Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 2 Annex 2 23 March 2026 Page 1 of 17

Annex 2

Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme Quarter four 2025 Trans­port theme update

1. Con­tents and Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) action required.

Pro­ject	Action	Page
1. Sum­mary	For inform­a­tion	2
2. Back­ground	For inform­a­tion	3 – 4
3. Act­ive Com­munit­ies: Aviemore	For Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) approv­al – pro­ject scope change	4 – 10
4. Act­ive Com­munit­ies: Boat of Garten	For inform­a­tion	10
5. Act­ive Com­munit­ies: Nethybridge	For inform­a­tion	11
6. Act­ive Com­munit­ies: Newtonmore	For inform­a­tion	12
7. Pro­ject update: Hitrans Hi-Bikes part­ner­ship with Cycle Friendly Cairngorms project	For inform­a­tion	13 – 14
8. Budget change request: Sus­tain­able Trans­port, Cycle Friendly Com­munity and Chan­ging Travel Beha­viour projects	For NLHF approv­al budget change request	15 – 17

1

---

2. Sum­mary

This paper provides an update on the Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) Trans­port Theme, out­lining pro­posed refine­ments to pro­ject scope, pro­gramme sequen­cing and budget alloc­a­tions across the Act­ive Com­munit­ies and Cycle Friendly Cairngorms work­streams. These changes arise from tech­nic­al con­straints, evolving com­munity aspir­a­tions and extern­al delays to key part­ner fund­ing, all of which have shaped the pace and dir­ec­tion of pro­ject development.

Des­pite these chal­lenges, the Trans­form­ing Trans­port theme remains fully aligned with the approved pur­poses of NLHF fund­ing. The revised approach con­tin­ues to deliv­er sus­tain­able, access­ible and com­munity led trans­port improve­ments that sup­port beha­viour change, inclu­sion and well­being. In Aviemore, the pro­gramme will focus on high qual­ity walk­ing, wheel­ing and pub­lic realm enhance­ments while pro­gress­ing altern­at­ive cyc­ling improve­ments that bet­ter reflect stake­hold­er feed­back and tech­nic­al feas­ib­il­ity. Com­ple­ment­ary cyc­ling invest­ment will be strengthened through the Cycle Friendly Cairngorms pro­ject, includ­ing a part­ner­ship to deliv­er HiBikes as a vis­ible, cli­mate pos­it­ive mobil­ity option.

The pro­posed adjust­ments improve deliv­er­ab­il­ity, respond dir­ectly to com­munity pri­or­it­ies and ensure long term leg­acy by strength­en­ing part­ner­ships with Trans­port Scot­land, HITRANS and The High­land Council.

Budget changes between trans­port pro­jects are designed to max­im­ise pub­lic bene­fit, enhance integ­ra­tion and sup­port inter­ven­tions with the greatest poten­tial to influ­ence mod­al shift. Taken togeth­er, these meas­ures ensure the pro­gramme remains coher­ent, resi­li­ent and well posi­tioned to achieve its inten­ded NLHF outcomes.

2

---

3. Back­ground

The C2030 Trans­form­ing Trans­port theme is designed to deliv­er sus­tain­able, access­ible and com­munity led trans­port improve­ments with­in and between the Nation­al Park’s settlements.

Deliv­er­ing this theme has required care­ful nav­ig­a­tion of a com­plex oper­at­ing envir­on­ment. Extern­al fund­ing delays and evolving com­munity aspir­a­tions have all influ­enced the pace and nature of pro­ject devel­op­ment. Through­out this peri­od, our pri­or­ity has been to ensure that the pro­gramme remains deliv­er­able, loc­ally sup­por­ted and aligned with the approved pur­poses of NLHF funding.

Fol­low­ing extens­ive engage­ment and detailed tech­nic­al advice, the main Act­ive Com­munit­ies pro­gramme has focused its invest­ment in Aviemore, where the oppor­tun­ity for trans­form­a­tion­al impact is greatest. This includes the core move­ment cor­ridor link­ing Aviemore town centre with neigh­bour­hoods, hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion, schools, the hos­pit­al, com­munity facil­it­ies and key amen­it­ies. With­in this area we remain com­mit­ted to improv­ing access for people walk­ing and using wheel­chairs, enhan­cing pub­lic trans­port infra­struc­ture, and expand­ing cyc­ling oppor­tun­it­ies in ways that are deliv­er­able, safe and sup­por­ted by the community.

Recent design work and com­munity feed­back have high­lighted a clear pref­er­ence to pri­or­it­ise improve­ments to pave­ments, cross­ings and access­ible pub­lic realm along Grampi­an Road, rather than pur­su­ing a segreg­ated cycle track that has been shown to be tech­nic­ally imprac­tic­al and not sup­por­ted by loc­al stakeholders.

This adjust­ment does not change the ambi­tion of the pro­gramme. Instead, it refines the deliv­ery approach to ensure the pro­ject remains viable and genu­inely reflect­ive of com­munity needs. The pro­posed shift will enable high qual­ity walk­ing and wheel­chair improve­ments that meet NLHF out­comes around inclu­sion, well­being and access to nature, while avoid­ing design solu­tions that present unresolv­able safety or engin­eer­ing constraints.

3

---

At the same time, the pro­gramme main­tains a strong com­mit­ment to cyc­ling. Com­ple­ment­ary invest­ment in com­munity cycle fleets, secure stor­age, e‑bike char­ging, tool sta­tions and cycle park­ing will be pro­gressed through the Cycle Friendly Cairngorms pro­ject. To sup­port this expan­sion, we pro­pose real­loc­at­ing budget from the wider sus­tain­able trans­port work­stream into tar­geted cyc­ling infra­struc­ture that can be delivered effect­ively with­in the pro­gramme timeframe.

Taken togeth­er, these adjust­ments ensure that the Trans­form­ing Trans­port theme remains fully aligned with its approved NLHF pur­pose. They strengthen deliv­er­ab­il­ity, respond to com­munity pri­or­it­ies and ensure that Aviemore con­tin­ues to act as a hub demon­strat­ing what a more act­ive, access­ible and cli­mate pos­it­ive Cairngorms can look like.

4. Act­ive Com­munit­ies: Aviemore

This update cov­ers pro­ject scope and rationale for change to the scheme based on what the pro­ject steer­ing group approved fol­low­ing stake­hold­er engage­ment activity,

The Act­ive com­munit­ies steer­ing group agreed to remove the cycle path from the Aviemore concept design, and pro­ceed with a pro­ject which instead focuses on walk­ing and wheel­chair pro­vi­sion by:

1. Widen­ing and improv­ing the exist­ing pavement.
2. Focus­ing on pub­lic realm enhancement.
3. Focus­ing on bus stop integration.
4. Provid­ing a shared use path adja­cent to Grampi­an (North of Dal­faber Drive only).
5. Road to enhance a short stretch of Spey­side Way which plugs a gap between fur­ther built-up area route devel­op­ments and the start point of the Aviemore to Car­rbridge non-motor­ised user route that Trans­port Scot­land will deliv­er via the A9 dualling programme.
6. Intro­du­cing addi­tion­al traffic calm­ing meas­ures on the main carriageway
7. Devel­op­ing an altern­at­ive cycle friendly route on Dal­faber Road.

4

---

4.1 Rationale for change

4.1.1 Tech­nic­al

Review of the concept design against the topo­graph­ic­al sur­vey shows unequi­voc­ally that there is not enough space for a bid­irec­tion­al cycle path without sub­stan­tial land take, mature tree remov­al, and car­riage­way realign­ment. Such sig­ni­fic­ant con­sid­er­a­tions will not be achiev­able with­in the life of the pro­gramme, but the find­ings will inform future road cor­ridor improve­ment plans and will be passed to the High­land Coun­cil for future cap­it­al invest­ment consideration.

4.1.2 Com­munity feedback

Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil (AVCC) do not sup­port designs which include a segreg­ated cycle path on Grampi­an Road.

Recent con­sulta­tion with the AVCC provides clear and con­struct­ive feed­back that sup­ports refine­ment of the Act­ive Com­munit­ies pro­pos­als while main­tain­ing align­ment with the approved NLHF pur­poses. The AVCC sup­ports the programme’s over­all prin­ciples and wel­comes improve­ments to walk­ing, wheel­ing and sig­nage. How­ever, they have expressed sig­ni­fic­ant con­cerns regard­ing the pro­posed segreg­ated cycle track along Grampi­an Road and Dal­faber Drive. Their view is that this design is not prac­tic­al or safe with­in the exist­ing built envir­on­ment, cre­ates mul­tiple con­flict points with side roads, would not offer a mean­ing­ful improve­ment for cyc­lists, and would res­ult in a loss of val­ued green space.

The AVCC strongly sup­ports invest­ment in cyc­ling but recom­mends that resources are focused on more effect­ive and deliv­er­able routes. They identi­fy oppor­tun­it­ies to enhance cyc­ling through Old Dal­faber Road, the Dal­nabay and Sil­ver­glades area, and the par­al­lel Spey­side Way path, which they con­sider a low-cost quick win that bet­ter meets user needs.

Feed­back also high­lights oppor­tun­it­ies to strengthen pub­lic trans­port pro­vi­sion, par­tic­u­larly through improved bus stop loc­a­tions and con­sid­er­a­tion of a north Aviemore hub, which would increase access for res­id­ents. Addi­tion­al com­ments sup­port proposed

5

---

traffic calm­ing, ped­es­tri­an cross­ings and improve­ments to access­ible green routes such as the Spey­side Way.

The con­sulta­tion demon­strates strong sup­port for the over­arch­ing goals of Act­ive Com­munit­ies while provid­ing clear evid­ence that adapt­a­tions to route align­ment and design will ensure the pro­ject is deliv­er­able, loc­ally sup­por­ted and main­tains the NLHF out­come of cre­at­ing safer, more inclus­ive, more attract­ive act­ive travel environments.

These insights dir­ectly inform the pro­posed pro­ject change and ensure con­tin­ued align­ment with the approved fund­ing purposes.

4.1.3 Cycle provision

It is import­ant to emphas­ise that the remov­al of the cycle path from the C2030 Grampi­an Road designs does not rep­res­ent a reduc­tion in ambi­tion set out in the NLHF fund­ing application.

Our com­mit­ment to deliv­er­ing mean­ing­ful improve­ments for cyc­lists in Aviemore remains unchanged.

We will con­tin­ue to pro­gress enhanced cyc­ling pro­vi­sion by focus­ing on the altern­at­ive route into the centre of Aviemore that uses Dal­faber Road and the Nation­al Cycle Net­work. This cor­ridor offers a largely traffic free option that can take people from the Dal­faber Drive and Dal­nabay areas into the vil­lage centre quickly, com­fort­ably and safely. Improv­ing this route allows us to deliv­er the same stra­tegic bene­fit for cyc­lists that was envi­sioned in the ori­gin­al pro­pos­al; while respond­ing to com­munity feed­back, tech­nic­al con­straints and the oppor­tun­it­ies iden­ti­fied dur­ing design development.