Technical Notes 2025, Issue 177 - Potential cessation of grounds maintenance by East Dunbartonshire Council on privately owned land

1. The purpose of this Technical Note is to provide an update on the current and potential cessation of grounds maintenance by East Dunbartonshire Council on privately owned land. 

2. As part of the Council 2025/26 budget process officers were instructed to review all assumed private land, which is currently being maintained by the Council’s Streetscene Operations. 

3. The view is that numerous privately owned open spaces are being maintained by the Council with no formal agreement in place with the landowner or residents. Many of these areas are common land within established housing developments. 

4. The open spaces are a mixture of grass, shrub, trees and hardstanding paths which have not been formally adopted by the Council for maintenance purposes. 

5. In some instances, following the creation of East Dunbartonshire Council in 1996, because of the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 and the joining of the former Bearsden and Milngavie district Councils with parts of Strathkelvin District Council, many of the privately owned areas continued to be maintained in the interests of amenity with no formal agreements in place. 

6. In most cases the Council did not act as a formal factor in this regard, and the Council has undertaken maintenance of the amenity areas on a custom and practice basis. 

7. The Council reserves the right to cease to undertake maintenance works either in whole or in part at any time and is not subject to any obligation to continue with the historical grounds maintenance practices or enter new arrangements with the current or any new landowner. 

8. The exercise to identify the owners of the open spaces is ongoing and in some instances the Service has identified an individual owner, a company or established that the residents own the common ground via an equal pro indiviso share (joint ownership).  In the case of any land included within the Sasine Register a formal search will be required through the Land Registry.

9. Once completed, the Service will review information collated and begin the process to cease grounds maintenance at the locations where a definitive owner(s) has been identified. This will include notifying the owner(s) with a notice period to make alternative grounds maintenance arrangements.  

10.    It should be noted that the cessation of works relates to greenspaces only; any relevant roads adoption of footways, carriageway, road drainage, and street lighting network remain under the remit of East Dunbartonshire Council within the housing development. 

11. Separately to the private land review instructed by Council, several of these areas have recently been sold by the historical landowner to a new private owner. This has provided the Council with the opportunity and relevant information to cease grounds maintenance following the sale of the land. On each occasion, the new landowner was notified in writing that the Council would cease grounds maintenance. 

12. On each occasion, a period of notice was served on the new proprietor giving 1 month notification prior to Streetscene Operations ceasing all Council related open space maintenance.  The maintenance of the areas now reverts to the landowner. 

13. As a result of these recent land sales and the cessation of the established grounds maintenance, some residents are contacting the Council directly or via elected members to request that the Council reinstate the previous grounds maintenance regimes. However, this is not something that the Council can do as this would create a precedence that the Council was knowingly willing to maintain privately owned land. 

14. In some instances, residents have accepted that it is no longer the Council’s responsibility to maintain the land but have requested that the Council intervenes or utilises available legislation to force the new owner to maintain the common ground. 

15. Unfortunately, the enforcement powers available to the council are limited in these circumstances. The undernoted lists the legislation that has been considered and an explanation of where and when this can be used.

16. Section 179 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (’97 Act) provides planning authorities with the power to serve a notice on the owner, lessee, or occupier of land within its area, the condition of which it considers to be adversely affecting the amenity of the area. It should be noted that the wording of this section of the '97 Act does not make clear the nature of the condition of the land/building which can be taken to have caused the adverse effects, nor the nature of the adverse effect itself and unlike other enforcement legislation there is no recent detailed guidance on the implementation of this particular section of the '97 Act. Historically the former Scottish Office Development Department's Circular 37/1986 cautions that the intention is that authorities should use this power with discretion to deal with relatively isolated severe cases of neglect. Research of Scottish Minister’s appeal decisions has shown that this is further qualified with the disamenity being clearly viewed from a public location i.e., road/public footpath. 

17. In terms of an example site, although some of the now unmaintained sites now display a more natural countryside appearance that could be considered untidy certainly compared to the previous “manicured” grass residents have been accustomed to, it is the Planning Service’s view that the lack of maintenance does not justify formal action in accordance with section 179 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997.

18. Considering the age of the developments in question, any relevant planning conditions which may have been imposed on relevant planning consent for the original housing developments would also be time barred from any potential enforcement action.

19. With respect to section 91 notification under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, the legislation pertains to safety for pedestrians and vehicles (drivers) and this includes cutting back vegetation to the heel kerb and at lighting columns etc. However, section 91 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 only applies to carriageways and footways and does not apply to internal footpaths across green spaces. 

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21. With respect to Public Health issues, there are two main pieces of legislation, the Environmental Protection Act and Prevention of Damage by Pests Act (keeping land clear of vermin). 

22. It has been noted that concerns have been raised that vermin will reside in areas which provide harbourage from natural predators due to a lack of greenspace maintenance.  Significant rat infestations in open countryside only occur in places where food availability is high. It is always necessary, therefore, to remove all food sources which may be attractive such as garden bird feeders.  Conditions which present a risk to public health will be investigated by East Dunbartonshire Council’s Environmental Health and Pest Control Teams and brought to the attention of the landowner if necessary.

23. The Service will continue to review all assumed private land, which is currently being maintained by the Council’s Streetscene Operations as per the Council 2025/26 budget process. Again, once completed, the Service will review information collated and begin the process to cease grounds maintenance at the locations where a definitive owner(s) has been identified.