View & comment on SBC applications

Use SBC's portal or their map search to find out about and comment on applications. You'll need to register first to comment.

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SBC's guide for commenting on an application tells you:

• What a material planning consideration is
• I.e. what planners take note of (and what they ignore)
• How to make a comment on the planning portal
• The postal address if you'd prefer to post your comment

SBC also have a guide for viewing an application with the portal. There's also a third-party step-by-step guide to registering.

Making impactful comments

Planners are interested in how proposals affect you, your family and your community. They want to know your reasoning – be succinct. Ideally:

• Mention one or more planning policies you think are relevant
• Say clearly why you think these are relevant
• Explain the 'so what' – e.g. if you think an application breaches a policy, explain why this matters.

Support and guides from Planning Democracy

• How to write an effective objection letter
• How planning decisions are made and your rights to participate
• Community Guide to Planning Appeals

Support and guides from Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland

• Planning Enforcement
• Biodiversity Duty
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
• Accessing Environmental Information
• Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs)

Planning policies

The Statutory Development Plan (SDP) policies relevant to the Borders:

• Scotland's National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) adopted 13 Feb 2023 contains 33 policies (part 2) in 3 groups.
• SBC's Local Development Plan 2 (LDP2) adopted 22 Aug 2024 has 59 policies in Volume 1 & settlement profiles in Volume 2
• SBC's approved planning guidance (referred to in LDP2).

Expired plans include: the 2016 LDP (Vol 1 & Vol 2, adopted 12 May 2016); and previously the Consolidated Local Plan (Vol 1 & Vol 2, adopted 2011). SBC explain this in full in their plans and guidance overview.

SBC publishes detailed Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) and Technical Advice Notes (TANs) on a range of topics such as bats & otters. Overviews are available under Environment, e.g. Biodiversity & Planning, Tree Protection Orders (TPOs) and Conservation Areas.

SEPA's Land Use Planning and Flood Risk provides info on flood risk and planning. Flood risk areas (> 0.5% per annum risk of flooding) can be seen on SEPA's Future Flood Maps

Scottish legal principles also apply, such as: the Precautionary Principle; the Principle of Consistency; and European Protected Species (EPS) chief planner guidance.

SBC Local Development Plan 3 (LDP3)

On the 25 Mar 2025, SBC published their draft Development Plan Scheme (DPS) 2025, i.e. their schedule to create the next version of the Local Development Plan, LDP3

• Stage 1: Evidence Gathering
• Jun 2025 – DPS & Participation Statement
• Mar 2027 – Evidence Report, including SFRA & HRA
• Jun 2027 – Gate Check, FIR, Hearing, publish evidence report
• Stage 2: Plan Preparation
• Mar 2028 – Develop plan and approve by full council
• Mar 2029 – Publish & consult
• Jun 2029 – Modify plan
• Mar 2030 – Examination
• Stage 3: Plan Delivery
• Jun 2030 – Adopt and Publish LDP3

Comments on the Draft DPS are invited until Tue 6 May 2025.

SBC Planning and Building

Scottish Borders Council's Planning and Building website is the online portal for planning in the Borders. Use it to: see planning applications; lodge objections; lodge your own applications; find SBC policies; see Common Good maps for Peebles; ...

Most planning decisions are taking by planning officers, however some decisions are taken by SBC's Planning and Building Standards Committee (as described in SBC's Scheme of Delegation

Place planning

Read our copy of the Peebles Place Plan, or see all Scottish Borders place plans on SBC's register of Local Place Plans (LPP). For further examples, see Dumfries and Galloway and The Highland Council registers of LPPs.

For more info, see SBC's guidance on Local Place Plans and Borders Community Action's Community Led Planning.

View/comment on wind farms & energy

Wind farm proposals in your area – even those at very early scoping stages – can be seen on Nature Scot's interactive map of wind farm proposals in Scotland.

To view and comment on applications for wind farms, battery storage, transmission and other energy infrastructure (reference numbers beginning "ECU") visit Scottish Government's Energy Consents Unit.

Live applications: Scawd Law ECU00002111, Cloich Forest ECU00003288, Leithenwater ECU00004619.

SBC's supplementary planning guidance on wind farms is relevant and includes the Nov 2016 Ironside Farrar "Update of Wind Energy Landscape Capacity and Cumulative Impact Study."

Local authorities, such as SBC, can approve onshore electricity generation of 50MW or less. Above this threshold, local authorities become a statutory consultee of ECU applications under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989.

View/comment on forestry

Applications beginning "yyFGS" (Forestry Grant Scheme, yy=2-digit year) or "FPA" (Felling Permission Application) are available on the Scottish Forestry Public Register (help)