The Greater Manchester (Light Rapid Transit System) (Airport Extension) Order 1997

Supplemental

Attachment of equipment to buildings for purposes of transit system

19.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this article, the undertaker may affix to any building:—

(a) any brackets, cables, wires, insulators and other apparatus required in connection with the authorised transit system, and

(b) any lamps, brackets, pipes, electric lines and other apparatus required for the provision of additional or substitute street lighting in consequence of the construction of the authorised transit system.

(2) The undertaker shall not under this article affix any apparatus to a building without the consent of the relevant owner of the building; and such consent may be given subject to reasonable conditions (including, where appropriate, the payment of rent) but shall not be unreasonably withheld.

(3) Where—

(a) the undertaker serves on the relevant owner of a building a notice requesting the owner’s consent to the affixing of specified apparatus to the building, and

(b) the relevant owner does not within the period of 56 days beginning with the date upon which the notice is served give his consent unconditionally or give it subject to conditions or refuse it,

the consent shall be deemed to have been withheld.

(4) Where, in the opinion of the undertaker, a consent required under this article for the affixing of specified apparatus is unreasonably withheld or given subject to unreasonable conditions, it may apply to the magistrates court who may either allow the apparatus to be affixed subject to such conditions, if any, as it thinks fit or it may disallow the application.

(5) Where apparatus is affixed to a building under this article—

(a) any owner for the time being of the building may serve on the undertaker not less than 28 days’ notice requiring the undertaker at its own expense temporarily to remove the apparatus during any reconstruction or repair of the building if such removal is reasonably necessary for that purpose, and

(b) the undertaker shall have the right as against any person having an interest in the building to maintain the apparatus.

(6) The undertaker shall pay compensation to the owners and occupiers of the building for any loss or damage sustained by them by reason of the exercise of the powers conferred by paragraphs (1) and (5)(b) above; and any dispute as to a person’s entitlement to compensation, or as to the amount of the compensation, shall be determined under Part I of the Land Compensation Act 1961(1).

(7) In this article—

“building” includes any structure and a bridge or aqueduct over the street; and

“relevant owner”—

(a)

in relation to a building occupied under a lease or tenancy having an unexpired term exceeding 5 years, means the occupier of the building, or

(b)

in relation to any other building, means the person for the time being receiving the rack rent of the building whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person, or who would so receive it if the building were let at a rack rent.

Discharge of water

20.—(1) The undertaker may use any watercourse or any public sewer or drain for the drainage of water in connection with the construction or maintenance of the authorised works and for that purpose may lay down, take up and alter pipes and may, on any land shown on the Order plans or in any street along which any authorised street tramway is laid, make openings into, and connections with, the watercourse, sewer or drain.

(2) The undertaker shall not discharge any water into any watercourse, public sewer or drain except with the consent of the authority to which it belongs; and such consent may be given subject to such terms and conditions as the authority may reasonably impose but shall not be unreasonably withheld.

(3) The undertaker shall not make any opening into any public sewer or drain except in accordance with plans approved by, and under the superintendence (if provided) of, the authority to which the sewer or drain belongs, but such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld.

(4) The undertaker shall not, in the exercise of the powers conferred by this article, damage or interfere with the bed or banks of any watercourse forming part of a main river.

(5) The undertaker shall take such steps as are reasonably practicable to secure that any water discharged into a watercourse or public sewer or drain under the powers conferred by this article is as free as may be practicable from gravel, soil or other solid substance or oil or matter in suspension.

(6) This article does not authorise the entry into controlled waters of any matter whose entry or discharge into controlled waters is prohibited by section 85(1), (2) or (3) of the Water Resources Act 1991(2).

(7) In this article—

(a) “public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain which belongs to a sewerage undertaker, the Environment Agency, an internal drainage board, a local authority, a joint planning board, the Commission for the New Towns, an urban development corporation or a harbour authority within the meaning of the Harbours Act 1964(3).

(b) “watercourse” includes all rivers, streams, ditches, drains, cuts, culverts, dykes, sluices, sewers and passages through which water flows except a public sewer or drain, and

(c) other expressions used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991 have the same meaning as in that Act.

Power to survey and investigate land

21.—(1) The undertaker may for the purposes of this Order—

(a) survey or investigate any land within the limits of deviation shown on the Order plans or in any street along which any authorised street tramway is authorised to be laid,

(b) without prejudice to the generality of sub-paragraph (a) above, make trial holes in such positions as the undertaker thinks fit on the land to investigate the nature of the surface layer and subsoil and remove soil samples,

(c) 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

(d) enter on the land for the purpose of exercising the powers conferred by sub-paragraphs (a) to (c) above.

(2) No land may be entered, or equipment placed or left on or removed from the land under paragraph (1) above, unless at least 7 days’ notice has been served on every owner and occupier of the land.

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

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

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

(4) No trial holes shall be made under this article in a carriageway or footway without the consent of the street authority, but such consent shall not be unreasonably withheld.

(5) The undertaker shall make compensation for any damage occasioned, by the exercise of the powers conferred by this article, to the owners and occupiers of the land, such compensation to be determined, in case of dispute, under Part I of the Land Compensation Act 1961.

Mode of construction and operation of transit system

22.—(1) The authorised transit system shall be operated by electricity or, in an emergency or for the purposes of maintenance, by diesel power or other means.

(2) The authorised transit system shall be constructed on a gauge of 1,435 millimetres.

(3) The authorised street tramway (other than any reserved track tramway) shall be so constructed and maintained as to ensure that the uppermost surface of the rails is level with the surrounding surfaces of the street in which it is laid.

(4) In constructing stations and stopping places for the purposes of the authorised transit system the undertaker shall make provision, in so far as it is in the circumstances both practicable and reasonable and without prejudice to any requirement having effect under or by virtue of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970(4), for the needs of members of the public using the authorised transit system whose mobility is impaired.

Obstruction of construction of transit system

23.  Any person who, without reasonable excuse, obstructs another person from constructing any of the authorised works under the powers conferred by this Order shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

(1)

1961 c. 33.

(2)

1991 c. 57.

(3)

1964 c. 40.

(4)

1970 c. 44.