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CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 
Paper 3 13/08/04 

CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 
Title: CNPA ADVISORY GROUPS 
Prepared by: Jane Hope, Chief Executive 

Purpose 
To review operation of working groups and advisory groups over the first year, and seek 
agreement to revised arrangements. 
Recommendations 
a) That the Board agree to the six advisory forums described below (paragraph 21); 
b) That staff bring forward proposals for membership and remit, and other arrangements for 
servicing the forums in keeping with the principles set out in paragraphs 23 and 24; 
c) That the working groups are wound down in their current form, and that staff liaise with 
individual CNPA Board members to draw on their expertise and experience as 
appropriate; 
d) That the Senior Management Team keep an overview of staff working arrangements to 
ensure they are sufficiently broadly based and engage with others to deliver well 
informed and balanced advice; 
e) That guidance on preparing Board papers is endorsed as a means of ensuring advice 
addresses all the relevant issues, including consultation (see checklist at Annex 1); 
f) That seminars and workshops are also used as a way of bringing large groups of people 
together to engage on particular topics. 

Executive Summary 
The biggest challenge for the CNPA is to add value to the extensive work already being taken 
forward by a range of public bodies by ensuring a genuinely integrated and consultative approach 
to the complex policy issues facing the area. It is therefore proposed that a limited number of 
advisory forums are set up, with wide membership: 
• Joined up Government /National Park Plan Forum 
• Integrated Land Management Forum 
• Visitor services, Tourism, and Information Forum 
• Local Access Forum(s) (required under the Land reform legislation) 
• Social and Economic Development Forum 
-The existing Housing Strategy implementation group as a sub group, reflecting 
the importance of housing issues in the CNP 
These groups will have a wide membership, and will be advisory rather than project management 
groups. The work of the CNPA would also be supported by seminars on appropriate topics, to 
bring together a wide range of views on a particular issue. 

Introduction 
1. Any discussion on working groups/advisory groups need to be set in the wider context of 
the Board’s role, and the various mechanisms available to it for fulfilling that role. 

2. The Board is ultimately responsible to Scottish Ministers (and hence to the Scottish 
Parliament) for the actions and the performance of the CNPA. That accountability is 
formally delivered each year through the annual report and accounts, which explains how 
the organisation has delivered its objectives as set out in the corporate plan and 
operational plan for that year. 

3. That responsibility has to be exercised in a non-executive fashion – Members are only 
paid for three days input per month. Their role is therefore to:
a) set the strategic direction within which staff work; and
b) to monitor progress in delivering key objectives. 
Setting the Strategic Direction 

4. Examples of setting the strategic direction include the following: 

5. Tourism Strategy for the CNP: this was recently approved by the Board, and sets out the 
role of the CNPA as leading and coordinating a collective approach to tourism 
development across the whole Park area. That includes, for example, taking a lead in 
developing a tourism marketing strategy and action plan, applying for the European 
Charter for Sustainable Tourism, and developing ideas for delivering quality standards. 
Once the Board had agreed a paper setting out this approach, the job of staff is to work to 
deliver/implement that strategy. The various elements of it will appear in the operational 
plan, and can be monitored on a regular basis through reports on the progress with the 
operational plan (discussed further below). 

6. Policy on Windfarms: A CNPA policy on windfarms within the Park, once agreed by the 
Board, provides the basis for future decisions on planning applications within the Park, 
and contributions to consultations on related issues. 

7. Grant Scheme: once agreed in principle by the Board, the proposed Communities Small 
Grants scheme became the basis on which staff could make decisions on applications for 
financial assistance. 

8. Communications Strategy: Once approved by the Board, this provided the framework 
for a whole range of activities, to the drafting of CNPA documents, and the way we go 
about raising the profile of the CNPA and the Park. 

9. Corporate Plan: The Board agrees a corporate plan each year, for the next three years, 
setting out the high level aims and objectives for the organisation, and its funding needs. 
The operational plan, also approved by the Board, sets out more detail of the current 
year’s work for delivering the corporate plan. The operational plan would include in it, for 
example, the objectives of: developing a communications strategy, developing a grant 
scheme, developing interim policies on key planning issues, etc. (as set out above). 

10. In each of these examples, the Board’s role has been to approve proposals put to them as 
Board papers by staff, whose job is then to work within the framework set by the Board, 
and/or deliver the various elements of a strategy. It is then the role of the Board to 
monitor how effectively this is being done. 
Monitoring Progress 

11. Once the corporate plan (and budget) and the operational plan are in place, there are three 
main ways in which the Board monitors progress: 

12. Expenditure: The question "are we keeping to budget" is addressed each quarter by the 
finance committee, which takes quarterly reports on expenditure to date against budget, 
and expected outturn for the year. These papers are also copied, for information, to all 
Board Members. 
13. Activities/Outcomes: The question "are we delivering what we said we would" is 
addressed in two ways. 
a) papers to the Board from time to time once key decision points have been reached 
in a strand of work; 
b) by quarterly reports to the Board on progress against the Operational Plan. This is 
not so much a question of expenditure, but about whether or not the key objectives 
specified in the operational plan have been delivered or are on track. For example, 
the Board would want to be reassured that we on track for having the first draft of 
the National Park Plan by March 2005, and if not, what the implications were and 
whether additional resources needed to be approved to ensure this as a priority 
(and by implication, agree that some other objective should slip). 

14. The Three "Es": The question "are we operating as effectively, efficiently and 
economically as possible" is addressed by the quarterly meetings of the Audit Committee, 
who agree the programme of work by the internal and external auditors, and consider their 
reports throughout the year. 

15. These are the main formal mechanisms through which the Board can reassure itself that 
the strategic direction of the CNPA, which they have agreed, is being followed by the 
work of staff. 

16. In fulfilling its strategic role, it is essential that the Board is receiving good well-founded 
advice that reflects the full spectrum of opinion of stakeholders as well as being based on 
sound fact and evidence. Further, it is important that there are effective mechanisms in 
place for the CNPA to engage with stakeholders so that the communication is two-way – 
the organisation needs to know the views of others, but equally, needs to ensure that 
others are aware of what the CNPA is doing. 

17. This paper recommends a number of advisory groups which will ensure the Board is in 
touch with outside stakeholders and views, and will be complementary to the 
arrangements already described which allow the Board to make decisions on strategic 
direction, and to monitor progress. 

First Year of Operation 
18. The Board considered two papers soon after its establishment (Paper 2: 27 June 2003, and 
paper 1: 10 September 2003), and as an initial measure, set up a number of time-limited 
working groups focused on specific tasks. This decision recognised the circumstances 
which the Board found itself in at the time. Having been established with only a very 
short preparatory period, there was very limited staffing capacity. As a result, it proved 
very difficult to deal with the inevitable pressures to start making decisions on a range of 
early actions. Working groups were therefore set up (paper 1: 10 September 2003) with 
the clear intention that these should be time limited, should focus on planning and 
delivery of particular actions and projects, with initial membership being of small number 
of board members, but widening out membership as required. 

19. The Board now has a good opportunity to take stock of its first year, and review these 
working arrangements. This review takes account of informal discussions with Members, 
and reflects the following observations: 

• Many of the working groups have remained very small with membership limited 
to Board members and staff. In the absence of other more broadly based groups 
this is leading to the impression that the Board is not engaging properly with the 
outside world. 
• Staff capacity has increased over the past year. Nevertheless, capacity will always 
be limited, and servicing Groups takes up some of that capacity. 
• The use of ad-hoc meetings, as opposed to formal groups, has proved effective as 
a means of engaging with other stakeholders and generating well-informed advice 
for the Board (e.g. the one-off public meetings held to discuss response to CAP 
reform consultation); 
• Board members put in their full time allowance (3 days a month) simply on Board 
meetings and planning meetings. Working groups have proved a considerable 
additional time burden. 
• The advisory panels have not met to date (other than the panel on Joined Up 
Government) 
• Decisions on CNPA strategy and policy are ultimately for the Board itself, but in 
reaching those decisions the Board must be well informed and advised. Other 
groups, particularly those that have a broadly based membership, have a vital role 
to play in providing that information and advice. 
Proposal 
20. The biggest challenge for the CNPA is ensuring a truly integrated approach to dealing 
with complex policy issues – complex because of the involvement of a number of 
different agencies in delivery, and because of the range of different interests and policies 
which are affected (e.g. strategies on tourism in the National Park cannot been looked at 
in isolation from information/interpretation, economic development, signage, recreation, 
landscape etc). 

21. It is therefore proposed that five standing advisory forums (and one sub group) are 
established to ensure integration of policy issues. They also largely mirror the chapters in 
the National Park Plan, and will provide an essential sounding board as we develop the 
Park Plan: 
• Joined up Government /National Park Plan 
• Integrated Land Management ("stewardship of natural resources") 
• Visitor services, Tourism, and Information ("Understanding and enjoying the 
Park") 
• Local Access Forum(s) (required under the Land Reform Legislation to advise the 
CNPA) 
• Social and Economic development ("Communities living and working in the 
Park"). 
o The existing Housing Strategy implementation group as a sub group, reflecting 
the importance of housing issues in the CNP. 

22. These are in many ways equivalent to the 5 Advisory Panels proposed last year, but with 
the emphasis shifted towards ensuring adequate joining-up between policies and strategies 
that will eventually be articulated in the National Park Plan. These groups are not 
intended to draft the National Park Plan chapters, or to project-manage, but they would 
provide a useful sounding board and source of advice. In most cases (certainly the first 
three) they can be based on existing working groups or advisory panels, with membership 
widened as appropriate. 

23. Two factors are crucial to the Groups’ success: 
• Membership. It follows that these groups need to be broadly based, and their 
strength will come from bringing a range of different viewpoints round the table. 
They would have a very wide membership (about 25), with "paper/electronic" 
membership to widen membership beyond those for whom there is room round the 
table or who cannot attend meetings. The groups would be chaired by a Board 
member, with only one or two other members attending, to maximise room for 
external attendance. 
• How they are serviced. The Groups must be used as sounding boards, to inform 
the development and delivery of policy. They should be serviced by relevant 
CNPA staff, who would prepare agendas and papers to bring forward relevant 
issues for discussion, which would help inform the development of policy. There 
might be an element of reporting on work in progress in order to keep people 
informed, but only briefly, and not in order to manage projects or the work of 
staff. 

24. We must recognise, in how we use these forums, that there are limits to the demands we 
can place on people’s time, particularly those who are self employed. Those attending 
would be eligible for mileage expenses (unless from a public agency, in which case the 
agency would be expected to cover travel costs). We might need to be more creative in 
finding meeting times that are acceptable to others (evenings, for example). We must 
ensure that meetings interesting; are no more frequent than is useful or necessary; that 
papers are short, readable and stimulate discussion; that agendas include relevant issues 
for discussion (and not just everything happening in the Park). 


Seminars 
25. In addition it is proposed that we make use of occasional seminars and workshops to bring 
together relatively large numbers of people to discuss particular issues. We have already 
used such ad-hoc gatherings to discuss CAP reform; and there is already a proposal for a 
seminar held twice a year to bring together estate/land owners to discuss issues of mutual 
interest. 

Working Groups 
26. The work of the working groups is narrowly focused on specific tasks. In most cases the 
work of these groups has now moved on, and can be dealt with through other means. 
Generally it is suggested that the work of these groups is simply taken on by the relevant 
staff, and that they should call on the relevant Board members informally for discussions 
where a steer is required. 
Ranger Svcs Wind up. Staff to seek guidance informally from Members as 
required. 

Food Marketing Work to become part of ILM Advisory forum 
Housing Development Wind up, but use Cairngorms Housing Strategy Group as a 
sounding board for new proposals on affordable housing. 

Park for All Wind up. Use other forums (Social & Economic 
Development Forum, and the Visitor Svs, Tourism etc 
Forum, Access Forum, as sounding boards. 

TDWG Advisory role to pass to Visitor services, Tourism etc 
Advisory Forum (with suitable additions to membership). 

Access Replace in due course by Local Access Forum, planned for 
January 2005. 
Integrated public transport 
Not yet started - set up officers gp when Economic 
Development officer in place. 

Gateways Wind up now Phase 1 of project complete. 

NP Plan Already agreed by Board to wind up, and joint officer group 
to take over project management. Advisory forum on Joined 
Up Government to advise on strategic issues. 

Local Plan Wind up and replace by joint officer group for project 
management. 
Agriculture-ILMWG Advisory role to pass to ILM Forum, with widened 
membership. 

Other Groups 
27. It is important to view these proposals in context. There are many groupings in existence 
which provide useful vehicles for communication, a means to engaging with particular 
communities of interest. 

28. The Association of Cairngorms Community Councils is an independent group (part 
funded by the CNPA), which provides an essential vehicle for the CNPA to engage with 
communities on issues that collectively affect communities (albeit not a substitute for 
engagement with individual communities on relevant issues). The Cairngorms Chamber 
of Commerce is now operating across the whole Park, and provides a collective voice for 
business interests with which the CNPA can engage. There are groups that oversee the 
management of particular projects (LEADER +, the moorland project, and the LBAP 
project). 

29. In addition, there are many informal groupings, sometimes ad hoc, sometimes more 
permanent, which inform the work of staff at the CNPA. These tend to be more focused 
on the practicalities of delivery. For example: there is a standing group of Local authority 
and Scottish Executive representatives which regularly reviews the arrangements (as set 
out in a protocol) on call-in of planning applications. Similarly a group of local authority 
and NPA representatives is forming to ensure a joined up approach to delivering the 
access legislation duties across the five access authorities in and around the Park. There 
is an annual gathering for all the Park Ranger Services, generally hosted by the CNPA in 
November. 


GUIDANCE ON PREPARATION (extract) 
To ensure Board papers (and planning policy papers) deal with the right issues, the following 
checklist/template should be used: 
• What exactly are we asking the Board to approve, and why?; 
• How does this help deliver corporate plan?; 
• Relationship between this strategy/policy (if for CNPA) and NP Plan 
• Consequences/interactions with other policy areas of CNPA/CNP; 
• Links with National policies (e.g. from Scottish Executive) 
• Links with prior Board papers/approvals; 
• Impact on other organisations, and communities; 
• Consequences for other stakeholders; 
• Input from others into preparation of paper (consultation), and extent to which advice 
reflects views of other stakeholders; 
• Presentational implications 
• Financial implications