(1)No railway undertakers or canal undertakers shall be deemed to be owners or occupiers for the purposes of the private street works code of land upon which a street wholly or partly fronts if the land has no direct communication with the street and at the time of the laying out of the street was used solely as part of their line of railway, canal, or siding, station, towing path, or works—
(a)by the undertakers, or
(b)in a case where the rights of other railway or canal undertakers in respect of the land under section 22 of the M1Private Street Works Act 1892, are vested in the undertakers, by those other railway undertakers or canal undertakers.
(2)The amount of any expenses incurred by a street works authority under the private street works code which, but for subsection (1) above, the undertakers would be liable to pay shall be paid to the authority by the owners of the other premises included in the final apportionment in such proportion as may be settled by the proper officer of the council.
(3)If the undertakers subsequently make a communication with the street, they shall pay to the authority the amount of the expenses which, but for subsection (1) above, the undertakers or such other undertakers as aforesaid would in the first instance have been liable to pay, and the authority shall divide among the owners for the time being of the other premises included in the final apportionment the amount so paid by the undertakers, less the costs and expenses attendant upon the division, in such proportion as may be settled by the proper officer of the council.
(4)This section does not apply to a street existing at the date when the M2Private Street Works Act 1892 or the code of 1892 under the M3Highways Act 1959, as the case may be, first became applicable in the area in which the street is situated.