Part II Operation of Severn Bridges
Management of bridges etc.
18 Avon County Council bridge staff.
(1)
Where a concession agreement is subsisting on the appointed day, there shall be treated as made by Avon County Council to the concessionaire on that day a transfer of an undertaking, to which the M1Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 shall apply, in which all the persons specified in subsection (2) below are employed.
(2)
The persons referred to in subsection (1) above are persons who—
(a)
immediately before the appointed day are employed by Avon County Council in connection with the collection of tolls under the M2Severn Bridge Tolls Act 1965 or the maintenance or improvement of, or other dealing with—
(i)
the existing bridge or the highway carried by it, or
(ii)
the existing toll plaza area or the highway within it, and
(b)
are designated, or of a description of persons designated, by an order made by the Secretary of State.
(3)
Where by reason of the application to a person of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 by virtue of subsection (1) above the person ceases to be employed by Avon County Council he shall not be treated for any purpose as having been made redundant.
(4)
Subsection (5) below has effect in relation to a pension to which paragraph 1 of Schedule 3 to the M3Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 (local government pensions) applies if the latest services in respect of which it is payable are services rendered at any time before the appointed day in connection with—
(a)
the collection of tolls under the M4Severn Bridge Tolls Act 1965, or
(b)
the maintenance or improvement of, or other dealing with—
(i)
the existing bridge or the highway carried by it, or
(ii)
the existing toll plaza area or the highway within it.
(5)
For the purposes of sub-paragraph (2) of that paragraph (funding of pension increases after transfer of functions), nothing occurring immediately before, on or at any time after the appointed day by reason of the operation of any provision of this Act or of the M5Highways Act 1980 shall be taken to amount to a transfer from Avon County Council to another authority of the function in connection with which the latest services were rendered.