Local Place Plans

Guidance and tools

Guidance to help your community prepare a Local Place Plan

The following organisations have produced guidance on how to help your community prepare a Local Place Plan:

Tools that may help your community build a Local Place Plan

The following tools may help your community build a Local Place Plan:

Existing community-led plans

How do Local Place Plans differ from other ‘community land use plans’?

Local Place Plans, while possibly similar to predecessor ‘community land use plans’, are distinct from them. Local Place Plans have been introduced as a specific plan type by Scottish Government as part of their wider work on planning reform and implementation of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019.

Local Place Plans must be prepared in line with the legal requirements of paragraphs 1(4) and 2(1) of Schedule 19 of the 1997 Act as amended. This is explained in the Scottish Government’s guide to preparing, submitting, and registering Local Place Plans.

Can an existing community-led plan be submitted as a Local Place Plan?

Ideas for development and the use of land in your local area can be promoted without it being part of a Local Place Plan.

Other (existing or new) community-led plans relating to the Highland Council area, which do not comply with the legal requirements for Local Place Plans, can still be submitted to us as part of the evidence gathering for a Local Development Plan. They can also be taken into account during the preparation of that Local Development Plan.

Alternatively, you may wish to investigate the possibility of converting an existing community-led land use plan into a Local Place Plan. However, you should consider the legal requirements for preparing Local Place Plans.

Further advice on the preparation of Local Place Plans