Special Roads Act 1949

20 Saving for Postmaster-General

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, nothing in this Act or in any scheme or order made thereunder shall affect any powers or duties of the Postmaster-General under the provisions of the Telegraph Acts, 1863 to 1943, or apply to any telegraphic lines placed or maintained by virtue of any of those provisions.

(2) Where in pursuance of an order under section three of this Act any road is stopped up or diverted and, immediately before that order comes into force, there is under, in, upon, over, along or across the road any telegraphic line belonging to or used by the Postmaster-General, the Postmaster-General shall have the same powers in respect of that line as if the order had not come into force :

Provided that if any person entitled to land over which the road subsisted requires that the telegraphic line shall be altered, paragraphs (1) to (8) of section seven of the Telegraph Act, 1878, shall apply to the alteration, and accordingly shall have effect, subject to any necessary modifications, as if references therein to undertakers included references to the person so requiring the line to be altered.

(3) Where an order under the said section three 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 telegraphic line belonging to or used by the Postmaster-General, then if the highway authority require that that line should be altered, paragraphs (i) to (8) of the said section seven shall apply to the alteration, and accordingly shall have effect, subject to any necessary modifications, as if references therein to undertakers included references to the highway authority.

(4) In this section the expressions " alter " and " telegraphic line " have the same meanings as in the Telegraph Act, 1878.