Community Place Plans have replaced Community Action Plans, which you might be familiar with, following the new ‘Planning (Scotland) Bill’ from December 2017. This gives more clout to communities. See the graphic to your left.

A Place Plan is very important as it specifies how our community wants to develop, making sure residents and business are heard. It helps us as a community obtain the money and support to develop in the ways we want. The Place Plan feeds into the National Park's Local Development Plan - this is a legal requirement for the National Park. This means the Park must listen to us. This is our chance to have our voice heard and our needs and wants taken account of legally.

There are four to five steps to creating a Community Place Plan. This first is to create a Steering Group of local residents; second, to undertake an initial community consultation, often by survey or open day; third to undertake a second consultation based on the results of the first consultation, often through focus groups; and fourth, collating and bringing all the data together to create a first draft of the Place Plan. At this point it is likely there will be a fifth stage - publishing and printing the document.

A whole suite of people, including community groups, local businesses, regional agencies and organisations, and even individuals, will play key roles in bringing the Place Plan to life by delivering on the priorities and actions. They might work individually or in partnership.

With so many different local groups, it can often be confusing as to which community group is responsible for which particular element of the Place Plan, or community life in general. The diagram to your left provides an overview of the main groups, their role and how they will be involved in delivering the actions within the Community Place Plan going forward.