Compulsory Purchase Orders

The Scottish Government has the legal right to acquire land and buildings needed for the Forth Replacement Crossing through special compulsory purchase powers.  These powers allow the Scottish Government to acquire land required not just for the siting of the new bridge but also for associated road and other infrastructure. 

Anyone receiving such an order ought to be aware of their legal rights:

• owners have a right to appeal within specified time limits against a compulsory purchase order.
• If owners lose land and buildings, they still have a right to compensation for their losses.  Who should be compensated, on what basis and by what calculation is usually complex.  In addition to a statutory compensation code, a number of different statutes and reported cases all have implications as to who is entitled to compensation and the value put on that compensation.

We can guide you through the complexities of compensation claims on such issues as the value of the land taken and the depreciation of any remaining land caused by severance, blight and other losses sustained.

We can pursue any issue relating to the compulsory acquisition of your land, or the value of compensation payable direct with the Scottish Government and, if necessary, pursue any issue to the Lands Tribunal for Scotland for a ruling.

We can, through our preferred external consultants, involve local surveyors to negotiate the value of any land affected by the compulsory purchase acquisition so as to ensure adequate compensation is paid.

Finally, we offer a special service to act as legal advisors to those owners who would agree voluntarily to surrender land and buildings to the Scottish Government.

For more information please contact Michael Dewar.