Mineral Workings Act 1951
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1951 c. 60 |
| Year | 1951 |
Mineral Workings Act , 1951
(14 & 15 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 60
An Act to establish a fund for the purpose of financing the restoration of land in England used for the working of ironstone by opencast operations and to provide for payments to and from that fund; to make provision for the reclamation, cultivation, afforestation or other treatment of such land; to provide for setting off the development charge in respect of certain minerals against payments under Part VI of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, or Part V of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act, 1947, in respect of interests therein, for the modification of certain mining leases and orders granting working rights, and for the application of section eighty-one of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, and section seventy-eight of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act, 1947, to certain minerals of the National Coal Board; to authorise the temporary stopping up or diversion of highways for the purpose of working minerals by opencast operations; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[1st August 1951]
Be 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:—
The Ironstone District and the Ironstone Restoration Fund
1 The ironstone district.
(1) In this Act ‘the ironstone district’ means the areas set out in the First Schedule to this Act, including any county borough comprised in any such area.
(2) The Minister may by order direct that the said First Schedule shall have effect as if there were included therein any other area specified in the order; and any such order may direct that, in relation to the area so specified, this Act shall have effect as if for any reference to the twenty-fifth day of July, nineteen hundred and fifty, the fifteenth day of February, the thirtieth day of June or the first day of July, nineteen hundred and fifty-one, or the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, or to the commencement of this Act, there were substituted a reference to such later date (whether earlier than the date of the order or not) as may be specified in the order, or to the coming into operation of the order, as the case may be.
(3) An order under this section shall be of no effect unless it is approved by resolution of each House of Parliament.
(4) The power to make orders under this section shall include power to revoke or vary any such order by a subsequent order.
2 The ironstone restoration fund.
(1) For the purposes of this Act, there shall be established under the control of the Minister a fund, to be known as the Ironstone Restoration Fund.
(2) Except as otherwise expressly provided by this Act, all sums received by the Minister under this Act shall be paid into the fund, and all sums paid by him thereunder shall be defrayed out of the fund.
(3) Any moneys forming part of the fund may from time to time be paid over to the National Debt Commissioners and by them invested, in accordance with such directions as may be given by the Treasury, in any securities which are for the time being authorised by Parliament as investments for savings banks funds; and the National Debt Commissioners shall present to Parliament annually an account of the securities in which moneys forming part of the fund are for the time being invested.
(4) For the purpose of enabling him to defray out of the fund any expenses required by this Act to be so defrayed, the Minister may, out of moneys provided by Parliament, make to the fund advances of such amounts as he may with the consent of the Treasury determine; and any advances so made shall be repaid by the Minister into the Exchequer, together with interest thereon at such rate as the Treasury may determine, at such times as the Treasury may direct.
(5) The Minister shall prepare, in such form and manner as the Treasury may direct, an account of all sums paid into and defrayed out of the fund in each financial year; and every such account shall, on or before the thirtieth day of November next following the expiration of the financial year to which it relates, be submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General, who shall examine and certify the account and lay copies of it, together with his report, before each House of Parliament.
Contributions to the fund and payments to operators
3 Contributions from ironstone operators.
(1) In respect of all ironstone extracted by opencast operations after the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and fifty-one, from land within the ironstone district, contributions at the rate prescribed by this section shall be paid to the Minister by the persons by whom those operations are carried out.
(2) Subject to the following provisions of this Act, the rate of the contributions payable under this section shall be one penny and one-eighth for each ton of ironstone weighed in its crude state after extraction and before calcination.
(3) Provision may be made by regulations made by the Minister for securing that where contributions are payable under this section in respect of ironstone which is calcined on the site before weighing, the tonnage shall be estimated for the purposes of this section by reference to the weight after calcination in accordance with such formula as may be prescribed by the regulations.
(4) A person who carries out operations in respect of which contributions are payable under this section is in this Act referred to as an operator.
4 Returns by operators and payment of contributions.
(1) Every operator shall within one month after the end of the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, and every subsequent financial year—
(a ) make a return to the Minister in the prescribed manner, containing particulars of the tonnage of ironstone extracted by him during that year in respect of which contributions are payable by him under section three of this Act; and
(b ) pay to the Minister the amount of the contributions due from him in respect of that year.
(2) The Minister may require any operator to furnish to the Minister such particulars as the Minister may reasonably require for the purpose of verifying any return made by the operator or of ascertaining whether such a return ought to have been so made, and to produce for the inspection of a person appointed by the Minister any accounts or records relating to his business which the Minister may reasonably require as aforesaid.
(3) Any sum by which the payment, made by an operator in respect of any financial year in accordance with subsection (1) of this section, falls short of or exceeds the amount of the contributions actually due from him in respect of that year shall be recoverable by or from the Minister, as the case may be, on demand with interest at such rate as may from time to time be determined by the Treasury.
5 Contributions from ironstone owners.
(1) Where under the scheme to be made pursuant to section fifty-eight of the principal Act a payment falls to be made in respect of any interest in land within the ironstone district, being an interest of which the development value is wholly or partly attributable to the prospect of developing the land by winning and working ironstone by opencast operations, then, subject to the provisions of this Act, a contribution shall be made to the Minister out of that payment in accordance with the following provisions of this section.
(2) The amount of the contribution payable under this section in respect of an interest in land shall be calculated in accordance with the formula set out in the Second Schedule to this Act.
(3) For the purposes of this section and of the said Second Schedule, no account shall be taken of development value attributable to the prospect of developing land by winning and working ironstone which immediately before the fifteenth day of February, nineteen hundred and fifty-one, was subject to a full restoring lease.
(4) The scheme to be made under section fifty-eight of the principal Act may contain such incidental and consequential provisions as appear to the Treasury to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of this section, including provision for the determination by the Lands Tribunal of questions as to liability for contributions under this section and as to the amount of such contributions; and subsection (2) of section sixty-five of that Act (which prescribes the date on which stock is to be issued in respect of such payments) shall have effect as if the reference therein to the amount of any payment required by that section to be satisfied by the issue of stock included a reference to the amount of any contribution to be made under this section out of such a payment.
(5) Any sum payable by way of a contribution under this section out of a payment under the said scheme in respect of an interest in land shall be issued to the Minister in cash out of the Consolidated Fund at the time when the balance of the payment is satisfied under the said section sixty-five, together with interest thereon at the rate determined under subsection...
To continue reading
Request your trial