301Electronic communications apparatus affected by order(1)

This section applies where—

(a)

on the application of a local authority, the Welsh Ministers make an order under section 297 that extinguishes a public right of way over any land, and

(b)

at the time when the Welsh Ministers published the notice required by paragraph 2 of Schedule 17, there was electronic communications apparatus installed on the land for the purposes of an electronic communications code network.

(2)

This section also applies where—

(a)

a local authority makes an order under section 300 that extinguishes a public right of way over any land, and

(b)

at the time when the authority published the notice required by paragraph 10 of Schedule 17, there was electronic communications apparatus installed on the land for the purposes of an electronic communications code network.

(3)

As soon as reasonably practicable after making the order mentioned in subsection (1) or (2), the person who made the order must give notice that it has done so to the operator of the network.

(4)

Despite the making of the order, the operator may exercise its power to remove the electronic communications apparatus at any time before the end of the removal period.

(5)

If the operator gives notice to the local authority before the end of the removal period stating its intention to remove the apparatus or any part of it, the operator may exercise its right to remove the apparatus or that part of it after the end of the removal period.

(6)

The operator of the network may abandon the electronic communications apparatus or any part of it by giving notice to the authority before the end of the removal period.

(7)

The operator is to be treated at the end of the removal period as having abandoned any part of the apparatus that it has not abandoned, removed or given notice of its intention to remove.

(8)

Where any electronic communications apparatus is removed or abandoned under this section, the operator may recover from the local authority the cost of providing any electronic communications apparatus in another place in substitution for—

(a)

the apparatus that has been removed or abandoned, and

(b)

any other electronic communications apparatus connected with it that becomes useless as a result of the removal or abandonment.

(9)

On the abandonment of any electronic communications apparatus under this section—

(a)

the local authority becomes entitled to the apparatus, and

(b)

the apparatus is to be treated as no longer being installed for the purposes of an electronic communications code network.

(10)

In this section “the removal period” means 3 months beginning with the day after the day the right of way is extinguished.