The Dee Estuary Conservancy Harbour Revision (No. 2) Order 2023

Removal of obstructions other than vessels and wreck

7.—(1) Without prejudice to its powers under any other enactment, including any enactment contained in this Order, the conservancy authority may remove any item which is causing, or likely to become, an obstruction or impediment to the proper use of any part of the estuary other than—

(a) a vessel; or

(b) wreck within the meaning of Part 9 of the 1995 Act.

(2) If any item removed by the conservancy authority under paragraph (1) is known to the authority to be, or is so marked as to be readily identifiable as, the property of any person, the authority must, within one month of the item coming into its custody, give notice in accordance with paragraph (7) to that person and, if possession of the item is not retaken within the period specified in and in accordance with the terms of the notice, property in the item vests in the authority at the end of that period.

(3) If the ownership of any item removed by the conservancy authority under paragraph (1) is unknown and cannot be identified, whether through insufficiency or absence of marking, and is not proved to the reasonable satisfaction of the authority within three months of coming into its custody, property in that item vests in the authority.

(4) The conservancy authority may, at such time and in such manner as it thinks fit, sell or otherwise dispose of any item which is of a perishable or obnoxious nature, or the custody of which involves unreasonable expense or inconvenience notwithstanding that property in it has not vested in the authority under this article.

(5) Where an item is sold under paragraph (4), the conservancy authority must publish a notice on one occasion in a newspaper circulating in the locality of the estuary and electronically on the conservancy authority’s website(1) for a period of 28 days giving the details of the property sold and may retain out of the proceeds of sale any expenses incurred by it under this article in relation to the item, and any balance—

(a) must be paid to any person who within three months from the time when the item came into the custody of the authority proves to its reasonable satisfaction that they were the owner of it at the time when it came into the authority’s custody; or

(b) if no person proves ownership within the period mentioned in sub-paragraph (a), such balance vests in the authority at the end of that period.

(6) If any item removed under this article—

(a) is sold by the conservancy authority and the proceeds of sale are insufficient to reimburse it for the amount of the expenses incurred in the exercise of its powers of removal, or

(b) is unsaleable,

the authority may recover the deficiency or the whole of the expenses, as the case may be, from the person who was its owner at the time when the item removed came into the custody of the authority or who was its owner at the time of its abandonment or loss.

(7) A notice given under paragraph (2) in relation to an item must—

(a) be in writing,

(b) specify the item removed, and

(c) state that upon proof of ownership to the reasonable satisfaction of the conservancy authority possession of it may be taken—

(i) at a place specified in the notice, and

(ii) within the time specified, being not less than 14 days after the date when the notice is served.

(8) The conservancy authority must not, under this article, remove any item that has been placed or constructed by any person pursuant to any enactment, or under the provisions of a consent or licence given or issued by the authority under that enactment.

(1)

Available at https://naturalresources.wales/about-us/what-we-do/how-we-regulate-you/information-for-mariners-on-the-dee-estuary/?lang=en.