Restriction of access, etc. in connection with special roads
18.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the Department may make an order to authorise—
(a)the stopping-up of any private means of access to land abutting on or adjacent to a special road or land forming the site of any works authorised by a designation order;
(b)the provision of new means of access to any such land.
(2) No order shall be made under paragraph (1)(a) unless the Department is satisfied that—
(a)access to the land is not reasonably required; or
(b)another reasonably convenient means of access to the land is available or will be provided in pursuance of an order made by virtue of paragraph (1)(b).
(3) Any person, other than a person authorised by the Department, who constructs or alters any means of access to a special road shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(4) Where—
(a)a person is convicted of an offence under paragraph (3); and
(b)he does not, within such period as the court may allow, remove or restore any means of access constructed or altered in contravention of that paragraph and make good any damage to the road,
then the Department may itself—
(i)remove or restore that means of access and make good any damage to the road; and
(ii)recover from that person any expenses thereby reasonably incurred by it.