- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the requirement under The Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 Statutory Guidance: Regulatory Impact Assessment (Final) that remediation costs must be reasonable includes a commitment that enforcement will be pursued only where remediation costs are affordable to the owners or occupiers of any site in question.
Answer
An enforcing authority can only serve a remediation notice if it is satisfied that it would seek to recover all of the share of the reasonable costs from each appropriate person. If not, it has powers instead to carry out the remediation activity itself, and recover relevant costs.
Statutory guidance on the recovery of the costs of remediation is set out in Chapter E, which sets out guidance on the extent to which the enforcing authority should seek to recover the costs of any remediation activity which it has carried out. It refers in particular to how the enforcing authority should deal with the threat of business closure or insolvency to small or medium-sized enterprises.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to The Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 Statutory Guidance: Regulatory Impact Assessment (Final), whether sites placed on the public register will be classified in relation to the degree of risk and whether there will be a procedure for removing sites from the register if they are treated to appropriate standards.
Answer
Sites will be placed on the public register when remediation notices are served by local authorities, and will remain there, together with details of remediation actions which have been carried out. Special sites will be placed on the public register when they are designated by local authorities.
Sites will not be classified according to risk, and there will not be a procedure for removing them from the register once remediation has been carried out.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to The Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 Statutory Guidance: Regulatory Impact Assessment (Final), whether contaminated sites will be exempt from remediation notices if public access is prevented and there is no impact on controlled waters.
Answer
Statutory guidance on the definition and identification of contaminated land is set out in Chapters A and B of the guidance, which was laid before Parliament on 25 May.
For a site to be designated as contaminated, there have to exist a source, pathway and target for the contamination. The local authority will have to satisfy itself that these all exist before making its determination that the land is contaminated.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to The Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 Statutory Guidance: Regulatory Impact Assessment (Final), whether businesses seeking information on sites placed on the registers to be maintained by the enforcing authorities will require to pay fees for access to the Scottish Executive's registers.
Answer
Public registers will be maintained by local authorities and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Registers will be available, at all reasonable times, for inspection by the public free of charge. Members of the public will also be able to obtain copies of entries on payment of reasonable charges.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to The Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 Statutory Guidance: Regulatory Impact Assessment (Final), what appeal mechanisms against remediation notices by local authorities and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency will be established.
Answer
Appeal procedures are set out in section 78L of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and regulations 7-11 of the Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (SI 2000/178). Remediation notices served by local authorities can be appealed to the sheriff by way of summary application, and notices served by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency can be appealed to Scottish Ministers.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-6966 by Sarah Boyack on 31 May 2000, whether, following the meeting with representatives of the telecommunications industry, the primary legislation announced by Sarah Boyack on 11 May 2000 will be in place in time to provide effective regulation of third generation licenses.
Answer
It is our intention to consult on proposals for secondary legislation and associated guidance later in the summer. A number of new installations, whether for second or third generation technology, will be dealt with under current planning arrangements.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many requests from local authorities to dispose of land or property at less than full market value it has refused since 1 July 1999, broken down by local authority, and how many of these requests related to (a) land and (b) property.
Answer
Section 74(2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 ensures that council tax payers obtain value for their assets, affords a measure of protection to the authority against charges of discrimination between purchasers and precludes the award of hidden subsidies. Our usual policy has been to grant applications for dispensation under section 74(2) if the intending buyer or lessee is performing some kind of charitable or public service function and where it could reasonably be argued that the buyer could not afford the full market price.
Under this section 2 requests have been turned down. These are:
- North Lanarkshire council requested consent to dispose of a former play area at Roman Road, Motherwell to the Roman Road Gospel Hall (RRGH) at less than market value. The council stated that RRGH had informed them that the public benefit gained from the proposal would be that the cars currently parked on Roman Road would be removed to the car park. We felt that this did not justify selling a public asset at less than full market value. The council also stated in their original application that the reason the council were selling the land to the Gospel Hall was to allow them to expand their facilities. In later correspondence it was confirmed that the Gospel Hall had since indicated to the council by letter that they have no intention to expand, thus rendering the councils original reason for selling the land to RRGH redundant. Consent was refused on 16 May 2000.
- Orkney Islands council requested consent to dispose of land to the executors of a Mr Cecil Copland at less than market value. This was due to the original sale to Mr Copland, in 1977, not going ahead because of an oversight by the council. Since 1977 Mr Copland had been using the land. When he died his executors stated that although the payment had not gone through the land belonged to Mr Copland and only the originally agreed price would need to be paid. Because of the period of time the price of the land had risen so selling at the original price would need section 74 consent. We asked the council what public benefit would be gained from this sale and they replied by stating that they could not see any public benefit in selling the land to the above parties. Although the case was an unusual one we could not grant consent to dispose of a public asset if there was no clear benefit to the public. The fault lay with both parties in that each failed to pursue the sale to its proper conclusion. Consent was refused on 22 May 2000.
These are the only applications refused consent under section 74 since 1 July 1999.
Requests for consent to dispose of land at less than best price are considered under section 74(2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. In addition, if the land is held on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), consent in terms of section 12(7) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 will also be required.
Requests for consent to dispose of housing held on the Housing Revenue Account at less than best price are considered under section 12(7) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 (section 12(10) disapplies section 74(2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973).
No requests have been turned down under section 12(7) since 1 July 1999.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-7983 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 15 June 2000, what funding mechanisms will be set in place to enable social landlords in designated areas to offer tenants financial assistance towards the purchase of a house on the open market.
Answer
Local authorities currently have powers under section 66 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988, to offer grants to qualifying tenants of the authority to assist them to purchase a house in the private sector. Where a local authority decides to operate such a scheme it is required to find the resources from within its capital allocation for the year in which payments are to be made.
The Executive is currently considering the precise funding mechanisms that will apply to any cash incentives provided to tenants of social landlords in line with the proposals set out in paragraph 42 of the Consultation Paper Better Homes for Scotland's Communities - The Executive's proposals for the Housing Bill.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-7983 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 15 June 2000, whether housing associations will have to apply to Scottish Homes or the Scottish Executive when seeking exemption from the modernised right to buy for up to 10 years; whether housing associations themselves will be empowered to select the length of time, within the 10-year period for which properties will remain exempt, and whether there will be any facility for the 10-year period to be extended by further application in circumstances where the financial viability of landlords is still felt to be threatened.
Answer
Our proposals as set out in the Consultation Paper, Better Homes for Scotland's Communities: The Executive's Proposals for the Housing Bill envisage that it will be for housing associations themselves to decide, over the 10 year period, if and when to offer their tenants the modernised right to buy and that once a decision to "opt in" had been made, the modernised right to buy would continue to be available for the remainder of the 10 year period. We do not envisage that the exemption period should be extended beyond 10 years.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 13 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-7983 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 15 June 2000, what criteria will be used in deciding which areas should be designated as areas where there are particular difficulties in meeting the demand for socially rented housing.
Answer
In the consultation paper "Better Homes for Scotland's Community - the Executive's proposals for the Housing Bill" which was published on 5 July, we explained that relevent areas would include those where there is a shortage of socially rented housing or limits on new development posed by land, planning and infrastruture constraints. We plan to refine the criteria and related procedures further in the light of advice from the National Steering Group for the Rural Partnership for Change Initiative and the working party which I announced in my speech to Scottish Federation of Housing Associations Annual Conference on 16 June.
