TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT.

(a) "building" means any building, erection or any other structure erected on or made on, in or under any lands and includes the land on, in or under which the building is situate;

(b) "building operations" includes any building or erectional operations and the making of access roads, railways, waterworks, electrical installations and any roadworks preliminary or incidental to the erection of buildings;

(d) "detailed scheme" means a scheme prepared under section 15;

(e) "development" in relation to any land includes any building or rebuilding operations and any use of the land, whether on, under or over it, or any building on the land for a purpose which is different from the purpose for which the land or building was last being used;

(f) "existing building" means a building erected or constructed before the date of the order declaring a planning area under section 5;

(g) "fence" includes any hoarding or paling used as such, and also banks and walls;

(h) "hedge" includes any tree or stump forming part of a hedge;

(i) "land" includes land covered with water and also includes incorporeal as well as corporeal hereditaments of every tenure or description, and any interest in them, and also an undivided share of land;

(j) "local authority" means—

(i) in the case of a municipality, the municipal council;

(ii) in the case of a town, the town council;

(iii) in the case of a rural area, an administration established under the Local Governments Act;

(k) "outline scheme" means a scheme prepared under section 10;

(l) "owner" includes joint owner, lessee, tenant for life, and any other person in the actual possession of premises or entitled to receive the rents of premises of any tenure or description and the agent or attorney of such persons or any of them, and any other person who has an interest in or draws the rents. For the purposes of this definition, "premises" includes any land or building;

(m) "road" means any road whether public or private together with its curbs, storm water drains and supporting banks and includes any street, square, court, alley, lane, bridge, footway, trace, track, path, passage or highway, whether a thoroughfare or not;

(n) "rural area" means any area not within a municipality or a town;

(o) "scheme" means a scheme made under this Act;

(p) "site" in relation to any buildings includes offices, outbuildings, yards, courts or gardens occupied or intended to be occupied with the buildings.

(2) For the purposes of this Act, the placing or keeping on any land of any shed, tent, caravan or other object whether fixed or movable or collapsible, which is not a building, shall be deemed to be a use of that land.

2. Establishment of the board.

(1) There shall be established a board which shall be known as the Town and Country Planning Board, hereafter referred to as the board, and shall consist of nine members appointed by the Minister of whom four shall normally be persons not employed in the public service.

(2) The Minister shall appoint the president of the board from among the members.

(3) The board shall be a body corporate and shall have perpetual succession and a common seal which shall be officially and judicially noticed, and the seal shall be authenticated by the signature of the president, or the member appointed under section 3 to preside.

(4) The board may sue and be sued in its corporate name.

3. Quorum.

All acts whatsoever authorised or required by this Act to be done by the board, and all questions that may come before the board, shall be done and decided by the majority of votes; but the board shall not be competent to act in any case unless there is present at and throughout the meeting four members at least, of whom one shall be either the president or, in the absence of the president, one of the members present elected by the other members present to preside.

4. Casting vote.

The president or member presiding shall have an original vote in common with the other members, and also a casting vote if upon any question the votes shall be equal.

PART II
DECLARATION OF PLANNING AREAS.

5. Declaration of planning areas.

(1) The areas of the towns set out in the First Schedule to this Act are declared to be planning areas, and this Act shall apply to those areas in all respects as if the areas had been declared to be planning areas under subsection (2).

(2) If in respect of any area being, or being within, a municipality or a town, the board, upon representation made by or after consultation with the local authority concerned, is of the opinion that an outline scheme should be made in respect of that area and makes recommendations to that effect to the Minister, submitting with its recommendations a plan of the area, the Minister may by statutory order declare the area to be a planning area.

(3) If in respect of any rural area or any area partly within and partly without any municipality or town the board, upon representations made by or after consultation with every local authority concerned, is of the opinion that an outline scheme should be made in respect of that area and makes recommendations to that effect to the Minister submitting with its recommendations a plan of the area, the Minister may by statutory order declare the area to be a planning area; but the Minister may—

(a) modify the area recommended by the board by adding to it or omitting from it any portion or portions of land; and

(b) if the area or any part of it is an area which an administration is empowered by any law to plan, suspend the operation of the order in respect of the area which the administration is empowered to plan for a period to be stated in the order to give an opportunity to the administration to exercise its planning powers in relation to that area.

(4) When the Minister has suspended an order declaring a planning area under subsection (3)(b), then—

(a) if the administration concerned shall within the period of suspension prepare and bring into operation a planning scheme approved by the Minister, the order made under subsection (3) in respect of that area shall lapse;

(b) if the administration concerned fails within the relevant period to prepare and bring into operation a scheme approved by the Minister, then the order shall at the end of the period of suspension be of full force and effect.

(5) Any order made under this section shall come into operation upon the day of its publication in the Gazette and shall cease to have effect if within three years from that date no outline scheme in respect of the planning area or any part of it has been approved under section 13.

(6) A copy of every order made under this section shall be published in the Gazette and be posted at such places within the planning area as the board shall direct.

(7) When an area has been declared a planning area under this section, the value of any building or land in that area shall, for the purposes of determining the amount of compensation payable under this Act, be deemed to be the value of the building or land on the day 12 months immediately prior to the declaration together with the value of any improvements and alterations carried out during those 12 months and subsequently approved by the board.

(8) Where a planning area has been declared under this section in any municipality or town, and the boundaries of the municipality or town are subsequently varied, the Minister may by statutory order vary the boundaries of the planning area so as to conform with the varied boundaries of that municipality or town.

6. Powers of a local authority after declaration of an area.

(1) In any area—

(a) which is a planning area within the meaning of this Act; and

(b) in respect of which no outline scheme is in force,

no person shall erect any building or carry out any development of land without the permission of the committee.

(2) Any person aggrieved by a decision of any committee under subsection (1) may appeal to the board.

7. Power of the board after declaration of an area.

(1) When an order declaring a planning area has been published under section 5, the board may, if it comes to its notice that any building or development in the area has been allowed, which appears to it to be contrary to the provisions of any scheme that is being prepared, direct the local authority or any other person who has given a permit for the erection of the building or for the development to cancel the permit.

(2) Any person who has been granted a permit to erect any building or proceed with any development whose permit is cancelled under subsection (1) shall be entitled to such compensation as the board shall think fit to grant.

(3) An appeal shall lie from any award made by the board under subsection (2) which shall be determined under section 21.

8. Power of the board to delegate authority.

The board may delegate to the committee appointed under section 9 or to any other person, subject to the approval of the Minister, all or any of the powers and duties conferred upon it by this Act, and in so doing may impose upon the committee or upon that person such conditions, exceptions and qualifications in the exercise of any powers so delegated as

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