Highways Act 1980

258 Provisions relating to objections to compulsory purchase orders

(1) Where proceedings required by Schedule 1 to the Act of 1946 to be taken in respect of a compulsory purchase order made or proposed to be made in the exercise of highway land acquisition powers for a purpose specified in column 1 of Schedule 20 to this Act are taken after the confirmation or making by the Minister of an order or scheme specified in relation thereto in column 2 of that Schedule, then—

(a) in the case of a compulsory purchase order proposed to be made by the Minister, the Minister and the Secretary of State acting jointly,

(b) in any other case, the Minister,

may disregard for the purposes of the said Schedule 1 any objection to the compulsory purchase order or draft thereof, as the case may be, which in his or their opinion amounts in substance to an objection to that order or scheme.

(2) Where objections to a compulsory purchase order made or proposed to be made in the exercise of highway land acquisition powers for purposes connected with the construction, improvement, diversion or alteration of a highway are to be the subject of a local inquiry or considered by a person appointed by the Minister, or by the Minister and the Secretary of State acting jointly, the Minister or, as the case may be, those Ministers may, by notice served on the persons making such objections or by the notice announcing the holding of the inquiry or hearing, direct that any person who intends at the inquiry to submit—

(a) that any highway or proposed highway to which the order relates should follow an alternative route, or

(b) that, instead of improving, diverting or altering a highway to which the order relates, a new highway should be constructed on a particular route,

shall send to the Minister within such period as may be specified in the notice, being a period of not less than 14 days and ending not less than 14 days before the date fixed for the holding of the inquiry or hearing, sufficient information about the alternative route or the route of the new highway, as the case may be, to enable it to be identified.

(3) Where the Minister or the Minister and the Secretary of State acting jointly have given a direction under subsection (2) above in relation to an inquiry or hearing, the person holding the inquiry or hearing and the Minister or, as the case may be, those Ministers may disregard so much of any objection as consists of a submission to which the direction applies unless the person making the objection has complied with the direction.