The National Grid (Yorkshire Green Energy Enablement Project) Development Consent Order 2024

Authority to survey and investigate the land

21.—(1) The undertaker may for the purposes of this Order enter on any land shown within the Order limits or which may be affected by the authorised development and—

(a) survey, monitor or investigate the land; (including any watercourses, groundwater, static water bodies or vegetation on the land);

(b) without prejudice to the generality of sub-paragraph (a), survey, monitor or investigate the land and any buildings on that land for the purpose of investigating the potential effects of the authorised development on that land or buildings on that land or for enabling the construction, use and maintenance of the authorised development;

(c) without limitation on the scope of sub-paragraph (a), make trial holes, boreholes, excavations or take horizontal cores in such positions on the land as the undertaker thinks fit to investigate the nature of the surface layer, subsoil, groundwater and other materials below ground level or remove soil, rock, water or other material samples and discharge water from sampling operations on to the land;

(d) without limitation on the scope of sub-paragraph (a), carry out ecological or archaeological investigations and monitoring on the land, including making any excavations or trial holes on the land for such purposes; and

(e) place on, leave on and remove from the land apparatus (including but not limited to welfare facilities and security facilities) for use in connection with the survey, monitoring or investigation of land, making of trial holes, boreholes, excavations, cores, or the carrying out of ecological or archaeological investigations or monitoring.

(2) The power conferred by paragraph (1) includes without prejudice to the generality of that paragraph the power to take, and process, samples of or from any of the following found on, in or over the land—

(a) water;

(b) air;

(c) soil or rock;

(d) flora;

(e) bodily excretions or dead bodies of non-human creatures; or

(f) any non-living thing present as a result of human action.

(3) No land may be entered or equipment placed or left on or removed from the land under paragraph (1), unless at least 14 days’ notice has been served on every owner and occupier of the land.

(4) Any person entering land under this article on behalf of the undertaker—

(a) must, if so required, before or after entering the land, produce written evidence of their authority to do so;

(b) must, before entering the land, provide in the notice details of the purpose specified in paragraph (1) to survey and investigate the land; and

(c) may take onto the land such vehicles and equipment as are necessary to carry out the survey, monitoring or investigation or to make the trial holes.

(5) No trial holes, boreholes, excavations or horizontal cores may be made under this article—

(a) on land located within the highway boundary without the consent of the relevant highway authority; or

(b) in a private street without the consent of the street authority;

but such consent must not be unreasonably withheld or delayed.

(6) As soon as reasonably practicable following the completion of any activities carried out under paragraph (1), the undertaker must remove any apparatus and restore the land to the reasonable satisfaction of the owners of the land.

(7) The undertaker must compensate the owners and occupiers of the land for any loss or damage arising by reason of the exercise of the powers conferred by this article, such compensation to be determined, in case of dispute, under Part 1 of the 1961 Act (determination of questions of disputed compensation).

(8) If a highway authority or street authority which receives an application for consent fails to notify the undertaker of its decision within 28 days of receiving the application for consent—

(a) under sub-paragraph (5)(a) in the case of a highway authority; or

(b) under sub-paragraph (5)(b) in the case of a street authority,

that authority is deemed to have granted consent.

(9) Section 13 of the 1965 Act (refusal to give possession to acquiring authority) applies to the temporary use of land pursuant to this article to the same extent as it applies to the compulsory acquisition of land under this Order by virtue of section 125 of the 2008 Act (application of compulsory acquisition provisions).

(10) Any application for consent under paragraph (5) must include a statement that the provisions of paragraph (8) apply to that application.