** SOUTHSIDE LOCAL PLACE PLAN
15 Sep 2026: Southside Community Council has published a proposed Local Place Plan for Southside. A link to ‘Southside 2040’ is here: Southside CC Local Place Plan Sep 2026
Southside 2040 is presented as input to the City Council’s ‘City Plan 2040’. It also sets out surveyed community priorities for the area.
“The plan sets out a vision for Southside in 2040, built on what we take to be the forces that will shape the area over the coming years: the University's use of its land, the affordability of housing and the pressure from student accommodation and short-term letting, adaptation to a changing climate, a visitor economy that should sustain the community rather than displace it, and Southside's position as a route through the city as well as a place to live.
Five themes follow from it: homes for a settled community; a liveable, well-connected neighbourhood; a greener, climate-ready Southside; a living community and local culture; and a real community voice with the University. Dumbiedykes, where these play out differently, is read through all five in a chapter of its own. Under those themes the plan sets out 31 planning proposals, gathered in a single schedule at section 7, and records 39 community priorities, listed together at section 8.
Representations on the content of the proposed plan should be sent to Southside Community Council by email to lpp@sccedinburgh.org.uk. They should reach us by Tuesday 13 October, which is 28 days from the date of this notice."
Find out more at http://www.sccedinburgh.org.uk/lpp
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14 Apr 2026: Southside Community Council is working on a Local Place Plan (LPP) and is inviting residents of Southside and neighbouring areas to get involved. A LPP is a community-group driven initiative to come up with ideas on local ‘place’ and ‘space’ that can be adopted in the city’s next Local Development Plan. This will be City Plan 2040 and it will guide, in a lot of detail, the future shape and development of the city, focused on, but not limited to, the built environment. To get a reference point, take a look at City Plan 2030. It's an impressive document. https://planningedinburgh.com/2024/11/07/city-plan-2030-now-adopted/
At this point, the Southside LPP is in its early stages. There are two ways to begin exploring. There is a short online survey (around 10 minutes) covering housing, streets and spaces, and community amenities and there is an interactive map where people can pin comments and suggestions to specific locations in the neighbourhood. Then, on Saturday, 9 May, Southside Community Council will host another community workshop, from 1–3pm at Southside Community Centre. Here is the link to attend the workshop:
GPCC hasn’t engaged in a LPP exercise itself, although other neighbouring community councils do have the heads down. Locally, the Grange Association has had an involvement with a LPP drawn up for the future development of the Astley Ainslie site. LPPs are hosted by the Council’s Planning Department and they will be submitted there in September 2026. Around that time, they will be shared publicly for further consultation and comment. Do look out for that, then.
Planning Department will also issue ‘Calls for Ideas’ around that time, inviting you to chip in with small scale suggestions for improvements to neighbourhood green space, open space, design features, safety issues or mobility hazards. This is about what you ‘care about, like, don’t like’ or feel ‘could be better’. It is not about building a master plan.
For those of you who want to take a close look at the LPP concept, go to this Council link:
The GIS Atlas feature is worth examining. The ‘Layer List’ feature at the top RHS needs some patience, though.
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