Town and Country Planning Act 1959

22 Exercise of powers of acquisition by agreement

(1) Where by any enactment—

(a) power is conferred on any authority to whom this Part of this Act applies, or on any class of such authorities, to acquire land by agreement, but

(b) that power is so conferred subject to a provision (in whatever terms the provision is expressed, and whether it is contained in the same or in any other enactment) that the power is not to be exercised except with the consent of a Minister specified in that provision, with or without a further provision enabling conditions to be imposed by such a Minister in respect of the exercise of the power,

the enactment shall have effect, in relation to acquisitions to which this section applies, as if it conferred that power free from any such provision as is mentioned in paragraph (b) of this subsection.

(2) This section applies to every acquisition of land by agreement by an authority to whom this Part of this Act applies, in pursuance of a contract made after the commencement of this Act, where either—

(a) the land is immediately required by the purchasing authority for the purpose for which it is to be acquired, or

(b) if the land is not so required, it is land within the area of the purchasing authority.

(3) Subsection (1) of section eighteen of the Mineral Workings Act, 1951 (which confers on local authorities a right of reimbursement in respect of certain expenditure incurred by them) shall have effect subject to the modification that paragraph (c) of that subsection (which relates to expenditure incurred in acquiring land) shall not apply to any expenditure incurred in acquiring land by agreement without the consent of the Minister of Housing and Local Government.

(4) In this Part of this Act " authority to whom this Part of this Act applies ", in relation to England and Wales, means a body of any of the descriptions specified in Part I of the Fourth Schedule to this Act, and, in relation to Scotland, means a body of any of the descriptions specified in Part II of that Schedule ; " land" includes any easement or servitude and any other interest in, or right over, land; " Minister " means a Minister of the Crown or a government department; and " consent" includes approval, sanction and authorisation.

(5) In the application of this section to Scotland subsection (2) shall have effect with the omission of the words from "where either " to the end of the subsection, and subsection (3) shall be omitted.