The Agriculture and Fisheries (Financial Assistance) (Northern Ireland) Order 1987

Grants for amalgamations and boundary adjustments N.I.

9.—(1) The Department may in accordance with a scheme make grants of amounts determined in such manner as may be provided by or under the scheme in connection with the carrying out of any of the following transactions approved by the Department in pursuance of the scheme, that is to say—

(a) transactions for securing that agricultural land which is or forms part of an uncommercial unit, but which together with some other agricultural land could form an intermediate unit or commercial unit, shall be owned and occupied with that other land or, if not so owned, occupied with that other land by a person who shall occupy any part of the resulting unit not owned by him as a tenant;

(b) transactions for securing that, where an intermediate unit or a commercial unit is not all in the same ownership, any part of it comes to be in the same ownership as the rest of that unit, or in the same ownership as some other part of that unit, but excluding transactions which bring into the same ownership and occupation two or more parts of the unit each of which could by itself form a commercial unit;

(c) transactions for securing that, where the person occupying an intermediate unit or a commercial unit occupies any part or parts of it otherwise than as owner or as a tenant, he comes to occupy that part or all those parts as owner or as a tenant; and

(d) transfers or exchanges of agricultural land for the purpose of giving more satisfactory boundaries to one or more agricultural units,

and for the purposes of sub-paragraph (a) such assumptions as the Department may consider reasonable may be made as to the works and facilities which will be carried out or provided for the benefit of the unit to be formed.

(2) Transactions within paragraph (1)(a), (b) and (c) are in this part referred to as “amalgamations”, and transactions within paragraph (1)(d) are in this part referred to as “boundary adjustments”.

(3) A scheme under this Article may restrict the amalgamations and boundary adjustments to which it applies in any way, and may in particular exclude amalgamations of land which has reverted from being in single ownership or occupation or, as respects transactions within paragraph (1)(c), cases where after the transaction has been effected the unit is not in single ownership.

(4) Any approval in pursuance of a scheme under this Article of an amalgamation or boundary adjustment—

(a) may be given either before or, in any case where the Department thinks fit, after the amalgamation or boundary adjustment has been carried out;

(b) may be given subject to such conditions as the Department may specify, and in particular subject to any condition as to the time within which the amalgamation or boundary adjustment is to be carried out or as to the carrying out or provision within a specified period of specified works or facilities appearing to the Department to be necessary as a consequence of the amalgamation or boundary adjustment;

(c) may be varied or withdrawn by the Department with the written consent of the person on whose application the approval was given;

and the Department may, if it thinks fit, for the purposes of a claim for grant under Article 16 issue a certificate with respect to any work or facility that the Department considers it to be necessary or desirable as a consequence of an amalgamation, or to be necessary as a consequence of a boundary adjustment, approved by the Department in pursuance of the scheme.

(5) In making a grant under this Article the Department may impose such conditions as it thinks fit; and any such conditions may require the recipient of the grant to make such repayments to the Department in such circumstances as may be specified in the conditions.

(6) The duration of a scheme under this Article shall be a period not exceeding seven years, but that period may from time to time be extended by further schemes under this Article for periods not exceeding seven years.