LOCAL PLACE PLANNING
What IS A LOCAL PLACE PLAN?
Local Place Plans give local communities more influence over what happens in their area. Their most important feature is that they are prepared by the community itself.
A Local Place Plan is our opportunity to express our ambitions for the future of Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston (the area covered by the Community Council).
Local Place Plans are part of new planning legislation that enables communities to identify their local priorities and develop a plan to tackle them. The planning authority (Highland Council) is legally obliged to take account of registered Local Place Plans in preparing new planning policy.
The Scottish Government says that Local Place Plans “offer the opportunity for a community-led, collaborative approach to creating great local places… effectively empowering communities to play a proactive role in defining the future of their places” (Circular 1/2022, paragraph 3).
You can find out more about Local Place Plans on this government webpage.
Although Local Place Plans must include proposals for the development and use of land, they can include other proposals too - very like our 2018 Community Action Plan, but with more legal clout.
More and more communities around the Highlands have started to produce Local Place Plans since 2023, like the three examples below. Click on the images to find out more about each one.
Each of the three examples is different, because each of those communities has distinct needs. Our plan will be different again.
STRATHERRICK AND FOYERS Local Place Plan
Your neighbours in Stratherrick and Foyers produced the first Local Place Plan to be registered in the Highlands: you can see it here.
Their Local Place Plan complements the Community Action Plan that they produced a year or two earlier. In Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston, we’ll be combining them into a single document.
Our Plan could include a similar combination of village plans and overarching proposals.
Ardgour Local Place Plan
The Ardgour Local Place Plan was registered by Highland Council in April 2024, the second to be registered in Highland. It combines quick wins and long term ambitions, all designed to stabilise and increase the population.
Like Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston, the Plan covers a number of distinct communities.
Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston are in many ways further down the journey of community development, but the Ardgour plan is another take on what our Local Place Plan could look like.
BLACK ISLE Local Place Plan
The Black Isle Local Place Plan covers multiple Community Council areas, and is more strategic type of Local Place Plan that focuses on big challenges.
Produced with Highland Council support, the intention is to “reset the relationship” between the community and the public sector - a fresh collaborative approach to planning local public services and investment.
WHY BOTHER?
Although Local Place Plans are new, we and many ther communities have used similar community-led plans to good effect.
Our 2018 Community Action Plan is a good example. It helped us to build new affordable homes and the health centre,
You can see what some other communities have achieved in the examples below.
Crianlarich into Action
Crianlarich’s 2011 community action plan led to an immediate grant of £15,000 to upgrade the public toilets, a long lease of the derelict station yard in the village centre by the Council to the community for a park, picnic tables and car parking, and - after a few years of hard work - a £200,000 path network next to the village on forestry land for locals and visitors.
Huntly: Room to Thrive
The community’s 2018 plan resulted in 6 months rent free lease of a closed RBS bank on the town square as a community space. That then led to community purchase of the bank and two vacant shops on the square a year later, and their refurbishment and reopening as business premises.
Langholm Community Plan
Langholm’s 10-year Community Plan, produced in 2020, led immediately to funding for two community workers who put together the successful community buyout of the local estate from the local landowner, Buccleuch, a year later.
Generally, other communities have found that preparing a Local Place Plan can:
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within the community and with the public and private sectors, helping things to get done rather than stuck in debate
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for example, helping community projects to get funding
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influencing services like ducation, health, transport and planning
Preparing a Local Place Plan takes time and effort, and there is no guarantee that everything in the Plan will happen. But we know from the Local Place Plans being produced elsewhere in the Highlands that we have an opportunity to shape our future and expect support. The Council is willing to listen and engage on our terms, and they are paying for our Local Place Plan to be produced.