21.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), any person who erects or exhibits or causes or permits to be erected or exhibited any advertisement or notice which is sited or designed wholly or mainly for the purpose of being visible to persons using a special road or which is likely to prejudice the safety of traffic using a special road shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to—
(a)traffic signs or other notices erected or exhibited by, or by the direction of, an officer authorised by the Department or a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary;
(b)advertisements or notices exhibited on any structure, wall, hoarding or other apparatus which was in use for the exhibition of advertisements or notices which are or would be visible to the users of a special road at the time of the first publication in relation to that road of the notice referred to in paragraph 1 of Schedule 8.
(3) The Department may by regulations exempt from the provisions of paragraph (1) advertisements or notices of any class or description specified in the regulations or situated in any areas so specified or which comply with such conditions, if any, as may be so specified.
(4) Any person convicted of an offence under paragraph (1) shall within such period as the court may allow remove any advertisement or notice exhibited or displayed in contravention of that paragraph, and if he fails to do so he shall be guilty of a further offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one-tenth of level 3 on the standard scale for each day upon which such failure continues.
(5) Where a person who has been convicted under paragraph (1) becomes liable to prosecution for an offence under paragraph (4), the Department may itself remove the advertisement or notice and do all such things as may be necessary for that purpose and may recover from that person any expenses thereby reasonably incurred by it.
(6) Where in the opinion of the Department any advertisement or notice referred to in paragraph (2)(b) is prejudicial to the safety of traffic using a special road, the Department may serve a notice upon the owner or occupier of the land on which the advertisement or notice is situated directing him to remove the advertisement or notice (including any structure, wall, hoarding or other apparatus on which the advertisement or notice is exhibited) and, where a notice is so served, paragraphs 3 to 8 of Schedule 4 shall apply as if the notice had been served under Article 49.