Temporary closure of public rights of way
12.—(1) The undertaker, during and for the purposes of or incidental to constructing or maintaining the authorised development, may temporarily prohibit the use of, authorise the use of, alter or divert any public right of way and may for any reasonable time—
(a)divert the traffic or a class of traffic from the public right of way;
(b)authorise the use of motor vehicles on classes of public rights of way where, notwithstanding the provisions of this article, there is otherwise no public right to use motor vehicles; and
(c)subject to paragraph (2), prevent all persons from passing along the public right of way.
(2) The undertaker must provide reasonable access for pedestrians going to or from premises abutting a public right of way affected by the temporary prohibition, restriction, alteration or diversion of a public right of way under this article if there would otherwise be no such access.
(3) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (1), the undertaker may temporarily prohibit the use of, authorise the use of, restrict the use of, alter or divert the public rights of way specified in column (2) of the table in Schedule 6 (public rights of way to be temporarily closed) to the extent specified in column (3) of that table.
(4) The undertaker must not temporarily prohibit the use of, restrict the use of, authorise the use of, alter or divert—
(a)any public right of way specified in paragraph (3) without first consulting the street authority; and
(b)any other public right of way without the consent of the street authority, and the street authority may attach reasonable conditions to any such consent.
(5) Any person who suffers loss by the suspension of any private right of way under this article is entitled to compensation to be determined, in case of dispute, under Part 1 (determination of questions of disputed compensation) of the 1961 Act.
(6) Without prejudice to the scope of paragraph (1), the undertaker may use any public right of way which has been temporarily closed under the powers conferred by this article and within the Order limits as a temporary working site.
(7) In this article expressions used in this article and in the 1984 Act have the same meaning.