Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Short title.

Extent of Act.

Establishment

of county council.

Composition

and term of office of council.

CHAPTER 50.

An Act to amend the Laws relating to Local Government
in Scotland.
[26th August 1889.]

BE

E it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Preliminary.

1. This Act may be cited as the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889.

2. This Act shall extend to Scotland only.

PART I

CONSTITUTION AND POWERS OF COUNTY COUNCIL.

Constitution of County Council.

3. A council (in this Act referred to as a county council or the council of a county) shall be established in every county, and be entrusted with the management of the administrative and financial business of that county as herein-after provided.

Councillors.

4. (1.) Subject to the provisions of this Act the councillors of a county council shall be elective, and for the purpose of their election a county shall be divided into electoral divisions; and one county councillor only shall be elected for each electoral division.

(2.) On each county council there shall be such number of elective councillors and in each county there shall be such number of electoral divisions, and the contents and boundaries of the electoral divisions shall be such as may be determined in manner in this Act mentioned: Provided that every police burgh shall be an electoral division or shall be divided into two or more electoral divisions.

(3.) The term of office of a councillor shall be three years, and in every third year the whole number of councillors shall go out of office, and their places shall be filled by election. Provided that the county councillors first elected under the provisions of this Act shall continue in office only until the first Tuesday of December in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-two, when the whole number of councillors shall go out of office, and their places shall be filled by election as herein-after provided.

Provided always, that if any police burgh or other electoral division shall, after the passing of this Act, be annexed to or included within the boundaries of any burgh, the councillor or councillors for such police burgh or electoral division shall, from and after the date when such annexation or inclusion takes effect, cease to hold office, and the number of the councillors for the county shall be reduced accordingly. Provided also that if a part only of any electoral division shall be so annexed or included, the councillor or councillors for such electoral division shall continue to hold office until the Secretary for Scotland shall otherwise determine.

of councillors.

5. The Secretary for Scotland shall determine the number of Number and councillors to be elected to a county council, and shall apportion apportionment them between the county and each of the burghs (if any) entitled, as herein-after provided, to be represented on the county council, and in making such determination and apportionment the Secretary for Scotland shall have regard to the population, distribution, and pursuits of the population, area, annual value as appearing on the valuation rolls, and other circumstances of the county and burghs respectively.

6. The councillor for an electoral division shall be elected by the Qualification persons registered as herein after provided as county electors for of electors. that division.

7. A person shall not be qualified to be elected or to be a coun- Qualification of cillor for an electoral division of a county unless he is at the time councillors. of the election registered as a county elector for such county.

8. Every burgh which contains a population of less than seven Appointment thousand shall, for the purposes herein-after mentioned, and subject of councillors by certain to the provisions of this Act, be represented on the county council burghs. of the county within which it is situated, or with which it has the longest common boundary, in manner following, that is to say: (1.) The county councillors to be elected for such burgh shall be elected by the town council of such burgh from among their own number, at a meeting of the town council to be held in the month of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety, and in the month of November in every subsequent year in which the election of a county council is appointed to take place.

(2.) The term of office of a county councillor for a burgh shall be three years, provided that his term of office as a county councillor shall terminate when he ceases to be a town councillor, and the town council shall fill up any casual vacancy arising under this section at their first meeting after such vacancy occurs, but such appointment shall only be till the time of the next county council election.

48 & 49 Vict. c. 3.

Disqualifi

cations for being councillor or

member of committee.

25 & 26 Vict. c. 89.

Regulations as

to convener and vice-con

vener of

county.

(3.) The provisions of this section shall apply to a royal burgh which contains a population of more than seven thousand, but does not return or contribute to return a member to Parliament, and to any burgh which contains a population of more than seven thousand, but does not maintain a separate police force.

(4.) The expression "the Representation of the People Acts," in section three of the Representation of the People Act, 1884, is hereby declared to include the Acts regulating the registration of municipal electors.

9. (1.) No woman shall be eligible for election as a county councillor; and

(2.) A person shall be disqualified for being elected and for being a county councillor or member of a committee in this Act mentioned, if and while he

(a.) Holds any office or place of profit under the county council. or any committee in this Act mentioned; or

(b.) Has directly or indirectly, by himself or his partner, any share or interest in any contract or employment with, by, or on behalf of the council or committee.

But a person shall not be disqualified, or be deemed to have any share or interest in such a contract or employment, by reason only of his having any share or interest in

(c.) Any lease, sale, or purchase of land, or any agreement for the same; or

(d.) Any agreement for the loan of money, or any security for the payment of money only; or

(e.) Any newspaper in which any advertisement relating to the affairs of the council or committee is inserted; or

(f) Any company which contracts with the council or committee for lighting or supplying with water, or insuring against fire, any property of the council or committee; or

(g.) Any railway company, or any company incorporated by Act of Parliament or Royal Charter, or under the Companies Act,

1862.

Convener of the County.

10.--(1.) The chairman of the county council, who shall be called the convener of the county, shall be a fit person elected by the council from among the councillors, and shall by virtue of his office be a justice of the peace for the county.

(2.) The term of office of the convener of the county shall be one year.

(3.) The county council may from time to time appoint a county councillor to be vice-convener, to hold office during the term of office of the convener, and, subject to any rules made from time to time by the council, anything authorised or required to be done by or to or before the convener may be done by or to or before the vice-convener.

(4.) A casual vacancy in the office of convener or vice-convener of the county caused by death, resignation, or disqualification, shall, as soon as practicable, be filled up by the county council; but the person filling any such vacancy shall retain his office so long only

as the vacating convener or vice-convener would have retained the same if such vacancy had not occurred.

Powers of Council.

11. Subject to the provisions of this Act there shall be trans- Transfer to ferred to and vested in the council of each county, on and after the county council appointed day, or at such times as are in this Act in that behalf of powers of respectively specified :

commissioners

of supply, road

(1.) The whole powers and duties of the commissioners of supply, trustees, &c. save as herein-after mentioned;

(2.) The whole powers and duties of the county road trustees;
(3.) The whole powers and duties of the local authority of the
county under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts and the
Destructive Insects Act, 1877;

(4.) The whole powers and duties of the local authorities under
the Public Health Acts of parishes so far as within the county
(excluding burghs and police burghs); and
(5.) The administrative powers and duties of the justices of the
peace of the county in general or special or quarter sessions
assembled in respect of the several matters following, namely:
(i.) The execution as local authority of the Acts relating
to gas meters, to explosive substances, to weights and
measures, to habitual drunkards, and to wild birds;
(ii.) The appointment of visitors of public, private, or district
lunatic asylums; and

(iii.) The registration of rules of scientific societies under the
Act of the session of the sixth and seventh years of the
reign of Her present Majesty, chapter thirty-six.

All powers and duties of the justices of the peace not transferred by this Act to the county council shall be reserved to and transacted by such justices in the same manner, so far as circumstances admit, as if this Act had not passed.

The provisions of any Act of Parliament conferring, imposing, or regulating the powers and duties by this Act transferred or regulating the proceedings under any such Act shall remain in full force and effect, except in so far as they are repealed by or are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act.

40 & 41 Vict. c. 68.

commissioners

12.-(1.) Notwithstanding the transference in the immediately Continuance of preceding section mentioned all enactments in regard to the con- of supply for stitution, qualification, admission, and making up lists of com- limited purmissioners of supply shall continue in force, and all existing poses specified. commissioners of supply shall continue to hold office so long as they retain their qualifications under the said enactments; but save for the purposes in this Act expressly mentioned, every reference in any Act of Parliament, scheme, order, deed, or instrument to commissioners of supply, or to their convener, shall be read and construed as referring to the county council or councillors, or to the convener of the county elected under this Act: Provided also that the County General Assessment (Scotland) Act, 1868, shall be 31 & 32 Vict. repealed after the words "such assessment is imposed" in the c. 82. fourth section thereof to the end of section nine of the Act.

c. 93.

(2.) For the purpose of appointing members of the standing joint committee herein-after mentioned, and also of the committee to be appointed to dispose of claims and objections under the provisions 19 & 20 Vict. of the Commissioners of Supply (Scotland) Act, 1856, and any amending Act, the commissioners of supply shall meet annually in the same place and on the same day as, and either before or after, the meeting of the county council in the month of May in each year, but shall not transact any business other than the election of a convener of the Commissioners of Supply and the election of the members of the committees in this section mentioned.

Transfer of police in burghs under 7,000.

20 & 21 Vict. c. 72.

Transfer of

(Animals)

and Destruc

tive Insects

(3.) If any member of a committee appointed as in this section mentioned shall die, resign, or become disqualified, the vacancy so caused may be filled up by the commissioners of supply at a meeting called by their convener on not less than ten days notice by circular addressed to each commissioner of supply.

(4.) The county clerk shall without any further appointment or remuneration act as clerk of the commissioners of supply, and when so acting shall be deemed to be the clerk of supply within the meaning of the enactments in this section before mentioned.

13. Where a burgh or police burgh contains a population of less than seven thousand, then on and after the appointed day all powers, duties, and liabilities of the magistrates and council or police commissioners of such burgh or police burgh (if any) in relation to the raising, management, and maintenance of a police force (herein-after referred to as the administration of the police) shall cease, and subject to the provisions of this Act as to the existing members of the police force, the county council shall have the same powers and duties and shall have transferred to it the same liabilities as regards the administration of police within such burgh or police burgh as they have in every other part of the county.

For the purposes of section seventy-four of the Police Act, 1857, the expression "this Act," shall include the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889, and shall be held to apply to police burghs. Provided that this section shall not apply to the burgh of Renfrew or the police burgh of Lerwick.

14. Where a burgh contains a population of less than seven administration thousand, then on and after the appointed day all powers, duties, of Contagious Diseases and liabilities of the magistrates and council of such burgh as the local authority under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts, and the Destructive Insects Act, 1877, within the burgh shall cease, Acts in burghs and subject to the provisions of this Act as to the existing officers of the said local authority, the county council shall have the same powers and duties and shall have transferred to it the same liabilities as regards the administration of the Contagious Diseases 40 & 41 Vict. (Animals) Acts, and the Destructive Insects Act, 1877, or any order made thereunder, within such burgh as they have in every other part of the county.

under 7,000.

c. 68.

41 & 42 Vict.

Provided that nothing in this section shall transfer to the county council any powers, duties, or liabilities under section thirty-four of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878, as amended by 49 & 50 Vict. section nine of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1886.

c. 74.

« AnteriorContinua »