Local Place Plan – Get involved in 2024-25 to shape our community for the future

Local Place Plans are part of new planning legislation and give our community the power to create proposals for positive development of land and our rural area.

With an approved Local Place Plan (LPP), our community-led local land strategy becomes part of the wider planning strategy that Stirling Council will have to adhere to.

A small working group including members of Strathblane Community Council (SCC) and Strathblane Community Development Trust (SCDT) is leading the process. However, what is really required is to gather the best ideas and wishes from the widest possible number of residents. This web page will provide updates as we go on…

Drop-ins and more drop-ins

Thanks to everyone who came along to the drop-in sessions on Saturdays 22nd February and 1st March. We collected a lot of answers to our questions, but also a lot of excellent suggestions and experiences to take into account.

The boards will be on display at the community council meeting on 3 March 2025 (Village Club from about 7pm). Another drop-in session is planned for Thursday evening, 20th March, 6-8pm at the Thomas Graham Community Library.  Come and join us for coffee, biscuits and a chat.

** If you can’t join us at those times but would still like to contribute, please get in touch **

The displays can now be viewed on your device by (i) clicking the image above left to download a PDF or (ii) just clicking the thumbnails below (best on a big screen, either way!)

Shaping Our Future: have your say

Shaping Our Future: have your say

Community assets and amenities

Transport and Traffic

Village environment & Paths

Sustainability & climate change

Housing need vs Green belt

Potential housing sites

Why are we doing this LPP now?

So, do we know what we want?

February-March 2025 – Time to shape our future!

After digesting the survey results below the LPP working group prepared a special edition of the Blane Valley Bulletin to summarise our preliminary conclusions, and to invite residents to review the results in more detail at Drop-in sessions.

Thumbnails of display posters

Remember – Your voice needs to be heard – so come along and have your say at drop-in sessions on Saturdays 22nd February and 1st March from 10am-1pm at the Thomas Graham Community Library.  Come and join us for coffee, biscuits and a chat.

We will be displaying our findings at these sessions, and inviting your comments on topics including:

  • Community assets and amenities
  • Transport and Traffic
  • Village environment & Paths
  • Sustainability & climate change
  • Housing need vs Green belt
    • including a list of potential housing sites

** If you can’t join us at those times but would
still like to contribute, please get in touch **

From these findings, a draft Local Place Plan will be prepared for submission to Stirling Council.

Reminder – Why are we doing this Local Place Plan now?

Decisions on planning applications and other services are not
made here in Strathblane; they are made in Stirling. Developers
who do not  like Stirling’s decisions  can (and do) appeal to the
Scottish Ministers and even the Court of Session. Only by having
a coherent and up-to-date LDP can anyone deliver the results that
we want for our community. Any weakness in the LDP opens the
door to appeals. Thankfully, under the current LDP Stirling, with
our backing, was able to repel appeals by Gladman Developments
on plans for 70 mainly very large houses along Campsie Road.

The current Local Development Plan was established through 2014-2018 and Stirling Council is already busy working towards the 3rd LDP (LDP3). This will be finalised by a long statutory process, from late 2025 and through 2026.

So, do we have any say? What is a Local Place Plan (LPP)

Residents through Strathblane Community Council will have opportunities to comment on the draft LDP when it is published. Before then, all manner of developers and landowners will be submitting their sites for inclusion in the plan. The Local Place Plan is our one big opportunity to put our needs and aspirations into that mix, before plans are laid that will steer development for a decade.

Stirling Council explains the status LPP’s have in planning application decisions:

  • Local Place Plans registered by Stirling Council will not be part of the statutory development plan as defined by the Planning Act but will inform the preparation of future Local Development Plans.
  • Registered Local Place Plans may be material considerations in planning application decisions with the weight to be applied to the relevant considerations determined on a case-by-case basis.

Community bodies in the Stirling  area need to submit their LPP for validation and registration by Wednesday 1st October 2025, in order to influence Stirling’s third Local Development Plan (LPD3).  There are a few steps to be done before then.

Our process is being led by Strathblane Community Council and development trust (SCDT).  A community survey took place in the spring of 2024 and the results give clear priorities for further consultation early next year.  Further background is below, including the full survey results. Future updates will be posted on this dedicated web page.

August 2024 – Survey responses published

Thanks to all those who completed the survey to provide evidence for development of a Local Place Plan. A detailed analysis of the responses is published here:

Local Place Plan – 2024 – results

In addition to the pre-defined answers, free text comments were invited, and these are presented in Appendices 1-8 in the report.

In the next few months we will take forward further consultations on how the opinions from the survey might shape development in the local area for the coming years.

Background: The survey was live for 2 months (23 March 2024 until 20 May 2024). In total, there were 255 responses to the questionnaire, of which 232 were submitted electronically and 23 by written completion of the paper version. 154 people (61%) answered only for themselves, while 99 (39%) answered on behalf of their household (on average two people per household). Based on the Census data for 2022, we estimate the number of residents covered by the respondents is approximately 21% of the local population in the Strathblane Community Council area. The respondents to the survey cannot be assumed to be representative of the whole community, as they were not sampled randomly, but, rather, all residents were invited to take part. Therefore, the analysis describes the frequencies of answers for each question, with further investigation of differences between age-groups and between sexes.

June 2024 – Survey responses are being analysed!

March/April 2024 – WE NEED YOUR OPINIONS

To kick off the LPP consultation process we would like you to comment, anonymously, on your local community and to let us know what could be done to make our villages even better places to live in, work in and visit.

>> THE SURVEY IS CLOSED <<

Anybody over the age of 11 can fill in the questionnaire and it is not limited to one per household. The more completed questionnaires that we get the better. To have your say and shape the future of our villages please complete the questionnaire by April 30th, 2024.

Paper copies are available in the library for people who prefer to use these. Members of the Community Council and SCDT will also be available in the library on Monday and Tuesday mornings to provide help in completing the questionnaire.

New background information

We have uploaded a copy of the Lowland Market Research’s report on the 2009 community planning consultation, mentioned below.

February 2024 COMING SOON – LOCAL PLACE PLAN CONSULTATION

(Article circulated in Blane Valley Bulletin Jan/Feb 2024)

Why should we do a local place plan?

SCC and SCDT will be launching a community consultation in the Spring. As well as guiding Planning, an important by-product is evidence of community priorities and community support for various projects. This can help all sorts of community groups access grant funding without conducting onerous research of their own.

Are there any questions that you or your group would like included in the survey?

Please let us know by 10th February 2024, or as soon as possible.

Email contact@strathblanecc.org.uk or scdt@strathblane.online or use the Contact form

 

Background

For those of you with long memories you may remember the survey carried out in 2009 that resulted in our Community Action Plan 2011. |A detailed report on the 2009 consultation was also prepared.  The priorities identified have guided the work of SCC and SCDT since then. For example: Paths, Allotments, Speeding traffic, Affordable Housing. However, a lot can change in a decade, and both we and Stirling Council need to know what are the needs and aspirations of each community for the decade(s) to come.

Our Local Place Plan will replace the Community Action Plan and bring everything up to date.

The Local Place Plan is just one part of the overall Development Plan Scheme established by Stirling council (and all councils across Scotland). An introductory presentation on the Local Place Plan Process is here.

 

Some more recent evidence is available, for example in the Housing Needs Survey Report that was based on input from 18+ percent of households in the area, during 2020. But if new housing is needed, how and where can it be provided?  What type of housing do we need? There are small estates of new homes built in 2014 and 2023 that are already occupied with a mix of private owners and housing association tenants. But other houses and flats built in 2023 lie empty, after months on the market…

The LPP process is the opportunity for the community as a whole to have a say on these issues, and also on the other facilities and infrastructure that our community needs to thrive in the years to come.

Links to documents mentioned above:

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