Finance & Delivery Cttee Paper 2 Visitor Giving & Annexes

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee Paper 2 22/02/19

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY FIN­ANCE & DELIV­ERY COMMITTEE

FOR DIS­CUS­SION

Title: VIS­IT­OR GIV­ING SCHEME: MEMO OF AGREE­MENT WITH CAIRNGORMS TRUST

Pre­pared by: Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Rur­al Development

Pur­pose To present a draft of the Memo of Agree­ment that is pro­posed with the Cairngorms Trust and which will under­pin our part­ner­ship approach to man­age­ment of the Scheme.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee is reques­ted to:

a) Note and dis­cuss the Memo of Agree­ment which will be sub­ject to fur­ther dis­cus­sion with the Trust and signed off by CNPA CEO.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee Paper 2 22/02/19

Back­ground

1. The CNPA Board approved estab­lish­ment of a Vis­it­or Giv­ing Scheme in June 2018 on the basis of a num­ber of pro­pos­als that are attached at Annex I.

Sum­mary of recent progress

1. Since that time the Cairngorms Trust has employed a part-time Trust Man­ager, Nancy Cham­bers, who has been charged with devel­op­ment of the pro­pos­als for a Scheme that will be led by the Trust.

2. Fur­ther dis­cus­sions with the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship have taken place and the have decided not to be part of the Scheme. They are still sup­port­ive of a vis­it­or giv­ing scheme in prin­ciple but do not wish to be act­ively involved as a part­ner at this time.

3. Earli­er this month, as part of the Budget set­tle­ment, Scot­tish Min­is­ters announced that they will legis­late to provide loc­al author­it­ies with powers to raise addi­tion­al rev­en­ues through a Tran­si­ent Vis­it­or Levy (TVL). There will be pub­lic con­sulta­tion of detailed pro­pos­als before any such legis­la­tion is introduced.

Pro­posed Memo of Agreement

1. The draft Memo of Agree­ment is attached at Annex 2 and is self-explanatory.

2. Mem­bers are invited to dis­cuss the pro­posed agree­ment to ensure it provides a sat­is­fact­ory basis for CNPA to act as part­ner in the Scheme, recog­nising the pro­pos­als that were approved in prin­ciple by the Board.

Mur­ray Fer­guson 12 Feb­ru­ary 2019 murrayferguson@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee Paper 2 Annex I 22/02/19

Annex 1: Crit­ic­al suc­cess factors and asso­ci­ated pro­pos­als agreed by CNPA Board in June 2018

a) Keep admin­is­trat­ive costs low and max­im­ise the bene­fits – exper­i­ence else­where high­lights the risk of admin­is­tra­tion costs con­sum­ing a con­sid­er­able pro­por­tion of the total funds raised from donors. To address this we pro­pose to: • Devel­op a scheme that makes most use of exist­ing Park-wide organ­isa­tions and the struc­tures that we have in the Park – with the prin­cip­al parties being the Cairngorms Trust (an estab­lished char­ity), the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship (CBP) and the CNPA • Cov­er admin­is­tra­tion costs, as far as pos­sible, through link­ages to staff exist­ing work pro­grammes and, if neces­sary, provid­ing staff sup­port from exist­ing CNPA staff resources as we do for oth­er com­munity and vol­un­tary organ­isa­tions and activities.

b) Strong lead­er­ship and clear and trans­par­ent gov­ernance – sev­er­al organ­isa­tions will be involved and there needs to be clear and trans­par­ent gov­ernance arrange­ments in place to min­im­ise the risks to all parties and build con­fid­ence amongst all rel­ev­ant part­ners and donors. To address this issue we pro­pose to: • Invite all the prin­cip­al parties to sign a Memor­andum of Under­stand­ing (MoU) set­ting out roles and respons­ib­il­it­ies, the guidelines and mech­an­isms by which it will be decided what pro­jects are sup­por­ted, etc. For CNPA the MoU will be approved by the Fin­ance and Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee. • Estab­lish a VGS Part­ner­ship Group to over­see man­age­ment of the Scheme and com­pli­ance with the MoU. • Encour­age devel­op­ment of a Busi­ness Plan for the Scheme for a peri­od of three to five years to set tar­gets and pri­or­it­ies (e.g. which pro­jects to fund, which busi­ness sec­tors to work with most closely, etc.) • Trans­fer the lead role for devel­op­ment of the Scheme, at an appro­pri­ate point, to the Cairngorms Trust – this will bring bene­fits in terms of sep­ar­a­tion from pub­lic sec­tor duties and trans­par­ency, account­ab­il­ity through pro­cesses that are man­aged by OSCR. • Devel­op simple pro­ced­ures for any busi­ness will­ing to become involved in pro­mot­ing the Scheme. • Update the CNPA Board and all stake­hold­ers on pro­gress with the Scheme annu­ally, includ­ing the total funds raised, num­bers of busi­nesses participating.

c) Busi­ness sup­port for the Scheme – this is a key issue in the Nation­al Park and the suc­cess of the Scheme will sig­ni­fic­antly rely on pro­mo­tion by busi­nesses espe­cially as neither CNPA nor the Cairngorms Trust have daily dir­ect face-to face con­tact with vis­it­ors. A sum­mary of the res­ults of a sur­vey that was under­taken through the CBP Busi­ness Baro­met­er is avail­able at Annex 3. This shows that around half of busi­nesses indic­ated that they would be will­ing to par­ti­cip­ate in some way and this has been con­firmed by the dir­ect dis­cus­sion staff have had with busi­nesses. The sur­vey also recor­ded a range of com­ments that are use­ful to see the

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee Paper 2 Annex I 22/02/19

factors that busi­nesses con­sider to be import­ant – e.g. trans­par­ency in expendit­ure, sep­ar­a­tion from pub­lic sec­tor duties, etc. The CBP pos­i­tion state­ment is attached at Annex 4. Dis­cus­sions also took place with the SCDI, who sup­port the Scheme in prin­ciple, and with the Fed­er­a­tion of Small Busi­nesses who noted ​“The FSB under­stands the need for addi­tion­al and ongo­ing invest­ment in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park’s nat­ur­al assets, espe­cially in light of the fund­ing pres­sures facing the pub­lic sec­tor. As such, we are sym­path­et­ic to the pro­pos­al for a busi­ness-friendly, vis­it­or giv­ing scheme. How­ever, giv­en the cur­rent attempts by a num­ber of loc­al author­it­ies to intro­duce a tour­ism tax, we are unable, at the moment, to fully sup­port the pro­pos­al”. To address this issue we pro­pose to: • Work pos­it­ively with the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship as a part­ner in the Scheme and with indi­vidu­al busi­nesses who wish to sup­port the Scheme. The CBP have strong mem­ber­ship rep­res­ent­a­tion with­in the Nation­al Park and oper­ate the web­site Vis​it​Cairngorms​.com and sev­er­al social media chan­nels which give good oppor­tun­it­ies to encour­age vis­it­ors to con­trib­ute. • Devel­op a range of levels for indi­vidu­al busi­nesses to become involved in pro­mot­ing the Scheme, for example : i. Basic — where a busi­ness pro­motes the Scheme and refers cus­tom­ers to a ded­ic­ated web­site or text-giv­ing facil­ity ii. Inter­me­di­ate – where a busi­ness works the Scheme to integ­rate pay­ments into their exist­ing book­ing or pay­ment sys­tem iii. Advanced – where a busi­ness uses or pro­motes spe­cif­ic tech­no­logy ded­ic­ated to the Scheme to make it easy for cus­tom­ers to make dona­tions. • Link the Scheme to the use of the Nation­al Park brand image by set­ting a pos­it­ive expect­a­tion that if using the Nation­al Park brand to pro­mote a busi­ness, then the Scheme should be pro­moted to vis­it­ors. • Devel­op the Scheme incre­ment­ally based on pilot pro­jects, learn­ing from exper­i­ence, and build­ing sup­port from busi­nesses and donors over time.

d) Mak­ing it easy for people to con­trib­ute we need to make this as easy as pos­sible. People are most likely to con­trib­ute if the pay­ment sys­tem is easy to admin­is­ter and people are asked to make con­tri­bu­tions at the point when they are mak­ing pay­ment for oth­er goods or ser­vices. To address this issue we pro­pose to: • Col­lect funds as far as pos­sible using digit­al means, linked to exist­ing pay­ment sys­tems and avoid­ing cash • Devel­op ded­ic­ated fun­drais­ing approaches based of use of digit­al tech­no­logy includ­ing integ­ra­tion with apps with loc­a­tion­al cap­ab­il­ity (e.g. apps that re being developed for Badenoch Great Place Scheme and Snow Roads pro­ject) • Endeav­our to build ongo­ing rela­tion­ships with cus­tom­ers to com­ple­ment one-off dona­tions • Make the Scheme attract­ive to any­one who loves the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

e) Encour­aging dona­tions towards prac­tic­al work that people care about and can see is delivered – the research shows that people are most likely to con­trib­ute towards pro­jects that relate to the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the des­tin­a­tion and to its act­ive enjoy­ment. To address this issue we pro­pose to: • Raise funds gen­er­ally for two themes: Recreation/​Access (e.g. paths and bridges) and Nature/​Landscape con­ser­va­tion pro­jects (e.g. nat­ive wood­land creation).

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• Both of these are strongly related the reas­ons why vis­it­ors say they come to vis­it the Nation­al Park • Ensure that a small port­fo­lio of spe­cif­ic flag­ship pro­jects are developed and high­lighted for fund­ing though spe­cif­ic cam­paigns – these will change over time as the pro­jects are delivered • Ensure that the pro­jects to be delivered are well dis­trib­uted around the Nation­al Park

f) High vis­ib­il­ity of the Scheme and the work it sup­ports – it is essen­tial that the Scheme has a high pro­file and that vis­it­ors, and the busi­nesses pro­mot­ing the Scheme, can eas­ily see the prac­tic­al effects of the con­tri­bu­tions made. To address this issue we pro­pose to: • Brand the Scheme as #Love­Cairngorms (sub­ject to fur­ther mar­ket test­ing) • Devel­op a range of spe­cif­ic com­mu­nic­a­tions mater­i­als to encour­age people to con­trib­ute and make them aware of the impact of dona­tions • Integ­rate the mes­saging of the Scheme in rel­ev­ant pub­lic­a­tions, web­sites and pro­ject work that are admin­istered by the prin­cip­al parties • Sup­port the Scheme gen­er­ally through CNPA’s over­all approach to com­mu­nic­a­tions as noted in the Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment Strategy.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee Paper 2 Annex I 22/02/19

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee Paper 2 Annex 2 22/02/19

Annex 2: Memo of Agree­ment with Cairngorms Trust

DRAFT MEMOR­ANDUM OF AGREE­MENT BETWEEN

THE CAIRNGORMS TRUST being a registered Char­ity and hav­ing their Office at 14 The Square, Grant­own on Spey, PH26 3HG (here­in­after referred to as the ​“TCT”)

And

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY being a Nation­al Park Author­ity incor­por­ated under The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Des­ig­na­tion, Trans­ition­al and Con­sequen­tial Pro­vi­sions (Scot­land) Order 2003 and hav­ing their Prin­cip­al Office at 14 The Square, Grant­own on Spey, PH26 3HG (here­in­after referred to as the ​“Author­ity”).

This MEMOR­ANDUM OF AGREE­MENT is hereby made and entered into by the Author­ity and The Cairngorms Trust.

DEFIN­I­TIONS The fol­low­ing terms appear­ing in this Memor­andum of Agree­ment are to be inter­preted solely in line with the fol­low­ing definitions.

Cairngorms Vis­it­or Means a scheme to encour­age vol­un­tary con­tri­bu­tions from Giv­ing Scheme (the vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park which are to be Scheme) rein­ves­ted in pro­jects bene­fit­ing the area.

Cairngorms Means an advis­ory group estab­lished by the Author­ity and Tour­ism which brings togeth­er stake­hold­ers involved in tour­ism to Part­ner­ship over­see deliv­ery the Cairngorms Tour­ism Action Plan.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee Paper 2 Annex 2 22/02/19

PUR­POSE

1. This agree­ment explains the respect­ive roles and respons­ib­il­it­ies of The Cairngorms Trust and the Author­ity in the devel­op­ment, deliv­ery and man­age­ment of a Vis­it­or Giv­ing Scheme for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

STATE­MENT OF MUTU­AL BENE­FIT AND INTERESTS

1. The four stat­utory aims of the Nation­al Park are set out in the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 and are: a. To con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area. b. To pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area. c. To pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the pub­lic. d. To pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

2. The pur­pose of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity is to ensure that these four aims are col­lect­ively delivered in a coordin­ated way. The Author­ity pre­pares a Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan every five years which sets out the vis­ion and over­arch­ing strategy for man­aging the Park.

3. The Cairngorms Trust is a Scot­tish Char­it­able Incor­por­ated Organ­isa­tion. The organisation’s pur­poses are wholly char­it­able and, in par­tic­u­lar, are to advance, for the bene­fit of the pub­lic, sus­tain­able and com­munity-led loc­al devel­op­ment with­in and out­with Scotland.

4. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is accred­ited under the European Charter for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism in Pro­tec­ted Areas which is a prac­tic­al man­age­ment tool that enables pro­tec­ted areas to devel­op tour­ism sus­tain­ably. The core ele­ment of the Charter is work­ing in part­ner­ship with all rel­ev­ant stake­hold­ers to devel­op a com­mon sus­tain­able tour­ism strategy and an action plan. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park was the first Nation­al Park in the UK to be awar­ded the Charter in 2005. The accred­it­a­tion pro­cess requires extern­al veri­fic­a­tion every five years. In 2019 the Cairngorms was one of 101 sus­tain­able des­tin­a­tions across 16 European coun­tries and one of only three such des­tin­a­tions in the UK.

THE VIS­IT­OR GIV­ING SCHEME

1. The pur­pose of the Scheme is engage with vis­it­ors and oth­er people who enjoy the Cairngorms to gen­er­ate funds to rein­vest in pro­jects that bene­fit the Nation­al Park. Fol­low­ing a peri­od of research and dis­cus­sion with part­ners, the Author­ity agreed in prin­ciple, in June 2018, to work with part­ners and estab­lish such a Scheme.

RESPONS­IB­ILIITES OF PARTIES

THE CAIRNGORMS TRUST

1. The Cairngorms Trust’s respons­ib­il­it­ies will be to:

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a. Admin­is­ter and pro­mote the Scheme, includ­ing plan­ning and day-to-day management.

b. Pre­pare a Busi­ness Plan for the Scheme for a peri­od of two to three years to set tar­gets and pri­or­it­ies (includ­ing, for example which types of pro­ject to pri­or­it­ise for fund­ing and which busi­ness sec­tors to work with, etc.)

c. Estab­lish and chair a Vis­it­or Giv­ing Scheme Part­ner­ship Group to over­see man­age­ment of the Scheme which will meet at least two times per year and which will: i. Approve the Busi­ness Plan for the Scheme ii. Agree the alloc­a­tion of funds raised by the Scheme to pro­jects with­in the Park iii. Mon­it­or deliv­ery of the Scheme includ­ing the total funds raised, num­bers of vis­it­ors con­trib­ut­ing, num­bers of busi­nesses participating

d. Lead on the over­all pro­mo­tion of the Scheme to busi­nesses and to visitors

e. Devel­op pro­ced­ures for any busi­ness will­ing to become involved in pro­mot­ing the Scheme.

f. Report on the Scheme as part of the nor­mal report­ing arrange­ments to the Office of the Scot­tish Char­ity Regulator

g. Ensure that for at least the first two years of the Scheme, all of the vis­it­or con­tri­bu­tions will be spent on pro­jects with­in the Park with no con­tri­bu­tion going to cov­er admin­is­tra­tion costs

h. Lead on review and renew­al of this Agree­ment as required.

THE CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity respons­ib­il­it­ies will be to:

a. Assist with estab­lish­ment of the Scheme though provid­ing staff resource to advise on the Scheme, and in par­tic­u­lar on which pro­jects require fund­ing and on com­mu­nic­a­tions issues.

b. Con­trib­ute towards the costs of estab­lish­ing the Scheme as part of the Oper­a­tion­al Plan, agreed annually.

c. Nom­in­ate one mem­ber of staff to sit on the Vis­it­or Giv­ing Scheme Part­ner­ship Group along with the Chair of the Cairngorms Tour­ism Partnership

d. Pro­mote the Scheme as part of integ­ra­tion with the com­mu­nic­a­tions and engage­ment activ­ity of the Author­ity includ­ing the use of social media chan­nels, cam­paigns and websites

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e. Provide oppor­tun­it­ies for wider debate and advice on the Scheme through access to stake­hold­ers on the Cairngorms Tour­ism Partnership

f. Report annu­ally on the Scheme to the CNPA Board as part of arrange­ments for mon­it­or­ing the deliv­ery of the Tour­ism Action Plan

REVIEW OF AGREEMENT

1. This oper­a­tion of this agree­ment shall be reviewed at least every two years.

COM­MENCE­MENT AND TERMINATION

1. This agree­ment will take effect on XXX and shall ter­min­ate on YYY unless oth­er­wise agreed in writing.

2. Any party shall be entitled to ter­min­ate this agree­ment on giv­ing six months’ notice in writ­ing to the oth­er parties.

3. Pri­or to any such notice being issued, and cause which may give rise to a poten­tial notice to ter­min­ate must be com­mu­nic­ated in writ­ing to the office of the rel­ev­ant party, stat­ing clearly the issues which could lead to ter­min­a­tion and the pro­posed rem­ed­ies which could avoid such action. The party mak­ing the writ­ten rep­res­ent­a­tion must allow for at least 6 months for the issues raised and their pro­posed rem­ed­ies to be con­sidered and solu­tions agreed.

4. Either party shall also be entitled to seek to extend this agree­ment bey­ond the stated ter­min­a­tion date. At least 6 months’ notice should be giv­en of the desire to extend the agree­ment and this com­mu­nic­ated in writ­ing to the oth­er party. The party receiv­ing the request to the agree­ment should respond with­in 60 days of receipt of the request.

ARBIT­RA­TION

1. In the event of any dis­pute under this agree­ment between the parties a ref­er­ence shall be made to a single arbit­er to be mutu­ally appointed.

2. Fail­ing agree­ment there­on, a single arbit­er shall be chosen by The Cairngorms Trust. The decision of any such arbit­er will be final and binding.

Signed on behalf of ….

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