§ [No. 10]
§ Page 5, leave out lines 9 to 26.
§ Lord KIRKHILLMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 10. This subsection was written into the 1969 Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act when stop notices were first introduced. It was thought then that a contractor who had entered into a contract with a developer before the end of 1969 to carry out operations (for instance, mineral working) on land, and who suffered loss or damage as a result of the requirement to comply with a stop notice, should normally be entitled to compensation from the developer.
It is very unlikely that there are any existing contracts to which this provision would apply. It is just conceivable that some long term contract for mineral extraction could still fall within the terms of the subsection and, for this reason, the Government were at first inclined to retain the provision, at least for the time being. However, an Opposition Amendment was moved in Committee in another place to delete the subsection on the grounds that it would be inappropriate to re-enact in 1977 a provision which related only to contracts made before 1970. The Government accepted this argument and, therefore, agreed to the Opposition Amendment.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(Lord Kirkhill.)
Lord CAMPBELL of CROYMy Lords, it seemed that, after eight years, it ought not to be necessary to re-enact this 807 provision which refers to a period before the end of 1969, but I assume that the Government have made all the inquiries that they consider appropriate to ensure that this would not cause any unfairness or hardship to anyone who might still be affected by some contract entered into before the end of 1969. On that basis, I suggest that we approve this Amendment.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.