Where an order under section 23 above extinguishing a public right of way is made on the application of a development corporation or local highway authority, and at the time of the publication of the notice required by subsection (2) of that section there was under, in, on, over, along or across the land over which the right of way subsisted a telegraphic line belonging to or used by the Post Office or British Telecommunications—
(a)the power of British Telecommunications to remove the line shall, notwithstanding the making of the order, be exercisable at any time not later than the end of the period of 3 months from the date on which the right of way is extinguished, and shall be exercisable in respect of the whole or any part of the line after the end of that period if before the end of that period British Telecommunications has given notice to the development corporation or local highway authority of its intention to remove the line or that part of it, as the case may be;
(b)British Telecommunications may by notice given in that behalf to the development corporation or local highway authority not later than the end of that period of 3 months abandon the telegraphic line or any part of it;
(c)subject to paragraph (b) above, British Telecommunications shall be deemed at the end of that period to have abandoned any part of the line which it has then neither removed nor given notice of its intention to remove;
(d)British Telecommunications shall be entitled to recover from the development corporation or local highway authority the expense of providing, in substitution for the line and any connected telegraphic line which is rendered useless in consequence of the removal or abandonment of the line, a telegraphic line in such other place as British Telecommunications may require;
(e)where under the foregoing provisions of this section British Telecommunications has abandoned the whole or any part of a telegraphic line, it shall vest in the development corporation or local highway authority, and the provisions of the Telegraph Acts 1863 to 1916 shall not apply in relation to the line or that part of it with respect to anything done or omitted after its abandonment.
In this section " telegraphic line " has the same meaning as in the [1878 c. 76.] Telegraph Act 1878.