*UNDER DEVELOPMENT* Local Place Plan & Updates

Back to News

*UNDER DEVELOPMENT* Local Place Plan & Updates

Strathnairn Community Council have set up a steering group to create a ‘Local Place Plan‘. We are now officially underway.

What is the National Planning System, why does it exist and how does it work?

  • The UK Planning Process acknowledges that use or demand on land / sites / buildings is not static; with time however big or small – and driven by many and often conflicting pressures or opportunities – there is change or evolution.
  • This process need to be transparent, considered and managed.
  • Under the Scottish/UK Planning Process, this is known as ‘Development Planning’ and produces an overall ‘Development Plan’.

What is the ‘Development Plan’?

  • At a national level there are 4 key parts to the Development Plan:
  • (Nationally) Part 1. National Planning Framework (now NPF4). This is the overarching national planning document, informed by the development drivers in each of Scotland’s regions, but with a strategic and national overview.
  • Whilst recognising the regional distinctions, this framework pulls all the regions together under a single a cohesive plan or structure.
  • As such it is informed by Local Development Plans and a Regional Spatial Strategy.
  • https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework-4/
  • (Regionally or area based) Part 2. Local Development Plan. 
  • For Strathnairn there are two Local Development Plans which set the framework for development; the Highland-Wide Local Development Plan (currently being revised and due for release in Spring 2026); and the Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan (adopted; with a focus on the Green Freeport and surrounds). Whilst specific to an area, the latter is still a Local Development Plan.
  • Locally the IMFDP exists, as in the Highlands – given the geographical spread –  there are big differences across the region, which can’t be fully captured in a single Highland-wide plan, so both sit side by side, talking to each other, with overlap.
  • Local development plans therefore have a synergy – are both informed by and inform – the National Planning Framework and the Regional Spatial Strategy.
  • https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/178/development_plans/199/highland-wide_local_development_plan
  • (Regionally) Part 3. Regional Spatial Strategy.  This is a mapped based diagram informed by the drivers, constraints and vision for development in the area, as a graphic.
  • It connects directly to the NPF and LDP.
  • https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/178/development_plans/927/national_planning_framework/3
  • (Locally) Part 4. Local Place Plan(s).

What is a Local Place Plan, why have one, and what is its purpose ?

  • A Local Place Plan captures strategic community-led planning for the development (or preservation) of the community’s land, sites and buildings.
  • It is informed by the community – collectively – through lived experience, local knowledge, and in considering or planning for the community’s future; both in addressing problems, but equally in recognising opportunities.
  • Although Local and particular to a Place – and therefore at a Community level – it must have a natural synergy with the NPF and LDP; it can’t be in conflict with or disregard these plans, as they have greater weight.
  • It can be focused on a single area within the community, but for Strathnairn Community Council, we are opting to pull the whole community together in a single plan that reflects the entire geographical area & Community Council boundary, with ‘soft boundaries’ into the neighbouring Straths.
  • Given the diversity across the community, with settlements at the edge of Inverness (at Clava and Nairnside etc), through to the rural and remoter edges (at Croachy and Brin etc) along with the bearing on the community with the A9, it is expected that there will be distinctions across the area.
  • Mapping and emerging information will reflect this.
  • What will emerge is a strategy, or set of proposals for how – collectively – you (and all together as a singular community or series of settlements) would want to see your community’s land, sites and or buildings used going forward.
  • It doesn’t have to account for each and every scrap of land; it is, as expressed a strategic overview, captured in words, maps and diagrams.
  • This is then checked and validated by Highland Council, as the local and governing body.
  • The value of the Local Place Plan, is that it represents – as a spatial strategy and local framework in the broadest sense – the Community’s vision for its own area, at a local level; now and into the future.
  • With this in place, it can inform, support or challenge proposed development, as one of the many ‘tools’ within the planning process.
  • Critically it integrates communities directly with the planning process, and equally can support community action, local development works, bids for funding across various stakeholders etc going forward.

What’s next?

  • A fast paced, rough-around-the-edges, community exercise to produce a Local Place Place (which can be refined or finessed as we go) for which we need your (the community’s) engagement, input and help to get us there by the end of the year.
  • Updates will be frequent, so please continue to check in.
  • To date our neighouring communities of Strathdearn and Stratherrick and Foyers both have adopted LPPs.
  • We understand the value of this exercise and look to strengthen Strathnairn’s place and voice – in particular in the regional planning system – and therefore are looking to move this forward.
  • Let’s do it together, as a community!

 

See:

Let’s talk about planning | Part 1 on NPF4

https://strathnairn.org.uk/lpp-development-lets-talk-about-planning_part-1_npf4/

Local Place Plan & Community Development

Local Place Plan & Community Development | Strathnairn Community