Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Committee

Airdrie-Bathgate Railway and Linked Improvements Bill Committee, 14 Mar 2007

14 Mar 2007 · S2 · Airdrie-Bathgate Railway and Linked Improvements Bill Committee

Item of business

Airdrie-Bathgate Railway and Linked Improvements Bill: Consideration Stage

Purvis, Jeremy LD Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale Watch on SPTV

All of the amendments in this group are concerned with the eventual ownership of public roads and private accesses that are to be built by the authorised undertaker. A number of roads and accesses are required to be built as a consequence of the scheme. The roads will become public roads once completed, with ownership transferred to the roads authority. The private accesses will be transferred to the relevant landowners. In addition to the land on which a road or access is built, there may be small parcels of land alongside the verges and the like, which are termed "associated land". Those will originally have been taken by the authorised undertaker to allow the road or access to be constructed. That associated land will also be transferred. Amendments 4 and 5 include reference to that land, and amendment 48 adds a definition of it to the bill. Section 6 provides for the construction, an initial 12 months' maintenance, and subsequent transfer of ownership of, among other things, new or altered roads. The main amendment to section 6 is amendment 4, which replaces the existing general arbitration scheme that applies if there is any dispute about whether the road has been properly completed. The new arbitration scheme will be triggered by a notice being served by the roads authority, disputing that the road has been completed. That will be referred to an arbiter, whose decision will depend entirely on the facts presented. The arbiter's decision will be final. Consequently, unlike the general arbitration provision allowed for in section 44, there is no need to provide for any appeal to the courts on points of law. Amendment 4 makes clearer provision for establishing the dates of vesting. Amendment 43 makes the necessary change to section 44 to reflect the different approach to arbitration.I turn to private accesses, which, where affected, will be reconstructed by the authorised undertaker as part of the bill works. Once those have been constructed, they will be vested back to the original landowners. Amendments 5 and 7 replace much of section 7 with a new section, which, in general terms, mirrors for private accesses the procedure that I have described for public roads. Out of necessity, section 7 is longer than section 6, as it also covers vesting for secondary rights of access and a definition of whom the road or access vests in, using the term "intended owner". There should be no dispute over who the intended owner is, as it is the person who owned the original road or who originally had rights over it. However, should there be any dispute, it is covered by the new arbitration provisions.Amendment 16 replaces section 9 with a clearer provision setting out the method of recording the rights granted by sections 6 or 7 with the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. The procedure has been agreed with the keeper—indeed, I understand that it was the keeper who initiated amendment 16.The amendments in this group, taken as a whole, will clarify the procedures that are to be followed to transfer ownership of the new roads and accesses, and will improve the protections that are available to those to whom a transfer is proposed.I move amendment 3.