Municipal Corporations Act 1882

144 Power for council to make borough rate and assess contribution thereto.

(1) If the borough fund is insufficient for the purposes to which it is applicable under this Act or otherwise by law, the council shall from time to time estimate, as correctly as may be, what amount, in addition to the borough fund, will be sufficient for those purposes.

(2) In order to raise that amount, the council shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, from time to time order a rate, called a borough rate, to be made in the borough.

(3) A borough rate may be made retrospectively, in order to raise money for the payment of charges and expenses incurred, or which have come in course of payment, at any time within six months before the making of the rate.

(4) The council shall assess the contributions to the borough rate on the several parishes and parts of parishes in the borough in proportion to the total annual value of the hereditaments in each parish or part which are rateable to the poor, or in respect of which a contribution is made to the poor rate.

(5) That value shall be estimated according to the valuation list (if any) in force for the time being, and if there is none, according to the last poor rate.

(6) But if for any reason the council think that the valuation list or poor rate is not a fair criterion of value they may cause an independent valuation to be made.

(7) For the purpose of assessing a borough rate, or for the purpose of an independent valuation, the council from time to time may cause any of the books of assessment of any rates or taxes, parliamentary or parochial, on any property, and the valuation by which the assessment is made, in the hands of the overseers, to be brought before them, and may take copies thereof or extracts therefrom, or may direct any person to take copies of or extracts from such books being in his hands, without having the same brought before the council, or may call before them any overseer to give evidence respecting the same; and may cause copies of the total amount assessed in each parish in respect of any tax payable to the Crown, and the total amount of the valuation of the property on which that assessment was made in any past year, to be made out by the clerk to the commissioners of each district.

(8) The overseers and such persons as they select, by warrant of the council, signed by the mayor and sealed with the corporate seal, may enter on, view, and examine any land chargeable to the borough rate, in order to ascertain the annual value at which it ought to be charged ; but no such entry shall in any case be made unless fourteen days previous notice in writing, signed by the mayor and sealed with the corporate seal, of the intention to make the entry, has been given to the overseers and to the persons on whose land the entry is to be made.

(9) If on any occasion the overseers of a parish think that their parish is aggrieved by a borough rate, on account of the proportions assessed as the contributions of the respective parishes being unequal, or on account of some parish being without sufficient cause omitted, or on account of any other just cause of complaint, they may appeal to the recorder at the next quarter sessions for the borough, or if there is none, to the next quarter sessions for the county wherein the borough is situate, or whereto it is adjacent, against such part of the rate only as affects their parish.

(10) The recorder or quarter sessions shall hear and finally determine the appeal, and either confirm such parts of the rate as are appealed against, or correct any inequalities, disproportions, or omissions proved to exist therein, as to him or them appears just.

(11) The expenses of the appeal shall be paid by such parishes or persons and in such proportions as the recorder or court having cognisance of the appeal directs.

(12) If any person having custody of any book for which the council call under this section, fails to produce it to the council or to permit any copy thereof or extract therefrom to be made or taken, or to give such evidence as the council require, he shall, on summary conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

(13) If any clerk to the commissioners of a district fails to make any copy, which he is required to make under this section, within a reasonable time after his receipt of the order to make it, he shall, on summary conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.