Flood Resilience Strategy consultation response

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own on Spey PH26 3HG

T: 01479 873 535

13 August 2024

Flood­ing Team Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment 3 J South Vic­tor­ia Quay Edin­burgh EH6 6QQ

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Response to Flood Resi­li­ence Strategy Consultation

Dear Flood­ing Team,

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity sup­ports the pro­posed Flood Resi­li­ence Strategy, not­ably a focus on flood resi­li­ent places, cre­ated through mean­ing­ful engage­ment with com­munit­ies of place and interest, which bring both loc­al and nation­al, soci­et­al benefit.

There is sig­ni­fic­ant align­ment with the pro­posed aims and prin­ciples in the Strategy and object­ives in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan for increas­ing wood­land, restor­ing peat­lands, and recon­nect­ing rivers with their flood­plains – all of which will help inter­cept, absorb, increase stor­age and release water slowly.

We sup­port the eth­os of a joined-up approach to deliv­er­ing strategy out­comes with­in the nation­al policy frame­work tack­ling the twin crises. Crit­ic­al to achiev­ing this is a place-based approach to nation­al policy and pub­lic fund­ing, and close col­lab­or­a­tion across pub­lic sec­tor deliv­ery part­ners to deliv­er­ing shared tar­gets and out­comes, avoid­ing a sec­tor and/​or agency spe­cif­ic approach.

Rur­al pay­ments are crit­ic­al to ​‘mak­ing space for water’. The Park author­ity strongly advoc­ates for future agri­cul­tur­al pay­ments to sup­port land man­agers in allow­ing flood­plains to func­tion nat­ur­ally and devel­op altern­at­ive farm­ing meth­ods that work in tan­dem with sea­son­ally inund­ated fields.

Com­munit­ies in the Nation­al Park have been dir­ectly affected by the dev­ast­at­ing impacts of Storm Frank in 2015 and more recently Storm Babet in 2023. The Park Author­ity wel­comes the com­mit­ments in the Strategy to com­munity empower­ment and par­ti­cip­a­tion. This oppor­tun­ity can be sup­por­ted by a pro­gramme of rais­ing aware­ness and under­stand­ing, capa­city build­ing and fund­ing to empower com­munit­ies to take part in flood resi­li­ence plan­ning, decision mak­ing and action through loc­al struc­tures such as Catch­ment Man­age­ment Part­ner­ships and com­munity groups.

Deliv­er­ing at the speed and scale neces­sary will require a hol­ist­ic view of land-use, good stake­hold­er engage­ment and sig­ni­fic­ant com­mit­ment and invest­ment from private and pub­lic sources. The Park Author­ity is cur­rently lead­ing a River Dee Resi­li­ence Strategy, coordin­at­ing the work of pub­lic bod­ies, enga­ging land man­agers and loc­al com­munit­ies of place and interest, spa­tially tar­get­ing and pri­or­it­ising a suite of nature based and engin­eered inter­ven­tions, and devel­op­ing mech­an­isms to draw in invest­ment from mul­tiple sources. We would wel­come the oppor­tun­ity to work fur­ther with the Flood­ing Team in devel­op­ing and deliv­er­ing this model.

Yours sin­cerely

Andy Ford Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change