Public Health (Scotland) Act 1897 (repealed)

Offensive Trades S

32 Prohibition or regulation of certain offensive businesses, and byelaws as to offensive businesses. S

(1) If any person after the commencement of this Act establishes, without the sanction of the local authority, the following businesses, or any of them; that is to say, the business of blood boiler, bone boiler, manure manufacturer, soap boiler, tallow melter, knacker, tanner, tripe boiler, gut or tripe cleaner, skinner or hide factor, slaughterer of cattle or horses, or any other business which the local authority may declare, by order confirmed by the Board and published in the Edinburgh Gazette, to be an offensive business, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding [F1 level 2 on the standard scale] in respect of the establishment thereof, and any person carrying on the same after a conviction for the establishment thereof shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty-five pounds for every day during which he so carries on the same.

(2) The local authority shall give their sanction by order, but, at least fourteen days before making any such order, shall make public the application for it, by advertisement in one or more local newspapers, or by the posting of handbills in the locality, setting forth the time and place at which they will be willing to hear all persons objecting to the order, and they shall consider any objections made at that time and place, and shall grant or withhold their sanction as they think expedient, and where the local authority grants or withholds such sanction, any person aggrieved may appeal to the Board, whose decision shall be final . . . F2

(3) The local authority may make byelaws for regulating the conduct of any businesses within the meaning of this section, and of section thirty-seven of this Act, which are for the time being lawfully carried on in their district, and the structure of the premises in which any such business is being carried on, in order to prevent or diminish the noxious or injurious effect thereof, and the mode in which the said application is to be made.

(4) Any such byelaw may, in addition to any pecuniary penalty imposed by such byelaw, empower a sheriff by summary order to deprive any person, either temporarily or permanently, of the right of carrying on any business to which such byelaw relates, as a punishment for breaking the same, and any person disobeying such order shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty-five pounds for every day during which such disobedience continues; and the decision of the sheriff under this sub-section shall be appealable to the Lord Ordinary on the Bills in manner provided by section one hundred and fifty-six of this Act.

(5) There shall be charged for an order of the local authority under this section, such fee not exceeding [F3 £2] as the local authority may fix.

(6) For the purposes of this section a business shall be deemed to be established after the commencement of this Act not only if it is established newly, but also if it is removed from any one set of premises to any other premises, or if it is renewed on the same set of premises after having been discontinued for a period of twelve months or upwards, or if any premises on which it is for the time being carried on are enlarged without the sanction of the local authority; but a business shall not be deemed to be established anew on any premises by reason only that the ownership or occupancy of such premises is wholly or partially changed, or that the building in which it is established, having been wholly or partially pulled down or burnt down has been reconstructed without any extension of its area.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words substituted by virtue of Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 (c. 21, SIF 39:1), ss. 289F, 289G

F2 Words repealed by Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65), Sch. 27

F3 Words substituted by virtue of Decimal Currency Act 1969 (c. 19), s. 10(1)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 Reference to Lord Ordinary on the Bills to be construed as reference to a judge sitting in the Outer House: Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act 1933 (c. 41), s. 3

C2 S. 32 amended by Radioactive Substances Act 1960 (c. 34), s. 9, Sch. 1 Pt. II para. 13

S. 32 amended (27.8.1993) by 1993 c. 12, ss. 40, 51(2), Sch. 3 Pt. II para.11 (with ss. 42, 46).

C3 S. 32 excluded by Environmental Protection Act 1990 (c. 43, SIF 46:4), s. 84(2)(a)

C4 Power to repeal conferred by Environmental Protection Act 1990 (c. 43, SIF 46:4) s. 84(4)(b)

33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F4 S

Textual Amendments

F4 S. 33 repealed by Slaughter of Animals (Scotland) Act 1980 (c. 13, SIF 112), s. 24(2), Sch. 3

34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F5 S

Textual Amendments

F5 S. 34 repealed by Slaughterhouses Act 1954 (c. 42), Sch. 2

35 Local authorities may make byelaws as to pigstyes. S

The local authority may make byelaws regulating the construction of pigstyes, the places in which they may be erected, and the mode of cleansing them at proper intervals so as to prevent them from becoming a nuisance or dangerous to public health.

36 Duty of local authority to complain to sheriff, &c. of nuisance arising from offensive trade. S

(1) Where it appears to the local authority upon a certificate by [F6 the designated medical officer or [F7 the proper officer of a local authority]] . . . F8 or on a requisition in writing under the hands of any ten ratepayers within the district that any trade, business, process, or manufacture carried on in any manufactory, building, or premises, and causing effluvia is a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to the health of any of the inhabitants of the district, such authority may, if they think proper, . . . F9 apply to the sheriff by summary petition, and if it appears to such sheriff that any trade, business, process, or manufacture carried on in such manufactory, building, or premises is causing a nuisance or any effluvia, which is a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to the health of any of the inhabitants within the district, then, unless it is shown that the best practicable means have been used for removing the nuisance, or preventing or counteracting the effluvia, the author of the nuisance, and failing him the occupier and failing him the owner of the premises, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding [F10 level 4 on the standard scale].

(2) Provided that the court may suspend its final determination on condition that the person so offending undertakes to adopt, within a reasonable time, such means as the court may deem practicable, and may order to be carried into effect, for removing the nuisance, or mitigating or preventing the injurious or dangerous effects of the effluvia.

(3) The local authority may, if they think fit, on such certificate as is in this section mentioned, cause proceedings to be taken in the Court of Session against any person in respect of the matters alleged in such certificate.

(4) The local authority may take proceedings under this section in respect of a manufactory, building, or premises situate without their district, so, however, that the summary proceedings shall be had before a sheriff having jurisdiction in the district where the manufactory, building, or premises are situate.

Textual Amendments

F6 Words substituted by National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1972 (c. 58), Sch. 6 para. 44

F7 Words substituted by virtue of Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65), Sch. 27 Pt. I para. 2

F8 Words repealed by Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65), Sch. 27

F9 Words repealed by Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1981 (c. 23, SIF 81:2), s. 41, Sch. 4

F10 Words substituted by virtue of Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 (c. 21, SIF 39:1), ss. 289F, 289G

37 Provision as to nuisance created by local authority in dealing with refuse. S

(1) The removal of house refuse and street refuse by a local authority when collected or desposited by that authority, or by any contractor or other person authorised by such local authority, shall be deemed to be a business carried on by that authority, or by such contractor or other person, within the meaning of this Act, and a complaint or proceedings in relation to any such business may be made or taken . . . F11 by any person authorised by the Board in like manner as if . . . F11 such person were a local authority.

(2) Any premises used by a local authority, or by any contractor or other person authorised by such local authority, for the treatment or disposal of any street refuse or house refuse, as distinct from the removal thereof, which are a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to health, shall be a nuisance liable to be dealt with summarily under this Act . . . F11 .

Textual Amendments

F11 Words repealed by Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65), Sch. 27