Planning performance

Chief Planning Officer

The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended) requires that each planning authority must appoint a Chief Planning Officer.

Our Chief Planning Officer is Lorna Bowden (MRTPI).

How are we doing?

Information on our performance and improvement actions is published through our National Planning Improvement Framework report.

This report sets out the results of the new self-assessment process being piloted as part of the National Planning Improvement Framework. The National Planning Improvement Framework was developed by the Improvement Service in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders with interests in planning and will replace our Planning Performance Framework.

National Planning Improvement Framework

A year on from joining the first pilot of the National Planning Improvement Framework (NPIF), we are pleased to share an update on our progress.

As one of ten planning authorities taking part in the first pilot, we welcomed the opportunity to collaborate closely with our peer partners, Fife Council, and with colleagues across the wider NPIF team. Over the past year, this partnership approach has enabled us to explore what works well in practice, identify areas for improvement, and contribute to the sharing of good practice at a national level.

The feedback gathered through our peer‑review workshop, attended by a broad range of stakeholders, played a significant role in shaping our initial report, helping us refine our priorities and develop a focused and achievable action plan.

We have now moved into Year 2 of the NPIF, and we are pleased to report that the service has provided a full update on the progress being made across the agreed improvement actions. This work continues to support our wider commitment to delivering a responsive, high‑quality planning service for our communities.