Opencast Coal Act 1958

9 (1) Where the land comprised in a compulsory rights order consists of or includes land requisitioned for opencast operations, and it appears to the Board that, for either or both of the reasons mentioned in the next following sub-paragraph, it is necessary that the period specified in the order, as the period for which the order is to have effect, should extend beyond the tenth anniversary of the date of requisition of that land.—

(a) the period specified in the order may extend beyond that anniversary, and shall (subject to the following provisions of this paragraph) be such period as the Board consider necessary in the circumstances ;

(b) the order shall state the reasons for which the Board consider it necessary that the period specified in the order should so extend ; and

(c) paragraph 7 of this Schedule shall not apply to the order, and the provisions as to the making and confirmation of the order shall be in accordance with subsection (5) of section four of this Act.

(2) The said reasons are—

(a) that a longer period is required for completing the restoration of land comprised in the order so as to be reasonably fit for use as agricultural land ;

(b) that there is in force an agreement relating to that land made between the Board and another person before the eighteenth day of December, nineteen hundred and fifty-seven, which provides for the working of coal by that person by opencast operations, and is not an agreement under which the coal is to become the property of that other person, and a longer period is required for completing the operations provided for by the agreement.

(3) Where an order is made in the circumstances mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph, the period for which the order has effect shall not extend beyond the tenth anniversary of the commencement of this Act.

(4) The Minister shall not confirm an order as being an order falling within sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph unless he is satisfied that the reasons stated in the order in accordance with that sub-paragraph are well-founded and that it is necessary for those reasons that the period for which the order has effect should extend as mentioned in that sub-paragraph.