Lord President —The question in this case is whether a judgment of the Dean of Guild of Glasgow, by which he fixed the width of Springburn Road, Glasgow, ex adverso of property belonging to the appellant at 60 feet, and defined the centre of that road to be along a red ink line marked upon a plan produced, is right.
The proceedings originated in a petition by the appellant, lodged in the Dean of Guild Court on 22nd March 1904, for authority to erect certain buildings on the property belonging to him fronting Springburn Road. Upon this petition the Dean of Guild, on 31st March 1904, pronounced an interlocutor by which he, ante omnia , remitted to the Master of Works to hear parties, and thereafter to fix the width and define the position of the centre of Springburn Road ex adverso of the petitioner's property specified in the petition, all in terms of section 20 of the Glasgow Building Regulations Act 1900.
By that section it is declared that the Dean of Guild shall not, without the consent of the corporation, grant decree for the erection or re-erection of any building upon ground adjoining any street unless on the condition that one-half of the width of such street, measuring such half from the centre of such street towards such ground, shall be cleared of all structures, if any, existing thereon, and shall, subject to the provisions of the Police Acts, be wholly dedicated to the public for street purposes, and that this condition shall be presumed to be made by the Dean of Guild in every decree granted by him.
It is further declared by section 20 that for the purposes of it the width of a public street shall be the width set forth in the register, where such width is entered therein, and that the width of any public street of which the dimensions are not set forth in the register, and of any private street of which the dimensions are not specified or shown as thereinbefore mentioned, shall be fixed by the Master of Works. The section further provides that the position of the centre of any such street shall be defined by the Master of Works with reference to any application which may be made to the Dean of Guild for a lining to erect or re-erect any such building as therein mentioned.
On 19th April 1904 the Master of Works, in execution of the remit thus made to him, reported to the Court that having heard parties, and having due regard to (1) the history and character of Springburn Road, which was a turnpike road, and was also a public street of the city; (2) the provisions of the Glasgow Police Act 1866, sec. 366, and the Glasgow Building Regulations Act 1900, sec. 20; and (3) the width of the street where tenements or permanent buildings had already been erected, he fixed the width of Springburn Road at the place in question at 60 feet, and on a plan prepared by him as relative thereto he defined the position of the centre of the street by marking thereon a red line on which there are marked the words “centre line of road” that line being situated midway between the old walls on each side of the road. The appellant alleges that the width of the road at the place in question was previously only forty feet.
The appellant, deeming himself aggrieved by the determination of the Master of Works, appealed to the Dean of Guild against it, and craved to be heard in support of his appeal. In particular he maintained that the purposes of section 20 of the Glasgow Building Regulations Act 1900, viz., that the streets should be cleared of structures, and dedicated to street purposes, having been fulfilled, he (the appellant) did not desire to propose any interference with it, except the temporary interference incident to his building, and proposed that his building line should be 30 feet from the centre of the street in terms of section 366 of the Glasgow Police Act of 1866, which declares that the Dean of Guild shall not grant a warrant to erect any building except a stone wall not exceeding six feet in height within twenty feet of the centre of any portion of a statute-labour road within the city, or within thirty
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On 9th June 1904 the Dean of Guild, having considered the pleadings, documents, and plans lodged, refused the appeal and sustained the determination of the Master of Works contained in the report and plan mentioned, fixed the width of Springburn Road at the part in question at 60 feet, and defined the centre of the road to be along the red ink line marked on the plan.
In a note to his interlocutor the Dean of Guild says that the building of the appellant's proposed tenements was not placed on the line of an old boundary wall mentioned in the pleadings but ten feet further back, and this was done to meet the requirements of the Glasgow Police Act of 1866, section 366, which declares that the Dean shall not grant a warrant to erect any building within 30 feet of the centre of any portion of a turnpike road within the city, that this keeping back of the building line left a strip of ground of ten feet between the old boundary wall and the new building line, and that the dispute between the parties was ultimately limited to this strip of ten feet; that the Master of Works having fixed the width at sixty feet, his determination was brought under review of the Dean of Guild under section 21 of the Act of 1900, and that he (the Dean), in accordance with the determination which he had made in a previous case, decided that the Master of Works was right.
I am of opinion that the conclusion thus arrived at by the Dean of Guild is correct. I concur with him in thinking that, keeping in view the terms of section 21 of the Act of 1900, the Master of Works was entitled and bound to apply his mind to the whole circumstances of the case, and to fix what he, in view of these, considered to be the proper width. I also concur with the Dean of Guild in thinking that for the reasons assigned by the Master of Works he rightly determined the width of the road in question at sixty feet, and accordingly that his decision to that effect should be upheld.
Lord Adam concurred.
Lord M'Laren —I am of the same opinion. This case and the one which follows it raise the same question though in different forms; it is a question on the construction of the Glasgow Buildings Act.
Now, the effect of this Act seems to be, first, that the local authorities when a new building is proposed to be put up may fix the width of the street to be anything they please, and may then make it a condition of the building order that nothing shall be erected on the space which has been thrown into the street for the purpose of increasing its width. I confess I see nothing in this legislation that calls for special construction. The provision of the Act of Parliament is perfectly plain that the Master of Works (who, as I consider, is merely a servant of the Corporation) is to provisionally fix, subject, of course, to the review of the Dean of Guild, the width of the street. That cannot mean merely measuring the existing street; it must mean determining what is to be for future and practical puroses the width of the projected street. It as been represented to us that this is a hardship on proprietors, but after all the Corporation is only doing for the proprietor whose property adjoins the street what every sensible proprietor who lays out his
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Lord Kinnear concurred.
The Court dismissed the appeal.
Counsel for the Petitioner and Appellant— Campbell, K.C.— T. B. Morison. Agents— Webster, Will, & Co., S.S.C.
Counsel for the Respondent— Lees, K.C.— Craigie. Agents— Campbell & Smith, S.S.C.