Share your experiences of developing Local Place Plans
/This article was featured in the SCDC Weekly - 7th October 2026
The Scottish Government has begun a review of Local Place Plans to understand how they’re being used and the influence they have on the planning system.
Local Place Plans (LPPs) were introduced as a way for communities to have the right to set out their views about how land and other physical spaces are used in their area. Communities use them to propose where it makes sense for new projects, services, and developments like housing to be located in response to community needs.
LPPs are taken into consideration when Local Development Plans are created by local authorities, but are also an important source of local views arising from good community engagement to help understand a full range of needs in a community.
Through our work around Local Place Plans, and involvement in ongoing Democracy Matters conversations, we’ve described how we think LPPs and non-statutory plans like Community-led Action Plans need to be better integrated.
We think it’s important that the review explores how the plans are making a difference locally, and that they are strengthened to have more influence on how local developments occur. We also want to see an enhanced role for LPPs as evidence around how decisions are made on planning applications.
The review includes a survey and series of consultation events, with a chance to share your experiences of producing plans and the influence they’ve had on planning decisions locally.