North Ayrshire's third Local Development Plan

About LDP3

The planning system in Scotland considers the development and use of land and buildings. A local development plan, or ‘LDP’, is a long-term plan that describes where and how development – for example new houses – should and should not take place. LDPs are very important documents setting out how the places people live, work in and visits will change in the future.  

Where new development needs permission, decisions are made in accordance with the development plan unless there is good reason not to. The current development plan for North Ayrshire is made up of the Adopted Local Development Plan (LDP2), adopted by North Ayrshire Council in November 2019, and National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) which was adopted by Scottish Ministers in February 2023. 

We are at the start of preparing a new Local Development Plan for the North Ayrshire Council area. The diagram below explains the stages in the process, with more details provided within the Timeline section and our latest Development Plan Scheme. 

Stage 1 - Your Place

During 2023 and early 2024, we asked communities to think about the places they live, work and visit in North Ayrshire. Using the Place Standard tool we wanted as many people as possible will assess their place, looking at what is good now and how it could be better in the future, considering the physical and social aspects that make a place. 

In the second part of 2024, we prepared ‘Place Profiles’ for the six localities in North Ayrshire. These profiles set out what we understand about the towns, villages and islands of North Ayrshire based on what people have told us about their places and the information we have gathered. There will a further opportunity for people to comment on these profiles and tell us about their priorities for their area. 

Using the Place Profiles and the feedback we receive, we will prepare an Evidence Report which will be submitted to the Scottish Government. An independent assessment of the Evidence Report will be undertaken to determine whether the we have sufficient information to progress and prepare a Proposed Plan. 

The Evidence Report aims to clearly inform what to plan for before the Proposed Plan looks at where development should take place. The Evidence Report therefore will not consider specific sites but instead provide a summary of the baseline data and information needed to inform a deliverable, place-based and people-focused LDP.