TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING (MINERALS) REGULATIONS, 1949 (Hansard, 26 October 1949)

§ THE PAYMASTER - GENERAL (LORD MACDONALD OF GWAENYSGOR)

My Lords, as you are aware, the winning and working of minerals is, by the definition in Section 12 (2) of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, development, and therefore subject to the provisions of the Act. The Act provides, in Section 81, that regulations may be made adapting and modifying the provisions of the Act to fit the special case of minerals, and in pursuance of this the Town and Country Planning (Minerals) Regulations, 1948, were made last year. The present regulations prescribe certain further adaptations and modifications which have been found necessary.

The regulations now before your Lordships have three purposes. First, they ensure that mineral workers are not under a disadvantage by reason of their methods of operation so far as the workings of Section 63 of the Act are concerned. It enables them, in cases where they are working, perhaps, a thin vein of land, to obtain for the purpose of making a claim a larger unit of land than would otherwise be the case. The second purpose is to enable a fair allocation of the amount of the claim to be made as between the lessor and the lessee of a mineral working. It is largely a matter of machinery. The third purpose is to amend the earlier regulations, which provided that, while 1246 the value of buildings, plant and machinery used for winning and working the minerals cannot be included in the calculation of the value of the land, the existence of these things can be taken into account. The regulations now submitted would extend this provision to cover buildings, plant and machinery used for processing the minerals. These regulations are not controversial, and your Lordships will be pleased to know that all the points raised in them are being discussed with mineral undertakers, and there is every reason to believe that they will be acceptable to them. I beg to move.

LORD CLYDESMUIR

My Lords, before we give approval to this Order, I think it is right that a word or two should be said. It is a complicated instrument, and I spent some time in the Library last night studying it with the relevant Act and the Regulations already made. It appears, as the noble Lord said, that this is an easement of certain conditions. It is a modification of conditions affecting compensation for mineral undertakers and mineral owners; and it is, I understand, the result of negotiations between the Central Land Board and these interests. We can have no objection to that. But it occurs to me that possibly the Government, as a substantial mineral owner and undertaker, have a little fellow feeling for those in the same position— One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. Indeed, the Town and Country Planning Act is causing concern in many directions, but there will be an occasion to debate it more fully on a Motion by my noble friend, Lord Llewellin, in about two weeks' time, when we can discuss its working. As the noble Lord has said, this Order is non-controversial. It is a little spurt of oil where the machine is creaking. We shall discuss the creaking machine at a later date. I hope that your Lordships will approve the Order.