The General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act 1862, by section 162, provides that ‘When any house or building, any part of which projects beyond the regular line of the street, or beyond the front of the house or building on either side thereof, has been taken down in order to be altered, or is to be rebuilt, the commissioners may require the same to be set backwards to or towards the line of the street, or the line of the adjoining houses or buildings.’
The magistrates of a burgh resolved in 1877 to widen one of the streets of the burgh to a uniform width of 40 feet. In 1893 the width of the street opposite most of the houses was 40 feet, and in some cases more, but three houses still projected 13 to 15 feet into the street beyond this limit. Upon one of these houses being taken down in order to be rebuilt, the magistrates of the burgh sought to have the proprietor ordained to set the new building back to the 40 feet line.
Held (aff. the judgment of the First Division) that the expression ‘the regular line of street’ had reference, in a street that is built upon, to the line of the buildings, and not to the line contemplated as the future line of the street, and that accordingly the magistrates were not entitled to have the new buildings set back to the 40 feet line.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Herschell) and Lords Watson and Shand
Citations:
[1895] UKHL 94, 33 SLR 94
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Land
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.634059