The Portishead Branch Line (MetroWest Phase 1) Order 2022

Compulsory acquisition of rights or imposition of covenants

27.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), the undertaker may acquire compulsorily such rights over the Order land as may be required for any purpose for which that land may be acquired under article 24 (compulsory acquisition of land) by creating them as well as by acquiring rights already in existence.

(2) The undertaker may impose restrictive covenants affecting any part of the Order land which—

(a) adjoins or will, on completion of the authorised railway works, adjoin Work Nos. 1, 1A, 1B or 1C or as may be required for the purpose of protecting the authorised railway works; or

(b) is required for the purposes of ecological or other mitigation.

(3) In the case of the Order land specified in column (1) of Schedule 10 (land in which only new rights, etc., may be acquired) the undertaker’s powers of compulsory acquisition are limited to the acquisition of such new rights in the land for the purpose specified in relation to that land in column (2) of that Schedule or the imposition of restrictive covenants in accordance with paragraph (2).

(4) Subject to Schedule 2A (counter-notice requiring purchase of land not in notice to treat) to the 1965 Act (as substituted by paragraph 5(8) of Schedule 11 (modification of compensation and compulsory purchase enactments for creation of new rights and imposition of restrictive covenants)) where the undertaker acquires a right over land or the benefit of a restrictive covenant, the undertaker is not required to acquire a greater interest in that land.

(5) Schedule 11 has effect for the purpose of modifying the enactments relating to compensation and the provisions of the 1965 Act in their application in relation to the compulsory acquisition under this article of a right over land by the creation of a new right or the imposition of a restrictive covenant.

(6) In any case where the acquisition of new rights under paragraph (1) or the imposition of a restriction under paragraph (2) is required for the purpose of diverting, replacing or protecting apparatus of a statutory undertaker, then the undertaker may, with the consent of the Secretary of State, transfer the power to acquire such rights or impose such restrictions to the relevant statutory undertaker.

(7) The exercise by a statutory undertaker of any power in accordance with a transfer under paragraph (6) is subject to the same restrictions, liabilities and obligations as would apply under this Order if that power were exercised by the undertaker.

(8) Where any power is transferred to a statutory undertaker in accordance with a transfer under paragraph (6) and the statutory undertaker—

(a) is liable to pay compensation for the exercise of that power; and

(b) fails to discharge that liability,

the liability is enforceable against the undertaker.