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of the product, of encouraging mineral development. The main argument used is nearly always the lack of incentive given by a high taxation rate Unfortunately age HBR is variable. in comparison with the risk factor. Unfortunately and for this and other reasons it would not be practicable to make any general relief fair to the industry as a whole, and which would not, at We have come to the con- the same time, create undesirable precedents. clusion that preferential tax concessions to encourage mineral development and production would not be the correct long-term remedy. The problem is muen too complex to be dealt with in this way, and we consider that there are other more suitable methods available which are more likely to meet the varying needs of the industry and to be more in accord with the national interest. These are discussed in later chapters, scori vd obam. ed neo
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346. Royalties and taxation. Royalties paid by mining companies to mineral owners are usually in the form of annual payments which are therefore allowable for tax purposes. Our recommendation later in this Report that mineral rights should be nationalised should not affect this general
case, cast ass development charge will become principle. After 1951, in any payable to the Central Land Board by the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Acts, 1947 (para. 356), and Regulations provide for the develop- ment charge to be calculated either as a charge on tonnage or in other ways. Whether or not mineral rights are nationalised, however, we recommend that development charges should always be imposed as annual payments
deren 1.IN. SAATCOND 01 VOROG A Horrekigor and not as capital sums. ban sdu mwn) (üustib realm 11 sviticoq od um
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Town and Country Planning Acts, 1947 ogrodno dujom 18 RODINGASI
347. Regulations made under Section 81 of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, and under Section 78 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act, 1947 empower the Minister and the Secretary of State respectively, with Treasury consent, to apply the provisions of the Acts, with such adaptations and modifications as may be necessary, to mineral workings. In consequence of these Acts, mining operations in Great Britain,
Whether underground or on the surface, are now within the scope of planning control, and the State has acquired the development value in minerals.At sight, therefore, it might seem that the statutory already possessed by the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and the Central Land Board (and by the Secretary of State in Scotland) are already sufficient to safeguard the interests of future mineral development. 025
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348. Further examination of the provisions of the Acts and of the regulations made thereunder, however, has confirmed our opinion, originally communicated to the Minister of Fuel and Power in January 1947, immediately after the Town and Country Planning Bill had been published, that the method devised to secure planned development and control of the use of the land surface was not intended primarily for, and can only be regarded as a stage in, a policy for securing effective control and develop- ́ment of our mineral resources. *Considered in relation to the MDC minerals,
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*Although many of our remarks in this Chapter are generally applicable to all mineral deposits and workings it important2to remember that we are causidetiontelupplications of the Town and Country Planning Acts in relation to MDC minerals only.
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the conception that control over mineral workings, and thus over mineral development," can be exercised in a similar way to that over land, is open to grape technical objections. We recognise the necessity to bring mineral workings within the sphere of land use control generally, although the extent to which the working of MDC minerals denies the use of the surface of the land for other purposes is often small in comparison with other mineral workings, and amenity considerations are less likely to arise. We also recognise that the positive power in the Planning Acts for the com- pulsory purchase of land for mineral working or for the compulsory grant of working rights by the Railway and Canal Commission (now the High Court) must be exercised with due regard to the economic needs of the mineral industry and the production needs of the country. Arrangements can be made by those Departments at present responsible for production to ensure that necessary mineral resources are made available to the industry. Nevertheless, we do not consider that control over mineral workings in relation to land use generally, notwithstanding the existence of these powers, can be exercised in such a way that it could effectively be used also as a means of fostering mineral development. The approach in the case of land use control is fundamentally different from that which is necessary in a policy specifically designed to encourage mineral development. Although land use control of mineral workings, as provided for by the Planning Acts and Regulations, may be of considerable assistance to mineral development, we can only regard it as negative in the sense that it is governed by permissive legislation. A policy to encourage mineral development, on the other hand, must be positive. It arises directly from the need to foster the production of known minerals and the stimulation of the discovery and evaluation of new mineral deposits. It is essential that it provides, for instance, for the starting of comprehensive exploratory schemes in certain areas, the compulsory amalgamation of undertakings where necessary on technical grounds, for the metallurgical investigation of low-grade mineral deposits and for research into many kinds of mining and mineral dressing questions.
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349. The problem of developing minerals is made more difficult because resources are mainly underground, and their extent and value is thus often unknown or difficult to ascertain. The proved reserves of some mineral deposits of relatively great industrial importance, are becoming dangerously depleted. The chances of making important new discoveries, however, are by no means exhausted and exploration should be actively pursued. We appreciate the reasons for deciding not to exclude the MDC minerals from the general provisions of the Town and Country Planning Acts, but, as stated above, we can only regard this as the first stage of a development policy. The later stages must be concerned in devising and implementing a positive policy for dealing with MDC minerals as national wasting assets, and with the discovery and development of new mineral deposits. Development Plans
350. Under the Acts, Local Planning Authorities (usually the County or Borough Councils in England and Wales, and County or large Burgh Councils in Scotland) have the responsibility of preparing development plans indicating the manner in which it is proposed that land shall be used and the stages by which any development should be carried out. This will necessitate the scheduling of land for mineral working. In some areas conflicting claims of other land uses such as building, agriculture, new roads, new reservoirs, will have to be resolved on a long-term basis. As we indicate later in Chapter X, technical knowledge about the occurrences and resources of the De minerafsi zotally inadequate, andPinomany case2could only be obtained by extensive exploration of the kind which private undertakings could not, in general, be expected to finance.
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351. We are informed that the Ministry of Town and Country Planning. even from their viewpoint (which, as we have pointed out, does not include active steps or encouraging mineral development) have recognised that a good deal of technical information, both geological and economic, is necessary before their own task can be completed. They recognise, too, that the Local Planning Authorities cannot individually and without guidance, compile this information and relate it to the economic needs of the industry and the production requirements of the country as a whole Arrangements have accordingly been made for joint discussions between the Ministry, the Associations representing the various mineral industries, and the Government Departments concerned (including those at present responsible for pro- duction), with a view to compiling the necessary data, and then considering with the Local Planning Authorities what problems arise in their areas in connection with minerals and what the solution should be. The Geological Survey are assisting in this work, and in some cases the Ministry has also secured the assistance of outside experts by setting up Advisory Committees or Standing Conferences. In others, the Trade Associations themselves retain the services of expert geologists or mining engineers, whose assistance is usually readily made available at these discussions. Tokab
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352. The process outlined in the preceding paragraph is as yet in its early stages, and has been gradually built up since January, 1946, when mineral working was brought fully within planning
control. The Ministry
of Town and Country Planning recognise that the completion of their planning work will take some considerable time and that in fact it can never be complete-because it is by its nature a continuous process requiring constant review and adaptation in the light of changing economic and industrial circumstances. They aim at tackling the more urgent, aspects first, with a view to avoiding undue sterilisation of mineral resources and securing production needs for a long period ahead.
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~ 353. We are informed that the information thus obtained will be used as part of the statistical data necessary to see the land planning problem în relation to the production problem and to known or possible resources. The information will be of considerable value, but, as stated above, something more positive is required in the interests of mineral development as a whole. In our view, this can only come from a direct and centralised approach through an organisation with specific functions. It cannot be achieved as a result of land use planning based on the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Acts, particularly when each mineral has to be considered separately, as at present, between the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and the production Department concerned. Until there is a permanent authority exclusively charged with mineral development responsibility, it is clear that our resources of minerals must suffer in the long run for want of an overall, long-term and properly co-ordinated policy for the country as a whole.
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354. As in the case of each of the other industries depending on natural resources of the country such as agriculture, forestry, and waterpower, primary responsibility for the assessment, development, conservation, and utilisation of minerals must be vested in one Minister. One of the duties of this Minister should be to provide the necessary technical information to the Minister of Town and Country Planning who would use it to assist him în exercising control of land use. The arrangements now being made by the Ministry of Town and Country Planning would have been greatly simplified if the Mineral Development Commission we recommend (Chapter XI) had been in existence prior to the enactment of the Planning Acts.
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Page lender the Town and Country Planning Apa2102 of 662
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Permission to Work
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old on SW 12 355. As from 1st July, 1948, no new mine or quarry can be started without permishong froBaoLocal Planning Authority, whoaga 3 conditions under which the development is allowed to proceed. Such conditions are likely to be mainly concerned with the preservation of amenities, with the safeguarding of other land uses, and (mainly surface minerals) with restoration, after work. ing or by treatment of the site to bring it back into some form of productive use. The Ministry of Town and Country Planning have recognised that it may sometimes be inadvisable for decisions with regard to certain minerals to be taken locally, and instructions have been issued to local planning authorities to inform the Minister of applications for permission to work certain specified minerals in order that he can consider, inter alia, whether responsibility for the decision can be left with the Local Planning Authority or whether he ought to take it over for Government decision. The list is confined to minerals in relatively short supply and includes most of the MDC minerals. From the long-term point of view we regard it as essential that the Minister of Town and Country Planning, or the Secretary of State for Scotland as the case may be, should rely upon consultations with one Minister responsible for all MDC minerals, in any case where an appeal. against conditions of working is made under the Acts, especially as in many cases the safeguarding of other land uses, surface restoration, and other conditions, will increase the cost of producing minerals. At present the Minister of Town and Country Planning has to deal with different Ministers, according to the mineral concerned, because of the divided production responsibilities.
The Development Charge
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356. One of the principal features of the Town and Country Planning Acts, so far as we are concerned, is that the acquisition of the development value in minerals by the State and the payment by all operators after July, 1951, of a development charge to the Central Land Board, effectively removes all incen- tive from mineral owners to get their minerals developed. Mineral owner- ship, therefore, will be little more than nominal, because permission is required before development can take place, and owners have no power to prevent development if it is deemed to be in the national interest. Moreover, the development charge will replace all existing royalties, and as the charge is calculated as one hundred per cent. of the difference between the existing use value of minerals (which is, of course, nil) and the development value, the mineral owner receives no further payment by way of royalty if the minerals are worked, other than such provision as is made for compensation in respect of surface damage or disturbance if mineral rights and surface rights are not severed. It would also appear that other than any payment received under Part VI of the Act in respect of depreciation of his interest in minerals, the mineral owner will not be left with any payment sufficient to meet the costs of management arising out of ownership, such as the upkeep or fencing of old shafts, and the storage of mining records.
357. As yet there is little information about the method to be used in fixing development charges. The only tangible expression of the development value of mineral properties is that determined by the scale of royalties previously paid, which represented a bargain between a willing mineral operator and a willing mineral owner. In consequence, development charges may be expected to be roughly of the same order in amount as existing royalties.
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358. The application of the Act in regard to development charges on mineral workings is likely to be much more rigid and inflexible than that governinge 13 of 662
the terms of mining leases and royalties under the old system. In
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principle, the development charge is a purely financial control. It seems clear that from its constitution the Central Land Board will be primarily a revenue-collecting body while it will clearly try to avoid "killing the goose that lays the golden eggs it will not be in the same position as a Private mineral owner who could, if need be, so adjust the level of royalties laid down in the leases to meet changed conditions, or to reduce or suspend them where necessary to counterbalance the degree of the initial risk. He thereby exercised a measure of technical control over working efficiency and development. bile toown livsning silid als tubu golovab letsnim 1
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359. The mineral owner will no longer be interested in such matters and we certainly could not regard it as a proper function of the Central Land Board even if they wished to undertake such control, which seems hardly likely It would also be inappropriate, in our opinion, for such responsibilities to be exercised by Local Planning Authorities, who are best suited to safeguard local land use and amenity considerations. ouiment is 1200 sdf of obe posilo
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360. Under Section 81 (2) (c) of the Act, the development charge can be related to the amount of minerals got. Although the Regulations allow the charge to be assessed by other methods recognised as appropriate to the minerals concerned, there is no direct provision for the development charge to be assessed either wholly or partially as a percentage of annual profits, as distinct from a charge on output. It may sometimes be the case in mining certain types of minerals that such a method might be more logical and more equitable to all concerned. It is a method which, with suitable modifications to meet particular cases, should be available for use if required in conjunction with a general policy of mineral development, whereas the development charge in its present form could not be so used.
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361. We are of the opinion that, while the method used to assess the development charge may be varied, it should not be payable otherwise than as an annual sum (para. 346).
millstollam P wove) ni kimemwy » leäadost grphe sis mod) 262 Control of the right to work minerals das gilcob has ableit Janonio par
· 362. Assuming that an area in which minerals occur has been scheduled for mineral working on a development plan by the Local Planning Autho- rities, the different steps which a prospective mineral operator will have to take in future may be summarised as follows
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(a) Permission must be obtained from the Local Planning Authority (para. 355). Permission may be subject to conditions of working and there is a right of appeal to the Minister which, it may be anticipated, will be frequently invoked.
(b) A lease must be negotiated with the mineral owner (or owners). As a mineral owner will have no incentive to have his minerals worked, this would probably be refused.
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(c) The prospective operator will then have to take action to have m the right to work minerals compulsorily assigned to him which will
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(i) The High Court, under the Mines (Working Facilities and
Support) Act, 1923, or to
hod avid blows vinir (ii) The Local Planning Authority, or the Central Land Board to get an order for the compulsory acquisition of the land con- cerned. This may be unnecessary use of such powers merely to enable some MDC minerals to be worked underground, when trenge all that is required is rights over a small surface area for mine
buildings etc.
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