ANCIENT Scottish property records will make it almost impossible to find out who owns land on the banks of the River Clyde in Scotland’s biggest city, a leading academic has warned.
Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken told the Sunday Herald last month she had ordered officials to “map” the area in a bid to regenerate the waterway and turn Glasgow into a major European destination for tourists.
Aitken admitted it is not known who owns some tracts of vacant land by the river, which may have been bought up by investors, but her investigation aims to start a process which could see the council leader begin talks with land owners and regenerate the Clyde.
Dr Jill Robbie, a lecturer in Private Law at the University of Glasgow and a specialist in private water rights, described Aitken’s ambitious plan as “complex project to undertake” due to the antiquated system of land registration in Scotland.
Robbie said: “There are two property registers in operation in Scotland. The first, the General Register of Sasines, was established in 1617 and is therefore celebrating its 400th anniversary this year. The GRS is just a collection of copies of deeds affecting land, searched by use of an index system, and is near to impossible to use without the help of a qualified lawyer.
“The GRS is in the process of being replaced by the Land Register. This second register was introduced in 1981, is based on the Ordnance Survey map and is significantly more user-friendly. Yet, only around 30 per cent of Scotland’s land mass is digitally mapped on this new register.
“If the majority of private properties next to the Clyde are still in the GRS, this explains the complexities of Aitken’s project. Indeed, it may not be easy to determine exactly what Glasgow City Council itself owns along the Clyde.”
In 2014 the council revealed only five per cent of more than 20,000 titles it holds are on the Land Register. It said many of its GRS titles are “old, have no plans and only poor descriptions”.
Robbie, who is currently researching reform of private water rights in Scots Law, said: “Years of complex property transactions make it difficult to determine exactly what remains in the council’s hands. Due to inadequacies of the GRS, in May 2014, the Scottish Ministers asked the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland to complete the Land Register by 2024 and to register all public land by 2019.
"Much work has been done to reach these goals. However, these are incredibly ambitious targets which are unlikely to be reached within the deadlines.”
Robbie has also said determining ownership of land next to the River Clyde is “only one factor of many” in the development process and warned that hundreds of properties could be at risk from flooding.
She said: “Waterfront areas bring benefits due to their close proximity to the natural aquatic environment, but this is matched by the disadvantages of being an inevitably low-lying area vulnerable to flooding.”
In 2015 the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency studied the areas in Scotland which are potentially vulnerable to flooding.
Robbie said: “In a four-kilometre square area of Glasgow city centre, Sepa estimated 420 residential properties and 460 non-residential properties are at risk of flooding from both coastal and surface water with annual average damages of £550,000.
“Within this area, it is predicted climate change will increase the number of residential properties at risk to 680 and the number of non-residential properties to 830. Sepa set an objective to reduce the risk of coastal flooding to non-residential properties in the Exhibition Centre Quarter and there are significant actions being taken by Scottish Water, Sepa and Glasgow City Council to manage and reduce the risk of flooding generally in the region.
“Nevertheless, everyone is responsible for protecting themselves and their property. With the potentially devastating future consequences related to water and climate change the risks and responsibilities facing landowners, both public and private, next to rivers will become ever more important.
“Carefully considering the multi-dimensional nature of water, both its advantages and disadvantages, is necessary to ensure that projects, like the River Clyde redevelopment, work with the water, not against it, to provide a broad range of social, economic and environmental benefits to Scotland.”
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “We continue to work with our partners to continue the regeneration of the Clyde, and look forward to a number of key projects on or close to the river being delivered over the next few years that will progress the transformation of the waterfront.
“We are well aware of the opportunities and issues that the regeneration of one of the city’s key economic, environmental and social assets presents.”
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