Board meeting - September 2025

This document contains the formal board agenda for the Cairngorms National Park Authority meeting on 26 September 2025 at 10am at the Learning Hive at the Highland Wildlife Park. The agenda includes items such as welcome and apologies, approval of minutes from previous meetings, declarations of interest, and reports from the Chief Executive Officer. Key discussion points involve the revision of planning committee standing orders, an update on the National Park Partnership Plan, agriculture land use and farming activity, and public sector reform. The agenda also covers information on environment and land use strategy consultations, committee minutes, any other competent business, and confirms the next meeting date as 28 November 2025.

This document contains the draft minutes of the Cairngorms National Park Authority Formal Board meeting held on 27 June 2025. The meeting covered several key areas including the CEO report, the Integrated Wildfire Management Plan, and an update on the Cairngorms Trust and Community Led Local Development. The board discussed progress on various projects, funding, and community benefits. They also agreed on recommendations related to the wildfire plan and noted progress on the National Park Partnership Plan. The next meeting is scheduled for 26 September 2025.

This document contains the CEO's report and Convener's update from the Cairngorms National Park Authority (Park Authority) for September 2025. It covers key work areas like nature, climate change, planning, and community engagement. The Park Authority piloted deer culls, assessed gamebird releases, and managed the aftermath of the large Dava wildfire, which covered 10,000 hectares (ha). They also released beavers, worked on freshwater pearl mussel recovery, and announced a £1.2 million Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) award. Path improvements, visitor infrastructure upgrades, and ranger services were also highlighted. The Park Authority is developing its Local Development Plan (LDP) and dealing with planning applications. Community engagement includes events, cultural heritage initiatives, and a £1 million C2030 communities fund. The update also covers corporate communications, website updates, and staff changes within the Park Authority. Finally, the Convener's update details meetings with various organizations and individuals, including the Scottish Government, other park authorities, and local community leaders, discussing a range of topics from wildfire management to nature restoration.

This document contains a formal board paper from the Cairngorms National Park Authority, dated 26 September 2025, seeking approval for updated Planning Committee Standing Orders. The proposed updates, agreed by the Planning Committee on 29 August 2025 and detailed in Annex 1, aim to ensure consistency with Board meeting procedures and reflect changes in working practices since the Covid-19 pandemic, such as online and hybrid meetings. Key changes include adjusting meeting frequency, clarifying procedures for special meetings and site visits, and updating rules for written representations and quorum requirements. The Board is asked to approve and adopt these updated Standing Orders, which are intended to reduce the risk of legal challenges to the Park Authority's Planning Committee decisions.

This document contains the standing orders for the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee meetings. It outlines the procedures for meetings, including frequency, location (hybrid format from the Park Authority's offices in Grantown-on-Spey), cancellation policies, and pre-agenda briefings. The document also details the process for written and oral representations on planning applications, quorum requirements, site visits, how motions and amendments are decided, procedural motions, delegation of responsibilities, and how standing orders can be amended.

This document contains an annual update on the National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP) for the Cairngorms National Park, prepared by Gavin Miles, Director of Planning and Place. The paper summarizes the progress made against the plan's objectives, using a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rating system to assess performance in areas like Nature, People, and Place, noting where indicators show progress or where progress is expected in the future. It highlights successes like peatland restoration and securing investment for species conservation, while also acknowledging challenges such as maintaining the working-age population and increasing affordable housing, and the board is asked to note the progress summarized in the paper and associated annex 1.

This document contains a summary of the Cairngorms National Park Authority's (Park Authority) Nature, People and Place objectives, detailing progress towards targets up to summer 2025. The objectives cover a range of topics, including reaching net zero emissions, expanding woodland, restoring peatland, managing deer populations, improving moorland, ensuring sustainable gamebird management and farming practices, improving freshwater systems, establishing ecological networks, restoring ecosystems and recovering species. The people objectives focus on improving the wellbeing economy, increasing real living wage employers, providing skills and training, increasing community assets, strengthening citizen participation, supporting community-led planning, promoting Gaelic language and culture, improving mental and physical health and ensuring a park for all. The place objectives cover improving access to housing, delivering new housing, ensuring housing and community benefit, thriving villages and town centers, encouraging sustainable tourism and improving transport around the park and providing accessible paths and cycle networks and a high-quality visitor experience.

This document contains an initial timetable for developing the 2027-2032 National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP). The Cairngorms National Park Authority board is asked to agree to this timetable, which is required by the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. The plan sets out the policy for managing the National Park and coordinating functions affecting it, and the consultation for the plan must last 12 weeks, after which the plan is submitted to Scottish Ministers for approval. The aim is that the Board will sign off the NPPP for submission to Scottish Ministers in March 2027. The document outlines a timeline of engagement, including gathering information from stakeholders, developing a draft, public consultation, and plan revisions. Resource risks, finances, stakeholder buy-in, and consultation fatigue are the focus of early discussions, and a risk register will be prepared. The next steps involve assessing the current Park Plan and discussing options at the Board Business Session on 10 October.

This document contains an overview of farming and crofting within the Cairngorms National Park over the last 20 years, based on census data from June. It provides context on how agriculture has changed and the influences driving these changes, informing future policy and strategic direction for the National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP). It also discusses the amount of public money invested in farming and crofting, as well as the outcomes of this investment, which will be part of a study on the environmental, social, and economic value of farming and crofting. The Park Authority also provides support for land managers to deal with beavers and provides grants for damaged flood banks until March 2026. The document touches upon the objectives of agricultural policy which are set out in the Agriculture and Rural Communities Act (2024) and the potential effects of climate change in the area.

This document contains summary agricultural statistics for parishes within the Cairngorms National Park and all of Scotland, comparing data from the June 2003 and 2023 Agricultural Census. The document shows variations over the past 20 years in the number of holdings, land use (including agricultural land, woodland, and other land), livestock (sheep and cattle), and the number of full-time and part-time employees. Overall, there has been a decrease in the number of holdings, agricultural land, livestock, and employees within both the Cairngorms National Park and Scotland as a whole.

This document contains an overview of the Public Sector Reform (PSR) agenda in Scotland and the Cairngorms National Park Authority's role in it. The paper recommends the Board note the strategic direction from the Scottish Government and the place prototype work in the Dee and South Esk catchments. The Scottish Government wants public services to be efficient, joined-up, preventative, empowering, and sustainable, aiming to reduce costs by £1 billion over five years. Key workstreams include leadership, accountability, community empowerment, and ensuring the right delivery landscape. The Park Authority is part of the Environment and Economy Leaders Group (EELG) cluster and is involved in place prototype work in the Dee catchment, focusing on catchment resilience. The Park Authority is also increasing the digitisation of its services and is developing a Workforce Management Plan to align with PSR requirements, while also recognising risks in delivering change and maintaining a skilled workforce.

This document contains information about the Environment Strategy and Land Use Strategy consultations from the Cairngorms National Park Authority, dated 26 September 2025. The Scottish Government is consulting on the draft Environment Strategy and Scotland's Fourth Land Use Strategy, scheduled for publication in March 2026. The Park Authority aims to provide key points to support the National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP). The Environment Strategy addresses biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution, while the Land Use Strategy focuses on integrated land use. The National Park is recognized as a Regional Land Use Partnership (RLUP), with the NPPP serving as the Regional Land Use Framework (RLUF). The document also highlights the need for data, mapping, and coordinated approaches for land use decisions, emphasizing the importance of river and peatland restoration, and woodland expansion.

This document contains the committee minutes, prepared by Alix Harkness and Karen Johnstone, for meetings that occurred between 14 March 2025 and 13 June 2025, as well as confidential minutes from meetings between 24 January 2025 and 14 March 2025. The meetings include the Audit and Risk Committee, the Resources Committee, and the Performance Committee. The Cairngorms National Park Authority (Park Authority) board is asked to note the minutes from these meetings.

This document contains the minutes from three committee meetings for the Cairngorms National Park Authority, all held in 2025. The first is the Audit and Risk Committee meeting on 21 March, where they reviewed the external auditor's plan for the Annual Report and Accounts, discussed internal audit progress, strategic risk registers, the draft Governance statement, a procurement action plan, and internal audit report management. The second is the Resources Committee meeting on 16 May, where they discussed the personal use of social media policy for board members, the estimated financial outturn for 2024/25, budget monitoring, health and safety committee minutes, and staff consultative forum minutes. The third is the Performance Committee meeting on 13 June, where they reviewed the Climate Adaptation Fund, website updates, the "Bringing Beavers Back" project, and the delivery of statutory duties under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.