 Good morning and welcome to the city of Edinburgh council Portobello Park Bill Committee. Ereol mai agenda item today is completion of consideration stage. As members know a number of amendments by interested parties were suggested for lodging last week, I consider some of those amendments to be inadmissible. Those which I considered admissible were published on the Parliament's website. Comments and published amendments were received and circulated to members on Friday and also published on the Parliament's website. None of the amendments suggested to members last week has been formed has been formally lodged by a member of the committee. Our task today is therefore to consider the one amendment that has been formally lodged by a member of this committee, amendment 1, in the name of Alison McInnes. In addition, we are required to formally agree to each provision of the bill at the appropriate point. Only members of the committee are permitted to participate in today's proceedings. Members should have with them the bill and the marshaled list as there is only one amendment, there are no groupings. The procedure will be that I will call Alison McInnes to move amendment 1 and speak to it. I will then invite other members of the committee to contribute if they wish, before asking Alison McInnes to wind up and indicate whether she is pressing or withdrawing the amendment. The amendment may only be withdrawn with the unanimous agreement of this committee. If the amendment is not withdrawn, I will put the question on the amendment. If we are not agreed, I will call a division, which will be conducted by a show of hands. If the result of such a division is a tie, I, as convener, will then exercise a casting vote. Moving to the bill, the first question is that sections 1 and 2 be agreed. Are we all agreed? I now call amendment 1, in the name of Alison McInnes, to move and speak to amendment 1. Thank you very much, convener. In its preliminary stage report, the committee agreed to address concerns that the site might be used for another purpose other than the proposed educational function should that purpose for any reason fail. We agreed to address those concerns by way of an amendment to the relevant section of the bill. By way of background in response to the committee's decision, the promoter put forward the terms of a proposed amendment which the promoter felt would meet the committee's concerns and should put beyond doubt that the inalienable common good status of the park would be preserved in circumstances where it was no longer to be used for an educational purpose. In order to ensure that the promoter's amendment was sufficiently tight to deal with the committee's concerns, an independent drafter was invited to consider the promoter's proposed draft amendment. If the view was that the draft did not achieve its proposed aim to provide an alternative, it was subsequently advised that an alternative amendment could provide tighter safeguards and the alternative amendment is the one that is lodged in my name. As we are all now well aware, the legislative background to the dilemma relating to the powers of local authorities to deal with common good land relates to the local government Scotland Act 1973. Of relevance to the bill are sections 73 and 75. Section 73 confers powers on a local authority to appropriate land for the purpose of any of its functions which is vested in them for a different function. Section 75 qualifies this in relation to common good land belonging to a local authority. Sorry, qualifies this in relation to common good land by providing, at section 75, one that the power of appropriation of land belonging to a local authority applies to common good land with respect to which no question arises as to the right of the authority to alienate. The implication of this is that where common good land is inalienable, the power under section 73 does not apply and therefore it is not possible to appropriate it from one use recreation to another use education. Section 75, 2 and 3 provide a means whereby a local authority may apply to the court of session or to the sheriff court for authority to dispose of common good land which is inalienable. However, sections 75, 2 and 3 do not apply where a local authority wishes to appropriate the inalienable land for a different function. With apparently no other feasible mechanism for the City of Edinburgh council to address this legal anomaly is sought legal authority from the Parliament for the appropriation of the park for educational purposes. Section 1 of the bill will allow the promoter to appropriate the park for educational purposes. It does this by stating that the park is no longer to be treated as an inalienable common good land for all purposes. To the extent that the promoter wishes to appropriate the park for its purposes as an education authority, specifically its duty to provide sufficient school accommodation, the park is to be treated as capable of being so alienated. Reading this provision alongside the 1973 act, the permission to alienate for education purposes permits the council to use section 73 and 75 of the 1973 act to appropriate it for that purpose. Section 2 of the bill provides that the existing title conditions cannot prevent the council from using powers under the 1973 act in respect of the park. So the title conditions may not be enforced to the extent that this would prevent the council from exercising those statutory functions. So the purpose of my amendment is as follows. The committee is keen to ensure that having changed the status of the park for the limited purposes in question, should that use cease, then the inalienable common good status would reapply automatically. The purpose of this amendment, therefore, is to provide safeguards for any future use of the land and to protect its inalienable common good status in circumstances where the land is no longer used for educational purposes. The amendment is designed to ensure that if the park is appropriated in terms of the bill and if it then ceases to be used for educational purposes, it reverts in terms of the bill to its legal status and subject to the title restrictions on its use at the time of the cessation of use. The amendment also allows for the situation where the appropriation may occur, but the park is not in practice used for educational purposes for whatever reason. In such case, if the park is not used for educational purposes within a period of 10 years, for example if school accommodation was not provided, then the legal and title restrictions will apply to the park once again at the expiry of that period. In either situation, the legal and title restrictions will reapply to the use of the park, ensuring that it is either being used for educational purposes or for recreational use and cannot be appropriated for other kinds of functions. The general law relating to regulation and disposal of common good land, including inalienable common good land, remains unchanged and I move the amendment in my name. Thank you, Alison. Do the other members wish to make comment at this stage? Alison, would you like to wind up? I do not think that I need to wind up. I am being fairly comprehensive on what I think I am trying to do here with this amendment and therefore we will press the amendment. The question is that amendment 1 be agreed to or will agreed. The question is that sections 3 to 5 be agreed to or will agreed. The question is that the long title be agreed to or will agreed. That ends consideration stage of the bill. The Parliament agreed yesterday that the final stage will be on Thursday 26 June. The deadline for lodging final stage amendments will therefore be 4.30pm on Monday 23 June. Any member of the Parliament may lodge amendments for final stage. The as amended print of the bill will be available on the Parliament's website by tomorrow morning. It is for me as convener of the private bill committee to lodge the most unnecessary for the Parliament to decide whether the bill be passed. Are members content for me to lodge a motion proposing that the bill be passed? Thank you. That concludes today's meeting.