For dis­cus­sion

Title: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme update: quarter three 2025 (July — September)

Pre­pared by: Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030

Pur­pose

This paper presents the status of the Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) pro­gramme and risk man­age­ment, based on inform­a­tion in pro­ject reports for the peri­od from April to June 2025, and updated where appro­pri­ate to reflect cur­rent pos­i­tion as at the time of writ­ing, and the planned work to end Septem­ber 2025.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board is asked to:

a) Note pro­gress to date and future plans for Cairngorms 2030 deliv­ery. b) Note spe­cif­ic points of Cairngorms 2030 deliv­ery risk. c) High­light any issues arising that mem­bers may feel need spe­cif­ic con­sid­er­a­tion by staff from a stra­tegic and board perspective.

Stra­tegic context

1. Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) will inspire people and com­munit­ies in the Nation­al Park to act and tackle the nature and cli­mate crisis. Bring­ing togeth­er 20 long-term pro­jects on trans­form­ing land­scapes, empower­ing com­munit­ies, rethink­ing how we travel and cham­pi­on­ing wellbeing.

2. The Park Author­ity was awar­ded £12.5 mil­lion by the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) to devel­op and deliv­er C2030 and become the UK’s first net zero Nation­al Park. The five-year deliv­ery phase com­menced in Janu­ary 2024.

Stra­tegic risk management

1. Per­form­ance dash­board: Pro­gramme level quarter three (Q3) 2025 (see Annex 1 for projects).

Per­form­ance Meas­ure	Red-Amber-Green (RAG) status	Issue/​mitigation
	Q3 25 (cur­rent)	Q3 trend	Q4 25 (expec­ted)
Pro­gramme risk profile	Green		Green	Pro­gramme level risk trend has decreased from Amber to Green. Park Author­ity has received Trans­port Scot­land act­ive travel match fund­ing award for 2025⁄26.
Deliv­ery of Trans­port Scot­land fun­ded projects	Amber		Amber	Act­ive Com­munit­ies pro­ject level risk decreased from Red to Amber. Trans­port Scot­land act­ive travel design fund­ing award let­ter has been received. Amber RAG status reflects the tim­ing chal­lenge of deliv­er­ing the Act­ive Com­munit­ies pro­jects by end of fin­an­cial year 2025⁄26. Amber RAG status will likely be retained until March 2026. Risk mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures have been intro­duced includ­ing new pro­ject gov­ernance struc­tures and risk escal­a­tion procedures.
Future fund­ing profile	Green		Green	Future fund­ing risk trend has decreased in line with act­ive travel fund­ing certainty.
Fin­ance: impact on Park Author­ity budget management	Green		Green	No sig­ni­fic­ant impact cur­rent or pro­jec­ted Park Author­ity budget identified. The poten­tial fin­an­cial implic­a­tions for C2030 pro­gramme deliv­ery are an integ­ral ele­ment of approved 2025⁄26 budget plans. Over­all budget man­age­ment impacts remain with­in the total agreed budget.
Pro­cure­ment	Green		Green	Man­aging Act­ive Com­munit­ies con­tracts con­tin­ues to help devel­op teams’ pro­ced­ures and expertise. Pro­cure­ment plans in place and shared with NLHF.
Staff­ing	Green		Green	Effect­ive com­munity engage­ment team at full strength. Staff train­ing continues. Peat­land team resourcing chal­lenges con­tin­ue requir­ing work plan­ning changes.

Note: a) Q3 risks present the assessed risk status as at end of the quarter. b) Q3 trend presents the dir­ec­tion of risk drivers and influ­en­cers impact­ing risk assess­ment over the quarter. c) Q4 expec­ted risk levels give a sense of where we cur­rently expect risks to land in final assess­ment at the end of Decem­ber should cur­rent man­age­ment and risk mit­ig­a­tion actions impact on risk as planned.

Key risks

1. Pro­gramme risk level has decreased. Trans­port Scot­land act­ive travel match fund­ing award let­ter has been received.

a) The Act­ive Com­munit­ies pro­ject risk status has decreased from red to amber. b) Amber RAG status reflects the tim­ing chal­lenge of deliv­er­ing the Act­ive Com­munit­ies Pro­jects by end of the fin­an­cial year. Amber RAG status will likely be retained until March 2026. c) Risk mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures have been intro­duced includ­ing new pro­ject gov­ernance struc­tures and risk escal­a­tion pro­ced­ures. d) Design con­sult­ants have been appoin­ted and com­menced pro­ject deliv­ery. A pro­ject steer­ing group has been set up with key deliv­ery part­ners. e) Monthly pro­gress report­ing to Trans­port Scot­land has com­menced. f) Risks being man­aged include loc­al author­ity sign off on concept design road safety, design stand­ards (road width, foot­way width, per­mit­ted devel­op­ment) and roles and respons­ib­il­it­ies for pro­gress­ing land nego­ti­ations and con­struc­tion phase. g) Act­ive travel design com­munity engage­ment event has been sched­uled in Aviemore on 11 Decem­ber 2025.

Sup­port­ing inform­a­tion: theme lead highlights

Restor­ing and enhan­cing landscapes:

1. All pro­jects at RAG status green.

2. Wood­land expan­sion: Angus Glens new tree nurs­ery grant award drafted.

3. Peat­land res­tor­a­tion: Des­pite staff­ing resource con­straints, momentum remains strong, and we are on track to meet our tar­gets for the year.

4. Nature recov­ery:

a) Com­munity deer lar­der strategy has been draf­ted and sub­mit­ted to Park Author­ity man­age­ment team for approv­al. Two new deer lar­ders have been pro­posed, and pro­ject ini­ti­ation doc­u­ments (PID) and invest­ment plans are being drafted.

b) Out­line pro­ject scope for new rur­al skills train­ing scheme has been draf­ted. Dis­cus­sions under­way with poten­tial deliv­ery part­ners with a full PID to be pre­pared by end of the year.

1. Future Farm­ing: Enhanced train­ing and advice plan for oth­er farm­ers to max­im­ise the learn­ings and bene­fits of the project.

2. Cli­mate resi­li­ent catch­ments: Bal­later flood resi­li­ence pro­ject terms of a Memor­andum of Under­stand­ing (MoU) have been draf­ted and agreed, with sig­na­ture by the rel­ev­ant com­munity bod­ies outstanding.

3. Com­munity bene­fits from nature invest­ment: A fourth landown­er has shown act­ive interest in join­ing the pro­ject and oth­er con­ver­sa­tions are in the pipeline, show­ing there is a level of interest in deliv­er­ing com­munity bene­fits among landowners.

4. Land­scape and com­munit­ies: New C2030 land­scape sur­vey was used in pub­lic for the first time at a com­munity road­show event. Good examples of cross C2030 pro­ject col­lab­or­a­tion with cre­at­ives in the Nation­al Park to under­stand bet­ter the obstacles they face when bid­ding for land­scape work and explor­ing the scope for rangers and volun­teers to be involved with planned com­munity engagement.

Empower­ment:

1. All pro­jects at RAG status green.

2. All pro­jects have delivered well with­in this pro­ject, with a good bal­ance between the intern­al pre­par­a­tion and plan­ning work, paired with on the ground deliv­ery across the board.

3. Effect­ive com­munity engage­ment team have suc­cess­fully delivered four engage­ment events / road­shows this quarter includ­ing Grant­own Show, Greentown Show, Strath­don com­munity road­show and Kin­craig fun day.

4. Com­munity man­aged cli­mate grant pro­ject has stepped up activ­ity, with the pre- engage­ment work being shaped and delivered, and the plan­ning for the recruit­ment phase of the work.

Trans­port:

1. Act­ive communities:

a) Design con­sultancy pro­cure­ment and con­tract awar­ded for the Act­ive Com­munit­ies pro­jects in Aviemore and Boat of Garten now under­way. b) Gov­ernance and risk report­ing struc­tures set up and meet­ing report­ing under­way. c) Con­tract exten­sion to deliv­er designs for New­ton­more and Nethy Bridge to follow.

1. Chan­ging Travel Behaviours:

a) 71 pupils signed up to three Bike Buses in Aviemore, Boat of Garten and Grant­own-on-Spey. Boat of Garten Deshar bike bus now fully volun­teer run. b) 431 Bike Bus trips made. c) New bike bus in Grant­own has star­ted with high uptake and great par­ent / carer sup­port and involve­ment. d) Strath­spey Ped­al Ini­ti­at­ive (SPIN) has put togeth­er this impress­ive short Film (cred­it: Angus Trinder). Show­cases the vari­ous activ­it­ies C2030 is col­lab­or­at­ing with SPIN to deliv­er. e) Con­ver­sa­tions ongo­ing with Cairngorms Trust / Aviemore Bikes about the poten­tial exten­sion of the Work­place events. Scope of the Work­places pro­ject in 2026 includes a con­tract exten­sion with Cairngorms Trust with deliv­ery plans for work­places in 2026.

1. Cyc­ling Friendly Cairngorms:

a) Launch of the Nation­al Park Author­ity Fleet Cycles took place this quarter and has been well received by staff. Rangers have star­ted a tri­al of cycles on Deeside and in the Angus Glens demon­strated good prac­tice act­ive travel at work to inspire oth­er work­places. b) Recom­mend­a­tion made and con­firmed approv­al to pro­ceed with four main cycle hubs in Aviemore, Grant­own-on-Spey, Glen­more and Bal­later with sup­port­ing hubs in Kin­gussie, New­ton­more, Boat of Garten, Nethy Bridge, Car­rbridge, Dul­nain Bridge, Brae­mar, Tomin­toul, and Blair Atholl. The next quarter will focus on devel­op­ing the required pro­cure­ment pro­gramme to appoint sup­pli­ers for the neces­sary infra­struc­ture includ­ing cycle park­ing and e‑bike chargers.

c) An impact­ful con­tract with SPIN has delivered a range of com­munity events and activ­it­ies this quarter Dr Bike at Com­munity Events, Com­munity bike main­ten­ance classes at Car­rbridge, Nethy Bridge, Kin­gussie and New­ton­more. Three classes (26 attendees) delivered as part of the YMCA’s Grant­own Cli­mate Change Fest­iv­al, to help the pro­mo­tion of skill-shar­ing, act­ive travel and a repair / reuse mind­set. d) School Dr Bike ses­sions suc­cess­ful with option to extend this into year three being recommended.

1. Sus­tain­able Transport:

a) Recom­mend­a­tions from the bus stop audit pro­posed by pro­ject lead col­lated and advice sought from the Park Authority’s Seni­or Man­age­ment Team (SMT) on pri­or­it­ies. b) Invest­ment pro­pos­als are oppor­tun­it­ies for the Park Author­ity to deliv­er sub­stan­tial impact for bus stop improve­ments, Myr­tle­field Shop­ping Centre, Aviemore plus improved bus shel­ters, Glen­more corridor.

Health and Wellbeing:

1. Pub­lic health and the outdoors:

a) A very good quarter con­sol­id­at­ing a num­ber of work­streams lead­ing to increased aware­ness and under­stand­ing of the pro­ject amongst health­care pro­fes­sion­als and con­sequently a steady stream of refer­rals. b) As before this work throws up issues that are new; in this instance safe­guard­ing con­cerns for refer­rals. These have been dealt with sens­it­ively and effi­ciently mak­ing good use of the Park Authority’s Safe­guard­ing pro­tocol and liais­on with GP prac­tices. c) Some excel­lent and innov­at­ive events delivered – Wee Wanders and the Fest­iv­al of Access widen the scope of the pro­ject and reach new audi­ences. d) A con­tinu­ing delay in some areas due to lack of capa­city in oth­er depart­ments is a bit of a con­cern and needs address­ing in the next quarter.

1. Out­door demen­tia resource centre:

a) The pro­ject con­tin­ues to push the bound­ar­ies of nature activ­it­ies for people with demen­tia through influ­en­cing prac­tice and activ­ity in oth­er organ­isa­tions and sectors.

b) The re-alloc­a­tion of the budget to provide a brain health activ­ity coordin­at­or is a great example of test­ing and learn­ing lead­ing to an innov­at­ive res­ult. c) A very suc­cess­ful quarter with good attend­ance and par­ti­cip­a­tion in the activ­ity pro­gramme as well as a lot of media coverage.

Fin­ance:

1. The £600,000 fund­ing decision from the High­lands and Islands Enter­prise (HIE) applic­a­tion remains to be con­firmed. The fund­ing would sup­port the Com­munity Cli­mate Grants, Cycle Friendly Cairngorms, and Sus­tain­able Trans­port projects.

Stake­hold­er engagement

Com­mu­nic­a­tions

1. Press releases:

a) One part­ner press release dur­ing this peri­od, issued by Stage­coach on fund­ing received to increase bike stor­age pro­vi­sions on buses in Aber­deen­shire. Bike- friendly buses hit the road in north­east Scot­land.

1. Cairn magazine art­icles (note three issues per year, dis­trib­uted to over 12,000 house­holds and all 18,000 res­id­ents in the Nation­al Park).

a) Cairn hit door­steps 04 August with a story on the Trans­form­ing Trans­port strand as the main fea­ture and front cov­er. This is a bump­er issue for Cairngorms 2030 stor­ies fea­tur­ing the Cre­at­ives exhib­i­tion (Com­munity arts and cul­ture), Alford Academy’s volun­teer­ing days and Men­stru­ation in the wild train­ing ses­sions (Cli­mate learn­ing and edu­ca­tion). Also fea­tured is the new Nature Advisor role (Green fin­ance and com­munity wealth build­ing), a focus on the future farm­ing par­ti­cip­at­ing farms and aspen plant­ing (Cairngorms future farm­ing). The issue fin­ishes with an inter­view on Com­munity Con­nXions social enter­prise (Sus­tain­able travel). You can read the latest edi­tion here. b) The winter edi­tion of Cairn will fea­ture an update on the deer lar­der (Nature recov­ery), school mur­als (Cli­mate learn­ing and edu­ca­tion), Aviemore act­ive travel devel­op­ments (Act­ive com­munit­ies), the YMCA cli­mate fest­iv­al (Cli­mate con­scious com­munit­ies) and Dee River res­tor­a­tion (Cli­mate resi­li­ent catchments).

1. Cairngorms Voices (online blog / photo stories)

a) There were four online blogs pos­ted this quarter fea­tur­ing Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects: i. ​“If you build it, they will come” — a blog on Peat­land res­tor­a­tion ii. In con­ver­sa­tion with Ali Marr – inclus­ive art ses­sions for people liv­ing with demen­tia — an inter­view with a loc­al artist who runs bespoke art ses­sions for people liv­ing with demen­tia and their carers. iii. New spin on the school run — cov­er­ing high­lights on the Trans­port Team’s work. iv. Com­munity spir­it drives con­nec­tion – an inter­view with Com­munity Con­nXions Don­ald Hall.

b) Oth­er press activ­ity: i. There were six pieces of press cov­er­age from 01 July to 31 Septem­ber that men­tion Cairngorms 2030 and / or the NLHF. Two were online art­icles and four were print, with a total pre­dicted reach of over 68,000.

1. Social media

a) Social media activ­ity in this peri­od con­tin­ued with a total of 28 posts, includ­ing shar­ing the new deer lar­der film and micro-updates that kept Cairngorms 2030 present on our social media chan­nels. b) A sum­mary of the social media activ­ity is giv­en in the fol­low­ing reports: i. Septem­ber com­mu­nic­a­tions update. ii. Total engage­ments — that is people who have liked, shared, watched and inter­ac­ted with mater­i­als — of all Cairngorms 2030 activ­ity across social media: 44,559 — up 74% on last quarter, this high stat­ist­ic is due to the pro­mo­tion and views of the Glen­k­il­rie Lar­der film.

1. Oth­er online / off­line activity

a) Ongo­ing work on two videos high­light­ing the work of the Cairngorms Cre­at­ives and co-design pro­cess (Com­munity arts and cul­ture). b) Pro­mot­ing con­sulta­tion and com­munity engage­ment events (Cli­mate resi­li­ent catch­ments, Effect­ive com­munity engage­ment). c) Assist­ing with posters, dis­plays and pro­mo­tion­al mater­i­als for engage­ment and pro­ject pro­mo­tion­al activ­ity. d) Work­ing with video­graph­ers Cairn Media on the pro­duc­tion of sev­er­al films fol­low­ing C2030 projects.

e) Col­lab­or­at­ing with the Trans­port Team, Alan Jones Asso­ci­ates and Mott Mac­Don­ald on com­mu­nic­a­tions and engage­ment on the Act­ive Aviemore pro­ject (Act­ive Com­munit­ies). f) Tender brief for Peat­land res­tor­a­tion pho­to­graphy (Peat­land res­tor­a­tion). g) Sup­port­ing the pro­mo­tion of the Pledge Pro­cess Plan­et art exhib­i­tion (Com­munity arts and culture).

Com­mu­nic­a­tions actions in next quarter

1. Pub­lic­a­tion of film focus­sing on the Cairngorms future farm­ing project.

2. Sup­port and pro­mo­tion of com­munity engage­ment events.

3. Social media reel fol­low­ing Fèis Spè and their work with Edin­burgh Uni­ver­sity researchers.

4. Work­ing with social media influ­en­cers to pro­mote travel by pub­lic transport.

5. Col­lab­or­a­tion with loc­al bike bus par­ents in Grant­own-on-Spey for blog / photo post.

6. Col­lect­ing stat­ist­ics and quotes for the cre­ation of the 2025 Cairngorms 2030 high­light leaflet.

Volun­teer activity

1. This quarter has seen the num­ber of volun­teers enga­ging with C2030 pro­jects con­tin­ue to increase, both through our Volun­teer Ranger pro­gramme and Cycle friendly Cairngorms volun­teers. Our addi­tion­al 24 Volun­teer Rangers from Q2 have increased the volume of atten­ded C2030-focused volun­teer­ing ses­sions, primar­ily with the Out­door Brain Health and Demen­tia Resource Centre, but also with wider Cairngorms envir­on­ment­al volunteering.

2. Volun­teer Cairngorms is now explor­ing dir­ectly run­ning volun­teer activ­it­ies for oth­er pro­ject leads, with the bene­fit of increas­ing the both the abso­lute num­ber of volun­teer­ing ses­sions and the vari­ety of pro­jects that can now staff events.

a) All pro­ject leads have had the oppor­tun­ity to devel­op plans for volun­teer involve­ment with the pri­or­ity pro­jects (in terms of tim­ing and degree of devel­op­ment) being focused on for year 2026 deploy­ment – namely peat­land res­tor­a­tion, Cairngorms Future Farm­ing tree plant­ing and Wood­land expan­sion volun­teer mont­ane wil­low plant­ing. In Q4 our move from devel­op­ment sup­port to dir­ect involve­ment in deliv­ery will allow us to work with these leads in schedul­ing and run­ning volun­teer involving events for year 2026.

Staff­ing and recruitment

1. The Park Author­ity has won The Her­ald and S1Jobs Top Employ­er Award, in the ​“Best Diversity and Inclu­sion Dynam­ic in the Work­place” cat­egory. The Park Author­ity were chosen as the win­ner for their excep­tion­al, organ­isa­tion-wide lead­er­ship in embed­ding equal­ity, diversity and inclu­sion. Through bold policies, lived-exper­i­ence part­ner­ships and meas­ur­able impact, it has cre­ated a thriv­ing, diverse work­force and delivered innov­at­ive ini­ti­at­ives that make the Park — and the organ­isa­tion itself — a truly inclus­ive ​“Park for All.”

2. Peat­land team are under pres­sure due to anoth­er mem­ber mov­ing on and a key mem­ber being on long term sick­ness. How­ever, action has been approved to address these mat­ters, for example, con­sult­ants are being brought in to increase the Geo­graph­ic Inform­a­tion Sys­tems (GIS) cap­ab­il­ity as one meas­ure. Effects are expec­ted to be short term.

3. Effect­ive com­munity engage­ment team has now reached full capa­city dur­ing Q3 with second engage­ment coordin­at­or start­ing with Park Author­ity end of July.

4. Brain Health Activ­ity Coordin­at­or to be recruited for Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre.

Gov­ernance

1. The NLHF staff and Scot­land Invest­ment Com­mit­tee vis­ited the Park on 17 Septem­ber 2025. The Park Author­ity organ­ised a series of talks for staff to learn more about the NLHF-fun­ded C2030 pro­gramme, with a spe­cif­ic focus on nature conservation.

2. NLHF and Park Author­ity exec­ut­ive teams also met on the day to dis­cuss future invest­ment in the Nation­al Park as part of C2030 leg­acy. Addi­tion­al CEO level dis­cus­sions were sched­uled for Novem­ber 2026.

Budget and cash flow

1. No sig­ni­fic­ant changes to budgets or cash flow dur­ing the quarter.

Leg­al agreements

1. Draft MoU in progress:

a) Hitrans Region­al trans­port part­ner­ships (RTP) – agree­ment to deliv­er joint sus­tain­able and act­ive travel out­comes to boost C2030 deliv­ery. b) Glas­gow School of Art (GSA): Rur­al Lab. Part­ner­ship on four ele­ments of the NEXA mod­el (research, edu­ca­tion, enter­prise / skills and innov­a­tion). And embed­ding PHD schol­ars in Park Author­ity pro­ject deliv­ery. c) Cli­mate Resi­li­ent Catch­ments: Bal­later Flood Group Ini­ti­at­ive. d) Wood­land expan­sion: Glen Prosen Tree nurs­ery with Alba Explorers. e) Wood­land expan­sion: Mont­ane plant­ing with Nation­al Trust Scot­land (NTS), Marr Lodge Estate.

Pro­gramme deliv­ery actions to end Decem­ber 2025.

Draft GSA rur­al lab MoU pre­pared	14 Novem­ber 25
Park Author­ity and NLHF Invest­ment plan­ning meeting	17 Novem­ber 25
C2030 Pro­gramme board meeting	19 Novem­ber 25
HIE fund­ing meeting	21 Novem­ber 25
C2030 staff annu­al review	26 Novem­ber 25
Cairngorms 2030 Engage­ment Road­show – Aviemore	11 Decem­ber 25
Draft Hitrans MoU prepared	15 Decem­ber 25

Sig­ni­fic­ant Budget Adjustments

1. None

Con­clu­sions: Per­form­ance Over­view and Mat­ters Mer­it­ing Stra­tegic Review

1. In con­clu­sion, the fol­low­ing key oper­a­tion­al pro­gramme risks under man­age­ment are drawn to the Boards attention:

a) Pro­gramme risk level has decreased from amber to green after receiv­ing con­firm­a­tion of fund­ing from Trans­port Scot­land. b) The Act­ive Com­munit­ies pro­ject risk status has decreased from red to amber. How­ever, sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenges remain in deliv­er­ing the pro­ject due to the short times­cales. Gov­ernance and risk man­age­ment plans have been instigated.

Dav­id Clyne 20 Novem­ber 2025 davidclyne@​cairngorms.​co.​uk