Post Office Act 1969

66 Harbour charges on mail-bags

(1) Any statutory provision made with respect to a harbour authority shall, on the appointed day, cease to have effect in so far as it exempts mail-bags or any description thereof from charges.

(2) No charge imposed by a harbour authority in respect of goods brought into, taken out of, or carried through a harbour which, in the exercise and performance of statutory powers and duties, they are engaged in improving, maintaining or managing shall apply to goods contained in—

(a) mail-bags carried by the Post Office or consigned by it to another for carriage (whether to a foreign administration or not) or by a foreign administration to it for carriage; or

(b) mail-bags consigned by one foreign administration to another, being mail-bags which, when in the United Kingdom, are in the charge of the Post Office.

(3) Charges in respect of mail-bags and their contents exigible by a harbour authority at a harbour which, in the exercise and performance of statutory powers and duties, they are engaged in improving, maintaining or managing (being mail-bags carried or consigned as aforesaid) shall, notwithstanding anything in any statutory provision made with respect to the authority, not be payable before the expiration of the period of eight weeks beginning with the day on which the bags are brought within the limits of the harbour, and shall be recoverable by means of proceedings instituted in that behalf in any court of competent jurisdiction to the exclusion of any other means.

(4) In this section, except in its application to Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man, references to a harbour which, in the exercise and performance of statutory powers and duties, a harbour authority are engaged in improving, maintaining or managing shall be construed in like manner as if they were contained in the [1964 c. 40.] Harbours Act 1964.

(5) In the application of this section to Northern Ireland, references to a harbour which, in the exercise and performance of statutory powers and duties, a harbour authority are engaged in improving, maintaining or managing shall be construed as references to a harbour which is being improved, maintained or managed by such an authority in the exercise of powers conferred by a statutory provision, in the performance of duties imposed by a statutory provision or in the exercise and performance of powers conferred and duties imposed by a statutory provision.

(6) In the application of this section to the Isle of Man, references to a harbour which, in the exercise and performance of statutory powers and duties, a harbour authority are engaged in improving, maintaining or managing shall be construed as referring to a harbour vested in the Isle of Man Harbour Board.