Development and Road Improvement Funds Act 1909
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1909 c. 47 |
| Year | 1909 |
Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909.
(9 Edw. 7.) CHAPTER 47.
An Act to promote the Economic Development of the United Kingdom and the Improvement of Roads therein.
[3rd December 1909]
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:
Part I.
Development.
1 Power to make advances for certain purposes.
(1) The Treasury may, upon the recommendation of the Development Commissioners appointed under this Act, make advances to a Government department, or through a Government department to a public authority, university, college, school, or institution, or an association of persons or company not trading for profit, either by way of grant or by way of loan, or partly in one way and partly in the other, and upon such terms and subject to such conditions as they may think fit, for any of the following purposes:—
(a ) Aiding and developing agriculture and rural industries by promoting scientific research, instruction and experiments in the science, methods and practice of agriculture (including the provision of farm-institutes), the organisation of co-operation, instruction in marketing produce, and the extension of the provision of small holdings; and by the adoption of any other means which appear calculated to develop agriculture and rural industries;
(b ) Forestry (including (1) the conducting of inquiries, experiments, and research for the purpose of promoting forestry and the teaching of methods of afforestation; (2) the purchase and planting of land found after inquiry to be suitable for afforestation);
(c ) The reclamation and drainage of land;
(d ) The general improvement of rural transport (including the making of light railways but not including the construction or improvement of roads);
(e ) The construction and improvement of harbours;
(f ) The construction and improvement of inland navigations;
(g ) The development and improvement of fisheries;
and for any other purpose calculated to promote the economic development of the United Kingdom.
(2) All applications for advances under this Part of this Act shall be made to the Treasury in accordance with regulations made by the Treasury.
(3) No advance shall be made for any purpose which might be carried out under the provisions of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act, 1908 , upon any terms or conditions different from those contained in that statute except for some special reason which shall be stated in the annual report of the Development Commissioners.
2 Establishment of development fund.
(1) All advances, whether by way of grant or by way of loan, made under this Part of this Act shall be made out of a fund, called the development fund, into which shall be paid—
(a ) Such moneys as may from time to time be provided by Parliament for the purposes of this Part of this Act;
(b ) The sums issued out of the Consolidated Fund under this section; and
(c ) Any sums received by the Treasury by way of interest on or repayment of any advance made by way of loan under this Part of this Act, and any profits or proceeds derived from the expenditure of any advance which by the terms on which the advance was made are to be paid to the Treasury.
(2) There shall be charged on and issued out of the Consolidated Fund, or the growing produce thereof, in the year ending the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred and eleven, and in each of the next succeeding four years, the sum of five hundred thousand pounds.
(3) The Treasury may accept any gifts made to them for all or any of the purposes for which advances may be made under this Part of this Act and, subject to the terms of gift, apply them for the purposes of this Part of this Act in accordance with regulations made by the Treasury.
(4) The Treasury shall cause an account to be prepared and transmitted to the Comptroller and Auditor-General for examination, on or before the thirtieth day of September in every year, showing the receipts into and issues out of the development fund in the financial year ended on the thirty-first day of March preceding, and the Comptroller and Auditor-General shall certify and report upon the same, and such account and report shall be laid before Parliament by the Treasury on or before the thirty-first day of January in the following year if Parliament be then sitting, and, if not sitting, then within one week after Parliament shall be next assembled.
(5) Payments out of and into the development fund, and all other matters relating to the fund and the moneys standing to the credit of the fund, shall be made and regulated in such manner as the Treasury may by minute to be laid before Parliament direct.
(6) The Treasury may from time to time invest any moneys standing to the credit of the development fund in any securities in which trustees are by law authorised to invest trust funds.
3 Constitution of Development Commissioners.
(1) For the purposes of this Part of this Act it shall be lawful for His Majesty by warrant under the sign manual to appoint five Commissioners, to be styled the Development Commissioners, of whom one to be appointed by His Majesty shall be chairman.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, the term of office of a Commissioner shall be ten years. One Commissioner shall retire every second year, but a retiring Commissioner may be reappointed. The order in which the Commissioners first appointed are to retire shall be determined by His Majesty. On a casual vacancy occurring by reason of the death, resignation, or incapacity of a Commissioner, or otherwise, the person appointed by His Majesty to fill the vacancy shall continue in office until the Commissioner in whose place he was appointed would have retired, and shall then retire.
(3) There shall be paid to not more than two of the Commissioners such salaries, not exceeding in the aggregate three thousand pounds in each year, as the Treasury may direct.
(4) The Commissioners may act by three of their number and notwithstanding a vacancy in their number, and, subject to the approval of the Treasury, may regulate their own procedure.
(5) The Commissioners may, with the consent of the Treasury, appoint and employ such officers and servants for the purposes of this Part of this Act as they think necessary, and may remove any officer or servant so appointed and employed, and there shall be paid to such officers and servants such salaries or remuneration as the Commissioners, with the consent of the Treasury, may determine.
(6) The salaries of the Commissioners and the salaries or remuneration of their officers and servants, and any expenses incurred by the Commissioners in the execution of their duties under this Part of this Act, to such amount as may be sanctioned by the Treasury, shall be defrayed out of the development fund.
4 Powers and duties of commissioners.
(1) Every application for an advance under this Part of this Act, whether by way of grant or by way of loan, by any body qualified to receive an advance under this Part of this Act, shall, if the applicant is a Government Department, be referred by the Treasury to the Development Commissioners, and, if the applicant is any other body or persons, shall be sent by the Treasury to the Government Department concerned, to be by them referred together with their report thereon to the Development Commissioners.
(2) The Commissioners shall consider and report to the Treasury on every application so referred to them, and may for that purpose, if necessary, hold inquiries either by themselves, or by any of their officers, or any other person appointed for the purpose.
(3) The Commissioners may also appoint advisory committees, and may submit to any such advisory committee for their advice any application referred to them.
(4) The Commissioners may also frame schemes with respect to any of the matters for which advances may be made under this Part of this Act with a view to their adoption by a Government Department or other body or persons to whom an advance may be made.
(5) Before making any recommendation for an advance for the purpose of the improvement of rural transport, the Commissioners shall consult with the Road Board.
(6) The Commissioners shall make to the Treasury an annual report of their proceedings, and such report shall be laid annually before Parliament by the Treasury.
5 Power to acquire land for certain purposes.
(1) Where an advance is made under this Part of this Act for any purpose which involves the acquisition of land, the Department, body, or persons to whom the advance is made, may acquire and hold land for the purpose, and, where they are unable to acquire by agreement on reasonable terms any land which they consider necessary, they may apply to the Development Commissioners for an order empowering them to acquire the land compulsorily in accordance with the provisions of the Schedule to this Act, and the Commissioners shall have power to make such order.
(2) No land shall be authorised by an order under this section to be acquired compulsorily which, at the date of the order, forms part of any park, garden, or pleasure ground, or forms part of the home farm attached to and usually occupied with a mansion house, or is otherwise required for the amenity or convenience of any dwelling-house, or which at that date is the property of any local authority, or has been acquired by any corporation or company for the purposes of a railway, dock, canal, water, or other public undertaking, or is the site of...
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