Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1947

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1947 c. 53


Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act, 1947

(10 & 11 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 53.

An Act to make fresh provision with respect to Scotland for planning the development and use of land, for the grant of permission to develop land and for other powers of control over the use of land; to confer on public authorities additional powers in respect of the acquisition and development of land for planning and other purposes, and to amend the law relating to compensation in respect of the compulsory acquisition of land; to provide for payments out of central funds in respect of depreciation occasioned by planning restrictions; to secure the recovery for the benefit of the community of development charges in respect of certain new development; to provide for the payment of grants out of central funds in respect of expenses of local planning authorities in connection with the matters aforesaid; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

[13th August 1947]

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:—

I Central and Local Administration.

Part I.

Central and Local Administration.

S-1 The Central Land Board.

1 The Central Land Board.

(1) In this Act the expression ‘Central Land Board’ means the Board established under the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947 .

(2) The Board shall have an office in Scotland and shall maintain there such staff as may be necessary for the proper performance of their functions under this Act.

(3) The Board shall, in the performance of their functions under this Act, comply with such directions as may be given to them by the Secretary of State.

(4) The report made by the Board for any year under section two of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, shall set out any direction given by the Secretary of State to the Board during that year unless the Secretary of State has notified to the Board his opinion that it is against the interests of national security so to do.

(5) The functions under this Act of the Board, and of their officers and servants, shall be exercised on behalf of the Crown.

(6) Regulations made for the purposes of section two of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, shall provide for requiring members of the Board who are interested in any land which is the subject of a claim or application made to the Board under this Act to disclose to the Board the nature of their interest, and may for that purpose apply any of the provisions of section one hundred and forty-nine of the Companies Act, 1929 , subject to such modifications as may be prescribed by the regulations.

(7) Any administrative expenses incurred for the purposes of this Act by the Board with the approval of the Secretary of State shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Treasury, be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament.

S-2 Local planning authorities.

2 Local planning authorities.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section the local planning authority for the purposes of this Act shall be—

(a ) in the case of a large burgh, the town council;

(b ) in the case of a county (including, subject as after-mentioned, any small burghs therein), the county council or, in the case of a county combined with another county for the purposes mentioned in subsection (1) of section one hundred and eighteen of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1947 , the joint county council of the combined county; and

(c ) in the case of a small burgh, to the town council of which powers and duties have been transferred under subsection (2) of section two of the Act of 1932, the town council,

and the district of the local planning authority shall be the burgh or the county or the combined county, as the case may be.

(2) Two or more local planning authorities may, with the consent of the Secretary of State, combine for any of the purposes of any provision of this Act on such terms and conditions as may be agreed between them and approved by the Secretary of State.

(3) If it appears to the Secretary of State that the combination of any local planning authority with any other local planning authority or authorities for any of the purposes of any provision of this Act would be of public or local advantage he may make an order combining those authorities as respects their districts or parts thereof for such of the purposes aforesaid as are specified in the order:

Provided that the Secretary of State shall not make such an order except after holding a local inquiry unless all the authorities concerned have consented to the making of the order.

(4) Any such order shall be laid before Parliament and if either House within a period of forty days after the order is so laid before it resolves that the order be annulled, the order shall thereupon cease to have effect, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder or to the making of a new order.

In reckoning for the purposes of this subsection any such period of forty days, no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is dissolved or prorogued or during which both Houses are adjourned for more than four days.

(5) The provisions of Part I and Part II of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the combination of authorities under subsection (2) and subsection (3) respectively of this section; the provisions of Part III and Part IV of that Schedule shall have effect with respect to the establishment and functions of joint advisory committees and of planning committees respectively of local planning authorities; and the provisions of Part V of that Schedule shall have effect with respect to the establishment and functions of sub-committees of joint planning committees appointed in pursuance of any combination of local planning authorities under subsection (2) or subsection (3) of this section, of joint advisory committees and of planning committees of local planning authorities.

II Planning and Control of Development, &c.

Part II.

Planning and Control of Development, &c.

Development plans.

Development plans.

S-3 Surveys of planning districts and preparationof development plans.

3 Surveys of planning districts and preparationof development plans.

(1) As soon as may be after the appointed day, every local planning authority shall carry out a survey of their district, and shall, not later than three years after the appointed day, or within such extended period as the Secretary of State may in any particular case allow, submit to the Secretary of State a report of the survey together with a plan (hereinafter called a ‘development plan’) indicating the manner in which they propose that land in that district should be used (whether by the carrying out thereon of development or otherwise) and the stages by which any such development should be carried out.

(2) Subject to the provisions of any regulations made under this Act for regulating the form and content of development plans, any such plan shall include such maps and such descriptive matter as may be necessary to illustrate the proposals aforesaid with such degree of particularity as may be appropriate to different parts of the district; and any such plan may in particular—

(a ) define the sites of proposed roads, public and other buildings and works, airfields, parks, pleasure grounds, nature reserves and other open spaces, or allocate areas of land for use for agricultural, residential, industrial or other purposes of any class specified in the plan;

(b ) designate as land subject to compulsory acquisition by any Minister, local authority or statutory undertakers any land allocated by the plan for the purposes of any of their functions (including any land which that Minister or authority or those undertakers are or could be authorised to acquire compulsorily under any enactment other than this Act);

(c ) designate as land subject to compulsory acquisition by the appropriate local authority—

(i)any land comprised in an area defined by the plan as an area of comprehensive development (including any land therein which is allocated by the plan for any such purpose as is mentioned in paragraph (b ) of this subsection)

(ii) any other land which, in the opinion of the local planning authority, ought to be subject to compulsory acquisition for the purpose of securing its use in the manner proposed by the plan.

(3) For the purposes of this section a development plan may define as an area of comprehensive development any area which in the opinion of the local planning authority should be developed or redeveloped as a whole for any one or more of the following purposes, that is to say, for the purpose of dealing satisfactorily with extensive war damage or conditions of bad layout or obsolete development, or for the purpose of providing for the relocation of population or industry or the replacement of open space in the course of the development or redevelopment of any other area, or for any other purpose specified in the plan; and land may be included in any area so defined, and designated as subject to compulsory acquisition in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section, whether or not provision is made by the plan for the development or redevelopment of that particular land.

(4) The Secretary of State may approve any development plan submitted to him under this section either without modification or subject to such modifications as he considers expedient:

Provided that—

(a ) he shall not approve a development plan which designates any land as subject to compulsory acquisition as aforesaid if...

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