Agricultural Land (Removal of Surface Soil) Act 1953

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved


Agricultural Land (Removal of Surface Soil) Act, 1953

(1 & 2 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 10

An Act to make it an offence to remove surface soil from land in certain circumstances; and for purposes connected therewith.

[6th May 1953]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

S-1 Removal of surface soil without planning permission to be an offence against this Act.

1 Removal of surface soil without planning permission to be an offence against this Act.

(1) If—

(a ) a person removes surface soil from agricultural land with a view to the sale of that soil, and

(b ) the removal of that soil constitutes development within the meaning of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947 , and is carried out without the grant of permission required in that behalf under Part III of that Act, and

(c ) the quantity of soil so removed in any period of three months amounts to more than five cubic yards,

he shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to the cutting of peat or to the removal of so much surface soil as it is reasonably necessary to remove in the course of cutting turf.

(3) The reference in subsection (1) of this section to agricultural land shall include a reference to land the use of which for agriculture has been discontinued in consequence of the intention to remove surface soil from that land.

S-2 Punishment of offences against this Act.

2 Punishment of offences against this Act.

(1) A person guilty of an offence against this Act shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds:

Provided that where a person is convicted of an offence against this Act and it is shown to the satisfaction of the court that the offence was substantially a repetition or continuation of an earlier offence by him after he had been convicted of the earlier offence, he shall be liable—

(a ) to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months; or

(b ) to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds for every day on which the earlier offence has been so repeated or continued by him or two hundred pounds (whichever is the greater),

or to both.

(2) Where an offence against this Act which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person purporting to act in any such capacity,...

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