11.—(1) Subject to paragraph (4), where as respects any road it appears to the Department that, having regard to the usual expense of maintaining the road or the average expense of maintaining similar roads in the neighbourhood, extraordinary expenses have been incurred by the Department in maintaining the road by reason of the damage caused by—
(a)excessive weight passing along the road; or
(b)other extraordinary traffic thereon,
the Department may recover from any person (in this Article referred to as “the operator”) by or on behalf of whom the traffic has been conducted any expenses reasonably incurred by the Department in consequence of that damage.
(2) Where it appears to the Department that expenses in respect of the maintenance of any road may be recoverable from any person under paragraph (1), the Department may by notice in writing require that person to give the Department such information about traffic conducted on that road by or on behalf of that person as the Department may reasonably require for the purposes of that paragraph.
(3) Any person required to give information in pursuance of paragraph (2) who without reasonable excuse fails to give, or knowingly misstates, that information shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(4) An operator shall not be liable to proceedings under paragraph (1) in respect of any damage caused by extraordinary traffic to a road if—
(a)before traffic which may cause such damage commences, he admits liability in respect of such traffic and enters into either of the following agreements with the Department, namely—
(i)an agreement for the payment by the operator to the Department of a sum by way of a composition of that liability; or
(ii)an agreement for the payment by the operator to the Department at the end of each of such periods as may be specified in the agreement of the expenses reasonably incurred in that period by the Department in consequence of the damage caused by the extraordinary traffic; and
(b)payment is made to the Department in accordance with any such agreement.
(5) Before extraordinary traffic which may cause damage to a road commences, the Department may serve on a person a notice inviting that person—
(a)to admit liability in respect of that traffic; and
(b)to indicate whether he wishes to enter into an agreement with the Department under paragraph (4)(a) and, if so, whether he wishes to enter into an agreement under head (i) or head (ii) of that sub-paragraph.
(6) The sum to be paid by an operator to the Department under an agreement under paragraph (4)(a)(i) and the amount of each payment to be made by an operator to the Department under an agreement under paragraph (4)(a)(ii) shall be such as may be agreed between the operator and the Department or, in default of agreement, such as may be determined by arbitration.
(7) Proceedings for the recovery of any sums under this Article shall not be commenced after the expiration of three years from—
(a)the date on which the damage came to the knowledge of the Department; or
(b)where the damage is in consequence of any particular building contract or other work extending over a long period, the date on which the contract or work was completed,
whichever is the later.
(8) References in this Article to expenses reasonably incurred by the Department in consequence of damage caused to a road by extraordinary traffic include references to expenses reasonably incurred by the Department on works to prevent or mitigate anticipated damage to the road by such traffic.