Local Place Plans (LPPs) : Register

About the Local Place Plans Register

The Local Place Plan Regulations 2021 require planning authorities to establish, maintain and publish a register of Local Place Plans and to make information about them available so that people can see if there is a Local Place Plan in their area. Specifically, the register must contain a copy of the Local Place Plan, a copy of any information submitted alongside it and a map.

In order for West Lothian Council to confirm and register a Local Place Plan, the document must comply with the very specific requirements set out in the legislation and which are explained in Scottish Government Circular 1/2022 - Local Place Plans. 

Subject to these requirements being satisfied, the council is obliged to register the Local Place Plan and will issue the submitting body a receipt of acknowledgement.

It should be noted that it is not the role of the council as planning authority at the point of registration to assess the proposals contained within the Local Place Plan for their planning merit or deliverability. This will be done later and as part of the wider Local Development Plan process. However if the organisation is not properly constituted as a community body under the terms of the legislation, or if the information provided is incomplete, the council will be unable to register the Local Place Plan and in such circumstances it would advise the organisation making the submission that it was not valid and give its reasons for reaching that view.

While Local Place Plans will not be part of the statutory development plan (as defined by the Planning Act) they will require to be taken into account by West Lothian Council as Planning Authority in the preparation of future Local Development Plans.

Proposals submitted in a Local Place Plan may subsequently be included in the finalised Local Development Plan, but there may be other considerations which mean that they are not. The Council will be required to explain why proposals have or have not been included in the course of the LDP process and there will be the opportunity for these decisions to be challenged and independently assessed.

Registered Local Place Plans may also be material considerations in planning application decisions with the weight to be applied to the relevant considerations determined on a case-by-case basis.

Once a Local Place Plan has been registered the council is only permitted to remove it from the register in very specific circumstances:

• if the community body which prepared the Local Place Plan requests that the Local Place Plan is removed from the register; or
• if the community body which prepared the Local Place Plan submits a subsequent Local Place Plan which the community body state is to replace or supersede the Local Place Plan.   

_{This page was last updated: 22 August 2024}