Fife Council adopted FIFEplan (Fife’s Local Development Plan) on 21 September 2017.
FIFEplan is supported by:
- Supplementary Guidance which explains in greater detail how planning policies will be used.
- Action Programme which identifies what is required to deliver the Local Development Plan, the expected timescales, and who is responsible for delivery.
Fife's Local Place Plan (Local Development Plan)
We are preparing a new Local Development Plan. This will be known as Fife's Place Plan. Once adopted, Fife's Place Plan will replace the existing Local Development Plan (FIFEplan). It will also replace the Supplementary Guidance on Affordable Housing, Low Carbon Fife, Making Fife’s Places, and Minerals.
Along with the Scottish Government’s National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), it will form the statutory development plan for Fife. It will set out the planning policies and proposals for the use and development of land across Fife for the next 10 to 20 years.
NPF4 is the national spatial strategy for Scotland. It sets out the spatial principles, regional priorities, national developments, and national planning policy.
Place Matters
Place Matters - Call for sites and ideas now open
This is an opportunity for stakeholders including community councils, landowners, and developers to put forward ideas or sites they would like to be considered for inclusion in Fife's Place Plan, the next Local Development Plan.
The call for sites and ideas event will run for 14 weeks from 18 November 2024 to noon on the 24 February 2025.
Please use the Call for Sites form if you want to submit sites for consideration in the plan. The associated questions will ask you to provide information to justify why the site and your proposal should be included in the plan. Please provide as much information as possible.
Use the Call for Ideas form to tell us your ideas regarding development and land use issues which affect Fife. This includes your thoughts about new or existing policies and designations for the new Local Development Plan.
Guidance has also been prepared to help you complete the questions in the consultation portal.
All submissions must be made through our consultation portal. Submissions made through other channels such as through Fife Council email addresses will not be accepted. However, if you are submitting a site or idea on behalf of a community, we will just be looking for you to complete the questions that you can.
Please note, that sites included in the adopted FIFEplan will not automatically be carried forward into Fife's Place Plan.
Proposals within Local Place Plans will help inform Fife's Place Plan. Community groups that have submitted a Local Place Plan do not need to be re-submit their Local Place Plan (or proposals contained within them) through the Call for sites and ideas.
We look forward to receiving your ideas for Fife's places.
Key stages and timescales
The above timetable for the plan preparation shows the expected dates for each plan stage. The Evidence Report has been completed and was submitted to the Gate Check review process on the 3rd May 2024. It was returned on 19th July 2024 as the Reporter considers it contains insufficient information to enable us to prepare the local development plan. For further information see Scottish Government - DPEA - Case Details (scotland.gov.uk).
- Evidence gathering will take place throughout 2024.
- Plan preparation, at its various stages, will take place between 2025 and 2027. Earlier preparation on the call for sites and ideas and the assessment of sites will commence 2024.
- Delivery of the Adopted Plan and the Delivery Programme will take place 2027-28, with Monitoring and Delivery continuing into 2028.
The date convention used is in accordance with local development planning regulations and guidance: 1Q = April-June; 2Q = July-September; 3Q October-December; 4Q = January-March.
The latest edition of the Fife Development Scheme 2023 also provides further information about Fife’s Local Development Plan and its preparation timetable.
Links to the Evidence Report and Annexes can be found below:
Local Development Plan 2 Evidence Report
- Annex 1 - Meeting legislative requirements
- Annex 2 - List of data sources used in the Evidence Report
- Annex 3 - Matters required to be included in Evidence Report
- Annex 4 - Summary of engagement
- Annex 5 - Summary of known areas of agreement and dispute on the Evidence Report
- Annex 6 - Review of FIFEplan (2017)
- Annex 7 - Local Living and 20 Minute Neighbourhoods
- Annex 8 - Housing Issues Introduction & Legislative Requirements
- Annex 9 - Housing Need
- Annex 10 - Local Housing Land Requirement
- Annex 11 - Local Housing Land Requirement Technical Paper
- Annex 12 - Localised Housing Issues
- Annex 13 - Waste Management
How to get involved
The Plan will be shaped by the views and aspirations of all interests across Fife (including communities, investors, businesses and other stakeholders) and the Council’s Plan for Fife .
Details of consultations to date, which have helped inform the Evidence Report, can be found in the Evidence Report Summary of Engagement.
Communities can also inform the Local Development Plan of community views and aspirations through Local Place Plans. Local Place Plans are plans for local communities that have a focus on development, land use, and ‘place-making’. Our new Local Development Plan will take account of registered Local Place Plans, to allow communities to have a more direct role in the decisions that influence their place.
How to get in touch
You can keep in touch with the Policy & Place team preparing the new Local Development Plan using the options below:
Register for our planning e-newsletter
Contact us: fife.devplan@fife.gov.uk
Follow us on X (formerly Twitter): @FifePlanning