This dataset includes data related to the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and the new duties this places on local authorities.
Part 5: Asset Transfer Requests: Provides community bodies with a right to request to purchase, lease, manage or use land and buildings belonging to local authorities. Local authorities are required to create and maintain a register of land which they will make available to the public.
Part 8: Common Good Property: Places a statutory duty on local authorities to establish and maintain a register of all property held by them for the common good. It also requires local authorities to publish their proposals and consult community bodies before disposing of or changing the use of common good assets.
Part 9: Allotments: It requires local authorities to take reasonable steps to provide allotments if waiting lists exceed certain trigger points and strengthens the protection for allotments. Provisions allow allotments to be 250 square metres in size or a different size that is to be agreed between the person requesting an allotment and the local authority. The Act also requires fair rents to be set and allows tenants to sell surplus produce grown on an allotment (other than with a view to making a profit). There is a requirement for local authorities to develop a food growing strategy for their area, including identifying land that may be used as allotment sites and identifying other areas of land that could be used by a community for the cultivation of vegetables, fruit, herbs or flowers.
"UPRN", "address" and "type" are now MANDATORY fields for this dataset. The "type" field should follow the One Scotland Gazetteer (OSG) Classification conventions. See https://bit.ly/2Tm9W6x for more details.
SG have provided useful guidance of what the register should contain and how it should be formatted (pages 21-23). See https://dtascommunityownership.org.uk/sites/default/files/Asset%20Transfer%20RA%20Guidance%20Notes.pdf
