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CAIRNGORMS LOCAL OUTDOOR ACCESS FORUM

Title: Responsible Promotion of Recreation

Prepared by: Fran Pothecary, Outdoor Access Officer

Purpose This paper updates the Forum on the progress of the 
guidance on responsible promotion of recreational opportunities

Advice Sought The Forum is asked to:

a) Consider whether the proposed changes address the issues
arising from the previous consultation
b) Provide further comment on the tone and content of the guidance.

Background

1. At the Forum meeting on 18 August 2009 the Forum considered a 
paper presenting a draft policy on responsible promotion of recreational
opportunities within the National Park. The Forum were presented with the 
feedback from the targeted stakeholder consultation, which demonstrated 
that there was a wide range of perspectives on the issues and that further
work would be required to reach a consensus.

2. The Forum was asked to:

a) Note the feedback from the consultation exercise;
b) Consider how effectively the draft policy met the concerns raised by 
land managers and others; and
c) Consider and advise on proposals for further engagement.

The ForumÕs View

3. The Forum advised that the CNPA should pilot guidance on this matter that 
would be useful for SNH and the National Access Forum to roll out nationally. 
They expressed a concern that too strongly worded guidance might be a backward
step for access rights; that there should be a section on the legal context 
and that it should not provide opportunities for a land manager to prevent 
or restrict responsible access. Further consideration should be given to 
the tone of the document and how best to communicate with the target audiences.

4. Overall the Forum supported the proposal that further engagement with 
interested groups would help develop greater buy-in and asked for further
input prior to the final approval of the document.

Recent Developments

5. Subsequent to the August 2009 Forum meeting there was a hiatus in 
the further development of this work due to staff reductions between 
October and March of this year. Notwithstanding this, in September 2009, 
CNPA staff met with representatives of the Activity ProvidersÕ Group of 
the Aviemore and Cairngorms Destination Management Organisation to 
discuss their concerns and the background to the work. The outcome of the 
meeting was positive and supportive. CNPA agreed to listen to any further 
views and to make revisions to the guidance.

6. Some further contributions on the issue were also received.

Proposed Changes

7. This guidance has been drawn up in the recognition that these days, 
promotional information can be wide ranging, mobile, rapidly evolving and
difficult to control and that the best strategy is to give opportunity 
for promoters and land managers to engage positively in presenting 
information to the public.

8. The presentation of the document has been changed from ÒpolicyÓ to 
ÒguidanceÓ and at this stage, it will not feature as a policy adjunct to 
the Outdoor Access Strategy as, for example, the Organising an Outdoor 
Access Event policy. There is potential for this to change if it is 
flagged up as a significant issue at the review of the Strategy in 2012.

9. The revised guidance is attached at Appendix 1. It has been redrafted 
with the emphasis on the following:

¥ Drawing attention to the variety in the scale of promotion and
anticipated audiences and clarifies that this guidance is predominantly
directed at active promotion of activities, routes and places as opposed 
to the more casual use of chat forums, social networking sites and 
blogs, etc.
¥ Drawing attention to the special qualities and environmental context 
of the National Park
¥ Referencing the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and Para 3.63 which is 
specifically about promotion
¥ Looking to the future in describing what good promotion of recreational 
opportunity looks like
¥ Expanding the sections on responsibilities of promoters 
(Òinformation providersÓ), land managers and the CNPA and provides 
more direction to information provided by representative or national 
governing bodies
¥ Achieving a more positive tone to the guidance

10. For the ease of comparison, the original draft policy is 
attached as Appendix 2

The Next Steps
11. In parallel to the discussion with the LOAF it is proposed to take
this guidance back to the main stakeholders who expressed concern at 
the original concept, and endeavour to develop further support. 
The guidance will be presented to the CNP Board for approval in July, along 
with proposals for raising awareness and distribution of the guidance over the 
summer.

Fran Pothecary
Outdoor Access Officer
franpothecary@cairngorms.co.uk