Surface Mineral Workings (Hansard, 3 August 1972)

§ Mr. Peter Walker

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Wales and I have decided, after consultation with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, to set up jointly an inquiry into planning control over 193W mineral working with the following terms of reference: To examine the operation of the statutory provisions (except the provisions of the Opencast Coal Act 1958) under which planning control is exercisable over mineral exploration, over surface mineral workings and installations, over the deposit on the surface of spoil or waste from mineral workings, and over the after-treatment of surface land worked for minerals; to consider whether the provisions require to be amended or supplemented; and to make recommendations.

I am glad to be able to tell the House that Sir Roger Stevens, GCMG, has accepted an invitation to act as chairman. I hope to be able to announce shortly the names of the three other members of the inquiry.

I am also glad to be able to announce that Mr. Ralph Verney, JP, has accepted an invitation to become chairman of the Advisory Group on Aggregates, to which my right hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Construction referred in reply to a Question in the House in May. The terms of reference under which the advisory committee will work are: To advise the Secretaries of State for the Environment, for Scotland and for Wales upon such subjects relating to the supply of aggregates for the construction industry as the Secretaries of State may refer to them. Members of the committee will be appointed shortly and their names announced in due course.

I have commissioned research from the Department of Mining and Mineral Technology of the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London, into the environmental implications of large-scale stone quarrying and opencast mining.—[Vol. 836, c. 271.]