United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions

Subject_Provisional Order — Extension of Boundaries of Burgh — Opposition by County Council — Application to Sheriff under Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892, secs. 11, 12, 13; 1903, sec. 96 — Water Rights — Assessment. Headnote:

The Burgh of Grangemouth, which was about to construct new docks, desired an extension of its boundaries so as to include the area which would be occupied by the docks and the houses necessary for the workmen employed. This was the object of the present Provisional Order.

The existing area of the burgh contained some 651 acres or thereby of which about 100 acres were unbuilt on, and the total area proposed to be added under the Provisional Order consisted of three separate portions, amounting in all to 1223 acres. The population of the burgh as existing was 8500, that of the portions proposed to be added 72. The Caledonian Railway Company, Limited, supported, the County Council of Stirlingshire and the Eastern District Committee of Stirlingshire objected to the Provisional Order.

The promoters maintained that it was expedient and desirable that these areas should be added to the burgh before they were built upon, in order that the burgh might from the outset exercise a supervision over the erection of houses and streets, and that for this a Provisional Order was necessary, the powers conferred on the Sheriff of the County by various Acts of Parliament being applicable only to the case where a burgh found the population on its borders growing in number and where consequently it desired further extension and control. The objectors maintained, firstly, that a Provisional Order was unnecessary, provision having been made by public general statutes for extending the boundaries of burghs by application to the Sheriff with appeal to Court of Session, the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892, secs. 11, 12, 13, and the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1903, sec. 96. Further, the present was not a case for extension, as the areas in question were not urban or suburban in character, and required neither municipal government nor legislation. Such matters as police protection, drainage, and lighting had been provided for by the objectors, and no advantage would be derived by the inhabitants of the areas from the proposed change. Secondly, that the objectors had in the year 1900 promoted and procured an Act by which a special Water Supply District had been created, including the areas proposed to be annexed to the burgh, and water-works had been

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constructed by them. They would by the proposed change be deprived of a source of revenue upon which they had counted, viz.—charges for water supplied to the new Grangemouth Docks and certain other docks to be constructed by the Caledonian Railway within the proposed areas. Thirdly, the county establishments had been formed and the county administration organised and obligations undertaken on the footing that the lands and heritages in the district proposed to be annexed would remain under the objectors' jurisdiction. The Provisional Order proposed to abolish their powers of assessment within these districts, and no provision was to be made for compensation for the pecuniary loss which would be entailed thereby.

The promoters led evidence.

The Commissioners, after calling for the evidence of the objectors relating to one only of the three areas, found the preamble not proved.