§ CONSENTS TO LAND TRANSACTIONS BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND PROTECTION OF PURCHASERS
§ Mr. Graham PageI beg to move Amendment 630, in page 83, line 31, at end insert:
(3) Notwithstanding that principal councils are authorities to whom Part II of the Town and Country Planning Act 1959 applies, sections 22, 23 and 26 of that Act (provisions relating to consents required for the exercise of powers of acquisition, appropriation and disposal of land) shall not apply in relation to the exercise by principal councils of powers conferred by this Part of this Act, and in section 29 of that Act (protection of purchasers) references to an authority to whom the said Part II applies shall be construed as though that expression did not include a principal council.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Miss Harvie Anderson)With this we can also discuss Amendment No. 631.
These Amendments preserve for principal councils the freedom to acquire, appropriate or dispose of land without ministerial consent which existing main councils enjoy, except in certain special situations, by virtue of Part II of the Town and Country Planning Act 1959. As drafted, the Bill has the undesired side effect of restoring the control which was abolished by the 1959 Act where the transaction is under an enactment to which Part VII does not apply by virtue 292 of Clause 131(l)(b) and subsection (2). This was an inadvertent restoration of control when the whole object of the Bill is to remove this type of control from local authorities. It was upsetting to find we had done just the opposite here.
Section 28 of the 1959 Act relieves authorities of the need to obtain this consent in most cases but if the authorities were excluded from the 1959 Act they would again need consent in every case. So we have turned it round the other way by this Amendment and again removed the control under these circumstances.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Further Amendment made: No. 890 in page 83, line 33 leave out 'representative body' and insert 'parish trustees'.—[Mr. Graham Page.]