Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967

[F167FExtinguishment of public rights of way.N.I.

(1)Subject to this section, the Holding Company may, with the approval of the Department, make an order extinguishing any public right of way over land acquired by the Holding Company for the purposes of this Part.

(2)Before making an order under subsection (1), the Holding Company shall publish in one or more than one newspaper circulating in the area a notice, in such form as the Department may specify, stating that—

(a)it proposes to make an order under subsection (1), and

(b)objections to the making of the order may be made to the Department before the expiration of 6 weeks from the publication of the notice.

(3)The Department may at any time after the expiration of the said period of six weeks—

(a)approve the order with or without modification, or

(b)refuse to approve the order;

but shall not, until a local inquiry is held into the matter, approve an order to which any objection is made in accordance with subsection (2)(b) and is not withdrawn.

(4)An order under this section shall take effect on the date on which the land is acquired or on such later date as the Department in approving the order may direct.

(5)An order made under this section may contain any such provision as, by virtue of[F2 Article 68(5) of the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993] (retention or removal of cables, etc.), may be contained in an order made under that Article on the stopping-up or abandonment of a road; and[F2 paragraphs 1 to 3 of Schedule 9 to that Order (savings for telecommunications apparatus) shall apply to an order made under this section as they apply to an order made under Article 68 of that Order.].

(6)Where, by virtue of subsection (5), by an order made under this section—

(a)any person is required to carry out any works; or

(b)any right such as is described in[F2 Article 68(5) of the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993] is extinguished or modified,

the Holding Company shall pay compensation to that person or, as the case may be, in respect of the extinction or modification of that right; and if any question of disputed compensation arises that question shall be referred to and determined by the Lands Tribunal.

(7)If any person who is required by an order made under this section to carry out any works refuses or, within any reasonable period of time specified in a notice served upon him by the Holding Company for the purposes of this subsection, fails to do so, the Holding Company may carry out those works and the expenses incurred in so doing shall, without prejudice to any other remedy but subject always to subsection (6), be recoverable by it from that person summarily as a debt.

(8)The powers conferred by this section shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any powers for the stopping-up or abandonment of roads under[F2 Article 68 of the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993].

(9)For the purposes of this section the expression “public right of way” shall be deemed to include a customary right of way, but does not include a public right of navigation.]