In The Petition of East Renfrewshire Council for An Order Under Section 75, of The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973: SCS 19 Aug 2014

Outer House – A school was situated on common good land. To finance its repair and rehabilitation, the local council sought to sell it to a finance company taking a long lease back, and now sought an order permitting it to do so.
Held: The petition was refused as unnecessary. There was nothing that would constitute a disposal by the petitioners for the purposes of section 75(2). On the contrary, I consider that the petitioners’ proposals are properly to be characterised as appropriation. In essence, all that would change would be that the land would cease permanently to be used by the petitioners for the common good, and would be used by them instead for other purposes, namely the provision of education. In my opinion that could not reasonably be described as anything other than appropriation of inalienable common good land, which appropriation this court has no power to authorise.

Lord Tyre
[2014] ScotCS CSOH – 129
Bailii
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 75
Scotland

Land, Local Government

Updated: 20 December 2021; Ref: scu.535841