The Local Government Reorganisation (Wales) (Charities) Order 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 provides for the reorganisation of local government in Wales with effect from 1st April 1996. Section 49 makes specific provision for the transfer of charitable property and related powers from old authorities to new principal councils. This Order supplements that section so that provision is additionally made for—

(a) the transfer of powers exercisable in relation to a charity where those powers are vested in an old authority rather than an office holder of an old authority;

(b) the identity of transferee councils to be determined in accordance with the principles stated in section 49(4) and (5) in the above case and in accordance with section 49(4) in those cases where local authority officers have powers with respect to a charity whose property is not vested in an old authority, or where an old authority or any of its officers are included among the trustees of a charity;

(c) references to “the greater part” in section 49(4) and (5) to be construed as references to “the greatest part” in those cases where there are more than two new principal councils whose areas comprise either the specified area under section 49(4) or the area of the old authority in question under section 49(5);

(d) references in article 2(2) and section 49(2) to a power with respect to a charity not to include references to a power of an old authority or an office holder of an old authority by virtue of being a trustee of a charity;

(e) the transfer of rights and liabilities in connection with charitable property held by an old authority as trustee to the new principal council in which the property is vested.