The Environment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002

Power to make byelaws for ASSI

45.—(1) The Department may make byelaws for the protection of an ASSI.

(2) Byelaws under this Article may in relation to land included in an ASSI—

(a) prohibit or restrict the use of the land, either generally or in a manner specified in the byelaws, by traffic of any description so specified;

(b) prohibit or restrict, either generally or in a manner specified in the byelaws, the use of mechanically-propelled vessels on watercourses in, or whose shores lie within, any such land;

(c) regulate or prohibit the lighting of fires on the land;

(d) regulate or prohibit the taking away of soil, turf, sand or minerals of any description from the land;

(e) make provision for securing that persons resorting to the land will so conduct themselves as to avoid undue interference with the enjoyment of the land by other persons.

(3) Before making any byelaws under this Article the Department shall consult the Council.

(4) Byelaws under this Article shall not interfere with—

(a) the exercise by any person of a right vested in him as owner or occupier of any land;

(b) the exercise of any public right of way in relation to any land; or

(c) the exercise of any statutory functions of any public body in relation to any land.

(5) The Department may authorise persons appointed or employed to enforce byelaws made under this Article to take any action necessary for that purpose.

(6) In particular, any person authorised under paragraph (5) may, after due warning, remove or exclude a person from any land included in an ASSI who contravenes, or whom he reasonably suspects of contravening, the byelaws relating to that ASSI.