Overview
Community planning is how public bodies work together and with the community in each council area to make life better for people. The Community Empowerment Act changes the rules about community planning to make it work better. It aims to meet the needs and ambitions of local people, so the voices of local people are especially important.
Under the Community Empowerment Act, community planning partners have to make plans for local areas which may need different things from each other. These plans describe the local priorities, what improvements are planned and when these improvements will be made.
The Scottish Borders has an overall Community Plan. Plans for each of the five localities, known as Locality Plans, were published in 2020. See our Community Plan webpage for more information and links to download these plans.
Work is currently underway in 2025 to produce new locality plans in Burnfoot (Hawick), Bannerfield (Selkirk), and Langlee (Galashiels).
The Community Planning Strategic Board provides effective leadership to the Community Planning Partnership. It comprises Elected Members and representatives of partner organisations at the highest level. The Board meets four times a year to agree on the strategic priorities of the area and scrutinise the performance of the partnership.
Find out more about the Community Planning Partnership on our website.
South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) is one of the Community Planning Partners that works to support businesses and communities in the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway. The SOSE 2024-25 Operating Plan (PDF, 13.7MB) details the approach and priorities that SOSE is using to develop the South of Scotland region, and how it will measure and report successes.