Dublin Reconstruction (Emergency Provisions) Act 1916
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1916 c. 66 |
| Year | 1916 |
Dublin Reconstruction (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1916.
(6 & 7 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 66.
An Act to amend the Law as to the erection of buildings and the making and improvement of streets in connection with the reconstruction of areas, streets, and buildings recently damaged or destroyed in Dublin, and for other purposes incidental thereto.
[22nd December 1916]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1 Acquisition and substitution of land compulsorily for the purpose of street improvements.
(1) Where the right honourable the lord mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of Dublin (in this Act referred to as ‘the corporation’) require to purchase land under the Public Health (Ireland) Acts, 1878 to 1907, for the purpose of widening, opening, enlarging or otherwise improving streets, in the city of Dublin in connection with the reconstruction of areas, streets, houses or buildings destroyed or damaged in the course of the recent disturbances, they may be authorised to purchase the land compulsorily by means of an order submitted to the Local Government Board and confirmed in accordance with the schedule to this Act.
(2) Any such order may for the purpose of enabling the corporation to widen an existing street authorise the corporation to compulsorily acquire any lands (hereinafter called ‘the acquired lands’) more remote from such street than the premises actually fronting upon the street, and such order may provide that when the acquisition of the acquired lands is completed, the respective interests in the lands (hereinafter called ‘the intervening lands’) situate between the street and the acquired lands shall cease to attach to the same and shall instead attach to the lands (including the necessary portions of the acquired lands) exactly corresponding in area, lay out, and situation with relation to the new frontage of the widened street and any street intersecting or intersected by the same. Such last-mentioned lands are hereinafter called ‘the substituted lands.’
(3) As from the coming into operation of the said order with reference to the respective interests in the intervening lands, every grant, conveyance, and assurance relating to any portion of the intervening lands and every interest, legal and equitable, in the same shall affect the corresponding portion of the substituted lands as if such portion were the land originally dealt with in such grant, conveyance, or assurance, or affected by such interest. The order shall be registered in the proper office for the registration of deeds or titles, as the case requires, in such manner as may be prescribed.
(4) The procedure under this section for the compulsory purchase of land shall be substituted for the procedure for the compulsory purchase of land under section two hundred and three of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878.
2 Preservation of amenity.
(1) A person who proposes to erect a new building on the site of a building which has been damaged or destroyed in the course of the recent disturbances or to reconstruct or alter a building which has been damaged as aforesaid (in this section referred to as ‘the building owner’) shall, in addition to any plans and sections of the proposed work which are required by the byelaws of the corporation to be delivered at the office of the town clerk, deliver at the same time and place elevations on the same scale as that of the plans and sections and shall furnish to the city architect, if and when so requested by him, any detailed drawings or other particulars which the city architect may consider reasonably necessary for the further explanation of the documents delivered.
(2) If it appears to the city architect, having regard to the nature and situation of the site of the proposed new building, or of the building proposed to be restored or altered, or the external design of any buildings erected or in the course of erection in the neighbourhood of that site, that the character of the proposed new building, restoration, or alteration is such as would be injurious to the amenity of the street which the front of the proposed new building or the building proposed to be restored or altered faces, whether on account of the proposed external design, the proposed line of frontage, or the materials proposed to be used in the external walls facing that street or in any portion of the building which will be visible from that street, he may require such reasonable alterations to be made as respects the design, line of frontage, and materials as he thinks proper, and may require the plans, sections, and elevations to be amended accordingly. The front of a building at the corner of two streets shall be deemed to face each street for the purposes of this provision.
(3) A requirement of the city architect under this section shall not have effect unless notice thereof in writing is delivered or sent by post to the building owner within one month after the day on which the plans, sections, and elevations are delivered as aforesaid, or within fourteen days after the day on which the further particulars (if any) are furnished as aforesaid, whichever period expires later.
(4) If any dispute or difference arises as to the reasonableness of any requirement of the city architect under this section the matter in dispute shall be settled by arbitration between the corporation and the building owner, and the corporation shall appoint the city architect or a person nominated by him to be arbitrator on their behalf, and the building owner shall appoint an arbitrator on his behalf, and section two hundred and seventeen of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, shall apply with respect to the arbitration as it applies with respect to arbitrations under that Act, subject to the following modifications:
(a ) The reference to the Local Government Board shall be construed as a reference to the Lord Lieutenant;
(b ) Any reference to that Act shall be construed as a reference to this Act;
(c ) In considering the reasonableness of any requirement, the arbitrators or umpire may take into account the expenses which would be incurred in complying with the same and a requirement that any material or materials shall be supplied from any specified source of supply shall be deemed to be unreasonable;
(d ) The arbitrators or umpire shall have power to make such modifications of any requirement of the city architect as seem proper, and the requirement as so modified shall be deemed to be a requirement of the city architect under this section;
(e ) The powers of the arbitrators and umpire as to the costs shall include a power to direct to and by whom and in what manner the costs (including solicitor and client costs) or any part thereof are to be paid;
(f ) The appointment of an arbitrator on behalf of the corporation may be made by any committee of the corporation to which that power is delegated and need not be under seal.
(5) Subject to the provisions of the last preceding subsection a requirement of the city architect under this section shall be enforceable under the Public Health (Ireland) Acts, 1878 to 1907, in the same manner as if it were a proper requirement contained in byelaws of the corporation relating to buildings, as if the notice of the requirement were a notice of disapproval of the proposed work given by the corporation in pursuance of the byelaws, and as if the execution of the work, otherwise than in accordance with the requirement, were an offence against those byelaws, and its continuance in such a form and state as to be in contravention of the requirement were a continuing offence.
(6) Anything to be done or omitted in relation to any building in order to comply with a requirement of the city architect under this section may be done or omitted notwithstanding any covenant, condition or provision to the contrary in any lease, mortgage, or other instrument affecting the building or the land on which it is erected, and the act or omission shall be deemed not to be a breach, non-performance, or contravention of any such covenant, condition, or provision.
(7) Where a requirement of the city architect under this section necessitates an alteration of the former frontage line the provisions of section thirty-nine of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, as to compensation shall-apply in like manner as if the new frontage line had been prescribed by the corporation under that section.
(8) The corporation may on the recommendation of the city architect relax or waive any byelaw of the corporation relating to buildings where and so far as such relaxation or waiver is necessary in order to enable a joint plan of reconstruction to be carried out in relation to two or more buildings subject to the consent of the owners of these buildings, but, eave as aforesaid, the provisions of this section shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any byelaws of the corporation relating to buildings.
3 Loans in aid of expenses of reconstruction.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section the corporation may advance money on the security of the ownership of the site of any house or building which has been damaged or destroyed in the course of the recent disturbances for the purpose of enabling the house or building to be rebuilt or restored in such manner as will comply with the requirements of any existing byelaws of the...
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