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'Eyesores' costing Elm, a year
Page 31
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• Forty hauliers in the North East will be faced with a bill for £500,000 per year if the Inland Revenue continues to enforce General Rate Act 1967. Under the terms of the Act, shale and slag heaps, the discharge from local pits, is liable for assessment. It is understood that the rate varies from 26 per ton in Northumberland to 1s 6d per ton in Durham.
Retrospective assessments have apeady been made by Inland Revenue for the eight' years from 1961 when the rate was 10d, per ton. One operator lost an appeal against the assessment before the Land Tribunal and estimates the cost of the appeal at £10,000.
Mr. T. L. Cuthbertson, a Newcastle city councillor and haulage contractor, told CM that the cost to hauliers was estimated at £500,000 per year. He said that the 40 members of the Northumberland and Durham Shale Contractors Association had entered into fixed price contracts with the Ministry of Transport to supply the material for motor way bottoming and that they would be unable to recoup the tax assessment in the price they charged to the MoT.
According to CIIr. Cuthbertson, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government makes a 'PM per cent grant to local authorities to move the "eyesores" and he adds that the National Coal Board makes a profit of £1m per year on the sale of the material. It is understood that the material costs the NDSCA members lOs per ton ex the site.
The alternative to using shale is said to be burrowing for infill alongside the motorway. "This will leave further eyesores", says CIIr. Cuthbertson.
In its fight to have the relevant section of the Act repealed, the association has recruited the 30 members of the North group of MPs who represent mining constituencies. This group, led by Mr. Ted Fletcher, is arranging for the hauliers to meet the Ministers of Transport and of Housing and Local Government, together with Treasury officials.
The tax is apparently based on land value and CIIr. Cuthbertson points out that the operators are being taxed on waste ground which they are removing 'We are giving a service to the community as well as making a profit," he said. He warns that this is something which can be repeated at every coalfield in the country. The NDSCA members are now looking for alternative sources of material which are obtainable within their contract price. "If we are successful, then the North East will be left with its unsightly and relatively valueless material", said Cllr. Cuthbertson.