Highland Place Standard

What is good about the place where you live and what could be done differently? Answers on your experience will help us plan for the future. You can complete the Place Standard tool as an individual or as part of a group.

The Place Standard tool is being used in Highland and across Scotland for conversations about what makes for a good place to live, work, play and visit. What needs to be protected, changed or improved, so we have what is needed for the future?

New Scottish Government regulations ask that planners and communities look together at what we need for successful places – places which are healthy, pleasant, connected, distinctive, sustainable and adaptable. The Place Standard Tool includes questions about how land and buildings are used, transport links, and the social life of our communities. A big part of this is how we deal with the climate and nature crises, as well as other decisions that matter for the future.

You can complete the survey as an individual or as a group.

We will use local views as evidence to plan for how land and buildings are used in your community, the wider area and across Highland. We hope this analysis will help the Council, partner agencies and community groups target valuable time and money to make a difference to what matters locally.

Responses to the Place Standard will be treated anonymously. Analysis will be used as evidence to help prepare:

• The Highland Local Development Plan (where housing, businesses, services and facilities such as schools and travel will be, as well as the future of places and buildings we value and want to protect).
• Place-based plans for your area and locality plans: targeting how public services and communities can work together and invest in local priorities for the future.
• Local Place Plans: we will share anonymised analysis with suitably registered community groups who want to develop proposals for better places, to agree priorities, and to take action (often working with others).
• Asset management plans (the Council's property strategy).

Alongside the Place Standard Tool, there will be other opportunities to get involved in future planning matters for your community and across Highland. Click SUBSCRIBE in the STAY INFORMED widget and we will keep you informed and up to date on these, as well as the final analysis of responses on place across Highland.

An upcoming example we are really excited about is our baseline mapping of how accessible services are across Highland. We will soon be finalising a data tool showing locations and travel times to services for health, education, transport, community, leisure and retail facilities. Public feedback on this data will form part of the Evidence Gathering stage of the next Highland Local Development Plan.

The Place Standard survey will be open until end of May 2024, but many communities have expressed interest in getting your local views as soon as possible to help inform planning for decisions that affect them locally.

If you would like to know more about how your data will be handled and used, you can read our Place Standard Privacy Notice.

We retain the numerical scores and any text comments you enter when completing the Place Standard tool. We also retain demographic and postcode information you provide.

The Place Standard tool seeks your views on the quality of a place anonymously, so when entering any text, do not add information that could identify you to others. This means that you cannot be identified by us or anyone else by completing the Place Standard tool.

People graphics by Iryna Petrenko