LOCAL PLACE PLANS

A Scottish Community Position

REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT

LPPs: A Scottish Community Position

This website supports the circulation of the Local Place Plans (LPPs) Scottish Community Position document among Community Councils (CCs) and for CCs to demonstrate their adoption of it.

Community Councils are asked to:

1. Adopt: support the Scottish Community Position by formally adopting it in your Community Council. Please consult the FAQ for more information on formal adoptions.
2. Register: once adopted, complete the Adoption Form to register your support and help build the critical mass needed to influence the Scottish Government
3. Communicate: contribute to the Discussion Forum to provide concrete examples of local challenges faced with the planning system and/or communicate your aspirations for LPPs to the Scottish Government

The Scottish Community Position and its accompanying Explanation Document can be downloaded below.

Download: Scottish Community Position
Download: Explanation Document

About

What are Local Place Plans and why is the Scottish Community Position important?

Local Place Plans (LPPs) are a key element of the Planning (Scotland) Bill, published by the Scottish Government in December 2017. The Bill proposes the introduction of LPPs, which introduces a new joined-up approach to planning that includes land use, community planning and action. LPPs are intended to support residents to become more involved in shaping their local places.

The Planning (Scotland) Bill aims to strengthen the role of planning in empowering local communities. Within this, LPPs have the potential to give legal authority for communities to collectively determine priorities for local development. However, it is felt by many with experience in community planning that the guidance falls far short of giving communities the powers they need to participate effectively in the planning system.

The Bill is currently being considered by Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Community Position proposes 10 essential improvements for LPPs that will strengthen the legislation. It will be sent to the Scottish Government with the aim of influencing secondary legislation and guidance on LPPs.


How did the LPPs Scottish Community Position come about?

The Scottish Community Position originated from a group of community councillors who met at a learning exchange workshop on LPPs.

All at the learning exchange agreed that current guidance for LPPs required strengthening in order to ensure that community perspectives were sufficiently acknowledged and taken notice of by planning authorities. After agreeing proposals for improvements to strengthen the policy, and with further input from Community Councillors from Ayrshire, Mid-Lothian and Falkirk, the Scottish Community Position was agreed.

More information including a ‘glossary of terms’ can be found in the Explanation Document, which accompanies the Scottish Community Position.


Please support this campaign!

This campaign needs your input, as it is being run entirely by volunteers. Please pass information about the Scottish Community Position and this website to other CCs.

The ability for the Scottish Community Position to influence policy and guidance is dependent on the number of CCs and community bodies that adopt it. This in turn depends on how much exposure it has. The most effective way for the Scottish Community Position to be circulated is for Community Councillors to distribute it and discuss it among their neighbouring CCs. It will not be distributed otherwise.

Frequently Asked Questions

Accompanying the Scottish Community Position is an Explanation document which sets out the reasons why the Community Position is important, where it came from, how it will be used, as well as a glossary of terms. It can be downloaded here.

The following guidelines set out what is meant by ‘formal adoption’ of the Scottish Community Position by Community Councils (CCs). As each CC will have different procedures for adopting or signing position statements, the following are intended as guidelines only. Please be sure to follow your CC’s official procedure for making formal adoptions to the Community Position before registering your CCs adoption on this website. 

There are broadly speaking 3 steps for a CC to complete before formally adopting the Community Position. These are:

  1. Tabling the proposal: the discussion as to whether or not a CC should adopt the Community Position must be added to an agenda or tabled as a motion for the relevant Community Councillors to discuss the issue officially. 
  2. Discussing the adoption: the tabled motion must be discussed by the relevant Community Councillors in order for the CC in question to decide whether to agree to adopt the Community Position or not.
  3. Adopting the Community Position: the CC will make a decision whether to adopt the Community Position or not. This will generally be decided through a voting or other means depending on the CC. Each CC will have their own criteria that will need to be met. Once the CC has formally agreed to adopt the Community Position then it can be registered on this website here.

**Please do not forget to register your CC so that the strength of support for the Community Position can be demonstrated to the Scottish Government. If it is not registered on this website, your CCs adoption may go unnoticed. 

The more Community Councils (CCs) that adopt the Community Position, the more powerful it becomes. As a Community Councillor you can alert all neighbouring CCs about  the Communities Position and this website and encourage its adoption. Without this support from CCs the effectiveness of the Scottish Community Position to influence LPP policy will be diminished. Should every CC reading this website send it onto 3 or 4 other CCs, it will ensure that most CCs hear about the Community Position and LPPs.

If you would like to support the voluntary administration of this website or help in other ways, we would be happy to hear from you. Please get in touch by contacting us here.

This website is being run entirely by volunteers.  No funding has been received to date. 

In the Explanation document accompanying the Scottish Community Position, you will see how the idea for this website and campaign originated from discussions by Community Councillors reviewing the LPP guidance in November 2019.  Due to COVID-19, its circulation around CCs has been significantly delayed.  

A special word of thanks to Alexandru Ichim and Delia Spatareanu who created this website in their voluntary time.

Please send us an email at info@scc-localplaceplans.org. As this email is checked by volunteers entirely, it may take a number of days before we can get back to you. Please be patient, we will do our best to respond to everyone.

  • Local Place Plans - A Scottish Community Position