Agriculture (Miscellaneous War Provisions) (No. 2) Act 1940
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1940 c. 50 |
| Year | 1940 |
Agriculture (Miscellaneous War Provisions) (No. 2) Act, 1940.
(3 & 4 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 50.
An Act to make certain amendments in the law relating to agriculture and agricultural land in connection with the present war.
[22nd August 1940]
B E it enacted by the King'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:—
1 Amendments as to drainage of agricultural land.
(1) For subsection (1) of section fifteen of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous War Provisions) Act, 1940 , there shall be substituted the following subsection—
(1) Where a scheme for the field drainage of any agricultural land or for the cleansing or other improvement of ditches on any such land—
(a ) has been submitted by the owner or occupier of the land to the War Agricultural Executive Committee for the county or county borough in which the land is situated; and
(b ) has been approved for the purposes of this section by that Committee;
the Minister may, out of moneys provided by Parliament, make, towards expenditure incurred by any person in carrying out the scheme, grants of such amounts and subject to such conditions as the Treasury may approve.’
(2) Where an improvement of a holding by mole drainage works has been made by a tenant in pursuance of a direction given to him under or by virtue of Defence Regulations, compensation under the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1923 of section fifteen of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous War Provisions) Act, 1940, as to the taking into account of a grant made under that section, notwithstanding that the tenant has not given to the landlord such notice of his intention to execute the improvement as is mentioned in section three of the said Act of 1923, or that the improvement was begun within such a period or at such a time as is mentioned in section eight of that Act.
2 Improvement of grass ways over fen-lands.
(1) Where work for the improvement of a way (not being a highway repairable by the inhabitants at large) over fen-land in an internal drainage district, or for the drainage of such fen-land, has been done under the authority of the Minister in the exercise of powers conferred by Defence Regulations, the following provisions of this section shall have effect as to—
(a ) the recovery from the owners of land, the value of which for agricultural purposes will be increased by the doing of the work, of the expenses reasonably incurred in connection therewith; and
(b ) the maintenance by the internal drainage board of the work done.
(2) A proportion of the said expenses shall be recoverable as a debt due to His Majesty from each such owner as aforesaid on whom a notice in writing requiring payment thereof is served by the Minister within one year from the completion of the work, and shall, without prejudice to any other mode for the recovery thereof, be recoverable by the Minister summarily as a civil debt.
(3) A notice served for the purposes of the last preceding subsection shall specify the sum which the owner on whom it is served is required to pay and the part of the land aforesaid in respect of which he is required to pay it, and that sum shall not exceed either of the following limits, that is to say,—
(a ) the amount by which the value for agricultural purposes of the specified part of the land aforesaid will be increased by the doing of the work;
(b ) the same proportion of the said expenses as the amount aforesaid bears to the amount by which the value for agricultural purposes of all the land aforesaid will be increased by the doing of the work.
(4) Subject to the provisions of the two next succeeding subsections, the sum specified in such a notice shall become recoverable at the expiration of one month from the date of the service thereof.
(5) If an owner on whom such a notice is served claims that none of the land in his ownership will be increased in value for agricultural purposes by the doing of the work, or that the sum specified in the notice exceeds either of the limits mentioned in subsection (3) of this section, he may, by notice in writing served on the Minister at any time within the said month, require his claim to be referred for determination by a single arbitrator appointed by agreement between him and the Minister, or, in default of such agreement, by the President of the Chartered Surveyors' Institution and, if he does so, no sum shall be recoverable from him until his claim has been so determined, and—
(a ) if it is determined that none of the land in his ownership will be increased in value as aforesaid, no part of the said expenses shall be recoverable from him;
(b ) if it is determined that the sum specified exceeds either of the said limits, the sum recoverable from him shall be that sum less such amount as the arbitrator may determine to be requisite in order to bring it within those limits.
(6) An owner on whom a notice for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section is served may, by notice in writing served on the Minister at any time within the said month, or, if he has claimed a reference under the last preceding subsection, at any time within fourteen days from the date on which his claim has been determined, elect to pay any sum recoverable from him under this section, together with interest thereon from the date on which that amount would otherwise have become recoverable from him, by such number of equal annual instalments, not exceeding five, as may be specified in his notice:
Provided that—
(a ) the first instalment shall be payable within one year from the last mentioned date; and
(b ) the rate of interest shall, in default of agreement between the owner and the Minister, be fixed by the Treasury.
(7) Any amount recoverable under the preceding provisions of this section shall be a charge on the land specified in the relevant notice served for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section, and the Minister shall, for the purpose of enforcing the charge, have the same powers and remedies under the Law of Property Act, 1925 , and otherwise as he would have if he were a mortgagee by deed having powers of sale and lease, of accepting surrenders of leases, and of appointing a receiver.
(8) The Minister may, at any time after...
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