Independent Television Authority v Assessor for Lanarkshire
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 27 March 1968 |
| Date | 27 March 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 27. |
| Court | Lands Valuation Appeal Court (Scotland) |
Lands Valuation Appeal Court.
Lord Fraser. Lord Avonside. Lord Thomson.
Valuation—Subjects—Supplementary valuation roll—Television transmitting station entered in ordinary roll with public corporation as owner and occupier—Right to use mast granted under lease to second public corporation—Whether right properly entered in supplementary roll—Liability to double assessment—Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1956 (4 and 5 Eliz. II, cap. 60), sec. 11 (1) (b).
The Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1956, enacts by sec. 11:—"(1) It shall be lawful for any rating authority by notice given to the assessor before the first day of January falling within any year to require him to make up a supplementary valuation roll showing the value and other particulars as in the ordinary valuation roll of … (b) all lands and heritages which have come into existence and occupancy within the area of the rating authority after the commencement of the said year and which were not included in the said ordinary valuation roll …"
A public corporation was entered in the ordinary roll for the year 1966-67 as owner and occupier of a television transmitting station including a mast capable of carrying three aerials, on which it had installed one aerial. The value of the mast included in the entry was its whole value as a mast capable of carrying three aerials. During the valuation year 1966-67 a second public corporation, in terms of a lease from the first, built and occupied a building on land at the station and acquired and exercised a right to share the use of the mast by installing one aerial on it. The assessor entered the new building and that right, which he regarded as a wayleave, in the supplementary roll for 1966-67, although he did not treat the second corporation as being in exclusive occupation of any part of the mast. The corporations contended that this entry rendered the mast liable to double assessment, since it included part of its value, while the full value was already included in the ordinary roll.
Held (diss. Lord Fraser) that the new building and the right to share the use of the mast were new subjects of assessment which the assessor was bound to enter in the supplementary roll at their full value in accordance with his duty under sec. 11 of the 1956 Act, even if the result was a partial double assessment for the year in question.
Opinion by Lord Avonside that there was in law no double valuation, since the same subject was not being valued twice.
Valuation—Subjects—Television transmitting station—Cables running from transmitter to aerial and attached to mast—Whether heritable or moveable.
A public corporation which broadcast television programmes laid cables from its transmitter to a mast on which they installed an aerial, without which broadcasts could not be transmitted. The cables were attached to the mast and carried power to the aerial. The assessor treated the mast and the cables, but not the aerial, as heritable.
Held, applying dicta of Lord Justice-Clerk Moncreiff inDowall v. MilnUNK, (1874) 1 R. 1180, at p. 1182, that the cables were heritable.
Valuation—Subjects—Right to share use of mast of television transmitting station—Station including mast entered, in ordinary roll with public corporation as owner and occupier—Right to share use of mast granted under lease to second public corporation—Whether right rateable.
Heritable Property—Incidental rights—Wayleave—Right to install aerial on television mast—Whether properly described as wayleave.
A public corporation owned and occupied a television transmitting station which included a mast capable of carrying aerials. A second public corporation, which was in rateable occupation under a lease of certain land and buildings at the station, acquired and exercised a right to share the use of the mast by installing an aerial on it. The assessor regarded the right as a wayleave and valued it for rating.
Held (diss. Lord Fraser) that the right to share the use of the mast was rateable; per Lord Avonside and Lord Thomson, on the ground that it was a pertinent of the land and buildings of which the second corporation was in rateable occupation; and further, perLord Avonside, on the ground that it was itself a land and heritage or a wayleave.
Lord Fraser was of opinion that the right was not truly analogous to a wayleave, and Lord Thomson doubted whether it could properly be described as such.
At a meeting of the Valuation Appeal Committee for the county of Lanark the Independent Television Authority and the British Broadcasting Corporation appealed against an entry in the supplementary valuation roll for the year ending Whitsunday 1967, in which the Independent Television Authority was shown as the proprietor and the British Broadcasting Corporation as the tenant and occupier of subjects described as "T.V. station and wayleave, Blackhill, Salsburgh", with a gross annual value of £4300 and a rateable value of £3580. The appellants craved that these values should be reduced to £1655 and £1376 respectively. The Committee refused the appeal and at the request of the appellants stated a case for the opinion of the Lands Valuation Appeal Court.
The case set forth that the following facts were admitted or held to be proved or within the knowledge of the Committee:—"(1) The Independent Television Authority (hereinafter referred to as “the I.T.A.”) are the owners of a television transmitting station at Blackhill comprising land, buildings, plant, electricity supply and a mast which carries an aerial from which television transmissions are broadcast. These subjects appear in the valuation roll for 1966-1967 with the I.T.A. as owner and occupier and a gross annual value of £6250 and a rateable value of £5205. (2) Following on the coming into force of the Television Act, 1963, and upon a direction from the Postmaster General, with which the parties were obliged to comply, the I.T.A. and the British Broadcasting Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “the B.B.C.”) entered into negotiations with a view to the B.B.C. sharing installations at the Blackhill station, as provided for by section 18 of the said Act. The direction was made in pursuance of a policy designed to prevent undue proliferation of masts by securing reciprocal use of facilities. (3) As a result of said negotiations the I.T.A. agreed for, inter alia, the sum of £1 yearly in name of rent (first) to lease to the B.B.C. certain land at the Blackhill station; (second) to grant the B.B.C. the right to use in common with the I.T.A. and all persons authorised by it the mast, access road, car park, domestic water supply pipe and apparatus and drainage pipes thereat; and (third) to grant the B.B.C. the exclusive right to lay and use power cables and aerial feeders through their land along certain routes and to maintain and inspect such cables and feeders. The respective rights and obligations of the parties are set forth in production no. 1.1… (5) In July 1966 the B.B.C. (with the approval of the Postmaster General) built and occupied an additional building on the site, laid two power cables and aerial feeders and hung an aerial on the mast. (6) The mast is 1000 feet high. It is constructed of lattice steel and is supported by steel wire rope stays at five different levels. It has an 8 feet 6 inches triangular cross-section from ground level up to 810 feet and a 5 feet square section from there to the top. It is designed to carry by means of an aperture of 160 feet the loading of the I.T.A.'s V.H.F. aerial over the top 80 feet of the mast and separate U.H.F. aerials for use by the I.T.A. and the B.B.C. immediately below. At present the mast carries the I.T.A.'s V.H.F. aerial and the
B.B.C.'s U.H.F. aerial, the remaining aerial not yet having been installed. (7) The aerials have been treated by the assessor as moveable and non-rateable. (8) The cables belonging to the B.B.C. which connect with the aerial are two in number, each approximately 4½ inches in diameter and having a corrugated surface covering with a plastic skin. They are attached to the mast by a series of clamps and hooks at intervals of approximately nine feet. The clamps consist of two pieces of semi-cylindrical metal bolted together and the hooks are welded to the clamps, forming a complete unit. The cables pass through the clamps and the hooks are hooked on to mast members or, in a few instances, where there was no convenient member, to a bar welded to the mast. There is no nut or bolt or other fixing device between the hooks and the mast members or bars. The cable can be moved simply by unhooking it from the mast members and bars. (9) When the cables reach ground level, they are carried to the transmitter supported by galvanised steel pillars, which are sunk into the ground and in turn supported by concrete plinths both above and below ground level. The cables are suspended from short cross-bars attached to the steel pillars by a clamp and hook arrangement similar to that on the mast and to the same effect. To protect the cables from weather and falling objects a galvanised sheet is mounted above the feeder cables attached to the steel pillars. (10) The cables are continuous in length for about 800 feet up the mast. They are kept in position by the clamps and hooks and their own weight, which is considerable. The use of a mast for carrying an aerial and cable is necessary to the making of transmissions from the B.B.C.'s station. The right to use the mast for this purpose is therefore of considerable value to the B.B.C. as occupiers of their station. The B.B.C. cables and aerial are maintained by the B.B.C. engineers. (11) [After explaining how the assessor in valuing the subjects owned and occupied by the I.T.A. had calculated the net annual value of the mast, the finding continued]—The valuation of the whole subjects eventually entered in the roll for...To continue reading
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