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CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 


MINUTES OF THE BOARD MEETING 
held at The Duke of Gordon Hotel, Kingussie 
on Friday 8th September 2006 at 1.30pm 


PRESENT 

Eric Baird 		Bruce Luffman 
Stuart Black 		Eleanor Mackintosh 
Duncan Bryden 		Alastair MacLennan 
Nonie Coulthard 		William McKenna 
Basil Dunlop 		Sandy Park 
Angus Gordon 		Gregor Rimell 
Douglas Glass 		Richard Stroud 
Lucy Grant 		Susan Walker 
David Green 		Ross Watson 
Marcus Humphrey 		Bob Wilson 


In Attendance: 

David Cameron 		Jane Hope 
Bob Grant Fiona 		Newcombe 
Murray Ferguson 		Francoise van Buuren 


Apologies: 

Anne MacLean 		David Selfridge 
Andrew Rafferty 		Sheena Slimon 


Election of Convener 

1. 
This item was chaired by David Cameron as Proper Officer for the CNPA. He drew 
Member’s attention to the process for the election of Convener as set out in the Standing 
Orders. Two nominations were declared: David Green was nominated by Stuart Black 
and seconded by Eleanor Mackintosh; Duncan Bryden was nominated by Sandy Park, 
and seconded by Willie McKenna. Following a secret ballot, David Green was elected as 
Convener by 13 votes to 7. In accepting his position as Convener, David Green recorded 
his thanks to Andrew Thin who had made an enormous and lasting contribution to the 
Cairngorms National Park Authority in its first three and a half years. 

2. 
Anne MacLean’s absence was noted, following an emergency operation in hospital. The 
Board recorded their best wishes for a speedy recovery. 


Minutes of Last Meeting – approval 

3. 
The minutes of the last meeting held on the 11th August 2006 were approved subject to 
one minor change at paragraph 21(f). third line where “president” should read 
“precedent”. 


Matters Arising 

4. 
Jane Hope reported on the follow up to paragraph 27 of the minutes, referring to the 
review of committee membership. No members had expressed an interest in either 
joining or coming off a committee. However, a place remained unfilled on the Finance 
Committee and on the Staffing and Recruitment Committee following the departure of 
Andrew Thin. It was proposed to return to the matter of membership once the new 
Board Member had arrived and the new Convener had a chance to consider his 
membership of committees. In the meantime, all committees were quorate and could 
continue to function. 


Contribution Towards Work Programme Delivered by Upper Deeside Access 
Trust 2006-07 (Paper 1) 

5. 
Marcus Humphrey declared an interest and left the room. 

6. 
Bob Grant introduced the paper which provided further detail of the proposed work 
programme being delivered by UDAT for 2006-07 and sought Board approval to fund 
the programme. The Board had considered this issue at its previous meeting, and while 
approving the principle, requested that the figures be re-presented to make clearer the 
total works delivered and money received and generated by UDAT. As agreed by the 
Board, the re-presented figures had been approved by the Convener and the Vice 
Convener following the last meeting and this was now in front of the Board for their 
ratification. It was noted that the proposed funding by the CNPA of the UDAT work 
had been submitted to the Scottish Executive for approval (as required by the Delegated 
Authority Limits) and had been approved. 

7. 
There was some discussion on the awkwardness of providing monies for capital works 
on paths without any clear provision for future maintenance. This was a well known 
problem which still needed to be addressed. The Board would shortly be considering a 
further paper about future arrangements for funding and managing the path 
infrastructure within the Park and this would need to take account of the likely needs for 
capital funding, as well of revenue funding for maintenance on into the future. It was 
noted that in the case of UDAT, there was already some provision for future 
maintenance costs through the annual revenue generating activities at Glen Muick. 

8. 
The Board agreed the recommendations of the paper as follows: 

a) 
The Board noted the detailed justification for funding the proposed programme of 
work for 2006-07; and 

b) The Board approved funding of £100,00 towards 2006-07 programme of works 
being delivered through the Upper Deeside Access Trust but noting the need to 
make provision in the future for funding for maintenance. 



National Park Plan – Interim Consultation Report (Paper 2) 

9. 
The information paper was introduced by Francoise van Buuren, and updated Members 
on the public consultation on the draft National Park Plan and the release of a publicly 
available summary of responses. Francoise drew the Board’s attention to the presence in 
the audience of Vicky White from the Macaulay Institute, who were undertaking a study 
of the process being followed by the Cairngorms National Park Authority in putting the 
National Park Plan together. The board paper drew the attention of Board Members to 
the significant themes emerging from the consultation responses and pointed to the 
timetable at paragraph 10 which set out the proposed meetings at which there would be 
further discussion of how the plan would be revised to take account of these. 

10. In discussion the following points were made: 

a) Timing was tight; there was still a lot of work to be done to have the Plan agreed by 
partners and ready to submit to Ministers before Christmas. The support of partners 
was crucial; a huge amount of work was underway at official level, working with 
partner organisations to revise the Plan in a way which took on board all the 
comments made and resulted in a final version which everyone could proactively 
support. 

b) The Advisory Panel on Joined Up Government was timetabled for December in 
order to get confirmation of collective commitment to the completed Plan from all 
the public sector bodies. There was some discussion as to whether this should take 
place after or before the CNPA Board meeting to consider the completed text of the 
Plan. It was also noted that there needed to be sufficient time between a final Plan 
being available, and taking this to the Advisory Panel, given that for some 
organisations an internal approval process might be needed to endorse the final 
version of the Plan. 

c) 
It was noted that many other partners, including voluntary bodies, communities etc 
would be wanting to show their support for the Plan. 

d) It was essential to get widespread ownership of the Plan, and be clear who was 
delivering what. 

11. The Board noted the paper and the proposed schedule of Board meetings, and noted 
that staff would report back on the best timing for the Advisory Panel on Joined Up 
Government following discussion with other bodies. 


Draft Annual Report and Accounts 2005-06 (Paper 3) 

12. David Cameron and Francoise van Buuren introduced the paper which updated the 
Board on progress made with the production of the draft Annual Report and Accounts 
for 2005-06. It was noted that this was the first Annual Report on the current Corporate 
Plan. There were no plans for a public launch, and the report would be circulated to a 
target audience including MSPs, other organisations etc. The Chair of the Finance 
Committee reported that the Committee had approved the accounts that morning. She 
recorded the congratulations of the Committee to the Finance team for implementing an 
improved system for financial management during the year, which had dealt effectively 
with the “slippage” difficulty which had been experienced in previous years. The net 
result was that the final accounts showed expenditure delivered within 2% of budget. 
The Finance Committee recommended the accounts to the Board. 

13. The Board approved the recommendations of the paper as follows: 

a) The Board noted the draft Annual Report and Accounts for 2005-06 which had 
been circulated under separate cover informally and in confidence; 

b) The Board, following the update from the Finance Committee, agreed the 
Accounts for 2005-06; 

c) The Board noted the request to submit any further comments on the draft Annual 
Report and Accounts to the relevant officers by the 20th September; 

d) The Board noted the process for completion of the draft Annual Report and 
Accounts. 


Corporate Plan Update, Theme 5 (Paper 4) 

14. David Cameron and Francoise van Buuren introduced the paper which informed the 
Board of work to date on the fifth strategic theme of the Corporate Plan; namely “to be 
an open, innovative and professional organisation that engages effectively with the 
public and behaves with integrity. 

15. The Board noted the paper with no questions. 


Any Other Business 

16. None 


Date of Next Meeting 

17. Friday 6th October 2006 at Braemar Village Hall.