Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997

102 Counter-notice objecting to blight notice. S

(1) Where a blight notice has been served in respect of a hereditament or an agricultural unit, the appropriate authority may serve on the claimant a counter-notice in the prescribed form objecting to the notice.

(2) A counter-notice under subsection (1) may be served at any time before the end of the period of 2 months beginning with the date of service of the blight notice.

(3) Such a counter-notice shall specify the grounds on which the appropriate authority object to the blight notice (being one or more of the grounds specified in subsection (4) or, as relevant, in section 110(1), 112(5) or 113(5)).

(4) Subject to the following provisions of this section, the grounds on which objection may be made in a counter-notice to a notice served under section 101 are—

(a) that no part of the hereditament or agricultural unit to which the notice relates is comprised in blighted land;

(b) that the appropriate authority (unless compelled to do so by virtue of this Chapter) do not propose to acquire any part of the hereditament, or in the case of an agricultural unit any part of the affected area, in the exercise of any relevant powers;

(c) that the appropriate authority propose in the exercise of relevant powers to acquire a part of the hereditament or, in the case of an agricultural unit, a part of the affected area specified in the counter-notice, but (unless compelled to do so by virtue of this Chapter) do not propose to acquire any other part of that hereditament or area in the exercise of any such powers;

(d) in the case of land falling within paragraph 1 or 10 but not 11, 12 or 13 of Schedule 14, that the appropriate authority (unless compelled to do so by virtue of this Chapter) do not propose to acquire in the exercise of any relevant powers any part of the hereditament or, in the case of an agricultural unit, any part of the affected area during the period of 15 years from the date of the counter-notice or such longer period from that date as may be specified in the counter-notice;

(e) that, on the date of service of the notice under section 101, the claimant was not entitled to an interest in any part of the hereditament or agricultural unit to which the notice relates;

(f) that (for reasons specified in the counter-notice) the interest of the claimant is not a qualifying interest;

(g) that the conditions specified in paragraphs (b) and (c) of section 101(1) are not fulfilled.

(5) Where the appropriate enactment confers power to acquire rights in or over land, subsection (4) shall have effect as if—

(a) in paragraph (b) after the word “acquire” there were inserted the words “ or to acquire any rights in or over ”,

(b) in paragraph (c) for the words “do not propose to acquire” there were substituted the words “ propose neither to acquire, nor to acquire any right in or over ”, and

(c) in paragraph (d) after the words “affected area” there were inserted “ or to acquire any right in or over any part of it ”.

(6) An objection may not be made on the grounds mentioned in paragraph (d) of subsection (4) if it may be made on the grounds mentioned in paragraph (b) of that subsection.

(7) An objection may not be made on the grounds mentioned in paragraphs (b) or (c) of subsection (4) in a counter-notice to a blight notice served by virtue of paragraphs 8 or 9 of Schedule 14.

(8) In this section, “relevant powers”, in relation to blighted land falling within any paragraph of Schedule 14, means any powers under which the appropriate authority are or could be authorised—

(a) to acquire that land or any rights in or over it compulsorily as being land falling within such paragraph, or

(b) to acquire that land or any rights in or over it compulsorily for any of the relevant purposes;

and “the relevant purposes”, in relation to any such land, means the purposes for which, in accordance with the circumstances by virtue of which that land falls within the paragraph in question, it is liable to be acquired or is indicated as being proposed to be acquired.