Dulnain Bridge Community Action Plan 2024

Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Com­piled Decem­ber 2024

Sup­por­ted by Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust Dul­nain Bridge Vil­lage Hall Friends of Dul­nain Bridge

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

VABS Facil­it­ated by Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strathspey

Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 1 of 20

Con­tents

1. Sum­mary 3
2. The Com­munity 4
3. The Pro­cess 6
4. Com­munity Engage­ment 9
5. Sur­vey Responses 10
6. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants 10
7. Spa­tial Pri­or­it­ies 14
8. Next Steps: Deliv­ery 15
9. Thanks & Acknow­ledge­ments 17
10. Appen­dices 18 i. What do you like about liv­ing in Dul­nain Bridge? ii. What changes would you like to see in Dul­nain Bridge by 2030?

Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 2 of 20

1. Sum­mary In Octo­ber 2024, Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil togeth­er with Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust, Dul­nain Bridge Vil­lage Hall and Friends of Dul­nain Bridge, 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 com­munity, 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 of the Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil area dur­ing the pro­cess in late 2024.

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 res­id­ents 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 Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030. In pre­vi­ous action plan­ning car­ried out by the com­munit­ies with­in this area, the focus was on activ­ity mostly with a 2 to 3‑year timespan. 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 a more exten­ded set of plans and aspirations.

Examples of recent suc­cesses across the com­munit­ies with com­munity-led pro­jects and action plan­ning include: • Set­ting up the com­munity devel­op­ment trust • Refresh­ing of vil­lage plant­ers • Friends of DB set up and all the events • New hous­ing for the com­munity • Upgrades to Hall & social events • Cycle path to Grant­own • Com­munity news­let­ters and FB pages • Foot­path join­ing Spey­side Centre with exist­ing paths in Curr Woods • 20mph bin stick­ers • Lit­ter picks • Swift boxes x 25.

Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 3 of 20

To help add to these achieve­ments, res­id­ents were encour­aged to take part in the com­munity action plan review in 2024. How­ever, this time round people were invited to think not only about what might be achieved togeth­er, but that the pro­jects the vil­lages were being asked to con­sider, would be ones that would help the area devel­op a more sus­tain­able future. This is set against a back­drop of life post-lock­downs, the chal­lenge of find­ing new volun­teers, plus the chan­ging chan­ging eco­nom­ic as well as the cli­mate and biod­iversity situ­ation we find ourselves in.

The Dul­nain Bridge 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 Dul­nain Bridge (Scot­tish Gael­ic: Dro­chaid Thul­nain) is a vil­lage in Strath­spey, sited on the river Dul­nain, close to where it meets the River Spey. It is three miles south-west of Grant­own-on-Spey in the Scot­tish High­lands and sits with­in the High­land Coun­cil loc­al author­ity area. The cur­rent pop­u­la­tion is estim­ated at just over 470 people. The Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil area stretches far bey­ond the vil­lage of Dul­nain Bridge, up to Loch­indorb in the north, and down to Broom­hill in the south (see Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil Area map on page 5).

The vil­lage lies near to the A95 in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. One of its not­able fea­tures is the bridge over the Dul­nain, which still today lies at the heart of the vil­lage. The tra­di­tion­al counties of Inverness-shire and Moray­shire are sep­ar­ated by the bridge, which has exis­ted for cen­tur­ies. It was swept away in a flood in 1829, but was re-built to recon­nect the two com­munit­ies the vil­lage is made up of. Dul­nain Bridge itself is centred to the north of the bridge, and this par­tic­u­lar part of the vil­lage lies in Moray­shire. The croft­ing com­munity of Skye of Curr – lying in Inverness-shire — stretches for a mile to the south ter­min­at­ing at the well-known Spey­side Centre. Curr Wood to the south and east of the vil­lage has the country’s largest pop­u­la­tion of Twin­flower known by the botan­ic­al name of Lin­nea Boreal­is which shares the forest floor with a tiny orch­id called Creep­ing Ladies Tresses.

At the north end of the vil­lage, next to the impress­ive Roches Mou­ton­née (set of unique gla­ci­ated rocks), is a dis­play of anti­quated farm machinery, designed to enhance the road into the vil­lage from the east. It fea­tures croft­ing machinery that has been used for dec­ades in the fields around the Dul­nain Bridge area. Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 4 of 20

There is one hotel in the vil­lage ‑Tigh-na-Sgiath. The vil­lage hall is loc­ated on the main road in Dul­nain Bridge, next to the vil­lage post office and gar­age. On the oth­er side of the bridge is a park and children’s play­ground. Not­ably with­in Dul­nain Bridge there remains one of a decreas­ing num­ber of areas where croft­ing con­tin­ues as a tra­di­tion­al way of life for a num­ber of people with­in the community.

Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil Area map

Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil Area

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

Com­munity Assets Dul­nain Bridge Vil­lage Hall Anti­quated Croft­ing / Farm Machinery (dis­play) at north-east entrance to vil­lage Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 5 of 20

Loc­al Busi­nesses There are sev­er­al loc­al busi­nesses oper­at­ing in the vil­lage includ­ing Dul­nain Bridge Gar­age, Dul­nain Bridge PO, the Spey­side Centre, Seafield and Muck­rach Estates, farms and crofts, the Cairn Dis­til­lery, as well as a num­ber of hol­i­day rent­al oppor­tun­it­ies. There is cur­rently no loc­al business/​tourism asso­ci­ation to rep­res­ent the voice of com­mer­cial activ­ity in Dul­nain Bridge.

1. The Pro­cess The Dul­nain Bridge com­munity con­sulta­tion peri­od ran from Octo­ber to Decem­ber 2024 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 steer­ing group asked the fol­low­ing questions:

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? Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 6 of 20

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 Dul­nain Bridge 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 8. 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 Dul­nain Bridge and wanted to keep in their com­munity. They also wished to encour­age the com­munit­ies to look to at least a 5‑year hori­zon, and con­sider how they might tackle some of the trick­i­er issues such as care for the envir­on­ment, sup­port­ing young­er and older res­id­ents, employ­ab­il­ity and trans­port. So ques­tions were asked 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 Dul­nain Bridge?

2) What changes would you like to see for Dul­nain Bridge by 2030? (You might want to think about how you as an indi­vidu­al or we as a com­munity can improve our envir­on­ment, address cli­mate change and biod­iversity loss, devel­op our loc­al eco­nomy, increase social and leis­ure oppor­tun­it­ies and 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.

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 ²⁰²⁰⁄₂₁ pan­dem­ic lock­downs. Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 7 of 20

It was decided that all house­holds in Dul­nain Bridge (approx. 300) 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 all areas of 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 vari­ous loc­a­tions in the area, or from inform­a­tion col­lated at events put on for spe­cif­ic groups in the vil­lage. Sur­veys were returned from the community’s primary and high 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 Our Young People 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 10. 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 the Dul­nain Bridge Big Con­ver­sa­tion, which took place on a Fri­day and Sat­urday in Decem­ber 2024 at Dul­nain Bridge 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 Dul­nain Bridge:

• A Socially Con­nec­ted Com­munity • A Cli­mate Con­scious Com­munity • A Com­munity for Our Young People

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? Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 8 of 20

CAP doc­u­ment pro­duc­tion All of the com­ments and pieces of inform­a­tion giv­en by the pub­lic dur­ing the Dul­nain Bridge Big Con­ver­sa­tion event were col­lec­ted and incor­por­ated into this report, which now belongs to the Dul­nain Bridge com­munity and will be used as the basis for ongo­ing com­munity devel­op­ment over the next 5 – 8 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 Dul­nain Bridge 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 mem­bers 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.

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. Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 9 of 20

1. Sur­vey Responses Thanks go to the 81 res­id­ents who con­trib­uted so mean­ing­fully and thought­fully to the com­munity sur­vey – this num­ber rep­res­ents 17% of the community’s pop­u­la­tion and includes responses from school age res­id­ents. Also, thanks go to the people who atten­ded the Big Con­ver­sa­tion drop-in event at the vil­lage hall over the two days.

For a full list of what came out of the sur­vey responses, see Sec­tion 10. 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 Dul­nain Bridge? Appendix ii What changes would you like to see for Dul­nain Bridge by 2030?

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 • A Com­munity for Our Young People

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. Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 10 of 20

DUL­NAIN BRIDGE: A SOCIALLY CON­NEC­TED COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Shop at the post office would be great • Feas­ib­il­ity to explore com­munity options Pri­or­ity: Café in the vil­lage for loc­als and to encour­age people to vis­it the vil­lage • Maybe a com­munity-run café in hall Pri­or­ity: Traffic slow­ing meas­ures on road enter­ing vil­lage from Car­rbridge • Look into put­ting a cross­ing Pri­or­ity: Upgrade entry signs to the vil­lage • Replace signs and replant to make each entry to vil­lage more wel­com­ing and attract­ive Pri­or­ity: Improve the pic­nic bench area • Put a fence between the benches and bottle bank area

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE COM­MUNITY FACIL­IT­IES Shop & Post Office • Explore pos­sib­il­ity of delivery/​return meth­ods eg Evri • Sup­port PO as much as pos­sible Café • Com­munity run in the hall • Com­bine a pop-up shop with a café Pic­nic Bench area • Fence between benches and bottle bank • Repos­i­tion recyc­ling to rear of vil­lage hall • Con­sider pos­i­tion­ing of dog poo bins, so not near to pic­nic benches • Move pic­nic area to oppos­ite gar­age if recyc­ling can’t be moved • Add a BBQ stand if pos­sible Install winter lights • Plan lay­out require­ments and look into funding

• Lar­ger notice­board on front of Hall

PRI­OR­ITY: TRAFFIC SLOW­ING MEAS­URES • Dis­cuss options avail­able with High­land Coun­cil eg cross­ings, speed bumps, chi­canes etc

PRI­OR­ITY: UPGRADE ENTRY SIGNS • Poten­tially 4 signs (at A938 x 2, 1 x B9178, 1 x past Spey­side Centre) • Talk to Grant­own Ini­ti­at­ive re signs recently installed there • Engage with loc­al artist/​graphic design­er and explore costs • Replant (at base of / nearby signs) also to make more attract­ive Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 11 of 20

DUL­NAIN BRIDGE: A CLI­MATE CON­SCIOUS COM­MUNITY Pri­or­ity: Com­plete path to Grant­own Pri­or­ity: Fix the bridge so the bar­ri­ers can be removed Pri­or­ity: Devel­op / con­nect more loc­al path­ways and cycle­ways to oth­er vil­lages • Nethy Bridge • Car­rbridge Pri­or­ity: Pro­mote biod­iversity in the vil­lage and wood­lands • Plant dif­fer­ent types of nat­ive trees in under­used open land — without obscur­ing the views • Plant more wild­flowers to attract insects • Allow some grass to grow long in sum­mer months to allow vari­ety of flowers to bloom eg at east­ern end of park • More bird boxes in the village

PRI­OR­ITY: COM­PLETE PATH TO GRANT­OWN • Urge CNPA / experts to get this finally con­struc­ted in 2025

PRI­OR­ITY: FIX THE BRIDGE • Use this man­date to push for High­land Coun­cil action to repair bridge and remove eye­sore barriers

DEVELOP/CONNECT LOC­AL PATH­WAYS & CYCLE­WAYS TO OTH­ER VIL­LAGES • Explore options for cross­ing A95 to encour­age Act­ive Travel to Nethy and Boat • Encour­age CNPA to pick this up after com­plet­ing Grant­own route eg link to old Carr road via the laun­dry path • Con­sider sit­ing some benches in the woods eg at view­points • Invest­ig­ate get­ting bet­ter path maps – maybe done by vil­lage itself • Con­tin­ue to improve and main­tain cur­rent path networks

PRI­OR­ITY: PRO­MOTE BIOD­IVERSITY • Info boards at key places on exist­ing spe­cies (or part of upgraded path maps) • Devel­op a wild­flower space • Identi­fy a spot for a com­munity herb/​veg plot • Cam­paign to get swift boxes around vil­lage (ask Spey Shed to make them) Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 12 of 20

DUL­NAIN BRIDGE: A COM­MUNITY FOR OUR YOUNG PEOPLE Pri­or­it­ies: • Big­ger slide at the play­park • More things at the play­park • More bike-friendly paths • Pump track

PRI­OR­ITY: YOUNG PEOPLE Improve the play­park • Pull togeth­er a volun­teer group to take for­ward an upgrade pro­ject • Ensure dogs are kept out of the play area eg fenced with auto­mat­ic clos­ing gate (at wood side of park?) • Replace nets on foot­ball goals

More bike-friendly paths • Bring togeth­er a pro­ject group to identi­fy require­ments and costs

Pump track • Explore site options and feas­ib­il­ity, fund­ing etc Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 13 of 20

1. Sug­ges­ted Spa­tial Pri­or­it­ies The sketch map below illus­trates some sug­ges­ted spa­tial pro­pos­als to help real­ise the com­munity vis­ion and Com­munity Action Plan. It dis­plays com­ments which were provided by loc­al res­id­ents and busi­nesses dur­ing the two-day Big Con­ver­sa­tion drop-in event. The map refers to the pri­or­it­ies that have come out of the Com­munity Action Plan (CAP) responses and help express the community’s aspir­a­tions and solu­tions for devel­op­ment and use of land with­in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. This reflects the loc­al plan­ning policy which aims to cre­ate sus­tain­able, live­able and pro­duct­ive places as expressed in Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (2023).

Dul­nain Bridge loc­al­ity Com­munity Action Plan map

The map shows some of the community’s ideas and pri­or­it­ies for the future devel­op­ment of Dul­nain Bridge, as well as help­ing the com­munity to devel­op and deliv­er its own pro­jects. Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 14 of 20

The pur­pose of the maps is to: • Com­ple­ment the CAP by show­ing how the Dul­nain Bridge com­munity could look in future once the vis­ion and CAP have been imple­men­ted. • Help Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil, High­land Coun­cil and CNPA con­sider the impact of plan­ning applic­a­tions on the com­munity. • Inform CNPA’s review of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. • Influ­ence invest­ment from pub­lic bod­ies, fun­ders, landown­ers and busi­nesses, in ways that sup­port the community.

1. Next Steps: Deliv­ery Steps to deliv­er the Dul­nain Bridge 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 the com­munity organ­isa­tions, but broadly involves col­lect­ively: • Set­ting up a Team Dul­nain Bridge (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 com­munit­ies • 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 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 Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 15 of 20

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 com­munit­ies are mean­ing­fully involved in decisions that affect their lives.

Team Dul­nain Bridge It is very import­ant to ensure the effect­ive deliv­ery of this action plan, for all of the com­munity to work togeth­er to imple­ment it, ie a full com­munity approach not just one or two organ­isa­tions. This approach has been called Team Dul­nain Bridge in this report, but of course the com­munity will decide on its own name for these purposes.

Team Dul­nain Bridge 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 Dul­nain Bridge 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 Dul­nain Bridge 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. Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 16 of 20

• 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 Dul­nain Bridge 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:
   • Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Council
   • Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust
   • Dul­nain Bridge Vil­lage Hall
   • Friends of Dul­nain Bridge
   • 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 Dul­nain Bridge com­munity through this com­munity action plan­ning pro­cess and facil­it­ated the steer­ing group meet­ings, but always led by the com­munity in how they wished to proceed.

Com­munity Action Plan­ning (CAP) is car­ried out in part­ner­ship by 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. Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 17 of 20

1. Appen­dices Appendix i: What do you like about liv­ing in Dul­nain Bridge? • Our amaz­ing sur­round­ings – great views, close to nature, peace­ful, quiet and pretty • Small vil­lage com­munity — wel­com­ing and friendly people, good com­munity spir­it, feels safe • Quick and easy access to nature and wood­land walks, quiet walks to take the dog • Real neigh­bours and not just hol­i­day homes • The com­munity hall • Size of the vil­lage is nice and the fact it’s less touristy and busy than oth­er sim­il­arly sized vil­lages in the area. I also like that there are very few hol­i­day homes or Airb­nbs, most of the houses are lived in full time! • The river and forests: sur­roun­ded by wood­land and lovely walks along the river • Sev­er­al act­ive vil­lage organ­isa­tions • Spey­side Centre nearby • Post Office and Gar­age • The play­park • Singing car­ols on the grass • Com­munity hold­ing more fun/​positive events in the hall • Foot­ball goals • Clean air • Rur­al set­ting but close enough to Inverness for big­ger shops and the air­port • Grew up in the vil­lage, have been a res­id­ent for 47 years and love my vil­lage: it’s quiet, safe with scen­ic sur­round­ings • Bus ser­vice • Still has a rur­al feel­ing, not been spoilt with over plant­ing of trees • Close to Grant­own on Spey for a wide range of ser­vices • Sense of his­tory eg the croft­ing com­munity in Skye of Curr Road • Able to go fish­ing • In a nation­al park

Appendix ii What changes would you like to see for Dul­nain Bridge by 2030? SOCIAL • Shop and post office would be great • Café in the vil­lage — for loc­als and to encour­age people to vis­it the vil­lage • Traffic slow­ing meas­ures on the road espe­cially enter­ing vil­lage from Car­rbridge (a cross­ing?) • Upgrade entry signs to the vil­lage – more wel­com­ing • Improve the pic­nic bench area – add a fence between the benches and bottle bank? Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 18 of 20

• More social hous­ing • Notice­board out­side vil­lage hall detail­ing loc­al events • More events in Hall for social­ising and fun­drais­ing (bake sales, board game nights etc) • More people get­ting involved in the com­munity and help­ing to make ideas a real­ity • Provide pub­lic toi­lets • Replace fence around the park – look­ing rather tatty • More reg­u­lar use of vil­lage email sys­tem • Inter­pret­a­tion about the farm equip­ment – what and how it was used

ENVIR­ON­MENT­AL • Com­plete path to Grant­own • Fix the bridge so the bar­ri­ers can be removed (and the com­munity is not at risk of being divided by the river) • Devel­op and con­nect more loc­al path­ways and cycle­ways to oth­er vil­lages eg Nethy Bridge and Car­rbridge. • Pro­mote biod­iversity in the vil­lage and wood­lands Plant dif­fer­ent types of nat­ive trees in under­used open land – without obscur­ing the views Plant more wild­flowers to attract insects Allow some grass to grow long in sum­mer months to allow vari­ety of flowers to bloom eg at east­ern end of park More bird boxes in the vil­lage • More fre­quent pub­lic trans­port to Grant­own to save driv­ing • Improve Laun­dry Path off Skye of Curr road – lots of lying water • Make more of the Roche Mou­ton­née • Provide EV char­gers that work • More paths access­ible for a wheel­chair or buggy • Foot­bridge over river Dul­nain in the woods • Com­munity own­er­ship of loc­al wood­land • Is the loc­al infra­struc­ture in place to sup­port the vil­lage expan­sion eg is the road through Skye of Curr going to be wide enough to cater for all the new house builds and multi car owners?

YOUNG PEOPLE • Big­ger slide at the play­park • More things at the play­park, espe­cially suit­able for young­er chil­dren • More bike-friendly paths • Pump track Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 19 of 20

• The shop is closed and they would like it to reopen as a gro­cery store that sells neces­sit­ies, a bit like the one in Car­rbridge • More clubs for young people • A cross­ing near the bus stop would make it safer and that there should be no park­ing along the road by the gar­age • A chi­cane in the main road would slow traffic down and make people stick to the speed lim­it • The buses need a prop­er turn­ing circle to make turn­ing safer • Bet­ter access to the woods with a clear entrance because people hop over the fence. Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 20 of 20