Coal Act 1938

33 Restriction on working of coal vested in statutory undertakers

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, coal the fee simple in which is at the date of the passing of this Act vested in statutory undertakers (that is to say, a local authority, company or other body or person authorised by or under an Act of Parliament, or an order having the force of an Act of Parliament, to construct, work, or carry on a railway, canal, inland navigation, dock, harbour, tramway, gas, electricity, water, sewage disposal, or other public undertaking), having been acquired, under powers in that behalf conferred by any such Act or order as aforesaid, for the purposes of their undertaking, shall vest in the Commission subject, in addition to the matters mentioned in subsection (4) of section four of this Act, to the restriction that the coal shall not be worked without the previous consent in writing of the persons in whom the undertaking is for the time being vested.

(2) The foregoing subsection shall not apply to any such coal as aforesaid in a case in which the undertakers are not at the date of the passing of this Act interested in any land supported thereby, and, where any such coal as aforesaid vests in the Commission subject to the restriction aforesaid, the restriction shall have effect so long only as the persons in whom the undertaking is for the time being vested are interested in land supported thereby.

(3) Subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to any such coal as aforesaid which is subject at the date of the passing of this Act to a coal-mining lease.

(4) A restriction imposed by this section shall not have effect in relation to working carried on in exercise of a right subject to which the coal in question vests in the Commission by virtue of this Part of this Act.

(5) A consent in relation to a restriction imposed by this section shall not be unreasonably withheld, but this provision does not preclude the right of undertakers whose consent is sought—

(a) to give consent subject, as far as may be reasonably requisite, to a condition that working shall not be such as to let down any land in which the undertakers are interested, or shall be limited to working in particular places or in a particular manner, or to other conditions or limitations as regards the working consented to or the payment of proper compensation for, or the making good of, damage arising therefrom; or

(b) to require, as a condition of consent, payment of a reasonable sum in respect of any legal or other expenses incurred in connection with the consent.

Any question arising under this subsection shall be referred to and determined by the Railway and Canal Commission, who shall have power to dispense with consent either without conditions or limitations or subject to any such conditions or limitations as aforesaid. In determining any such question the Railway and Canal Commission shall have regard primarily to the safety and efficient working of the undertaking in question.

(6) A restriction imposed by this section shall be enforceable by the persons in whom the undertaking is for the time being vested in the like manner, and against the like persons, as if it had been imposed by a covenant entered into by the Commission on the vesting date.

(7) A holding subsisting in coal that is to vest in the Commission subject to a restriction imposed by this section shall (notwithstanding the provisions of section seven of this Act which require the value of a holding to be ascertained by reference to the amount which it might have been expected to realise if this Act had not been passed) be valued as if provision had been made before the valuation date for that restriction to take effect on the vesting date.