The A303 (Amesbury to Berwick Down) Development Consent Order 2023

Authority to survey and investigate land

15.—(1) The undertaker may for the purposes of the construction, operation or maintenance of the authorised development enter on—

(a) any land shown within the Order limits; and

(b) where reasonably necessary, any land which is adjacent to, but outside the Order limits,

and—

(i) survey or investigate the land (including any watercourses, groundwater, static water bodies or vegetation on the land);

(ii) without limitation on the scope of sub-paragraph (i), make any excavations or trial holes and boreholes in such positions on the land as the undertaker thinks fit to investigate the nature of the surface layer, subsoil and groundwater and remove soil and water samples and discharge water from sampling operations on to the land;

(iii) without limitation on the scope of sub-paragraph (i), carry out ecological or archaeological investigations on such land, including making any excavations or trial holes on the land for such purposes; and

(iv) place on, leave on and remove from the land apparatus for use in connection with the survey and investigation of land and making of trial holes and boreholes.

(2) No land may be entered or equipment placed or left on or removed from the land under paragraph (1) unless at least 14 days’ notice has been served on every owner and occupier of the land.

(3) The notice required under paragraph (2) must indicate the nature of the survey or investigation that the undertaker intends to carry out.

(4) Any person entering land under this article on behalf of the undertaker—

(a) must, if so required, before or after entering the land, produce written evidence of authority to do so; and

(b) may take onto the land such vehicles and equipment as are necessary to carry out the survey or investigation or to make the trial holes and boreholes.

(5) No trial holes or boreholes are to be made under this article—

(a) in land located within the highway boundary without the consent of the highway authority; or

(b) in a private street without the consent of the street authority.

(6) The undertaker must compensate the owners and occupiers of the land for any loss or damage arising by reason of the exercise of the powers conferred by this article, such compensation to be determined, in case of dispute, as if it were a dispute under Part 1 (determination of questions of disputed compensation) of the 1961 Act.

(7) Section 13 (refusal to give possession to acquiring authority) of the 1965 Act applies to the entry onto land under this article to the same extent as it applies to the compulsory acquisition of land under this Order by virtue of section 125 (application of compulsory acquisition provisions) of the 2008 Act.