§ 62. Mr. Barberasked the Minister of Fuel and Power whether he is aware that farmers whose land has been worked for opencast coal and restored, suffer particular hardship when the same land is re-requisitioned to work additional coal at greater depth; and whether he will discontinue this practice.
§ Mr. Joynson-HicksYes, and I assure my hon. Friend that every effort is made to avoid this practice. Where two coal areas are actually contiguous, however, some overlap between the larger areas which have to be requisitioned to enable the coal areas to be worked is sometimes unavoidable; but it is quite exceptional for the same area to be dug up more than once. This has occurred only on a few sites, worked some years ago, but in future when land is requisitioned it is not likely to be necessary to re-requisition it to dig coal at greater depth.