West Lothian Council delivers

Planning and Building Standards

 

Planning & Building Standards provides the following services:

Building Standards
Building Standards was formerly known as Building Control prior to 1 May 2005 and is part of the Council's Development & Regulatory Services group. We are based in the County Buildings Linlithgow.

We have a wide range of responsibilities that relate to almost all building and alteration works to ALL types of property. The overriding purpose of building standards is to safeguard people in and around buildings.

Building Standards is independent from the building industry and is therefore an unbiased and neutral body.

We hope the information contained in the following pages will assist you in making an application for building warrant, obtaining acceptance of a completion certificate and understanding the role of Building Standards.

We also wish to make you aware of the need for regular maintenance of your property, not only to save you from unexpected and costly bills, but importantly to ensure that it does not pose a danger to the public.

We provide advice, guidance and forms on building warrants, completion certificates, letters of comfort, dangerous buildings, buildings in serious disrepair, unauthorised works, safety at sports grounds, raised structures, licensing and public entertainment licences

Building standards ?customer information? contains up to date information on the new building standards system and our performance levels.

Development Management

Development Management provides advice, guidance and forms on planning permission (click here (new window) to view the advice and forms).  Development Management also has an enforcement team which deals with breaches of planning control, monitoring of sites and where necessary serving enforcement notices, planning contravention notices, breach of condition notices, stop notices, and interdicts.

Please note you can also apply for permission or submit an appeal to the Scottish Government Directorate of Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA) through the Scottish Government's e-planning website which can be accessed through the following link https://eplanning.scotland.gov.uk/WAM/ (new window)  

Click here to view the current list of applications, consultations from Scottish Ministers and proposal of application notices.  This list is updated on a weekly basis.  If you would like to view the details of individual applications, or the weekly list of applications, please visit our online planning site. (new window)  Click here to view the weekly list of appeals submitted or determined. 

Development Planning and Environment

The main functions of this service are to:

Provide advice on national plan policy guidance, structure plans, local plans, listed buildings, conservation areas, information & statistics and environmental issues. In particular, our service undertakes the following work:

Reviewing, monitoring and implementing the statutory Development Plan Policy for the West Lothian Council area (principally the approved Edinburgh and the Lothian Structure Plan 2015 and the adopted West Lothian Local Plan 2009) and also working on the replacement plans for both, namely the South East Scotland Strategic Development Plan and West Lothian Local Development Plan, and implement associated planning based initiatives;

Providing design and planning guidance for new developments, through development briefs and landscaping projects as well as supporting the conservation of the built heritage;

Promoting sustainable development and environmental action within the council and the wider community;

Development and implementation of supplementary planning guidance, including developer contributions to secure key infrastructure for the council, including development of new schools and extensions and cemeteries;

Promoting greater access to the countryside and the development of footpath networks, through development of a Core Path Plan;

Supporting and promoting the conservation of local biodiversity through the development and implementation of the Biodiversity Action Plan;

Providing assessment of proposals relating to contaminated land; and

Development of a carbon management plan.