Town and Country Planning Act 1990

Orders by other authorities

257 Footpaths and bridleways affected by development: orders by other authorities

(1) Subject to section 259, a competent authority may by order authorise the stopping up or diversion of any footpath or bridleway if they are satisfied that it is necessary to do so in order to enable development to be carried out—

(a) in accordance with planning permission granted under Part III, or

(b) by a government department.

(2) An order under this section may, if the competent authority are satisfied that it should do so, provide—

(a) for the creation of an alternative highway for use as a replacement for the one authorised by the order to be stopped up or diverted, or for the improvement of an existing highway for such use;

(b) for authorising or requiring works to be carried out in relation to any footpath or bridleway for whose stopping up or diversion, creation or improvement provision is made by the order;

(c) for the preservation of any rights of statutory undertakers in respect of any apparatus of theirs which immediately before the date of the order is under, in, on, over, along or across any such footpath or bridleway;

(d) for requiring any person named in the order to pay, or make contributions in respect of, the cost of carrying out any such works.

(3) An order may be made under this section authorising the stopping up or diversion of a footpath or bridleway which is temporarily stopped up or diverted under any other enactment.

(4) In this section “competent authority” means—

(a) in the case of development authorised by a planning permission, the local planning authority who granted the permission or, in the case of a permission granted by the Secretary of State, who would have had power to grant it; and

(b) in the case of development carried out by a government department, the local planning authority who would have had power to grant planning permission on an application in respect of the development in question if such an application had fallen to be made.

258 Extinguishment of public rights of way over land held for planning purposes

(1) Where any land has been acquired or appropriated for planning purposes and is for the time being held by a local authority for the purposes for which it was acquired or appropriated, then, subject to section 259, the local authority may by order extinguish any public right of way over the land, being a footpath or bridleway, if they are satisfied—

(a) that an alternative right of way has been or will be provided; or

(b) that the provision of an alternative right of way is not required.

(2) In this section any reference to the acquisition or appropriation of land for planning purposes shall be construed in accordance with section 246(1) as if this section were in Part IX.

(3) Subsection (1) shall also apply (with the substitution of a reference to the Broads Authority for the reference to the local authority) in relation to any land within the Broads which is held by the Broads Authority and which was acquired by, or vested in, the Authority for any purpose connected with the discharge of any of its functions.

259 Confirmation of orders made by other authorities

(1) An order made under section 257 or 258 shall not take effect unless confirmed by the Secretary of State or unless confirmed, as an unopposed order, by the authority who made it.

(2) The Secretary of State shall not confirm any such order unless satisfied as to every matter as to which the authority making the order are required under section 257 or, as the case may be, section 258 to be satisfied.

(3) The time specified—

(a) in an order under section 257 as the time from which a footpath or bridleway is to be stopped up or diverted; or

(b) in an order under section 258 as the time from which a right of way is to be extinguished,

shall not be earlier than confirmation of the order.

(4) Schedule 14 shall have effect with respect to the confirmation of orders under section 257 or 258 and the publicity for such orders after they are confirmed.

260 Telecommunic-ation apparatus: orders by or on application of other authorities

(1) This section applies where—

(a) any order is made by a local authority under section 258(1), or on the application of a local authority under section 251(1), which extinguishes a public right of way; or

(b) any order is made by a competent authority under section 257 which authorises the stopping up or diversion of a footpath or bridleway,

and at the time of the publication of the notice required by section 252(1) or, as the case may be, paragraph 1 of Schedule 14 any telecommunication apparatus was kept installed for the purposes of a telecommunications code system under, in, on, over, along or across the land over which the right of way subsisted.

(2) In subsection (1) “competent authority” has the same meaning as in section 257 and in the following provisions of this section references to the authority are to the authority who made the order or, as the case may be, to the authority on whose application it was made.

(3) The power of the operator of the telecommunications code system to remove the apparatus—

(a) shall, notwithstanding the making of the order, be exercisable at any time not later than the end of the period of three months from the date on which the right of way is extinguished or authorised to be stopped up or diverted; and

(b) if before the end of that period the operator of the system has given notice to the authority of his intention to remove the apparatus or a part of it, shall be exercisable in respect of the whole or, as the case may be, that part of the apparatus after the end of that period.

(4) The operator of the system may by notice given in that behalf to the authority not later than the end of that period abandon the telecommunication apparatus or any part of it.

(5) Subject to subsection (4), the operator of the system shall be deemed at the end of that period to have abandoned any part of the apparatus which the operator has then neither removed nor given notice of his intention to remove.

(6) The operator of the system shall be entitled to recover from the authority the expense of providing, in substitution for the apparatus and any other telecommunication apparatus connected with it which is rendered useless in consequence of the removal or abandonment of the first-mentioned apparatus, any telecommunication apparatus in such other place as the operator may require.

(7) Where under the previous provisions of this section the operator of the system has abandoned the whole or any part of any telecommunication apparatus, that apparatus or that part of it shall vest in the authority and shall be deemed, with its abandonment, to cease to be kept installed for the purposes of a telecommunications code system.

(8) As soon as reasonably practicable after the making of any such order as is mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) in circumstances in which that subsection applies in relation to the operator of any telecommunications code system, the person by whom the order was made shall give notice to the operator of the making of the order.

(9) Subsections (5) and (6) of section 256 apply for the purposes of this section as they apply for the purposes of that section.