Community empowerment and common good property: consultation on draft guidance

Chapter 1 - Common Good registers

1. Section 102 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 requires local authorities to develop and publish Common Good registers. Before publishing the final version of the register, each local authority must publish a list of property which it proposes to include on its Common Good register and consult on this list.

Publication

2. Local authorities should aim to be consistent in how and where they publish both the initial list of common good property and the final Common Good register. So, in common with the requirements for publishing the final register ( Chapter 4), the public should be able to inspect the list of Common Good property free of charge and access it electronically, ideally on the local authority's own website.

3. Local authorities must be ready to make the list of property available in alternative languages and formats, if requested, to meet equality requirements. They may also wish to produce paper copies of the list if they think this will be more accessible to the groups they are looking to reach. Other alternatives could be, for example, to enable people to view the list on a computer at a public enquiry office, or send out printed extracts in response to telephone enquiries.

QUESTION 1: If applicable, where or how else should this information be published as a minimum requirement? Why is this needed in addition?

Length of consultation

4. The list of Common Good property should be made publicly available for comment for at least eight weeks.

QUESTION 2: What are your views on the timescale of eight weeks for people to comment on the list of common good property?

Information about property

5. The list of Common Good property should include enough detail about each item to enable members of the public to identify and locate individual assets. As a minimum this should be: the name of the asset, a brief description of what the asset is, the location of the asset, the name of the burgh to which the asset formerly belonged and any additional information about the asset which may be of use to a reader (see Annex A for more information).

6. There is no requirement on local authorities to make checks or confirm title before including property and assets on the list. This is because it is recognised that the ownership and boundaries of land and property are sometimes unclear, especially where records are old and land has changed hands by statutory powers or reorganisation of public bodies.

QUESTION 3: What, if any, further information about common good property should be provided?