24Power of local authorities to provide sites for caravans
(1)A local authority shall have power within their area to provide sites where caravans may be brought, whether for holidays or other temporary purposes or for use as permanent residences, and to manage the sites or lease them to some other person.
(2)Subject to the provisions of this section, a local authority shall have power to do anything appearing to them desirable in connection with the provision of such sites, and in particular—
(a)to acquire land which is in use as a caravan site, or which has been laid out as a caravan site, or
(b)to provide for the use of those occupying caravan sites `any services or facilities for their health or convenience ;
and in exercising their powers under this section the local authority shall have regard to any standards which may have been specified by the Minister under subsection (6) of section five of this Act.
(3)The local authority shall make in respect of the use of sites managed by them, and of any services or facilities provided or made available under this section, such reasonable charges as they may determine.
(4)A local authority may make available the services and facilities provided under this section for those who do not normally reside in the area of the local authority as freely as for those who do.
(5)A local authority shall, in the performance of their functions under this section, have power, where it appears to them that a caravan site or an additional caravan site is needed in their area, or that land which is in use as a caravan site should in the interests of the users of caravans be taken over by the local authority, to acquire land, or any interest in land, compulsorily.
(6)The power of a local authority under the last foregoing subsection to acquire land, or any interest in land, compulsorily shall be exercisable in any particular case on their being authorised to do so by the Minister, and the Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) Act, 1946, shall have effect in relation to the acquisition of land, or any interest in land, under the said subsection as if this Act had been in force immediately before the commencement of that Act.
(7)A local authority shall not have power under this section to provide caravans.
(8)In this section the expression " local authority " includes the council of a county and a joint planning board constituted under section four of the Act of 1947 for an area which consists of or includes a National Park as denned by subsection (3) of section five of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, 1949, or any part of such a National Park.
(9)This section extends to the administrative county of London and the expression "local authority" in this section as so extended includes the council of a metropolitan borough.