The Access to the Countryside (Northern Ireland) Order 1983

Supplementary provisions as to creation, closure and diversion N.I.

18.—(1) Before making a public path creation agreement, a public path creation order, a public path extinguishment order or a public path diversion order, the district council shall consult the Department and any body appearing to the district council to be representative of persons likely to be affected by the agreement or order.

(2) The district council shall have the like power under Articles 11 and 12 to enter into a public path creation agreement or to make a public path creation order for the purpose of securing the widening of an existing public right of way as it has for the purpose of securing the creation of a public path, and references in those Articles to the creation of a public path shall be construed accordingly.

(3) Articles 14 to 16 and 19 shall apply in relation to all public rights of way whether created before or after the commencement of this Order as they apply to public paths.

(4) Articles 14 to 16 and 19 shall not prejudice any power conferred by any other statutory provision to close or divert a road and shall not otherwise affect the operation of any statutory provision relating to the extinguishment, suspension, diversion or variation of rights of way.

(5) A public path creation order, a public path extinguishment order or a public path diversion order affecting in any way the district of more than one district council may contain provisions requiring one of the councils to defray, or contribute towards, expenses incurred in consequence of the order by another district council.

(6) A public path diversion order diverting part of the line of a path from the district of one district council to another may provide that the first district council shall continue to be responsible for the maintenance of that part of the path after the diversion.

(7) A district council and the Department shall not make or confirm a public path creation order, a public path extinguishment order or a public path diversion order relating to a right of way over land under, in, upon, over, along or across which there is any apparatus belonging to or used by any statutory undertakers have consented to the making or confirmation of the order, as the case may be; and any such consent may be given subject to the condition that there are included in the order such provisions for the protection of the statutory undertakers as they may reasonably require.

(8) The consent of statutory undertakers required by paragraph (7) shall not be unreasonably withheld, and any question arising under that paragraph—

(a) whether the withholding of a consent is unreasonable, or

(b) whether any requirement is reasonable,

shall be determined by arbitration.

(9) Where in pursuance of a public path extinguishment order or a public path diversion order a public path is closed or diverted and, immediately before that order comes into force, there is under, in, upon, over, along or across the path any telegraphic line belonging to or used by British Telecommunications, British Telecommunications shall have the same powers in respect of that land as if the order had not come into force; but if any person entitled to land over which the path subsisted requires that the telegraphic line shall be altered, paragraphs (1) to (8) of section 7 of the Telegraph Act 1878 shall apply to the alteration, and accordingly shall have effect, subject to any necessary modifications, as if references in those paragraphs to undertakers included references to the person so requiring the line to be altered.