This site is devoted to planning matters in the Scottish Borders for planning (as defined in the Town and Country Planning Acts) does matter. The Scottish Borders Council (SBC) is responsible for the regulation of development and the use of land and buildings under the Town and Country Planning Acts. The purpose of this site is to provide information and comment on the most important planning issues affecting the Scottish Borders in the 21st century. This site is not affiliated to the Scottish Borders Council or any other organization. It is totally independent.

The Scottish Borders is one of the most sparsely populated regions of Scotland, with a population of 116,900 people in 2022. The largest towns are Hawick, Galashiels, Peebles, Selkirk, Jedburgh and Kelso. The Scottish Borders stretches from the environs of Edinburgh in the north to the English border to the south and from the rolling Tweedsmuir Hills in the west to the rocky North Sea coast in the east; an area of 1,820 square miles (4,714 square km.) Through it, the River Tweed flows for 90 miles (145km) from its headwaters near Tweedsmuir, through Peebles, Galashiels, Kelso and Coldstream to the sea at Berwick-upon-Tweed. The ‘Borders’ is a long established entity, epitomized in the Border Ballads and the writings of Sir Walter Scott, James Hogg and John Buchan.

The region comprises the historic counties of Peeblesshire, Selkirkshire, Roxburghshire and Berwickshire (and a small area of Midlothian), traditionally an area synonymous with woven cloth (tweed), high quality knitwear and agriculture. The peaceful tranquility of its landscape gives little indication of the challenges faced by this area during the twentieth century as a result of the decline in its traditional industries and the loss of population (from a peak of 130,000 in 1881-1891 to less than 100,000 in 1971). The Scottish Borders as an administrative unit was created when the Borders Regional Council was established with the reorganization of local government in Scotland in 1975. The previous county and burgh councils were replaced by the Borders Regional Council and four district councils: Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Roxburgh and Berwickshire. With a further reorganization of local government in 1996, the regional and district councils were merged to become Scottish Borders Council.

Town and country planning in the Scottish Borders was the responsibility of the county councils prior to 1975 and the Borders Regional Council during the period 1975-1996. On this site, you will find posts on the history of town and country planning in the Scottish Borders from its origins in the 1940s, when the ‘old’ county councils of Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire produced the first County Development Plans for their areas and established the system of development control. These posts form the basis for my book on the history of town and country planning in the Scottish Borders published in hardback by Edinburgh University Press in August 2023 (see further details here). A paperback version was published in May 2025. Visit edinburghuniversitypress.com to purchase the book.

Entitled Town and Country Planning in the Scottish Borders 1946-1996, the book shows how town and country planning in the Scottish Borders was transformed from a fringe activity in local government to become a central tool in meeting the challenges of rural depopulation and sustainability amidst social, political and economic upheaval. The book compares and contrasts the different ways in which the four counties, Peeblesshire, Selkirkshire, Roxburghshire and Berwickshire, attempted to deal with the decline in the regions traditional industries and the loss of population since 1891. It examines the origins of the Tweedbank development, the plan for a controversial new settlement at Newtown St. Boswells and the closure of the Waverley line. It explains how planning and economic development became inexorably linked in an effort to stem depopulation.

The book describes how, in partnership with a range of organisations, the Borders Regional Council, established in 1975, met the challenges of the 1980s and 1990s and secured investment and implemented proposals across the whole spectrum of development planning. The book details how environmental issues came to the fore and, with the reorganisation of local government in 1996 and the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 looming, examines the role of the Planning and Development Department in preparing for the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Since 1996, town and country planning in the Scottish Borders has been the responsibility of Scottish Borders Council (SBC). SBC is responsible for the regulation of development and the use of land and buildings under the Town and Country Planning Acts through the preparation of the local development plan and planning guidance, and the granting or refusing of planning permission. The Development Plan for the Scottish Borders comprises two component parts: National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) and the Scottish Borders Local Development Plan [LDP2], adopted on 22 August 2024. NPF4 is the national spatial strategy for Scotland and sets out Scottish Ministers’ spatial principles, regional priorities, national developments and national planning policy. The previously produced Strategic Development Plan for South-East Scotland (SESplan 2013) no longer forms part of the development plan. The local development plan is the guide to the future use and development of land within the Scottish Borders and sets out a series of policies and proposals indicating where development can or should not take place. It provides a broad vision for development up to 2031, with a focus on the period up to 2026.

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