Local Place Plans

The Scottish Government has introduced Local Place Plans to encourage communities to play an active role in the planning for their area.

By developing and submitting a Local Place Plan, communities can have a more direct role in the decisions that influence their local community.

Invitation to create Local Place Plans

Local Place Plans allow communities to submit ideas and proposals for their area that can be taken into consideration while the Local Development Plan for their area is being prepared.

We will soon be preparing a new Highland-wide Local Development Plan that will be shaped by the aspirations and ambitions of communities across Highland. We are aiming to adopt our new Local Development Plan in 2027.

We are inviting community groups to create their own community-led Local Place Plans, which set out their proposals for development or the use of land in their area. 

For information on the types of community body that can formally prepare a Local Place Plan, read our information sheet.

Based on current timescales, Local Place Plans should be submitted by the end of March 2024. This is so we can use your community plans to feed into the earliest stages of the new Local Development Plan. This date may be revised to a later one depending on when the regulations and guidance to support National Planning Framework 4 are published.

Once a Local Place Plan has been submitted, it has to be checked. After it has cleared that process it can be registered and taken into account in preparing the Local Development Plan. Therefore, if Local Place Plans can be submitted sooner than the end of March 2024 this will provide more time, if needed, for the clearance process. 

Guidance on creating Local Place Plans

• Scottish Government guide to preparing, submitting and registering Local Place Plans
• Scottish Government and partner organisation guide to Local Place Plans
• Scottish Community Development Centre and Nick Wright Planning How to Guide to creating Local Place Plans
• Planning Aid Scotland (PAS) guide to Community-led Plans
• Resources which may help your community build a Local Place Plan:
  • Datasets available for anyone using a mapping tool through Highland Council's Open Map Data Portal.
  • Community Map Scotland (by Parish Online) mapping tools and advice
  • Felt - a tool for making and sharing maps.

Register of Local Place Plans

We will keep a register of Local Place Plans that have been created by communities in Highland. This register will be made available so that communities can see if there is a Local Place Plan for their area.

Once Local Place Plans have been registered, we have a legal responsibility to take them into account while preparing our Local Development Plan.

No Local Place Plans are currently registered in Highland.