Effective community engagement in local development planning: guidance

4. Stage by stage

Development plans bring together the views of a wide range of groups with the intention to inform the decisions made by the people representing them. It is this alignment of a wide range of public, private, community and third sector people and organisations that enables experiences to be shared, barriers to be broken down and better outcomes to be delivered. This is the Place Principle put into practice.

This part of the guidance gives more detail about how the levels of engagement apply to the different stages of local development plan making. It also identifies what the minimum requirements of the law are. Planning authorities can decide, working with their stakeholders, where it is beneficial to go beyond the minimum legal requirements.

This part is not intended to provide all the details about the information and actions to be considered within individual stages of plan-making.

Although set out as numbered stages, some stages apply at more than one time in the process of making a local development plan, and not necessarily in the sequence set out below.

Who to engage with

Section 16A and section 16B of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, and the Town and Country Planning (Development Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 Section 10 set out the legal requirements for publication and for people and organisations to engage with. These are the minimum requirements:

• the public at large
• children and young people (people who are 25 years old or younger), in particular schools and school pupils, youth councils and youth parliament representatives
• disabled people
• Gypsy/Travellers
• Travelling Showpeople
• community councils
• communities, invited to prepare local place plans
• key agencies
• Scottish Ministers
• adjoining planning authorities.

A specific definition of Gypsy/Travellers is provided for the planning system and should be used to inform Development Plan Schemes and Participation Statements.

Key agencies are also defined in legislation. Furthermore, the following stakeholders, who form part of the Scottish Government, should have the same level of involvement in the development planning process: Transport Scotland, Scottish Forestry, and Marine Scotland. Many more people and groups may want to get involved in the development plan including organisations that participate in the Key Agencies Group, providing useful input and support. Planning authorities and communities should identify other stakeholders to include. This will help give a fuller picture of the place and the needs of the people within it to inform the local development plan.