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Cairngorms

Estate staff get insight into Countryside Risk Management

12th April 2005

The Cairngorms National Park Authority’s (CNPA) Land Based Business Training programme has been delivering courses this week on countryside risk management.

The courses at Alvie (Monday 11 April) in Badenoch and at Mar Lodge (Tuesday 12 April) in Aberdeenshire aimed to provide estate managers and staff with a comprehensive background to the law in relation to visitor health and safety.  The training also covered how to take a practical and consistent approach to visitor risk management.

Kate Christie, the Land Based Business Training project manager said: “The feedback from the course has been amazing and we will definitely have to run it again.  It is especially relevant now that the Scottish Outdoor Access Code has come into play.

“People said they found the content relevant and informative and all have said they learnt a lot during the course of the day.  Participants also commented on the fact that it was an excellent opportunity to network with other people who use the land – bringing together land managers and recreational users.”

Funded by the CNPA and the European Social Fund, the Land Based Business Training Project encourages all those working on estates, farms, crofts, nurseries, woodlands – in fact any business related to the management of the land – to apply to the scheme.

Training courses cover a wide range of needs including the use and maintenance of machinery, equipment and vehicles; environmental courses; IT and business skills and health and safety. In addition, training that will provide public benefits – such as the countryside risk management course – are fully funded by the programme.

This week’s courses on countryside risk management have been organised as a direct result of feedback from the estates seminar which the CNPA hosted last November.  The courses focussed on land managers’ civil liability in relation to land management operations, including the extent to which managers have a duty to warn visitors of hazards.

Also, the course took participants through a Visitor Risk Management Programme, which is designed to identify the hazards visitors may encounter in a countryside setting, and provided a practical approach to their management.

For more information on the Land Based Business Training project please contact Kate Christie or Sam Masson on tel: 01479 870535 / 537 or email: [email protected]  or [email protected]