The Wye Navigation Order 2002

Obstructions

12.—(1) This article applies to anything, other than a vessel, causing an obstruction or impediment to the navigation or use of the principal rivers (in this article and article 13 referred to as an “obstruction”).

(2) Subject to paragraph (12), the Agency may—

(a) require the owner of an obstruction or, if he is not known, the owner or occupier of any land on which the obstruction is situated, to mark the obstruction in a manner specified by the Agency; or

(b) require the owner of the obstruction or, if he is not known, the owner or occupier of the land, as the case may be, to modify or remove the obstruction in a manner specified by the Agency,

if the owner of the obstruction, or the owner or occupier of the land, as the case may be, caused or knowingly permitted it to become or remain an obstruction.

(3) If the owner of the obstruction, or the owner or occupier of the land, fails to take any action specified by the Agency pursuant to paragraph (2), the Agency may take that action and recover the reasonable costs of doing so from that person.

(4) In any proceedings by the Agency against any person required to modify, remove or mark an obstruction under paragraph (2) for the recovery of costs which the Agency is entitled to recover under paragraph (3), it shall not be open to that person to raise any question which could have been raised on an appeal under article 13.

(5) Subject to paragraph (12), the Agency may—

(a) mark an obstruction, or

(b) modify or remove it,

in such circumstances as it considers fit.

(6) Before exercising its powers under paragraph (5), the Agency shall, if it is reasonably practicable to do so, give notice of its intention to the owner or occupier of any land on which the obstruction is situated.

(7) If an obstruction removed by the Agency under this article is so marked as to be readily identifiable as the property of any person, the Agency shall within one month of its coming into the Agency’s custody give notice, as required by paragraph (11), to that person and, if possession of the thing is not retaken within the period specified in, and in accordance with the terms of, the notice, it shall vest in the Agency at the end of that period.

(8) If an obstruction removed by the Agency under this article, which is not marked as described in paragraph (7), is not within 3 months of its coming into the custody of the Agency proved to the Agency’s reasonable satisfaction to belong to any person, it shall vest in the Agency.

(9) The Agency may at such time and in such manner as it thinks fit dispose of anything referred to in paragraph (8) which is of a perishable nature or the custody of which involves unreasonable expense or inconvenience notwithstanding that at the time it has not vested in the Agency under this article, and if it is sold the proceeds of sale shall be applied by the Agency in payment of the expenses incurred by it under this article in relation to the thing, and any balance shall—

(a) be paid to any person who, within 3 months from the time when the thing came into the custody of the Agency, proves to the reasonable satisfaction of the Agency that he was the owner of the thing at that time; or

(b) if within the said period no person proves his ownership at the same time, vest in the Agency.

(10) If an obstruction removed by the Agency under this article—

(a) is sold by the Agency and the proceeds of sale are insufficient to reimburse it for the amount of the expenses incurred by it in the exercise of its powers of removal; or

(b) is unsaleable,

the Agency may recover the deficiency or the whole of the expenses, as the case may be, from the person who was the owner at the time when the thing removed came into the custody of the Agency or who was the owner at the time of its abandonment or loss, if that person caused or knowingly permitted the obstruction to be there.

(11) A notice given under paragraph (7) shall specify the thing removed and state that, upon proof of ownership to the reasonable satisfaction of the Agency and payment of the reasonable costs of the raising, removal and storage of the thing, possession may be retaken at the place named in the notice within the time specified in the notice, being not less than 14 days after the date when the notice is served.

(12) The Agency shall not under the powers of this article remove, or require the removal of, or modify, or require the modification of, any obstruction specifically authorised by any enactment or by a works licence granted by the Agency under article 22.

(13) In paragraph (1), reference to anything causing an obstruction or impediment to the navigation or use of the principal rivers is a reference to anything causing an obstruction or impediment to a vessel of a size customarily navigated or used on that part of the principal rivers concerned.