LOAF paper 4 - Update and forward look

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FORUM

Update and for­ward look

Pre­pared by: Adam Streeter-Smith, Recre­ation and Access Manager

Pur­pose: This paper provides an update on the main areas of work both under­taken and planned.

1. Devel­op­ment and Man­age­ment of core paths:

Old Log­ging Way Old Log­ging Way- In late 2023 it was sur­veyed by Cycle­th­er­apy from its off-road start point at Inver­druie to Glen­more. The res­ult­ing report recom­mends a range of inter­ven­tions from repairs, sur­face refur­bish­ment, realign­ments and upgrades.

Main Issues to be addressed include:

• Some sec­tions are too nar­row.
• Some sec­tions suf­fer badly in wet weath­er, sub­mer­ging parts of the track.
• Some sec­tions are too steep.
• Veget­a­tion hinders vis­ib­il­ity for two-way traffic and at road cross­ing points.
• Road cross­ing vis­ib­il­ity for users and drivers is decreas­ing as veget­a­tion encroaches on vis­ib­il­ity splays.
• Sig­nage is insufficient.
• Speed con­trol wooden chi­canes aren’t suit­able for all types of users.

The blind bend (oppos­ite Coly­um­bridge Hotel) is in the pro­cess of being redesigned along with the chi­canes at the Inver­druie and the camp­site end of this sec­tion and this work will be out to tender hope­fully by the end of 2024.

Spey­side Way

• Dir­ec­tion­al sig­nage – The dir­ec­tion­al sig­nage (fin­ger­posts and way­mark­ers) between Aviemore and the Park bound­ary (bey­ond Crom­dale) is cur­rently being updated. These works will upgrade the remainder of the dated brown posts to new green posts in line with the rest of the trail. The works are expec­ted to be com­pleted by the end of 2024 (weath­er dependent).
• Spey­side Way — Kin­craig. Plan­ning per­mis­sion to realign a sec­tion of the route near Kin­craig that is very steep has been secured and OATS have secured a con­tract­or who is

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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• due to start the work mid-Novem­ber. The path will need to be closed at this sec­tion (with a rough diver­sion in place) for approx. two weeks while the works are being car­ried out.

• Spey­side Way – Park bound­ary (north) to Nethy Bridge sec­tion. Tender cur­rently being writ­ten to remove, modi­fy or replace where appro­pri­ate the gates (not­ably the dated ​“ram­bler” style). This is hoped to go out to loc­al con­tract­ors by the end of November.

1. Oth­er Path Projects-

Charter Chest Path The Charter Chest path link­ing Brae­mar and Kei­loch is now com­plete and was offi­cially opened on 1^st Novem­ber. Way­mark­ing is cur­rently being pro­duced to be installed. It is also planned to install seat­ing and interpretation.

Com­munity Path Leaflets The Strath­don path leaf­let has been revised and updated in col­lab­or­a­tion with the Strath­don path group. Leaf­let can be viewed on our web­site. The pan­els pro­posed along­side this are on hold due to the budget situation.

1. Boat of Garten dog walk­ing pilot A com­munity ​“thank-you” day was held in Boat of Garten at the end of Septem­ber fol­low­ing the spring/​summer cam­paign aimed at res­id­ents to be good Caper­cail­lie neigh­bours. The feed­back from this event will help shape the decisions about the work being planned for next year. This is to be con­firmed, but likely to be a phase II in Boat of Garten address­ing some of the points raised dur­ing the pilot, shift­ing mes­saging to tar­get the ​‘fre­quent vis­it­or’ audi­ence and expand­ing the geo­graph­ic­al area to include neigh­bour­ing sec­tions of Aber­nethy NNR. Trends from the mon­it­or­ing work sug­gest that more dogs were on leads this year and pos­it­ive indic­at­ors of Caper­cail­lie breed­ing increased.