The Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994

Management agreements

Management agreements

16.—(1) The appropriate nature conservation body may enter into an agreement (a “management agreement”) with every owner, lessee and occupier of land forming part of a European site, or land adjacent to such a site, for the management, conservation, restoration or protection of the site, or any part of it.

(2) A management agreement may impose such restrictions as may be expedient for the purposes of the agreement on the exercise of rights over the land by the persons who can be bound by the agreement.

(3) A management agreement–

(a) may provide for the management of the land in such manner, the carrying out thereon of such work and the doing thereon of such other things as may be expedient for the purposes of the agreement;

(b) may provide for any of the matters mentioned in sub–paragraph (a) being carried out, or for the costs thereof being defrayed, either by the said owner or other persons or by the appropriate nature conservation body, or partly in one way and partly in another;

(c) may contain such other provisions as to the making of payments by the appropriate nature conservation body, and in particular for the payment by them of compensation for the effect of the restrictions mentioned in paragraph (2), as may be specified in the agreement.

(4) Where land in England and Wales is subject to a management agreement, the appropriate nature conservation body shall, as respects the enforcement of the agreement against persons other than the original contracting party, have the like rights as if–

(a) they had at all material times been the absolute owners in possession of ascertained land adjacent to the land subject to the agreement and capable of being benefited by the agreement, and

(b) the management agreement had been expressed to be for the benefit of that adjacent land;

and section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925(1) (which enables the Lands Tribunal to discharge or modify restrictive covenants) shall not apply to the agreement.

(5) A management agreement affecting land in Scotland may be registered either–

(a) in a case where the land affected by the agreement is registered in that register, in the Land Register of Scotland, or

(b) in any other case, in the General Register of Sasines;

and, on being so recorded, it shall be enforceable at the instance of the appropriate nature conservation body against any person having an interest in the land and against any person deriving title from him:

• Provided that a management agreement shall not be so enforceable against a third party who has bona fide onerously acquired right (whether completed by infeftment or not) to his interest in the land prior to the agreement being recorded as aforesaid, or against any person deriving title from such third party.

Continuation in force of existing agreement, &c.

17.—(1) Any agreement previously entered into under–

(a) section 16 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949(2) (nature reserves),

(b) section 15 of the Countryside Act 1968(3) (areas of special scientific interest), or

(c) section 49A of the Countryside (Scotland) Act 1967(4) (management agreements),

in relation to land which on or after the commencement of these Regulations becomes land within a European site, or adjacent to such a site, shall have effect as if entered into under regulation 16 above.

• Regulation 32(1)(b) (power of compulsory acquisition in case of breach of agreement) shall apply accordingly.

(2) Any other thing done or deemed to have been done under any provision of Part III or VI of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, or under section 49A of the Countryside (Scotland) Act 1967, in respect of any land prior to that land becoming land within a European site, or adjacent to such a site, shall continue to have effect as if done under the corresponding provision of these Regulations.

For the purposes of this paragraph Part III of the 1949 Act shall be deemed to include section 15 of the Countryside Act 1968 and anything done or deemed to be done under that section and to which this paragraph applies shall have effect as if done or deemed to be done under section 16 of the 1949 Act.

(3) Any reference in an outlying enactment to a nature reserve within the meaning of section 15 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 shall be construed as including a European site.

For this purpose an “outlying enactment” means an enactment not contained in, or in an instrument made under, the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 or the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981(5).

(1)

1925 c. 20; by virtue of section 28(1) of the Law of Property Act 1969 (c. 59) section 84 has effect as set out in Schedule 3 to that Act.

(2)

1949 c. 97; section 16 was amended by paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Nature Conservancy Council Act 1973 (c. 54).

(3)

1968 c. 41; section 15 was amended by paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 to the Nature Conservancy Council Act 1973 (c. 54).

(4)

1967 c. 86; section 49A was inserted by section 9 of the Countryside (Scotland) Act 1981 (c. 44).

(5)

1981 c. 69.