Pipe-lines Act 1962

31 Power of the Minister to remove deposits imperilling pipeline

(1) If, without the consent of the Minister, a person so deposits any earth, refuse, spoil or other materials that any of the materials deposited are situate less than ten feet from a point on the surface of land whose position is vertically above a part of a pipe-line below the surface, then, unless the materials were deposited for the purposes or in the course of agricultural operations (not being operations for the storage of crops, grass or silage), or in the course of executing code-regulated works within the meaning of the Public Utilities Street Works Act, 1950, the Minister may enter and remove the materials deposited and may recover the expenses reasonably incurred by him in so doing from the owner of the land on which the materials were deposited or, if there is more than one owner, from the owners thereof in such shares as the judge may determine to be just and equitable.

(2) An owner of land who pays to the Minister the full amount of a claim by him under the foregoing subsection may recover from any other owner of the land such contribution, if any, as the judge may determine to be just and equitable.

(3) The county court within whose jurisdiction the land is situated shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine any proceedings under subsection (1) or (2) of this section; and in determining for the purposes of either of those subsections the shares in which any expenses shall be paid or contributed by two or more owners of any land, a county court judge shall have regard to their respective interests in the land and all the other circumstances of the case.

(4) In the application of this section to Scotland, for references to a county court or a county court judge there shall be substituted references to the sheriff.