Local Government (Scotland) Act 1966

Part I — Grants

Increase of general grant for 1966-67 and discontinuance of general grants and Exchequer Equalisation Grants

Increase of general grant for 1966-67 and discontinuance of general grants and Exchequer Equalisation Grants.

1

Rate support grants for local authorities

Rate support grants.

2

Rate support grant orders.

3

Variation of orders etc.

4

Reduction of grants in case of default.

5

Supplemental.

6

Reduction of rates on dwellings by reference to the domestic element.

7

Specific grants

Grants for development by planning authorities.

8

Grants for public open spaces.

9

Grants for reclamation of derelict land.

10

Grants for certain expenditure due to immigrant population.

11

• (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the Secretary of State may pay to local authorities which in his opinion are required to make special provision in the exercise of any of their functions in consequence of the presence within their area of persons belonging to ethnic minorities whose language or customs differ from those of the rest of the community, grants of such amounts as he may, with the consent of the Treasury, determine on account of expenditure in respect of the employment of staff.

• (2) No grant shall be paid under this section in respect of expenditure incurred before 1st April 1993.

Part II — Rates

Local authority apportionments etc.

Apportionments, allocations etc. relating to local authorities.

12

Amendment of the Act of 1963.

13

As respects the year 1967-68 and subsequent years the Act of 1963 shall have effect as follows—

• (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (b) Section 9(5) of the Act of 1963 (which relates to the determination of weighted population) shall be amended by substituting for the words “in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 2 to this Act” the words “in such manner as may be prescribed by a rate support grant order made under section 3 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1966”.

• (c) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Effect of alteration of boundaries on apportionments etc.

14

Valuation and Rating

Valuation according to tone of roll.

15

• (1) For the purposes of any new or altered entry to be made in a valuation roll after the passing of this Act for a year other than a year of revaluationat any time the valuation roll is in force, the value or altered value to be ascribed to lands and heritages shall not exceed the value which would have been ascribed thereto in that roll if the lands and heritages to which the entry relates had for valuation purposes been subsisting throughout the year before the last year of revaluation, on the assumptions that at the time by reference to which that value would have been ascertained—

• (a) the lands and heritages were in the same state as at the time of valuation and any relevant factors (as defined by subsection (2) of this section) were those subsisting at the last-mentioned time; and

• (b) the locality in which the lands and heritages are situated was in the same state, so far as concerns the other premises situated in that locality and the occupation and use of those premises, the transport services and other facilities available in the locality, and other matters affecting the amenities of the locality, as at the time of valuation.

• (2) In this section “relevant factors” means any of the following, so far as material to the valuation of lands and heritages, namely—

• (a) the mode or category of occupation of the lands and heritages;

• (b) the quantity of minerals or other substances in or extracted from the lands and heritages;

• (c) the volume of trade or business carried on on the lands and heritages.

• (3) References in this section to the time of valuation are references to the time by reference to which the valuation of lands and heritages would have fallen to be ascertained if this section had not been enacted.

• (4) This section does not apply to lands and heritages which are occupied by a public utility undertaking and of which the value falls to be ascertained by reference to the profits of the undertaking carried on therein.

Determination of cumulo rateable value and rateable value pertaining to water undertakings.

16

For the purposes of the levying of rates in respect of the year 1967-68 and of any subsequent year the cumulo rateable value and the rateable value of lands and heritages occupied for the purposes of a water undertaking shall be taken to be the values respectively determined in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 2 to this Act.

Payments in lieu of rates by Electricity Boards.

17

Rating of certain office premises of nationalised boards.

18

Gas and Electricity Boards: rating of showrooms.

19

• (1) For the year 1967-68 and subsequent years, an authority to which this section applies shall, notwithstanding anything in Part V of the Local Government Act 1948, section 24(2) of the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956 . . . , be liable to be rated in respect of any shop, room or other place occupied and used by the authority wholly or mainly for the sale, display or demonstration of apparatus or accessories for use by consumers of gas or, as the case may be, electricity; and accordingly any such shop, room or other place shall be included in the valuation roll for the area in which it is situated.

• (2) In determining whether any such shop, room or other place is wholly or mainly occupied and used as aforesaid, use for the receipt of payments for gas or electricity consumed shall be disregarded.

• (3) This section applies to the following authorities, that is to say, the British Gas Corporation, the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board and the South of Scotland Electricity Board.

Amendment of section 42 of the Lands Valuation (Scotland) Act 1854.

20

Amendment of section 22 of the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956.

21

In section 22(1) of the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956 (which relates to the exemption of churches, etc. from rates) for the paragraphs (a) and (b) there shall be substituted the words “any premises to which this subsection applies, which belong to or are held by a religious body, so long as the use of the premises is wholly or mainly for purposes connected with that body and no profit is derived by that body from the use of the premises for any other purpose.

Complaints regarding omissions from the valuation roll.

22

• (1) Any person interested may complain to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland for a valuation area (which terms in this section have the same meaning as in the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956) to the effect—

• (a) that particular lands and heritages are not included in the valuation roll for that area and that they ought to be so included; or

• (b) that lands and heritages consisting of a pitch for a caravan have been treated as part of a single unit of lands and heritages by virtue of section 3(1) of the Rating (Caravan Sites) Act 1976 and ought to be separately entered in such valuation roll;

...

• (2) After hearing a complaint under this section the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland may dismiss it or may direct that such entry be made in the Valuation roll as respects the lands and heritages concerned as may be specified in the direction.

• (3) A decision made under the last foregoing subsection shall be subject to appeal by way of stated case in the manner provided by section 7 of the Valuation of Lands (Scotland) Amendment Act 1879.

Amendment of section 7 of the Valuation of Lands (Scotland) Amendment Act 1879.

23

• (1) Any application for a stated case under section 7 of the Valuation of Lands (Scotland) Amendment Act 1879 may be made in writing within the prescribed period from the date of the decision of the Valuation Appeal Committee or the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, or if the decision was made in the absence of any party intending to make such an application, within the prescribed period from the date of receipt by him of the notification of the decision, and accordingly in the said section 7 the words “and shall then declare himself dissatisfied with such determination” shall cease to have effect.

• (2) In this section “the prescribed period” means the period for the time being prescribed by virtue of section 6 of the Rating and Valuation (Scotland) Act 1952 within which grounds of appeal relating to a stated case under the said section 7 may be lodged.

Rating of unoccupied property

Liability to be rated in respect of certain unoccupied property.

24

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Provisions supplementary to section 24.

25

• (1) The provisions of Schedule 3 to this Act shall have effect, for the purposes of any scheme under section 3A of the Local Government (Financial Provisions etc.) (Scotland) Act 1962 which provides for the rates leviable in respect of lands and heritages to be reduced or remitted by virtue of the lands and heritages being unoccupied, with respect to . . . the treatment of newly erected and altered buildings and the other matters there mentioned.

• (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Application of section 27.

26

Notification of unoccupied dwelling-houses.

27

• (1) Subject to subsection (3) below, the owner of every dwelling-house which has remained unoccupied for a period of two months shall, within 14 days thereafter, give to the rating authority for the area in which the house is situated notice in writing of the date when the house became unoccupied, or in the case of a newly erected dwelling-house (including a dwelling-house produced by the structural alteration of a building), notice in writing of the date when it became available for occupation.

• (2) Any person who fails to give a notice which is required to be given under the foregoing subsection shall, subject to the next following subsection, be liable to be rated under section 24 above in respect of the dwelling-house as if he were in occupation of the dwelling-house; and no reduction shall be made under section 7 above in respect of rates payable by virtue of this subsection.

• (3) A rating authority may, if in all the circumstances it seems to them fair and reasonable so to do, reduce the amount of rates payable in respect of any dwelling-house for any period by virtue of subsection (2) above to the amount payable by virtue of section 24(2) above.

• (4) This section does not apply to a dwelling-house owned by a rating authority or to a dwelling-house which was last occupied by the owner thereof or to a dwelling-house which falls within any of the categories of lands and heritages described in section 25(3) above or which is for the time being exempted from rates under section 24 above by virtue of regulations made under section 25(4) above.

Part III — Roads

Grants towards construction and improvement of roads

Road grants and classifications.

28

Lighting of road

Provision of lighting by highway authorities.

29

• (1) The Secretary of State and every local highway authority shall have power to provide lighting for the purposes of any road or proposed road for which they are or will be the highway authority, and may for that purpose—

• (a) contract with any persons for the supply of gas, electricity or other means of lighting ; and

• (b) construct and maintain such lamps, posts and other works as they consider necessary.

• (2) A highway authority may alter or remove any works constructed by them under this section or vested in them under the following provisions of this Part of this Act.

• (3) A highway authority shall pay compensation to any person who sustains damage by reason of the execution of works authorised by this section.

• (4) Subject to the last preceding subsection, the provisions of section 99 of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 relating to the fixing of lamp irons, lamp posts and lamps shall apply to a highway authority, not being a body to which the said provisions would otherwise apply, as they apply to such a body.

• (5) For the purposes of section 8 of the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act 1909 the expression " improvement of roads " shall include the lighting of roads under the power conferred by this section.

Powers of existing lighting authorities.

30

• (1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, the powers of a lighting authority shall not be exercised, after the commencement of this Part of this Act, for purposes of the lighting of any road for which they are not the highway authority except with the consent of the highway authority (which consent may be given either generally or in respect of any particular road or length of road, and either without conditions or subject to such conditions as the highway authority think fit).

• (2) Subsection (1) of this section does not apply to the exercise of powers for the purpose only of the operation or maintenance of a lighting system which is not transferred to the highway authority under the following provisions of this Part of this Act.

• (3) If a lighting authority are aggrieved by the refusal of a local highway authority to give their consent for the purposes of this section, or by any conditions subject to which such consent is given, they may appeal to the Secretary of State, who may give such directions in the matter as he thinks fit.

• (4) In this Part of this Act " lighting authority " means a council or other body authorised to provide lighting under section 99 of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892, section 149 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947 or section 23 of the Road Traffic Act 1934 (as applied to Scotland by section 41(8) of that Act) or any corresponding local enactments; and references to the powers of a lighting authority are references to their powers under the said enactments.

Delegation of lighting functions of highway authorities.

31

• (1) A highway authority may agree with the lighting authority for the delegation to the lighting authority of any of the functions of the highway authority with respect to the lighting of any road or part of a road within the area of the lighting authority.

• (2) A lighting authority shall, for the discharge of any functions delegated to them under subsection (1) of this section, act as agents for the highway authority; and it shall be a condition of the delegation—

• (a) that any works to be executed or expenditure to be incurred by the lighting authority in the discharge of the delegated functions shall be subject to the approval of the highway authority ;

• (b) that the lighting authority shall comply with any requirements of the highway authority as to the manner in which any such works are to be carried out, and with any directions of the highway authority as to the terms of contracts to be entered into for the purposes of the discharge of the delegated functions; and

• (c) that any such works shall be completed to the satisfaction of the highway authority.

• (3) If at any time the highway authority are satisfied that a lighting system in respect of which the functions of that authority are delegated under this section is not in proper repair or condition, they may give notice to the lighting authority requiring them to place it in proper repair or condition, and if the notice is not complied with within a reasonable time may themselves do anything which seems to them necessary to place the system in proper repair or condition.

• (4) A highway authority may agree with a lighting authority for the carrying out by the lighting authority of any works in connection with a lighting system provided or to be provided by the highway authority within the area of the lighting authority; and subsections (2) and (3) of this section shall apply to the conditions to be included in and to the discharge of functions pursuant to any such agreement, as they apply to the conditions to be attached to a delegation of functions under subsection (1) of this section and the discharge of functions so delegated.

• (5) A delegation to a lighting authority under this section may be determined by notice given to that authority by the highway authority, and functions delegated to a lighting authority under this section may be relinquished by notice given by that authority to the highway authority; but a notice under this subsection shall not take effect until 16th May in the calendar year following that in which it is given, and shall not be given during the last three months of a calendar year.

Transfer of road lighting systems.

32

• (1) On the date of the commencement of this Part of this Act there shall be transferred to the highway authority for any road for which a road lighting system was then provided by a lighting authority other than the highway authority—

• (a) all lamps, lamp-posts and other apparatus which, immediately before that date, were vested in the lighting authority as part of that system ;

• (b) except as provided by subsection (2) of this section, all other property or rights which, immediately before that date, were vested in the lighting authority for the purposes of that system, and all liabilities incurred by that authority for those purposes and not discharged before that date.

• (2) There shall not be transferred to a highway authority by virtue of this section any right or liability of a lighting authority in respect of work done, services rendered, goods (including gas and electricity) supplied or money due for payment before the said date, and there shall not be transferred to the Secretary of State by virtue of this section any liability of a lighting authority in respect of loans or loan charges.