A new Local Development Plan for West Lothian has been delayed by at least nine months after Holyrood demanded more information.
The plan, which is a blueprint for building in the next decade, faces further delays because of complex bureaucracy in place as Scottish councils draw up new Local Development Plans.
The council first submitted lengthy initial paperwork on public consultation in September last year.
It will mean that a new plan for West Lothian is unlikely to be in place before mid 2028.
Among early recommendations is a call for more bungalows to be built as the population ages.
Public consultation stages for the initial proposals for the new plan, entitled the Evidence Report, began early last year.
In a report to the council’s Executive planning officer Kate Hopper explained: “This has impacted on the timetable for the publication of the Proposed Plan and resulted in around a 9-month delay to the timetable set out in 2025.”
Depute leader of the council, Susan Manion asked if other councils faced similar delays. Ms Hopper said that of the 16 councils which had put forward Evidence Reports, only four had passed an initial “gate check”.
West Lothian and other councils have been given additional guidance on the information they need to provide to get past this initial “gate check”.
Ms Hopper’s report specified: “Specifically, the council has needed to engage with NHS Lothian to gather additional healthcare data to support a policy on healthcare contributions, the time-scale for which is out of the council’s control.”
Ms Hopper told the meeting that the information from the NHS has now been supplied and planning officers hope to re-present the Evidence Report for a new gate check in November.
The report added: “The latter parts of the timetable cannot be expedited as these are also set by regulations, and include a statutory 3-month consultation period, time to process representations, further committee approval of any modifications and then a minimum of 9 months for the Scottish Ministers to assess the plan for adoption. “
Councillor Sally Pattle asked how confident officers were that the Evidence Report would pass a new gate check. Ms Hopper replied that staff were confident because of the additional guidance provided by the Scottish Government which recognised that initial information was not as clear as it could have been.
In its response to the public consultation the Joint Forum of Community Councils sought “clearer explanations, interim guidance on how policies will be applied in West Lothian, plain-English summaries, interactive workshops.”
West Lothian Climate Action Network also responded to the public consultation. It asked the council to guarantee that the new Local Development Plan “confirm that climate and biodiversity requirements will be treated as material and determinative considerations where appropriate.”
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
