Local Government Act 1972

262 Local Acts and instruments. E+W

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, any local statutory provision to which this section applies and which is not continued in force by any other provision of this Act shall—

(a) notwithstanding the changes of administrative areas and local authorities effected by or under this Act and, in the case of an instrument made under any enactment, notwithstanding the repeal of that enactment, continue to apply on and after 1st April 1974 to, but only to, the area, things or persons to which or to whom it applies before that date;

(b) have effect subject to any necessary modifications and to the modifications made by subsections (3) to (5) below;

but the continuation by this subsection of an instrument made under any enactment shall not be construed as prejudicing any power to vary or revoke the instrument which is exercisable apart from this subsection.

(2) Subsection (1) above shall have effect subject to the provisions of—

(a) this Act, other than Part I of Schedule 29;

(b) any Act passed after this Act and before 1st April 1974; and

(c) any order made under section 254 above or the following provisions of this section.

(3) Any local statutory provision to which this section applies and which relates to functions exercisable by a local authority of any description by virtue of any public general enactment shall have effect as if for any reference to the authority by whom the functions are exercised immediately before 1st April 1974 or to their area there were substituted a reference to the authority by whom those functions are exercisable on and after that date or, as the case may be, to so much of the area of the latter authority as comprises the area of the former authority or any part thereof.

(4) In any local statutory provision to which this section applies and which does not fall within subsection (3) above—

(a) for any reference to an existing county or its council there shall be substituted a reference to so much of the new county or counties as comprises the area of the existing county or any part thereof or, as the case may be, the council of that new county or the councils of those new counties;

(b) for any reference to an existing county borough or county district or the council of either there shall be substituted a reference to so much of the new district or districts as comprises the area of the existing borough or district or any part thereof or, as the case may be, the council of that new district or the councils of those new districts.

(5) In any local statutory provision to which this section applies which has effect in an area in Wales and which does not fall within subsection (3) above—

(a) for any reference to a rural parish there shall be substituted a reference to the corresponding community;

(b) for any reference to the council of any such parish which has a council, whether separate or common, there shall be substituted a reference to the council of the corresponding community; and

(c) for any reference to the parish meeting of any such parish which has no council there shall be substituted a reference to the council of the new district which comprises the corresponding community.

(6) Subsections (3) to (5) above shall have effect subject to any provision to the contrary made by, or by any instrument made under, this Act and, without prejudice to the foregoing, the Secretary of State may by order provide for the exercise of functions conferred by any local statutory provision to which this section applies and exclude the operation of any of those subsections where it would otherwise conflict with any provision of the order.

(7) So much of any local statutory provision—

(a) as confers functions on the Secretary of State with respect to the determination of tolls or other charges with respect to any fair, or

(b) as requires the submission to the Secretary of State of, or of proposals relating to, any scale of tolls or other charges with respect to any fair,

shall cease to have effect.

(8) Where any local statutory provision is continued in force in any area by subsection (1) above or is amended or modified in its application to any area by an order under section 254 above, the Secretary of State or any appropriate Minister may by that order, or in the case of a provision continued as aforesaid, by an order under this subsection—

(a) extend the provision throughout the new local government area in which it is continued in force;

(b) provide that that provision as so continued, amended, modified or extended shall have effect in that area to the exclusion of any enactment for corresponding purposes, including any enactment contained in or applied by this Act;

(c) make such modifications of any such enactment in its application to that area as will secure that the enactment will operate harmoniously with the said provision in that area;

(d) repeal or revoke any local statutory provision to which this section applies and which appears to the Secretary of State or that Minister to have become spent, obsolete or unnecessary or to have been substantially superseded by any enactment or instrument which applies or may be applied to the area, persons or things to which or to whom that provision applies;

(e) transfer to any authority appearing to the Secretary of State or that Minister to be appropriate any functions of an existing local authority under a local statutory provision to which this section applies which are not to become functions of some other authority under any provision of this Act except section 254 above and this section, or under any other instrument made under this Act, being functions exercisable by any existing local authority abolished by this Act;

(f) without prejudice to paragraph (e) above, make such modifications of any local statutory provision to which this section applies in its application to any new local government area as appear to the Secretary of State or that Minister to be expedient.

(9) All local statutory provisions to which this subsection applies shall cease to have effect in metropolitan counties at the end of 1979 and elsewhere at the end of 1984, but—

(a) the Secretary of State or any appropriate Minister may by order exempt any such provision from the foregoing provision of this subsection;

(b) the Secretary of State may from time to time by order postpone the date on which all the local statutory provisions applying to the whole or part of any local government area, so far as they so apply, are to cease to have effect under this subsection.

(10) An order under subsection (8) above which extends the area for which any local statutory provision is in force shall be provisional only.

(11) An instrument containing any other order under subsection (8) above or an order under subsection (9) above shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(12) This section applies to any local statutory provision which is in force wholly outside Greater London (except in the Isles of Scilly) and so much of any local statutory provision which is in force partly in Greater London as is in force outside Greater London, being in either case a provision in force immediately before 1st April 1974 and not expressly repealed or revoked by this Act, and subsection (9) above applies to any such local statutory provision of the following descriptions—

(a) a provision of a local Act, the Bill for which was promoted by a local authority;

(b) a provision of an Act confirming a provisional order made on the application of a local authority;

(c) a provision of an order made on such an application which was subject to special parliamentary procedure;

not being—

(i) a provision by virtue of which functions are exercisable by a joint board continued in existence by virtue of section 263 below,

(ii) a provision relating to a statutory undertaking,

(iii) a provision relating to any person’s status, or the right of any person to be admitted, as a freeman of any place or the rights of any person by virtue of any relationship or association with such a freeman,

(iv) a protective provision for the benefit of any person, or

(v) a provision contained in the M1 Green Belt (London and Home Counties) Act 1938.

(13) In subsection (12) above “local authority” means—

(a) the council of an administrative county, urban district or rural district;

(b) the municipal corporation of a borough acting by the council of that borough;

(c) any commissioners, trustees or other persons invested by any local Act with powers of town government or rating;

(d) any local board constituted in pursuance of the M2 Public Health Act 1848, the M3 Local Government Act 1858, the M4 Local Government (1858) Amendment Act 1861 or the M5 Local Government Amendment Act 1863; or

(e) without prejudice to the foregoing any body of persons constituted or designated as an urban or rural sanitary authority under the M6 Public Health Act 1875;

and “statutory undertaking” means any railway, light railway, tramway, road transport, water transport, canal, inland navigation, ferry, dock, harbour, pier or lighthouse undertaking, any telephone undertaking, any market undertaking or any undertaking for the supply of electricity, gas, hydraulic power, F1 . . . or district heating.

Textual Amendments

F1 Word repealed by Water Act 1973 (c. 37), Sch. 9

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 262(9) restricted by Cornwall County Council Act 1984 (c. xix), ss. 1, 54(4)

Marginal Citations

M1 1938 c. xciii.

M2 1848 c. 63.

M3 1858 c. 98.

M4 1861 c. 61.

M5 1863 c. 17.

M6 1875 c. 55.