Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1959

49 Recovery of certain sums from acquiring authorities

(1) Section fifty-four of the Act of 1954 (which relates to the recovery from acquiring authorities of certain sums payable under Part I of that Act in respect of land acquired under compulsory powers) shall have effect, and shall be deemed always to have had effect, with the substitution, in subsection (2) of that section (which specifies cases in which no sum is to be recoverable thereunder), of the following paragraph for paragraph (b) (which relates to interests in land acquired for the purposes of the development or re-development of an area as a whole):—

“(b) the interest was acquired under Part I of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act, 1945, or under Part III of the principal Act, or in accordance with the provisions of the said Part III as applied by section seventeen of the principal Act, and was so acquired in pursuance of a notice to treat served, or a contract made, before the eighteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, for the purposes of the development or re-development of any area as a whole, or was acquired in pursuance of such a notice to treat or contract under powers conferred by a local Act, and for purposes, which are certified by the Secretary of State to have been powers and purposes similar respectively to those mentioned in the preceding provisions of this paragraph; or”.

(2) Section fifty-four of the Act of 1954 shall also have effect, and shall be deemed always to have had effect, as if the following subsection were inserted after subsection (2) of that section:—

“(2A) Without prejudice to the last preceding subsection, where the interest was acquired in pursuance of a notice to treat served, or a contract made, before the eighteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, and on the date of service of the notice to treat, or on the date on which the contract was made, as the case may be, the land in which the interest subsisted was used wholly or mainly for agricultural purposes, subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to so much of any payment referred to in that subsection as is attributable to any part of the land in respect of which it is certified by the Secretary of State that he is satisfied that the acquiring authority have no intention—

(a) of using it (otherwise than temporarily) for purposes other than agricultural purposes, or

(b) of disposing of it by way of sale, exchange or letting with a view to its being so used”.

(3) In relation to compulsory acquisitions to which section one of this Act applies, and in relation to any sale of an interest in land by agreement in circumstances corresponding to such an acquisition, section fifty-four of the Act of 1954 shall have effect with the substitution, for subsection (6) of that section, of the following subsections:—

“(6) Where in the case of a compulsory acquisition to which section one of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act, 1959, applies, or of a sale of an interest in land which (within the meaning of that Act) is a sale thereof by agreement in circumstances corresponding to such an acquisition, any of the land comprised in the acquisition or sale is land in respect of which a notice under subsection (1) of section twenty-nine, or subsection (4) of section forty-one, of this Act, or under the provisions of the said subsection (1) as applied by section forty-eight of this Act, is recorded (whether before or after the completion of the acquisition or sale) in respect of a planning decision or order made before the service of the notice to treat, or the making of the contract, in pursuance of which the acquisition or sale is effected, the Secretary of State shall be entitled to recover from the acquiring authority a sum equal to so much of the amount of the compensation specified in the notice as (in accordance with subsection (2) of section twenty-nine of this Act) is to be treated as attributable to that land:

Provided that—

(a) if, immediately after the completion of the acquisition or sale, there is outstanding some interest in that land to which a person other than the acquiring authority is entitled, the said sum shall not accrue due until that interest either ceases to exist or becomes vested in the acquiring authority;

(b) no sum shall be recoverable under this subsection in the case of a compulsory acquisition or sale where the Secretary of State is satisfied that the interest in question is being acquired for the purposes of the use of the land as a public open space.

(6A) Where by virtue of the last preceding subsection the Secretary of State recovers a sum in respect of any land, by reason that it is land in respect of which a notice is recorded under subsection (4) of section forty-one of this Act, subsections (2) and (3) of section forty-three of this Act shall have effect in relation to that sum as if it were a sum recovered as mentioned in subsection (2) of the said section forty-three.”

(4) In subsection (4) of section sixty-four of the Act of 1954 (which provides for the payment into the Exchequer of certain sums received by the Secretary of State or the Central Land Board under that Act) the references to subsections (1) to (5) of section fifty-four of that Act, and to subsection (6) of that section, shall be construed as including references respectively to subsections (1) to (5) and to subsection (6) of that section as amended by the preceding provisions of this section.