Wednesday March 25th 2026
Mccarthy and Stone site on Linlithgow High Street
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
A veteran Labour councillor in West Lothian has called for planning rules to be made simpler and easier for the council to enforce.
The call, from Linlithgow’s Tom Conn, came at this month’s local area committee where a planning officer conceded: enforcement can be “challenging”.
Councillors heard that even if a store was fined by a court for an illegal advertising sign it could then collect the sign from the council and put it back up when the case had finished. That prompted Councillor Conn to say: “the law is an ass.”
Councillors had called for a report from planners following controversy late last year when a new vape shop opened in the town’s high street which had illuminated signs. The signs have now been replaced with red and yellow painted signs.
Matthew Watson, a council planning officer gave an outline of current legislation around shop front signage in conservation areas.
Mr Watson told councillors: “It’s a real challenge for us to actually effectively enforce planning control.”
He described complex rules around appeals against decisions before enforcement can actually begin. The enforcement process is also dependent on the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal service having the time, and interest to pursue a case if it is judged to be in the public interest. Any fine imposed would go to the court rather than the council.
Chair of the meeting Councillor Sally Pattle, who had asked if Mr Watson could provide a time frame for enforcement told the meeting: “I can hear my in-box filling up.”
Councillor Conn said the public didn’t understand the complexities of the planning process and the fact that appeals can be made to outside bodies such as the Division of Planning and Environmental Appeals.
He said: “The planning framework doesn’t meet the public interest. We are at ground zero. We need to review what’s going on. It needs to be simplified for the public, for the planners and for the decision-makers.”
Councillor Conn added that what was needed was clear policy, with best examples of what was expected from shopkeepers. At the moment a shopkeeper can see one store putting up an illegal sign and say ‘they have done that I can do that’.
Despite being a Conservation Area Linlithgow High Street has several shop fronts which appear out of kilter with what would be expected under the tighter controls
Mr Watson said that the majority of shopkeepers were keen to work within the current legislation around shop front signs and advertising, and planning officers worked with businesses. Only in a minority of cases did businesses completely ignore the rules.
He said the planning department was currently drawing up simplified advice on “two sides of A4” for business.
The planning department is also working on its new Local Development Plan – a blueprint for development rules for the next decade.
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