Opencast Coal Act 1958

42 Special provisions as to property held for religious purposes

(1) The provisions of this section shall have effect where any compensation is payable by the Board under this Act, and apart from this section would be payable to a person in right of an interest in land held by him for religious purposes:

Provided that this section shall not apply to any compensation payable by virtue of section twenty-two of this Act.

(2) If the land, not- being land in Scotland, Wales or Monmouthshire, is ecclesiastical property, the compensation shall be paid to the Church Commissioners.

(3) If the land, being land in Scotland, is property belonging to the Church of Scotland, the compensation shall be paid to the general treasurer of that Church.

(4) If, in the case of land not falling within subsection (2) or subsection (3) of this section, the Board are so requested by or on behalf of a body of persons notified to the Board by the Minister, after consultation with such persons or organisations as he may think appropriate, as the appropriate representative body, the Board shall pay the compensation to that representative body.

(5) Where apart from this section compensation would be payable to a person as the owner of land, and—

(a) by virtue of subsection (2) or subsection (4) of this section the compensation is payable to the Church Commissioners or a representative body, and

(b) by virtue of the operation in relation to that land of section twenty-four or section thirty of this Act, compensation is recoverable from him by another person,

the Church Commissioners or representative body, as the case may be, shall indemnify him against any liability in respect of the compensation referred to in paragraph (b) of this subsection, and for that purpose may apply any money or securities held by them.

(6) Where the fee simple of any ecclesiastical property, not being property in Wales or Monmouthshire, is in abeyance, it shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as being vested in the Church Commissioners.

(7) In this section " ecclesiastical property " means property belonging to an ecclesiastical benefice, or being or forming part of a church subject to the jurisdiction of a bishop of a diocese or the site of such a church, or being or forming part of a burial ground subject to such jurisdiction.