Strathdon Community Action Plan 2025

Richard Elli­ott Aer­i­al Filming

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030

Com­piled Autumn/​Winter ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅

Sup­por­ted by Strath­don Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust Strath­don Primary School

Facil­it­ated by Marr Area Part­ner­ship (MAP) with sup­port from Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strath­spey (VABS) on behalf of the Park Authority.

MARR part­ner­ship

VABS

Con­tents

1. Sum­mary 3
2. The Com­munity 4
3. The Pro­cess 6
4. Com­munity Engage­ment 7
5. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants 7
6. Spa­tial Pri­or­it­ies 12
7. Next Steps 13
8. Thanks & Acknow­ledge­ment 14
9. Appen­dices 15 i.Results from Facil­it­a­tion Exercise

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1. Sum­mary

The Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan of 2017 needed to be updated to rep­res­ent the chan­ging needs of the com­munity. These Action Plans are neces­sary to sup­port fund­ing applic­a­tions and plan­ning. Both Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil and have encour­aged and sup­por­ted the cre­ation of this document.

In May 2016, fol­low­ing extens­ive work with the com­munity, the Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan was launched. This led to the estab­lish­ment of the Strath­don Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust (SCDT) in Septem­ber 2017 to bene­fit the com­munity with the aim of advan­cing com­munity devel­op­ment, both eco­nom­ic and social and to enhance the qual­ity of life of people liv­ing in the glen.

In 2022 and 2023, SCDT car­ried out a Facil­it­a­tions Exer­cise called ​“What the Com­munity Wants”. Using the res­ults of this facil­it­a­tion exer­cise and with sup­port from Marr Area Part­ner­ship and Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch & Strath­spey, on behalf of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, an open day was held at the Lon­ach Hall on 9^th Novem­ber 2024 to show the loc­al res­id­ents and busi­nesses the out­come of the facil­it­a­tion exer­cise and to seek fur­ther views on a num­ber of key ques­tions. An invite was per­son­ally delivered to most house­holds by volun­teers and was advert­ised on social media.

The pro­cess was entitled Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030. Giv­en the increased need now to also focus on longer-term goals, par­tic­u­larly in rela­tion to the envir­on­ment and the eco­nomy, res­id­ents and busi­nesses were asked to con­sider where they and the com­munity wanted to be by 2030, so gen­er­at­ing a more exten­ded set of plans and aspirations.

Examples of Strathdon’s recent suc­cesses with com­munity pro­jects and action plan­ning include: • Web­cam at Cock­bridge snow gates, • Bellabeg Com­munity Notice Board refur­bished and sited near the Club­bie Rooms, • Suc­cess in gain­ing £5k from the vis­it­or infra­struc­ture improve­ment fund for path between bellabeg and Newe, where new hous­ing has been developed, • Benches and pic­nic tables sited at stra­tegic loc­a­tions and trees, bulbs and flowers planted, • A new ​‘Paths around Strath­don’ leaf­let has been pro­duced with the Park Author­ity, • The Ten­nis courts have been refur­bished and are cleaned annu­ally, • Hous­ing Needs sur­vey, com­mis­sioned with the Com­munit­ies Hous­ing Trust to assess the demand for afford­able hous­ing in the area, • Land audit com­pleted by Com­munit­ies Hous­ing Trust, fun­ded by the Park Author­ity, • An annu­al lit­ter pick takes place in March, • Xmas Lights switch on, • Com­munity Action Plan reviewed, • Doune Com­munity Cab­in has opened, • Tidy up of the Toi­let at Bellabeg, • Her­it­age Group has been started,

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To help add to these achieve­ments, res­id­ents were encour­aged to take part in the com­munity action plan review in 2024. How­ever, this time round people were invited to think not only about what might be achieved togeth­er, but that the pro­jects the vil­lage was being asked to con­sider, would be ones that would help Strath­don devel­op a more sus­tain­able future. This is set against a back­drop of life post-lock­downs, the chal­lenge of find­ing new volun­teers plus the chan­ging eco­nom­ic and cli­mate situ­ation we find ourselves in. The chal­lenges for rur­al com­munit­ies, both eco­nom­ic and social, are becom­ing undeniable.

1. The Com­munity

Strath­don is an upland rur­al area on the east­ern edge of the Cairngorms Moun­tain range with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. It includes the par­ishes of Glen­buchat and Cor­garff. The whole area is approx­im­ately 16 miles long by 6 miles wide and con­sti­tutes part of Upper Don­side with Glen­kin­die and Towie.

Strath­don is an inform­al geo­graph­ic­al area. This means that there are no pre­cise bound­ar­ies in terms of where it begins or ends. To the east are Glen­kin­die and Tow­ie with shared facil­it­ies of shops, sur­gery and church. Strath­don is the found­ing place of the Lon­ach High­land and Friendly Soci­ety and the Lon­ach High­land Gathering.

The Strath­don area is bound by the Deeside Hills to the south and the Lad­der Hills to the north and includes the moun­tain road to the Lecht Ski Centre. It broadly fol­lows the River Don from its source at 2000 feet above sea level, east­wards to Cor­garff Castle and onwards to Glen­buchat Castle, which stands at the foot of the dom­in­ant land­mark of Ben Newe. Strathdon’s high alti­tude makes its weath­er unpre­dict­able and its win­ters par­tic­u­larly harsh and long. The waters of glens Ernan, Nochty, Buchat, Deo­chry, Con­rie, Carvie and Deskry all feed into the Don.

The area has a dis­tinct­ive and spe­cif­ic geo­graphy and shows much evid­ence of gla­ci­ation, par­tic­u­larly in its roun­ded hills. It is home to an abund­ance of wild­life includ­ing red and roe deer, ptar­mig­an, red squir­rels, moun­tain hares, cross­bills, buz­zards, red kite, golden eagles and vis­it­ing ospreys.

Although it is offi­cially recog­nised by some bod­ies as a very remote and rur­al area with a lack of facil­it­ies, the wider area of Strath­don has shown itself to be a remark­ably resi­li­ent, inde­pend­ent and self-reli­ant com­munity. Recent eco­nom­ic and demo­graph­ic changes have led to more mod­ern chal­lenges such as the poten­tial loss of facilities.

Com­munity Organisations

There are a sig­ni­fic­ant num­ber of com­munity organisations/​groups which work for the bene­fit of the com­munity and are almost entirely run by volunteers.

These include: Strath­don Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust, Strath­don Primary School Par­ent Coun­cil, Lon­ach High­land and Friendly Soci­ety, The Sil­ver Circle, Upper Don­side Char­it­able Trust, Lon­ach Hall Com­munity Asso­ci­ation, Cor­garff Hall Com­mit­tee, Glen­buchat Hall Com­mit­tee, Lon­ach Pipe Band, Lon­ach High­land Dan­cing, Moth­er and Tod­dlers, Strath­don Walk­ing Group, Strath­don Church Monday Club, Cor­garff Games, Scot­tish Coun­try Dan­cing, Puffins Run­ning Group, Strath­don Paths Group, Her­it­age Group, Crochet with Babs, Art in the Buchat/​Strathdon HeArts.

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Com­munity Assets

Halls & Build­ings Lon­ach Hall Cor­garff Hall Glen­buchat Hall Church and Hall Club­bie Rooms Stead­ing Bar (cur­rently closed) Med­ic­al Centre School Doune Court Sheltered Housing

Her­it­age Ser­vices Cor­garff Castle War Memori­al Com­mon­wealth War Grave­yard Poldhul­lie Bridge Heugh­head Phone Box Glen­buchat Live music

Out­door and Recre­ation­al Lon­ach Games Field Strath­don Paths Net­work Play Park Lecht Ski Area Pic­nic Area Ten­nis Courts Foot­ball Field The Doune Woodbank

Ser­vices Doune Cab­in Toi­lets Recyc­ling Com­munity Noticeboard

Loc­al Businesses

There are many loc­al busi­nesses, across many sec­tors, oper­at­ing in the area, although there is cur­rently no loc­al business/​tourism asso­ci­ation to rep­res­ent the voice of com­mer­cial activ­ity in the vil­lage. Strath­don ser­vices include the Spar Shop, Good­brand and Ross Café and an increas­ing vari­ety of visitor/​tourist accom­mod­a­tion. In addi­tion to the pre­dom­in­ant farm­ing and forestry busi­nesses there are a num­ber of ser­vices and trades­people who serve the wider area. There is also a grow­ing num­ber of artists, musi­cians and cre­at­ives in the area. There is also an increas­ing num­ber of people who work from home in addi­tion to those who commute.

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1. The Pro­cess

Involving People & Refin­ing Ideas

With a view to updat­ing the Strath­don Action Plan of 2017 the Strath­don Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust car­ried out ​“What the com­munity wants” facil­it­a­tion exer­cises in April 2022 and Sept 2022. For a full list of what came out of these events see Sect 9 Appen­dices Appendix I. Res­ult from Facil­it­a­tion Exercises.

This was fol­lowed by a BIG CON­VER­SA­TION on 9^th Novem­ber 2024

At this drop in event, the res­ults of the facil­it­a­tion exer­cises were offered back to the com­munity and time giv­en for reflec­tion and dis­cus­sion around the top­ics. Dur­ing the event, all the res­id­ents who atten­ded were asked to con­sider the top pri­or­it­ies that had been iden­ti­fied from the pro­cess under the head­ings of Strathdon:

A Socially Con­nec­ted Com­munity A Cli­mate Con­scious Com­munity An Eco­nom­ic­ally Thriv­ing Com­munity A Com­munity for our Young People

They were asked to look at those areas of par­tic­u­lar interest to them and write on action plan tem­plates aimed at refin­ing ideas by look­ing at ques­tions such as: What spe­cif­ic action needs to be taken to achieve this pri­or­ity and Who needs to be involved?

Thanks go to the 47 res­id­ents and busi­nesses in Strath­don who atten­ded the Big Con­ver­sa­tion and the chil­dren from the Primary School who con­trib­uted so mean­ing­fully and thought­fully to the facil­it­a­tion exercise.

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CAP doc­u­ment production

All of the com­ments and pieces of inform­a­tion giv­en by the pub­lic dur­ing the Strath­don Big Con­ver­sa­tion event were col­lec­ted and incor­por­ated into this report, which now will be used as the basis for ongo­ing com­munity devel­op­ment in the vil­lage over the next 5 – 8 years, with sup­port from the community’s organ­isa­tions and all oth­er rel­ev­ant stake­hold­ers from the pub­lic, private and vol­un­tary sector.

1. Com­munity Engagement

• The Nation­al Stand­ards for Com­munity Engage­ment are good-prac­tice prin­ciples designed to improve and guide the pro­cess of com­munity engage­ment. The main ele­ments of effect­ive com­munity engage­ment are: Inclu­sion, Sup­port, Plan­ning, Work­ing togeth­er, Meth­ods, Com­mu­nic­a­tion, Impact. • They provide detailed per­form­ance state­ments that every­one involved can use to achieve the highest qual­ity res­ults and the greatest impact. • The stand­ards are par­tic­u­larly help­ful for com­munit­ies — their organ­isa­tions and groups to help them involve their mem­bers or the wider com­munity in shap­ing the ser­vices and changes they need, and to make sure they accur­ately rep­res­ent mem­bers’ or the community’s views in the decision-mak­ing processes.

1. Action Plan – what the com­munity wants

Pro­ject Themes and Pri­or­it­ies The Com­munity Action Plan (CAP) sets out the community’s vis­ion for the longer term (up to 10 years) itemising pri­or­ity out­comes and actions which are shown in the rel­ev­ant tables below.

It is import­ant to note that some of the pro­jects are already under­way, and oth­ers will take sig­ni­fic­antly more time to plan and execute. Much of this is depend­ent on com­munity engage­ment and sup­port from a small community.

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STRATH­DON: A SOCIALLY CON­NEC­TED COMMUNITY

Pri­or­ity: Cre­ate more hous­ing for people who want to live and work here • Pro­gress com­munity owned hous­ing pro­ject. Must be ​‘afford­able’ – for rent & purchase/​available for per­man­ent res­id­ents • Pro­gress dis­cus­sion on wider hous­ing issues eg empty properties.

Pri­or­ity: Improved Health facil­it­ies • Main­tain and improve med­ic­al and social care ser­vices • Improve access to fit­ness facilities

Pri­or­ity: More Com­munity Activ­it­ies • More types of activ­it­ies for all ages • A place for social gath­er­ing eg pub, eatery

PRI­OR­ITY: CRE­ATE MORE HOUS­ING FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LIVE AND WORK HERE • Con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions on the Lon­ach Hotel site. • Explore dif­fer­ent ways of tak­ing for­ward afford­able hous­ing in the area. • Doune Court sheltered hous­ing is a great asset. Fol­low­ing the Council’s decision to reprieve Doune Court there is room for improve­ment e.g. dis­cus­sion with the coun­cil re man­age­ment, main­ten­ance and let­ting of warden’s flat. • Ren­ov­ate! Use derel­ict properties/​ground for self-suf­fi­ciency for afford­able hous­ing to let or buy. • Repur­pose unwanted spaces/​buildings.

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVED HEALTH FACIL­IT­IES • Please keep the excel­lent GP sur­gery ser­vices we cur­rently have • Explore the pos­sib­il­it­ies of improv­ing GP sur­gery e.g. loc­al immun­isa­tion • Explore extend­ing well­ness facil­it­ies • Dis­cus­sion with GP

PRI­OR­ITY: MORE COM­MUNITY ACTIV­IT­IES • We need a pub includ­ing refresh­ments • Film nights • Café Strath­don even ​“pop-up” • Sort out with Council/​police ​“road closed” signed due to snow. It affects busi­nesses and per­son­al lives • Her­it­age group • Sort BT remov­ing land­lines by 2027

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STRATH­DON: A CLI­MATE CON­SCIOUS COMMUNITY

Pri­or­ity: Devel­op com­munity renew­able energy pro­jects • Look into pos­sib­il­it­ies for wind, water, sol­ar energy pro­duc­tion in the com­munity • Elec­tric char­ging points — in access­ible loc­a­tions • Com­munity trans­port scheme • Advice for insu­lat­ing res­id­en­tial properties

Pri­or­ity: Improved path net­work in com­munity (foot/​cycle) • Con­tin­ue to devel­op and main­tain path network

Pri­or­ity: Devel­op com­munity grow­ing spaces/​community garden • Com­munity garden/​allotments for per­son­al food pro­duce includ­ing poly­tun­nels for year-round pro­duce • Reduce, Reuse, Repur­pose, Recycle

In Oct. 2021 a Cli­mate Ready Strath­don event was held at Strath­don School ini­ti­ated by Cli­mate Ready Aber­deen­shire and Adapt­a­tion Scotland/​SNIFFER. The fol­low­ing top­ics were dis­cussed by participants.

PRI­OR­ITY: DEVEL­OP COM­MUNITY RENEW­ABLE ENERGY PRO­JECT • More sol­ar pan­els on pub­lic build­ings • Wood fuel pro­ject to make money and donate to wood bank • Devel­op power gen­er­a­tion using water, rivers, burns etc. • Con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions with Dorenell Wind­farm re future com­munity fin­an­cial bene­fits • Doune Cab­in can be used to recycle unwanted goods and plants and advert­ises lar­ger items and ser­vices. • Use exist­ing build­ings and empty spaces rather than build new = more cli­mate friendly

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE PATH NET­WORK IN THE COM­MUNITY • Paths group has achieved quite a lot over the last 5 years, but fur­ther pro­jects would be: Strath­don School to Poldhuil­lie Bridge and Lon­ach Hall to Newe car park, • Social pre­scrib­ing. The goals are to reduce the rise of health care costs by pur­su­ing out­door activ­it­ies such as walk­ing – a good case for bet­ter paths net­work • More maps on boards in Cor­garff and Strath­don in car parks for example. Make It easi­er for visitors

PRI­OR­ITY: DEVEL­OP COM­MUNITY GROW­ING SPACES AND COM­MUNITY GARDEN • Explore space for grow­ing com­munity veg and fruit,

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STRATH­DON: AN ECO­NOM­IC­ALLY THRIV­ING COMMUNITY

Pri­or­ity: Improve oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al employment/​business • Pro­vi­sion of small unit office/​business space • Improve broad­band for effect­ive home work­ing • Pub/​eatery • Com­munity run bunk house

Pri­or­ity: Explore the use of the Club­bie • Con­tin­ue to devel­op and main­tain path network

Pri­or­ity: Lon­ach Hotel Site

PRI­OR­ITY: IMPROVE OPPOR­TUN­IT­IES FOR LOC­AL EMPLOY­MENT / BUSI­NESS • Fibre broadband/​Better inter­net • Green employ­ment pos­sib­il­ity e.g. Dis­til­lery, water bot­tling, for 10 – 30 people. Would need major fund­ing for devel­op­ment • Explore options for cap­it­al fund­ing to buy shop premises • Con­sider the bar­ri­ers for loc­al trades­people such as plumb­er, elec­tri­cian, hairdresser

PRI­OR­ITY: EXPLORE/DISCUSS THE POTEN­TIAL USE OF THE CLUB­BIE FOR COM­MUNITY USE • This has been fre­quently raised in Com­munity Con­sulta­tions. Cur­rently the build­ing is sound but with only elec­tri­city and no work­ing plumb­ing, In the past the Coun­cil intim­ated that because of flood risk its use is restric­ted. Cur­rently it is used as the store for Lon­ach games equip­ment. • Ongo­ing dis­cus­sions and offer from with the Lon­ach High­land Soci­ety re access to the Club­bie for com­munity use as her­it­age space.

PRI­OR­ITY: LON­ACH HOTEL SITE • Cur­rently there are no plans for the Lon­ach Hotel site involving the community.

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STRATH­DON: A COM­MUNITY FOR OUR YOUNG PEOPLE

Pri­or­ity: Deliv­er more activ­it­ies for young people • Youth club • Log play area for all ages • Climb­ing wall • Ball pit/​soft play area • Com­munity run bunk house

PRI­OR­ITY: DELIV­ER MORE ACTIV­ITES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE • Fam­ily friendly events. • Dis­cus­sions involving all the Halls in the area for coordin­ated activ­it­ies • Sur­vey and then devel­op young folk events programme

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1. Spa­tial Priorities

The maps below illus­trate the spa­tial pro­pos­als to help real­ise Strathdon’s com­munity vis­ion and Com­munity Action Plan. They dis­play com­ments which were provided by Strath­don res­id­ents and busi­nesses dur­ing the Big Con­ver­sa­tion drop-in event. They refer to the pri­or­it­ies that have come out of the Com­munity Action Plan (CAP) responses and help express the community’s aspir­a­tions and solu­tions for devel­op­ment and use of land with­in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. This reflects the loc­al plan­ning policy which aims to cre­ate sus­tain­able, live­able and pro­duct­ive places as expressed in Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (2023).

Strath­don Pro­gress com­munity owned hous­ing pro­ject North Explore pro­vi­sion of small unit office/​business spaces Dis­cuss with the coun­cil improve­ments to Doune Court sheltered hous­ing and dis­cus­sion on wider hous­ing issues e.g. empty prop­er­ties. Explore options to buy shop premises A944 Explore a place for social gath­er­ings e.g. pub, eat­ery Explore deliv­ery of facil­it­ies for young people Con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions on the Lon­ach Hotel site Explore the poten­tial use of Club­bie build­ing for the com­munity Road Water­side Ro Main­tain and improve med­ic­al and social care ser­vices and improve access to fit­ness facil­it­ies Install elec­tric char­ging points in access­ible loc­a­tions 500 1000 Meters Con­tin­ue to devel­op and main­tain path net­work Explore loc­a­tion for com­munity grow­ing space and com­munity garden Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity © Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2025 Ord­nance Sur­vey AC0000821810.

The maps show the community’s ideas and pri­or­it­ies for the future devel­op­ment of the Strath­don area, as well as help­ing the com­munity to devel­op and deliv­er its own projects.

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The pur­pose of the maps is to: • Com­ple­ment the CAP by show­ing how the Strath­don com­munity could look in the future once the vis­ion and CAP have been imple­men­ted. • Help the Strath­don Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust and Park Author­ity con­sider the impact of plan­ning applic­a­tions on the com­munity. • Inform Park Author­ity review of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. • Influ­ence invest­ment from pub­lic bod­ies, fun­ders, landown­ers and busi­nesses, in ways that sup­port the community.

1. Next Steps: Delivery

Steps to deliv­er the Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan The next steps to start work­ing with the action plan and look­ing at how parts can start to be delivered will be sub­ject to some dis­cus­sion with­in Strathdon’s com­munity organ­isa­tions, but broadly involves col­lect­ively: • Agree­ing what pri­or­it­ies will be taken for­ward ini­tially • Agree­ing to adopt the Val­ues and Prin­ciples laid out below • Agree­ing what pri­or­it­ies will be taken for­ward ini­tially • Draw­ing up a more detailed deliv­ery action plan for each pri­or­it­ised pro­ject, identi­fy­ing aims, actions, mile­stones, who needs to be involved, key deliv­er­ables. • Com­mu­nic­at­ing pro­gress with the com­munity • Review­ing pro­gress on a reg­u­lar basis • Revis­it­ing the action plan as required

Val­ues and Principles

The fol­low­ing val­ues and prin­ciples will under­pin the way in which this action plan is rolled out and imple­men­ted: 1) A plan for all – it is the respons­ib­il­ity of the whole com­munity (indi­vidu­als and groups) to unite and work togeth­er for pro­ject ambi­tions to be real­ised 2) Trans­par­ency – all ideas should be planned and researched openly with a com­mit­ment to co-pro­duc­tion where groups con­trib­ute to the ideas as they devel­op 3) Part­ner­ship – work­ing togeth­er with a shred agenda will be at the hear of any activ­ity arising from this plan 4) Inclu­sion — every­one is invited to par­ti­cip­ate and every­one bene­fits, regard­less of age and abil­ity 5) Impact the suc­cess of this plan will be judged on activ­it­ies which has a pos­it­ive influ­ence on people and com­munit­ies 6) Involve­ment – ensur­ing the com­munity is mean­ing­fully involved in decisions that affect their lives

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• The pri­or­it­ies fall into two main groups and will require to be tackled in a dif­fer­ent way: • pro­jects which, although some are mid to longer term, are pos­sible for the com­munity to take for­ward them­selves, with some min­im­al sup­port from the rel­ev­ant key agen­cies or sup­port organ­isa­tions. • large, com­plex issues around employ­ment, hous­ing, trans­port, busi­ness sup­port and infra­struc­ture, where the com­munity will require a great deal of long-term assist­ance from vari­ous pub­lic, third and some­times private sec­tor organ­isa­tions in order to take these for­ward and make a not­able difference.

1. Thanks & Acknowledgements

Thanks for all their involve­ment and hard work in help­ing to make the pro­cess a suc­cess must go to: • Strath­don Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust • Strath­don Primary School

Marr Area Part­ner­ship (MAP) and Vol­un­tary Action in Badenoch and Strath­spey (VABS), as inde­pend­ent com­munity and volun­teer­ing devel­op­ment char­it­ies, sup­por­ted the Strath­don com­munity through this com­munity action plan­ning pro­cess and facil­it­ated the Big Con­ver­sa­tion, but always fol­low­ing the community’s lead in how they wished to proceed.

Com­munity Action Plan­ning (CAP) is car­ried out in part­ner­ship by all the Cairngorms Nation­al Park com­munit­ies on a reg­u­lar basis at the community’s request.

Fund­ing to MAP and VABS to facil­it­ate the com­munit­ies’ CAP pro­cess is provided by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

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1. Appen­dices

Appendix I. Res­ults from facil­it­a­tion exercise

What the Com­munity has said

Strath­don Devel­op­ment Trust AGM ‑27thApril 2022 Res­ults of the Facil­it­a­tion Exer­cise – ​“What the Com­munity wants”

Clubby build­ing

• This would make a great res­taur­ant if ex Colquhon­nie is not going ahead as an eat­ery. There is abso­lutely no eat­ing out places in Upper Don­side apart from Goodbrands.
• Devel­op Club­bie into tour­ist Ven­ue like Muir of Dinnet.
• Devel­op as Vis­it­or Centre.
• Club­bie — plan­ning per­mis­sion refused due to flood risk to site.
• Club­bie museum for Lon­ach mem­or­ab­il­ia and oth­er loc­al history.
• Clubby — poten­tial com­munity café, sum­mer sea­son, per­haps include selling space for loc­al artists and makers, hous­ing unit for res­id­ent manager/​community liais­on person.
• Clubby rooms super space for ​“pop up” cafes/​repair (sew­ing machines and bicycle), museum (unmanned), craft space.

Afford­able Housing

• Yes, con­sider hotel site as no longer viable and own­ers happy to see afford­able housing.
• Yes, needed but where?
• What is afford­able — con­sulta­tion needed.
• Afford­able Hous­ing, NET ZERO, — defin­i­tion of affordable.
• Short­age of prop­erty to buy for young­er gen­er­a­tion which is our future.

New Lar­ger Surgery

• GP sur­gery in more access­ible place in NET Zero environment.
• Nev­er really thought much about this and feel it is fine. People who work there might feel it out­dated though.
• Lar­ger Sur­gery + Health club + Gym.
• Health Hut/​gym.
• Expand exist­ing plot to make a health hub (improv­ing viab­il­ity of rur­al practice).

Strath­don Cli­mate Action project

• Com­munity Energy pro­ject (wind, water, sol­ar power) x4.
• Com­munity renew­able sus­tain­able energy scheme.
• Com­munity Energy/​bat­tery storage/​gen­er­at­ors.
• I would sup­port action on cli­mate change but don’t know what to do.
• Improved insu­la­tion.
• Think using fallen trees for fuel poverty is a great idea and would help tidy the place up, prob­lem is as soon as third parties start cut­ting trees =ques­tions arise about who owns the land etc.
• Elec­tric Car scheme and Char­ging points.

Out­door Fit­ness Equipment

• Good idea. X3
• Could be made loc­ally at afford­able cost?
• Yes, Sim­il­ar to Bal­later, 3 pieces of equip­ment. Appeal to loc­als and visitors.

Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 15 of 18

Food Bank

• Needs some pub­li­city – not used much.
• Inform­a­tion on this please.
• Food­bank- where, how do we get inform­a­tion? We need obvi­ous Com­munity Board.
• Many people in the com­munity are strug­gling with cost of liv­ing. So, expan­sion of food bank would be very wel­come. Need to expand sup­ply of food.
• Col­lect from super­mar­kets almost out of date pro­duce, set up loc­al dis­trib­ut­ors, have a way of sourcing who needs help.

Resi­li­ence Plan­ning & Communications

• We need a Com­mu­nic­a­tion Notice Board that is very cent­ral and easy to access.
• Ham Radio Network.
• Com­munity energy pro­ject (wind water, sol­ar pro­pane gas, generator)
• Resi­li­ence hub – one cent­ral one in Bellabeg, and satel­lites in oth­er vil­lages and sol­ar pan­els for the hub.
• There should be a small Resi­li­ence Com­mit­tee set up ASAP. Two mem­bers form Corgarff/​Strathdon/​Glenbuchat/​Glen­kin­die and 2 des­ig­nated gath­er­ing places where they go to when emer­gency arises and stat plan­ning involving others.
• Com­munity gen­er­at­or x2
• Com­munity radio

Vil­lage Planters

• This would look good but again we need people to do this and main­tain, there are just so many areas need­ing upgrad­ing, weed­ing, etc., tidy­ing up.
• Yes Great idea, loc­al garden­ers, loc­al pride in our com­munity, attract­ive to tourists.
• Both ends of Bellabeg besides vil­lage sign.

Oth­er ideas

• A com­munity Garden/​poly­tun­nel in village
• Res­taur­ant needed.
• We need a notice board.
• Areas for walks hav­ing dog poo bins, folks could donate com­postable bags for the cause.
• Loc­al folks like myself could empty the bins, loc­al coun­cil needed.
• Try to encour­age young couples and young couples with fam­il­ies to become involved in everything in general.
• it would be good if the three halls had a couple of Reps who met occa­sion­ally. Each hall has its own events which every­one works well with. For example, Car-boot is soon in Glen­buchat then could be in Cor­garff next year and Lon­ach the year after.
• We really need to attract people form the com­munity to turn out and volun­teer their ser­vices. There are so many com­munity pro­jects which need reg­u­lar main­ten­ance etc.
• Com­mun­al pro­duce share – home grown veget­ables and plants
• Shar­ing pro­duce with loc­al com­munity – a Mar­ket stall?
• Trans­port- car share scheme, mobil­ity scoot­ers, buggy hire, for less mobile
• More Com­munity Club activ­it­ies – book club, drop in café, feed dogs too, choir
• Her­it­age, his­tory, archae­ology group
• More pic­nic benches besides Doune & replace ones at the toilets.
• Afford­able hous­ing for people.
• Pro­vi­sion for young fam­il­ies, mother/​toddler group, play­group, social facilities
• Update on Wi-Fi – are there still areas with poor signal?
• Hotel- What is hap­pen­ing if any­thing about the Colquhonnie?
• Broad band needed – fast for home working.

Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 16 of 18

• Trans­port
• Com­munity web page for vis­it­ors and loc­als, the old page was taken down about five years ago and noth­ing is in its place.
• Her­it­age group

Strath­don Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust Ongo­ing Consultation

• What does the Com­munity need? For­be­stown Path Open­ing event 23^rd Sept. 2022 includ­ing com­ments from Strath­don School pupils.

• Film night x 2

• More foot­paths and cycle paths
• Some­where to eat
• Afford­able housing
• Log play area for all ages
• Swim­ming pool x 2
• Whist drives
• Repair café — bring your broken things to be repaired rather than throw them away.
• Use the Club House
• Kids/​Youth club — learn life skills (café?)
• Game night
• Loc­al Com­munity web­site for vis­it­ors and loc­al too
• Indoor games x 2
• Café / Hub / Meet­ing place
• Even more footpaths
• More out­door games — for older people
• Drop in hub
• Art /​Craft workshop/​Gal­lery
• Anim­al shop
• Toast in the morn­ing at school
• Water slide x 2
• Zip line
• Bal­loons
• Climb­ing wall
• Ball pit
• Soft play

What are the main needs:

• Afford­able hous­ing — whole vari­ety of types
• Eatery/​pub
• Hub
• Workshop/​Craft exhibition/​shop space
• Sur­gery +
• Bunk house
• Office/​business space

Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 17 of 18

Lon­ach Hotel Site Dis­cus­sions — Options Apprais­al Doc­u­ment Oct 2023 Back­ground Fol­low­ing extens­ive work with the com­munity the Strath­don Com­munity Action plan was launched in May 2016. This led to the estab­lish­ment of the Strath­don Com­munity Devel­op­ment Trust in Sept. 2017 to bene­fit the com­munity with the aim of advan­cing com­munity devel­op­ment, both eco­nom­ic and social and to enhance the qual­ity of life of people liv­ing in the glen.

With­in the Action Plan sev­er­al themes emerged of vary­ing com­plex­ity. Some such as Hous­ing impacted dif­fer­ent groups with­in the com­munity and related to fur­ther issues such as employ­ment, busi­ness devel­op­ment and social integ­ra­tion. The Action Plan was reviewed in 2018 and while many issues had moved for­ward, little had been achieved in terms of Housing.

In 2018 SCDT was approached by the Linos to dis­cuss the future of the Lon­ach Hotel site. They were con­cerned about the viab­il­ity of an hotel and giv­en the lack of afford­able hous­ing in the area were keen to look at this and oth­er pos­sible uses in more detail. This res­ul­ted in dis­cus­sions with the Com­munity Hous­ing Trust (CHT) who were involved in a pro­ject in Tomin­toul and the North East Pre­ser­va­tion Trust (NEPT) lead­ing to a Hous­ing Needs Assess­ment being car­ried out in the winter of 2022. It showed that there was a need for a vari­ety of afford­able hous­ing with­in the area. A present­a­tion of these find­ings allowed a for­um for a vari­ety of views and indic­ated that there was gen­er­al sup­port for addi­tion­al afford­able hous­ing but a vari­ety of views as to where this should be loc­ated and dis­quiet about the lack of eat­ing and drink­ing facil­it­ies on the Lon­ach Hotel site. A land audit to check on oth­er pos­sible hous­ing sites was under­taken with neg­at­ive results.

At a meet­ing between Lynne Lino,CHT, NEPT, Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and mem­bers of SCDT it was agreed that the next step for­ward was an Options Apprais­al focus­ing on the Lon­ach Hotel site giv­en that the build­ing requires imme­di­ate atten­tion. To this end a final con­sulta­tion with the com­munity should take place via social media to crys­tal­lize the options in terms of what facil­it­ies were deemed to be needed. Then feas­ib­il­ity work could con­sider the prac­tic­al­it­ies and the extent of the site. Along­side this the issue of own­er­ship and use of the Scot­tish Land Fund needs to be urgently considered.

The Site The Lon­ach Hotel is a large ver­nacu­lar stone build­ing with slate covered pitched roof with ancil­lary build­ings to its west side. It sits on a large slop­ing site adja­cent to the Lon­ach Hall. Between the two are ruins of the castle. The ancil­lary build­ings con­sist of farm build­ings in vari­ous states of dis­repair part of which is the refur­bished Stead­ing bar. Behind the Lon­ach Hotel build­ing is a field which may be con­sidered with­in this plan.

Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030 Page 18 of 18