Places, people and planning: update on proposal 6

Proposal 6. Giving people an opportunity to plan their own place.

We believe that communities should be given a new right to come together and prepare local place plans. There should be an opportunity for the community aspirations contained in these plans to form part of the statutory local development plan.

Why we are making a change

Communities are well placed to define the future of their place. We want to encourage more engagement early in the process to give communities more say in the types and locations of development within their area.

What we are doing

• We have proposed introducing local place plans, to be prepared by communities.
• We believe a flexible approach will help to address concerns about local place plans and ensure that communities are not undully burdened with complexity and procedure.

How we will deliver change

• primary legislation – the Planning Bill makes provision for local place plans
• secondary Legislation – detailed requirements will be set out in regulations
• guidance – yes
• non legislative action – yes

Next steps

As well as legislative change, local place plans will require guidance and support for effective implementation. As a starting point, this year's programme of design-led engagement ('charrettes') is being used to help explore the challenges and opportunities arising from local place plans in more detail.

Funding of over £311,000 for nineteen projects across Scotland was announced in December 2017.

From last quarter 2017-18, we will provide additional funding to PAS to support communities in the preperation of Local Place Plans and their precursons.