Paper Three - Casework Review

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM PAPER 3

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FORUM

Title: Update on case­work volumes and types over 2019 – 2022 cal­en­dar years.

Pre­pared by: Douglas Stew­art, Out­door Access Officer.

Pur­pose: I. To update mem­bers on case­work hand­ling of all types includ­ing monthly break­downs and sum­mary of key types by volume.

1. To con­sider find­ings and any rel­ev­ant issues arising.

Back­ground

1. The Nation­al Park Author­ity has a num­ber of duties and respons­ib­il­it­ies requir­ing pro­vi­sion of advice to intern­al col­leagues and key part­ners along­side respond­ing to both gen­er­al enquir­ies from the pub­lic and also com­plaints over obstruc­tions to and/​or inter­fer­ence with the exer­cise of stat­utory access rights.

2. In order to both mon­it­or and pro­cess these tasks a case­work record is main­tained. This ​‘log’ records num­bers and types of case­work includ­ing dates, hand­ling times and a record of con­tacts made dur­ing processing.

Case­work Handling

1. Man­age­ment of case­work work­load is an ongo­ing con­sid­er­a­tion with the present sys­tem alloc­at­ing cas­work on the basis of a 50:50 split between the two Out­door Access Officers in post. Depend­ing on the com­plex­ity or nature of any giv­en case col­lab­or­a­tion and dis­cus­sion often takes place towards ensur­ing bal­anced decision mak­ing. Pro­cessing, record­ing and alloc­a­tion is sup­por­ted by an admin sup­port officer.

Ana­lys­is of Annu­al Records

1. The cur­rent record shows a rel­at­ive decrease in case­work for the 6 month review peri­od (QI & Q2) over 2021 fig­ures how­ever main­tains an over­all upward trend over the same peri­od since 2019. The increase since 2019 amnounts to 16%.

2. Records for the 6 month review peri­od com­pare as fol­lows not­ing break­down of fig­ures for 2022 QI & Q2 vs 2019 baseline :

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CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM PAPER 3

• 2022-122 cases = 16% over QI & Q2
• 2021-259 cases = 35% over baseline
• 2020 – 215 cases = 12% over baseline
• 2019 – 192 cases = baseline (QI & Q2 = 105 cases)

1. It is prob­able that first half of 2022 mantains a high­er num­ber (com­pare pre-pan­dem­ic) of UK res­id­ents hol­i­day­ing at home (i.e. with­in the UK) due to pan­dem­ic related issues con­tinu­ing to affect inter­na­tion­al travel with these high­er num­bers seen feed­ing into the levels of extern­al case­work exper­i­enced. Wheth­er this will con­tin­ue is unclear as there are a mul­ti­ude of rel­ev­ant factors how­ever cost of liv­ing increases may fur­ther bol­ster domest­ic hol­i­days vs for­eign. There is also ance­dot­al evid­ence to sug­gest the num­ber of camper­vans and mobile homes being used has seen a sus­tained increase since the pre-pan­dem­ic peri­od and this may persist.

2. Both Plan­ning and Forestry con­sulta­tions are show­ing a gradu­al uptick in num­bers with a dis­tinct spike in Plan­ning case­work evid­ent dur­ing March.

3. Case­work hand­ling capa­city and pro­ced­ures have proven resi­li­ent to fluc­tu­ations in num­bers and types of issues over­all although the sus­tained upward trend requires mon­it­or­ing in respect of staff capa­city. Case­work is react­ive and tends to lim­it capa­city ele­where when an increase in case­load is evident.

4. Not­able cases over the peri­od are as follows:

• Case 802, Restric­tion of access to land at Dell­more, Kingussie

Trans­port Scot­land fenced off a large area of land for devel­op­ment as wild­life hab­it­at as mit­ig­a­tion for the A9 dualling without recog­nising the need to main­tain pub­lic access.

• Case 895, Non-com­pli­ant sig­nage at Carrbridge

Loc­al res­id­ent has chal­lenged the com­pli­ance of the Caper­cail­lie sig­nage and dogs sig­nage around Carrbridge.

• Case 815, Dal­whin­nie rail cross­ing closure

There has been little move­ment on this issue over the past 6 months so Xan­der McDade the CNPA Board Con­vener has writ­ten to the Chair­man of Net­work Rail to press for fur­ther action on the issues.

D. Stew­art 08/08/22

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