26(1)For section 20 of the [1949 c. 32.] Special Roads Act 1949 (saving for British Telecommunications) there shall be substituted the following section: —
“20(1)Subject to the provisions of this section, nothing in this Act or in any scheme or order made under it affects any rights conferred by or in accordance with the telecommunications code on the operator of a telecommunications code system or any duty of any such operator under that code or applies to any telecommunication apparatus kept installed for the purposes of any such system.
(2)Where in pursuance of an order under section 3 of this Act any road is stopped up or diverted and immediately before the order comes into force there is under, in, upon, over, along or across the road any telecommunication apparatus kept installed for the purposes of a telecommunications code system, the operator of that system shall have the same powers in respect of the telecommunication apparatus as if the order had not become operative ; but any person entitled to land over which the road subsisted shall be entitled to require the alteration of the apparatus.
(3)Where an order under the said section 3 provides for the alteration of any road, not being a trunk road and, immediately before the date on which the order comes into force, there is under, in, upon, over, along or across the road any telecommunication apparatus kept installed for the purposes of a telecommunications code system, the highway authority shall be entitled to require the alteration of the apparatus.
This subsection does not have effect so far as it relates to the alteration of any telecommunication apparatus for the purpose of authority's works as defined in Part II of the [1950 c. 39.] Public Utilities Street Works Act 1950.
(4)Paragraph 1(2) of the telecommunications code (alteration of apparatus to include moving, removal or replacement of apparatus) shall apply for the purposes of the preceding provisions of this section as it applies for the purposes of that code.
(5)Paragraph 21 of the telecommunications code (restriction on removal of telecommunication apparatus) shall apply in relation to any entitlement conferred by this section to require the alteration, moving or replacement of any telecommunication apparatus as it applies in relation to an entitlement to require the removal of any such apparatus.”.
(2)In relation to an order under section 3 of the said Act of 1949 coming into force before the appointed day, section 20 of that Act shall have effect, notwithstanding any repeal made by this Act, as it has effect immediately before the coming into force of sub-paragraph (1) above.