| Administrative History | Special districts were bodies set up to enable adoption of certain public health powers, namely water supply, drainage, lighting and scavenging.
Special districts for drainage and water supply were allowed under the 1867 Public Health (Scotland) Act, though few in Kincardineshire were established before the setting up of County Councils in 1890. The Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889, Section 81 (1), allowed that:
"Where a special drainage district or special water supply district has been formed in any parish under the Public Health Acts, the district committee may … appoint a subcommittee for the management and maintenance of the drainage and water supply works, and such subcommittee shall in part consist of persons, whether members of the committee or not, who are resident within the special drainage or special water supply district."
The Medical Officer of Health and the Sanitary Officer for the county reported on the necessity for Special Districts and their continued function, but final decisions for capital spending and formation of Special Districts were taken by the full council. However, in many cases scavenging, drainage, or water supply for a particular area was dealt with by the Local Committee without any Special District being established, and by comparison with some of its neighbours, the actual number of Special Districts in Kincardineshire was very small.
In 1894 the Government intended to amend the Local Government (Scotland) Act in regard (among other things) to lighting and cleaning. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 allowed for the provision of public baths, and for special lighting and scavenging districts to be set up. Lighting districts could take over private lights already established in a district and regulate their lighting times: scavenging districts dealt with street sweeping, public conveniences, collection of refuse and cleaning of ashpits in the area. In Kincardineshire, Special Lighting Districts were managed by Local Committees on behalf of District Committees until 1930, and thereafter were managed by the District Councils.
The 1894 Act also allowed local ratepayers to requisition their own facilities, though they still had to be approved by the County Council:
Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1894, Section 44 (1)
It shall be lawful in a county for a parish council or for any two or more parish councils … to make a requisition in writing to the district committee of the county council … calling upon them to form such parish or parishes … into a special district for the following purposes:
a) the lighting of the special district … and the adoption for such purpose … of the provisions contained in sections 99 - 105 inclusive of the Burgh Police (S) Act, 1892
b) the scavenging … in such special district, and the adoption for such purposes … of the provisions contained in sections 107 - 127, and 153 - 155 inclusive of the Burgh Police (S) Act, 1892
c) the provision and maintenance of public baths, wash-houses and drying grounds … in such special district, and the adoption for such purposes … of the provisions contained in sections 309 - 314 inclusive of the Burgh Police (S) Act, 1892.
District Councils, or their predecessors the District Committees, could also recommend the setting up or the extension of a Special District, as could Sanitary Inspectors or Medical Officers of Health. Only the County Council, however, had powers to set them up, extend them, or approve expenditure on capital schemes.
Special districts could adopt further parts of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 under the 1908 Local Government (Scotland) Act, including naming streets and numbering houses in their area. Some special water supply districts also took on some responsibility for fire-fighting. The public health measures adopted were funded by a special district rate imposed by the county council, but levied only in the special district. County councils were responsible for the formation, alteration of boundaries, appointment of a management committee, and dissolution of special districts. However, county councils could appoint district committees or councils to oversee management of the special districts within their area, and in Kincardineshire the management was delegated still further. Local committees for Public Health had overseen all special district functions in Kincardineshire since 1890, but for a short time, 1930 - 1932, District Councils took over supervision of lighting from the Local Committees in the county. Other functions were more centralised than in other counties: the County Council took the decision in 1940 to install fire hydrants and related equipment in the Special Water Supply Districts of the county. The Rural Water Supplies and Sewerage Act, 1944, allowed for regional water supply schemes to be set up, and in 1946 two were set up in Kincardineshire, one based at Loch Lee and the other in Kincorth. Drainage schemes in various areas were also given government grants under the Act.
Management of the huge number of special districts and the burial grounds became unwieldy, and was eventually simplified (at different times in different districts, and in some districts never) by appointing a sub-committee of management for special district areas. These committees wielded the powers awarded to the local water, scavenging, lighting and drainage districts as well as administering the burial grounds. The few management committee records which have survived all cease in summer 1948, and there is little evidence for their existence at all in Kincardineshire.
Following the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947, Kincardine County Council resolved to appoint "Area Officers" with a wide remit over education, registration, burial grounds, rates and rent collection, national assistance and special districts. District Council clerks then had these duties removed. Also under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1947, special districts could be amalgamated. Kincardineshire set up a new county refuse collection scheme, under which several new districts were set up. Unusually, it also covered the burgh of Inverbervie: burghs usually dealt with special district functions independently.
A centralised water supply scheme for Angus and Kincardine had been mooted as early as 1936. However, the subject of water was also being considered nationally. Under the Water (Scotland) Act of 1949, all Special Water Supply Districts were dissolved with effect from 16 May 1949, and the County Council began to levy a domestic water rate centrally to help pay for a county supply.
Some centralisation took place within the county: the northern parishes were formed into a larger Deeside Scavenging District in 1959, and in 1961 this was dissolved to form an even larger county-wide service, which still did not include all the old Special Scavenging Districts. The County Council purchased a 'Karrier' refuse vehicle to cover the wider area, and the new service was in place from 16 May 1961. Though Special Lighting Districts remained independent, a mobile tower ladder was also purchased by the County Council in 1970 at a cost of £2,200 to enable each district to maintain its lamps safely. Drainage, scavenging, and lighting, however, remained localised in Kincardineshire, apparently up to the abolition of County Councils under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1974 (though from around 1952, Special Drainage Districts became known as Special Sewerage and Sewage Disposal Districts). |