to be able to expand this further.
c)  A Board Member questioned if there was anything in the delivery phase of the active transport community projects that would prove difficult. CEO explained they would need to apply for funding from Transport Scotland for the next phase, which due to elections would likely not be allocated until September, giving them a limited amount of time to complete the works.
d)  A Board Member recommended an organisation who provides funding for dementia projects. Member agreed to email this to CEO.
e)  A Board Member questioned the level of engagement within the future farming project, asking if farmers have found this helpful. CEO explained there has been two events this year, one in Atholl with about 20 attendees and one in Boat of Garten with about 30 attendees. The feedback from these events have been positive, sharing what different people are doing in different areas, which has been useful.
f)  CEO noted that there would be a funding application opening in January to provide consultancy time and help with understanding funding options available as well as funding to attend conferences. A Board Member questioned how this would work alongside advisors in the National Park offering the same services. CEO explained the Park Authority would highlight what funding is available, then farmers could choose who they go to, however this will be confirmed and information provided at the next committee.
g)  A Board Member noted there was a financial meeting in November, asking for an update from this meeting. Deputy CEO and Director of Corporate Services explained that Head of Cairngorms 2030 met with Highlands and Island Enterprise (HIE) for a final assessment of the potential HIE financial contributions to the programme which was positive. HIE are keen to be involved with the projects, giving general commitment. A confirmation is likely to come in early 2026.

1. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note pro­gress to date and future plans for Cairngorms 2030 deliv­ery. b) Note spe­cif­ic points of Cairngorms 2030 deliv­ery risk. c) High­light any issues arising that mem­bers may feel need spe­cif­ic con­sid­er­a­tion by staff from a stra­tegic and board perspective.

Page 5 of 8

1. Action Points Arising: i. CEO to con­firm if applic­ants of the new fund are able to choose the ser­vices / pro­viders them­selves with the fund­ing allocated.

Bring­ing beavers back pro­ject (Paper 3)

1. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion intro­duced the paper which presents the latest deliv­ery updates on the Bring­ing beavers back project

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A Board Mem­ber com­men­ted that the num­bers of beavers now are man­age­able, how­ever as they devel­op this will get more dif­fi­cult. Head of Con­ser­va­tions explained the key thing is not to track every indi­vidu­al beaver, but to keep track of ter­rit­or­ies, and with the staff, rangers, gil­lies and pub­lic help­ing with this, the Park Author­ity are con­fid­ent that they can track beavers well. b) A Board Mem­ber noted that some gil­lies’ jobs are cur­rently under threat, there­fore if they can be saved through the beaver net­work, this would be bene­fi­cial. Head of Con­ser­va­tion explained that NatureScot are run­ning train­ing for Park Author­ity staff, rangers and gil­lies on dam remov­al, which is pos­it­ive for the future of gil­lies. c) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned how far the beavers are spread­ing out from where they were released, ask­ing if they are tagged. Head of Con­ser­va­tion explained the beavers are micro­chipped but can­not be tagged. It was noted that the beavers are largely in the upper Spey catch­ment, two indi­vidu­als have moved, how­ever beavers will stay where there is good hab­it­at which is mainly around the upper Spey. d) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned if there was any aware­ness around giar­dia. CEO explained this was dis­cussed at the pre­vi­ous Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion group meet­ing, high­light­ing that all beavers go through a thor­ough health check, there­fore no beaver will be released if test­ing pos­it­ive for giar­dia. CEO went on to explain that giar­dia is already in the envir­on­ment and Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA), Scot­tish Water and the Park Author­ity need to share this mes­sage to make the pub­lic aware. e) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned the long-term mon­it­or­ing plans to under­stand the changes to hab­it­at and biod­iversity impacts. Head of Conservation

Page 6 of 8

f)  explained there are visible impact surveys done through drone work. Most of the monitoring will be done through partnerships, such as links with the Fishery Board, Aberdeen University and Stirling University embedding this monitoring into research programmes that are already underway.
g)  A Board Member questioned the relationships between the Park Authority and the Beaver Management and Mitigation Group. Head of Conservation explained the meetings are generally positive, providing a space for discussing issues, sharing information and highlighting areas for improvement. There is a clear remit of the group, and the relationship continues to improve.
h)  A Board Member questioned if there was a concern on the spend for mitigation. Head of Conservation explained there hasn't been a huge amount spent on mitigation and all well within the budget.

1. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Pro­gress towards the project’s object­ives. b) Any stra­tegic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on deliv­ery of the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Authority’s Cor­por­ate Plan and Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP). c) Any mater­i­al impacts on the Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk management.

2. Action Points Arising: None.

Cairngorms Nature Action Plan (Paper 4)

1. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion intro­duced the paper which presents an update on the devel­op­ment of the next Cairngorms Nature Action Plan.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Head of Con­ser­va­tion high­lighted that recom­mend­a­tions b and c should not have been included in the paper. It was also noted the word ​“part­ners” was miss­ing from first box in the dia­gram on page 4. b) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned staff capa­city for deliv­er­ing this as it is a large amount of cru­cial work all hap­pen­ing at the same time. CEO explained this is all sub­ject to what the Park Author­ity do in the NPPP, not­ing deliv­ery mech­an­isms on the NPPP may change over the next year. The aim is to sim­pli­fy this, how­ever there are a lot of com­plex issues involved. Head of

Page 7 of 8

c)  Conservation explained the Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group now has a better link with Cairngorms Agricultural Advisory Group (CAAG) and Cairngorms Upland Advisory Group (CUAG), and feedback from them was to incorporate community benefits and designs into this. Annabelle Davidson-Knight, Community Benefits from Nature Advisor is working to help to empower communities and improve involvement.
d)  A Board Member asked for examples of community benefits. Head of Conservation explained that there are already training events for bird and plants helping to improve habitats. CEO explained as part of the Cairngorms 2030 Nature Recovery project, there are funds going into skills and training to help communities.
e)  Discussions were had around community benefits, eg reduction in flood risks is nature based but can help to reduce insurance costs, deer management can improve jobs in certain places, skills and training, together with further downstream benefits of actions which ultimately have positive impacts for communities. Community benefits are not always about financial gain, but wider benefits to communities and individuals. It was noted that the Park Authority need to ensure they do not set expectations higher than what can be delivered.
f)  A Board Member questioned if the Park Authority is now carbon neutral as they are working towards being carbon negative. Head of Planning and Place explained they will be meeting with Small World Consulting in January, they have gathered recent stats to show where the Cairngorms National Park is on the curve. It was noted that the data will be two years behind.
g)  A Board Member suggested using a different term for "community benefits" as it is the benefit for people through investing in nature. Committee Members and Officer's agreed that this is something that should be considered.

1. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee noted the paper and agreed to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note the revised timeline for production.

2. Action Points Arising: i. Con­sider a new term for ​“com­munity benefits”.

AOCB

1. None

Page 8 of 8

Date of Next Meeting

1. The date of the next meet­ing is 03 April 2026 online.

2. The meet­ing con­cluded at 14.08

ACTION	Status
Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meetings
12 Decem­ber
Approv­al of minutes
At para 2a
i. CEO to share with the Com­mit­tee who was alloc­ated funds through the Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund includ­ing fund­ing alloc­a­tions and pro­ject types.
Update:
Cairngorms Nature Action Plan
At para 19f
i. Con­sider a new term for ​“com­munity benefits”.
Update: