Local Place Plans

" A Local Place Plan demonstrates need, and evidences the will of the community - it's not about individual projects - it's the whole plan, for the whole place"

A Local Place Plan is scaffold around which the ambitions of a community can be formed into a holistic plan that takes into account past and present work and existing action plans and projects, and builds on the local skills, aspirations and lived experience of residents to enact change.

It is a community led document which is supported in the development by the Local Authority and other Community Planning Partners to encourage the community to take ownership, and develop their own plan, bringing in voices from all demographics, and use the relationships and local landscape as the foundations for all engagement and presentation of information. 

A Local Place Plan requires communities to come together to drive the process, and form a sort of Team as a steering group for the work. This is referred to generically as a "Town Team" but could be a Town Board, Steering Group, Working Group or named and organised in any form the community saw fit.

More information, ideas and suggestions on how to form a  Town Team .

The development of a Local Place Plan may require specialist support to provide structure and expertise at various stages of a plan’s development.  This can be sought from the Support available from the Place Programme, or from specialists commissioned to support the co-production of a community plan. Communities can seek funding and access specialists through the Place Making Support Framework.

Support is available for all, or some of the stages of developing a Local Place Plan. 

Further information on  Support 

Further information on  Place Making Support Framework 

The stages of developing a process will vary from place to place, and be affected by a variety of factors, but may be broken down indicatively into: 

• Stage 1 - Initial engagement with the community, desk top research / mapping, review of existing plans, understanding of the local dynamics, infrastructure, skills audit and capacity assessment to address and gaps / deficits.  Analysing the results with the community partners to build skills, capacity and strategies on the community approach.
• Stage 2 - Engagement Plan for bringing together and expanding the membership of a steering group / town team to be the custodians of the Local Place Plan and work collaboratively to develop a Communication Plan for wider collaboration with the diversity of the community, and bringing in lesser heard voices
• Stage 3 – Implementation plan for the timing and structure of community engagement – this could include, but is not limited to, the types and styles of workshops, the scope of and breadth of conversations and the method for capturing and analysing responses and information to ensure meaningful data. 
• Stage 4 – Analysis of the data in collaboration with sub groups, partner organisations, Community Planning Partners etc to identify specific opportunities, assets and needs, and thematic interventions expressed in the engagement.  This should cover a broad range of opportunities e.g. climate action, active travel, development of business space, public realm improvements, town centre regeneration, flood defence, housing developments, skills delivery, events and festivals to attract visitors, repurposing of local landmarks and heritage sites for new uses. 

Stages 3 and 4 are crucial for considering how the conversations and developing themes relate to key national policies, and make strong linkages to how community aspirations align. 

Policies to consider include, (but are not limited to): 

• Climate Change Plan and its relevant targets
• Second Climate Change Adaptation Programme
• Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan
• National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4)
• Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES)
• 2nd Just Transition Commission report

Communities have profound awareness of the challenges that they face and encouraging connection with strategic policies and outcomes will help to strengthen connection with funding and maximise investment potential as the process develops. Help to navigate and understand policies and how they relate to the community aspirations is available through Support.

•  Stage 5 – Draft an initial document to capture the findings of the engagement work and present the community's vision in a clear and accessible way.  The content of the Local Place Plan should be checked against any relevant guidelines (specifically for Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal towns) and the draft matrix of content developed by the Berwickshire Area Partnership Working group ( Berwickshire Area Partnership Local Place Plan Guidance ) to ensure it is representative of the required content for a Local Place Plan, and provides input from all members of the community, including lesser heard voices.  Further engagement to ratify and refine the document based on community feedback and work with stakeholders.
• Stage 6 – Evaluating and redrafting the content of the Local Place Plan to ensure it is reflective of the whole community's ideas and aspirations, final checks against the required content, and working as a community steering group (Town Team) to develop and sign off on the finished document (most likely a digital PDF). 

The diagram shows the process for developing a Local Place Plan as part of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal Place Programme, but can generically be considered the process for all communities.

The Town Team develops the Plan, works with the Local Authority who support the process, and help structure the communities plans, and feed the needs, ideas and aspirations of the community to service delivery operators in the Community Planning Partnership. The process starts with the community Team, but feeds into a cycle of communication and collaboration so that there is buy in at every stage and the hard work of the community to develop the Plan is recognised and honoured.

Further information on  Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal 

Working in a place-based way can identify key relationships and solve problems that can’t be solved incrementally or by one person or organisation acting alone. A structured engagement approach encourages communities to work together to create something that is more than the sum of its parts by generating novel approaches, bringing in resources or tackling root causes.

Following the successful delivery of the Local Place Plan, the community has the opportunity to make representation to the Local Authority planning department, and may submit it with relevant information for it to be reviewed and accepted (note Support from Community Place Planning Regeneration Officers is available). 

If the organisation is a Community Body and has complied with the legal requirements, then the planning authority must accept the Local Place Plan and proceed to register it. 

Further guidance on the process and legal requirements for the development of a Local Place Plan can be found within  Scottish Government Planning Circular .

The community then may take forward the Local Place Plan as an action plan to pursue funding, or develop a Community or Town Investment Plan if required as a specific criteria of a fund, such as the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, or if there is sufficient complexity in the Plan that an Investment Plan would be helpful.

Further information  Community or Town Investment Plans 

"Local Place Plans are working documents to drive actions and will be refreshed as communities respond to new challenges and developing technologies. It is a cyclical process which will capture the impacts of change and changing circumstances over time."

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