Section 13 Power to enforce and carry into effect schemes.
Subject to the provisions of this section, the responsible authority may at any time—
remove, pull down or alter, so as to bring into conformity with the provisions of the scheme, any existing building or other existing work which does not conform to those provisions, or the demolition or alteration of which is necessary for carrying the scheme into effect; or
remove, pull down or alter, so as to bring into conformity with the provisions of the scheme, any building or other work, not being an existing building or an existing work, which does not conform to those provisions, or in the erection or carrying out of which any provision of the scheme has not been complied with; or
where any building or land is being used in such a manner as to contravene any provision of the scheme, prohibit it from being so used; or
where any land has since the material date been put to any use which contravenes any provision of the scheme and is not an existing use, reinstate the land; or
execute any work which it is the duty of any person to execute under the scheme in any case where delay in the execution of the work has occurred and the efficient operation of the scheme has been or will be thereby prejudiced.
Before taking any action under this section the responsible authority shall serve a notice in the prescribed manner on the owner and on the occupier of the building or land in respect of which, the action is proposed to be taken and on any other person who, in their opinion, may be affected thereby, specifying the nature of, and the grounds upon which they propose to take, that action.
Where a building or work which the responsible authority propose to remove, pull down or alter under this section is an existing building or an existing work, or where the use of a building or land which they propose to prohibit is an existing use, the authority shall serve the notices for which provision is made by the last preceding subsection not less than six months before they take any action and, in any other case, they shall serve those notices not less than twenty-eight days before they take any action.
If any person served with such a notice as aforesaid desires to dispute any allegation contained therein, he may, by written notice served on the clerk of the court and the authority within twenty-eight days from the date of the service of the original notice on him, appeal to a court of summary jurisdiction for the petty sessional division or place within which the property to which the notice relates is situated, and no action shall be taken by the authority under subsection (1) of this section pending the final determination or withdrawal of the appeal.
If on any such appeal the court of summary jurisdiction are satisfied that the responsible authority are entitled to take the proposed action on the grounds specified in the notice, they shall dismiss the appeal and shall by their order empower the responsible authority, after the expiration of the period aforesaid of six months or twenty-eight days, as the case may be, to remove, pull down, or alter the building or work, or reinstate the land or execute the required work, or, as the case may be, shall by their order prohibit the building or land from being used in contravention of the scheme after the period aforesaid, but, if they are not so satisfied, they shall allow the appeal :
Provided that the court by whom an order is made under this subsection may, if they think fit, direct that the order shall, instead of taking effect after the expiration of the period aforesaid of six months or twenty-eight days, take effect at such later date as they think fit, being a date not more than six months or twenty-eight days, as the case may be, from the date of the order.
Except where the responsible authority remove, pull down or alter a building or work which is an existing building or an existing work, any expenses reasonably incurred by the responsible authority under subsection (1) of this section may be recovered summarily as a civil debt from the person in default:
Provided that, on any proceedings for the recovery of any such expenses, the defendant shall not be entitled to raise by way of defence any matter which might have been raised by him on an appeal under subsection (4) of this section.
A person who uses any building or land in a manner prohibited under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds and to a further penalty not exceeding twenty pounds in respect of each day on which he so uses the building or land after conviction.