Town Councils (Scotland) Act 1900
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1900 c. 49 |
| Year | 1900 |
Town Councils (Scotland) Act, 1900
(63 & 64 Vict.) CHAPTER 49.
An Act to consolidate and amend the Law relating to the Election and Proceedings of Town Councils in Scotland.
[8th August 1900]
Whereas it is expedient to consolidate and amend the law relating to the election and proceedings of town councils in Scotland:
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen'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 Short title and extent.
1. This Act may be cited as theTown Councils (Scotland) Act, 1900, and shall apply to Scotland only.
2 Commencement of Act.
2. This Act shall commence and have effect from and after the thirty-first day of December in the year one thousand nine hundred.
3 Enactments repealed.
3. The enactments specified in the First Schedule are hereby repealed.
4 Definitions.
4. The following words and expressions in this Act shall have the meanings assigned to them, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction; that is to say:—
(1) (1.) ‘Acting chief magistrate’ shall mean any bailie acting under section sixty-one:
(2) (2.) ‘Assessor’ shall mean the assessor acting under the Registration Acts:
(3) (3.) ‘Burgh’ shall include royal burgh, parliamentary burgh, burgh incorporated by Act of Parliament, police burgh, and any other burgh within the meaning of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892 , to which that Act applied from its commencement:
(4) (4.) ‘Burgh rate’ shall mean any rate or assessment imposed by the town council, but shall not include private improvement expenses:
(5) (5.) ‘Common seal’ shall mean the common seal of a burgh or the council thereof:
(6) (6.) ‘Council’ shall mean the town council:
(7) (7.) ‘Electors’ shall mean the persons to whom the right of electing town councillors belongs:
(8) (8.) ‘Existing’ shall mean existing immediately prior to the commencement of this Act:
(9) (9.) ‘Magistrate’ shall include lord provost, provost, and bailie:
(10) (10.) ‘Municipal area’ shall mean the area within the municipal boundary:
(11) (11.) ‘Municipal boundary’ (a ) in the case of a royal burgh, parliamentary burgh, or burgh incorporated by Act of Parliament, shall mean the existing boundary for the purpose of voting for town councillors; (b ) in the case of any other burgh, shall mean the boundary of the burgh as fixed under the provisions of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892 , or of any Act thereby repealed; and (c ) in all cases shall include any extension of such boundary, and be subject to any contraction thereof effected under any Act:
(12) (12.) ‘Municipal register’ shall mean the register of persons entitled to vote in the election of town councillors:
(13) (13.) ‘Police burgh’ shall have the meaning assigned to it in the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892:
(14) (14.) ‘Provost’ shall include ‘lord provost’
(15) (15.) ‘Registration Acts’ shall have the same meaning as in section eight of the Representation of the People Act, 1884 :
(16) (16.) ‘Registration court’ shall mean and include the registration court and the court of appeal under the Registration Acts:
(17) (17.) ‘Senior bailie’ or ‘senior magistrate’ shall mean the bailie who has been longest in office since his last election as such:
(18) (18.) ‘Supplementary list’ shall mean the list mentioned in section twenty-seven:
(19) (19.) ‘Treasurer’ shall mean the salaried officer discharging treasurer's duties.
Constitution and Government of Burghs.
5 Corporate name and common seal.
5. A town council shall be elected for every burgh under the provisions of this Act and shall be designated by the corporate name of ‘the provost, magistrates, and councillors’ of the burgh, and the common seal shall be used and adhibited under their authority and subject to their directions. The town council of a police burgh shall be a body corporate with a common seal.
6 Designation of lord provost.
6. In the case of burghs in which the provost is or may hereafter become entitled to the designation of ‘lord provost,’ the corporate designation of the town council shall be the ‘lord provost, magistrates, and councillors’ of the burgh.
7 Powers of town council.
7. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the council and magistrates of each existing burgh shall have such and the like rights, powers, authorities, and jurisdiction as were possessed by the council or commissioners and magistrates of such burgh according to the existing law Every reference in any Act of Parliament to the commissioners of a police burgh shall in the case of a police burgh constituted after the commencement of this Act be read and construed as referring to the council thereof, and the council and magistrates of a police burgh constituted after the commencement of this Act shall have such and the like rights, powers, authorities, and jurisdictions, as shall be possessed by the council and magistrates of police burghs in Scotland under the law for the time being.
8 Powers, &c. of local authorities to be vested in town council.
8. In any burgh the whole rights, powers, authorities, duties liabilities, debts, officers and servants (a ) of commissioners under the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, and (b ) of any body of police, gas or water commissioners, consisting exclusively of members of the town council, and (c ) of the burgh local authority under the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897, and the whole lands, works, and other assets vested in them respectively shall, in to far as this has not already been effected, be transferred to, imposed on, and vested in the town council, and all bonds and other deeds granted by such commissioners or local authority shall be binding on the town council, and every reference in any Act of Parliament, byelaw, regulation, order, scheme, deed, or instrument, to such commissioners or local authority shall, after the commencement of this Act, be read and construed as referring to the town council or to the individual councillors as the case may be; and, except in so far as is by this Act otherwise directed, or as the town council may otherwise resolve, it shall not be necessary to hold separate or special meetings for the transaction of business arising out of the powers of police, gas, or water commissioners, or of the local authority, hereby transferred, or to keep separate minute books therefor. Provided that nothing in this section or Act contained shall be held to amalgamate any burghs or the councils thereof, or any funds or other assets separately administered at the commencement of this Act, or to alter any rating area, or to add to or diminish or otherwise affect existing security for debt, or existing burdens on any common good, or to make competent any payment or any giving in security, or any addition to the burden on any common good, which before the commencement of this Act would have been incompetent.
9 Service of writs, execution of deeds, and form of title to lands.
9. The town council may sue and be sued in their corporate name, and service on them of all legal processes and notices shall be effected by service on the town clerk. The title to all lands acquired by the town council shall be taken in their corporate name, and all deeds, contracts, and writs of importance requiring to be executed by the town council shall be granted in their corporate name, and shall be signed at a meeting of the council by the provost or other magistrate or councillor presiding and the town clerk, either with or without the common seal being adhibited. Provided that such signature shall not operate to make any person so signing personally liable for the repayment of any debt or the fulfilment of any obligation incurred by the town council.
Number and Qualification of Councillors.
10 Number of magistrates and councillors.
10.—The number of magistrates and councillors to be elected in each burgh shall, unless and until altered under this Act, remain the same as under the existing law. In burghs created after the commencement of this Act, the numbers shall be in accordance with the scale specified in Schedule II.
11 Alteration of number.
11. Where the number of magistrates or councillors in any burgh under the existing law differs from the scale specified in Schedule II., or where, by alteration in population in any burgh, the number at any time hereafter comes to differ therefrom, it shall be competent for the town council, if they deem it proper, to present a petition to the sheriff praying him to exercise his powers under this section, and upon consideration of such petition, and after such advertisement and inquiry as he shall deem proper, the sheriff shall—
(1) (1.) Ascertain and declare, for the purposes of this Act, the population within the municipal boundary of the burgh;
(2) (2.) Declare that the number of magistrates and, councillors shall be increased or diminished, so as to make it conform to the scale specified in Schedule II.;
(3) (3.) Determine when, and in what manner, the increase or decrease in the number of magistrates and councillors shall be effected in the burgh, and in the different wards thereof;
(4) (4.) Determine when and in what order...
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