Formal board meeting - paper 4 - Partnership Plan timetable - 26 September 2025

Form­al Board Paper 4 26 Septem­ber 2025 Page 1 of 4

For decision

Title: Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2027 – 2032 Timetable

Pre­pared by: Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer

Pur­pose

This paper provides an ini­tial timetable for the devel­op­ment of the 2027 — 2032 Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP).

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board is asked to: a) Agree the timetable for the devel­op­ment of the NPPP 2027 – 2032.

Stra­tegic context

1. The pro­cess for the devel­op­ment of a NPPP is set out in the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000.

2. This sets out that a Nation­al Park Author­ity must pre­pare and sub­mit to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters a plan set­ting out its policy for: a) Man­aging the Nation­al Park, and b) Co-ordin­at­ing the exer­cise of:

   i. The authority's functions in relation to the National Park, and
   ii. The functions of other public bodies and officeholders so far as affecting the National Park,
   

   with a view to accom­plish­ing the pur­pose set out in sec­tion 9(1) of the Act.

3. The Act sets out that the con­sulta­tion must be for 12 weeks and that the Park Author­ity must con­sult loc­al author­it­ies, com­munity coun­cils, such per­sons as appear to it to be rep­res­ent­at­ive of the interests of those who live, work or carry on busi­ness in the Nation­al Park, and such oth­er per­sons as it thinks fit.

4. When the NPPP is approved by the Park Author­ity Board fol­low­ing con­sulta­tion it is sub­mit­ted to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for approval.

Form­al Board Paper 4 26 Septem­ber 2025 Page 2 of 4

1. The Park Plan is the key stat­utory man­age­ment plan for the Park. It is not a plan for the Author­ity; it is a plan for the place. The Act sets out that ​“The Scot­tish Min­is­ters, a Nation­al Park Author­ity, a loc­al author­ity and any oth­er pub­lic body or office­hold­er must, in exer­cising func­tions so far as affect­ing a Nation­al Park, have regard to the Nation­al Park Plan as adop­ted under sec­tion 12(7)(a)”.

2. The Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Bill is pro­pos­ing strength­en­ing this part of the Act with ​‘have regard to’ replaced with ​‘facil­it­ate the imple­ment­a­tion of’.

3. The NPPP is the stra­tegic expres­sion of how the aims will be achieved col­lect­ively and how the Author­ity gives great­er weight to the first aim where this is a conflict.

4. The NPPP also sets out what sub-plans will be developed and how they link togeth­er eg Cairngorms Nature Action Plan, Eco­nomy Action Plan etc.

Timetable

1. The aim is that the Board will sign off the NPPP for sub­mis­sion to Scot­tish Min­is­ters in March 2027. The flow charts below sets out the key dates for the devel­op­ment of the plan.

2. The engage­ment work builds on the sub­stan­tial data col­lec­ted over the past 18 months via the res­id­ents’ sur­vey, vis­it­or sur­vey and Cairngorms2030 road­shows and engagement.

Engage­ment timetable

Sept 2025 — May 2026 Inform­al engage­ment and evid­ence gath­er­ing with key stake­hold­ers, com­munit­ies, busi­nesses etc

Jun 2026 — Sept 2026 Draft NPPP developed for consultation

Oct 2026 — Dec 2026 Form­al pub­lic Consultation

Jan 2027 — Mar 2027 Revi­sion of plan for form­al adoption

Form­al Board Paper 4 26 Septem­ber 2025 Page 3 of 4

Board timetable

Sept 2025 — May 2026 Board busi­ness ses­sions to devel­op key stra­tegic positions

Jun 2026 — Sept 2026 Form­al board approv­al for NPPP con­sulta­tion in Sept 2026

Oct 2026 — Dec 2026 Board involved in events asso­ci­ated with form­al pub­lic consultation

Jan 2026 — Mar 2027 Board busi­ness ses­sion to dis­cuss changes post con­sulta­tion and form­al approv­al in March 2027 for sub­mis­sion to Scot­tish Ministers

1. The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP) timetable will be updated at the Novem­ber 2025 board meet­ing. How­ever, the LDP con­sulta­tion will take place in early 2027 after the con­sulta­tion for the NPPP.

Resources

1. The Park Author­ity has estab­lished an intern­al pro­gramme board to co-ordin­ate the devel­op­ment of the NPPP and the LDP. There will be sig­ni­fic­ant pres­sure on staff resources to con­tin­ue to deliv­er the cur­rent Park Plan includ­ing Cairngorms 2030, imple­ment the fire man­age­ment byelaw and deliv­er the new LDP along­side the devel­op­ment of the next NPPP. Seni­or Man­age­ment Team are look­ing at this resource issue and the NPPP is a key ele­ment of the next whole staff meet­ing in October.

2. The key mit­ig­a­tion for the resource impact is to look at the next NPPP as a fur­ther iter­a­tion of the stra­tegic dir­ec­tion of the cur­rent Park Plan with its tar­gets out to 2045 but that has still to be tested with board mem­bers and stakeholders.

Risks

1. The resource risk is out­lined above. The oth­er three key risks are as fol­lows a) Fin­ance to imple­ment the changes that the NPPP seeks to achieve. b) Buy-in from key stake­hold­ers to imple­ment the changes that the NPPP seeks to achieve. c) Con­sulta­tion fatigue – there has been sig­ni­fic­ant engage­ment over the past few years. There is a real risk that people will be dif­fi­cult to engage with on anoth­er stra­tegic plan.

These are items that will be the focus of early dis­cus­sions with the Board and stake­hold­ers on the devel­op­ment of the Plan.

Form­al Board Paper 4 26 Septem­ber 2025 Page 4 of 4

1. A Risk Register for the devel­op­ment of the plan is being pre­pared and any stra­tegic risks will be added to the Stra­tegic Risk Register.

Next steps

1. The next steps will be provid­ing an officer assess­ment of the cur­rent Park Plan, what are the options for change and what evid­ence base we will have to gath­er over the next year. Ini­tial think­ing around the NPPP will be set out at the Board Busi­ness Ses­sion on 10 Octo­ber where mem­bers will be able to dis­cuss options.

Grant Moir grantmoir@​cairngorms.​co.​uk 10 Septem­ber 2025