Wayleaves Scotland

[Peter Burke]

I own a flat in a tenement property in Scotland[1].

As is common for this kind of property, multiple properties form a
rectangular block with a service lane in the middle which is lit by
council streetlighting.

My property has been used as an intermediate connection point for
overhead streetlight wiring but this wiring is now interfering with
routine property maintenance.

We need to erect scaffolding to repair the property and find that this
cannot be done without infringing electrical safety guidelines for
workers on the scaffold. Our options are to insulate or re-route the
cables temporarily but the costs of this appear disproportionate to the
work involved.

I would like to explore the option of approaching the council (or
alternatively the supply provider) to see if they obtained permission
from previous owners by means of easement or wayleave to attach their
cables to the property or whether thay have taken a flier and applied
them without permission.

If they have applied the connections without permission or by means of a
cancellable wayleave I would like to explore the possibility of asking
them to remove the offending articles at their cost.

Does anyone have experience of this specific situation, particularly
anyone with knowledge of Scottish councils or power suppliers claiming an
indemnity for making attachments to tenement properties witout
permission.

An interested party has reminded me that there may be precedents with
overhead cable attachments used for city tramways in the past.

Thanks for any replies.

[1] In contrast with England, there is no leasehold/freehold arrangement,
each owner owns their own property plus a share of common parts

--
Peter

[peterwn]

I assume you are correct in saying the council is responsible for the
street lighting. Either the Council or the electricity distribution
company would be responsible for the associated connections.

It would be quite reasonable to ask the Council in the first instance
to make the connections safe for your reasonable repair work either by
relocating, using replacing with all-insulated connections or
covering. If any easement exists, it should provide for just that. If
the Council claims that the distribution company is responsible, then
the company should be approached. They should be quite used to that
sort of request.

It may be, however, that they may only be responsible for the
immediate area of attachment and any lines on your property. If
electricity lines run along the right of way, covering for safety, etc
so your builder can erect scaffold may be at your cost.

[David McNeish]

On Aug 6, 10:24 pm, Peter Burke <pe...@none.invalid> wrote:

> I would like to explore the option of approaching the council (or
> alternatively the supply provider) to see if they obtained permission
> from previous owners by means of easement or wayleave to attach their
> cables to the property or whether thay have taken a flier and applied
> them without permission.

Can't remember the exact piece of legislation, but the council has
statutory power to use adjoining buildings for street lighting
purposes, so there would have been no need to get explicit permission
from the owners. Don't know what the position is for carrying out
works but I presume the council has dealt with this scenario before.

[Peter Burke]

David McNeish <davi...@gmail.com> wrote in news:06f340ec-559c-4ac6-b846-
5ac6c1...@w8g2000vbx.googlegroups.com:

Thanks David, that's just the sort of background info I was looking for.

The council does indeed have a mechanism to deal with the situation but
they want 800quid to get of bed to do anything with it. Third party
operations/insulation are not permitted.

Looks like we may have to lump it.

--
Peter