1 Finance for forestry.

(1) The Forestry Commissioners may, with Treasury approval as regards England ..., ... , make grants and loans to owners and lessees of land in England ... for and in connection with the use and management of the land for forestry purposes.

(2) Any such grant or loan shall be payable in accordance with section 41 of the Forestry Act 1967.

(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 Metrication of measurements.

(1) The Forestry Act 1967 is amended as shown in Schedule 1 to this Act (the amendments being substitute metric units of measurement throughout the Act).

(2) The appropriate authority may by regulations amend enactments to which this subsection applies so as to substitute—

(a) for any reference to a number of acres, a reference to a number of hectares;

(b) for any reference to a number of feet, a reference to a number of metres; and

(c) for any requirement that plans be made on the scale of 3 chains to an inch, a requirement that they be made on the scale of 1 : 2,500;

and for this purpose “ number ” includes a number less than unity.

(3) Subsection (2) applies to any enactment contained in an Act (whether public general, local or private) relating to particular forest lands in England and Wales.

(4) Before any such regulations are made by the Welsh Ministers, they shall consult such persons and organisations as appear to them to be representative of interests likely to be affected.

(5) The regulations—

(a) may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions (if any) as the appropriate authority consider expedient; and

(b) shall be made by statutory instrument subject to annulment by resolution of either House of Parliament (in the case of regulations made by the Forestry Commissioners) or of the National Assembly for Wales (in the case of regulations made by the Welsh Ministers) .

(6) In this section “the appropriate authority” means—

(a) in relation to England, the Forestry Commissioners;

(b) in relation to Wales, the Welsh Ministers.

3 Citation, etc.

(1) This Act may be cited as the Forestry Act 1979; and the Forestry Act 1967 and this Act may be cited together as the Forestry Acts 1967 and 1979.

(2) The Forestry Act 1967 is repealed to the extent specified in Schedule 2 to this Act.

(3) This Act comes into force at the expiration of two months from the date on which it is passed.

(4) This Act does not extend to Northern Ireland.

SCHEDULES

Section 2(1).

SCHEDULE 1 METRICATION OF 1967 ACT

In section 9 (requirement of felling licence; exemptions from that requirement)—

in subsection (2)(a), for “3 inches” and “6 inches” substitute respectively “ 8 centimetres ” and “ 15 centimetres ” ;

in subsection (3)(a), for “4 inches” substitute “ 10 centimetres ” ;

in subsection (3)(b), for “825 cubic feet” and “150 cubic feet”, substitute respectively “ 30 cubic metres ” and “ 5.5 cubic metres ” ;

in subsection (5)(a), for “3 inches” and “4 inches”, substitute respectively “ 8 centimetres ” and “ 10 centimetres ” , and for “825 cubic feet” and “150 cubic feet” substitute respectively “ 30 cubic metres ” and “ 5.5 cubic metres ” ;

in subsection (5)(b), for “6 inches” substitute “ 15 centimetres ” ;

in subsection (5)(c), for “825 cubic feet” and “150 cubic feet” substitute respectively “ 30 cubic metres ” and “ 5.5 cubic metres ” ; and

in subsection (6) for “five feet” substitute “ 1.3 metres ” .

In section 43(1) (satisfaction of contingent liability to Crown Estate), for “five acres” substitute “ 2 hectares ” .

Section 3(2)

SCHEDULE 2 REPEALS IN 1967 ACT

Section 4.

In section 9(6), the words from “and references to the cubic content” onwards.