Public Utilities Street Works Act 1950

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1950 c. 39


Public Utilities Street Works Act , 1950

(14 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 39

An Act to enact uniform provisions for regulating relations as to apparatus in streets between authorities, bodies and persons having statutory powers to place and deal with apparatus therein, and those having the control or management of streets and others concerned in the exercise of such powers, to render such powers exercisable in land which abuts on a street and is destined for use for road purposes; to make further provision for regulating the closing or restriction of use of roads for the purposes of works and as to the use of alternative routes; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

[26th October 1950]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I The Street Works Code

Part I

The Street Works Code

Preliminary

Preliminary

S-1 Purposes of the street works code, and works the execution of which is to be regulated thereby.

1 Purposes of the street works code, and works the execution of which is to be regulated thereby.

(1) Sections three to fourteen of this Act and the First, Second and Third Schedules thereto (in this Act referred to as ‘the street works code’) shall have effect in relation to powers to which this section applies, that is to say, any statutory power to execute undertakers' works in a street except a power conferred for purposes of a railway undertaking or a tramway undertaking, with a view to—

(a ) providing a uniform set of provisions for the protection of authorities, bodies and persons concerned in the mode of exercise of such powers as having the control or management of streets, or of sewers, drains or tunnels, transport undertakings or bridges; and

(b ) enabling powers to which this section applies, so far as they are powers exercisable in a street which is a maintainable highway or is prospectively a maintainable highway, to be exercised, in accordance with the said code, in controlled land as defined in the First Schedule to this Act.

(2) In this Act the expression ‘undertakers' works’ means works (including works executed or to be executed on behalf of the Crown) for any purposes other than road purposes, being works of any of the following kinds, that is to say—

(a ) Placing apparatus.

Inspecting, maintaining, adjusting, repairing, altering or renewing apparatus.

Changing the position of apparatus or removing it.

(b ) Breaking up or opening a street or controlled land for the purposes of works mentioned in paragraph (a ) of this subsection, and tunnelling or boring under a street or controlled land for those purposes, breaking up or opening a sewer, drain or tunnel for those purposes, and other works requisite for or incidental to those purposes.

(3) In this Act the expression ‘street’ means (without prejudice to the provisions of subsection (1) of section thirty-eight of this Act) any length of a highway (other than a waterway), road, lane, footway, alley or passage, any square or court, and any length of land laid out as a way whether it is for the time being formed as a way or not, irrespective of whether the highway, road or other thing in question is a thoroughfare or not.

(4) In this Act—

(a ) the expression ‘maintainable highway’ means a highway maintainable or repairable by the inhabitants at large; and

(b ) references to a street that is prospectively a maintainable highway are to a street which, whether being a highway or not, is declared likely to become a maintainable highway in a declaration made by the appropriate local authority under the Second Schedule to this Act and registered in the register of local land charges thereunder.

(5) In this Act the expression ‘code-regulated works’ means undertakers' works executed or proposed to be executed—

(a ) in exercise of a power to which this section applies, being a power in relation to which the street works code has effect having regard to the provisions of section fifteen of this Act as to the time for the taking effect of that code in relation to different powers, and

(b ) either in a street in exercise of that power, or in controlled land in exercise of that power together with an authorisation given under the First Schedule to this Act,

but excluding works which were works in hand within the meaning of subsection (4) of the said section fifteen immediately before the time from which the street works code took effect in relation to that power.

S-2 Parties to proceedings under the street works code.

2 Parties to proceedings under the street works code.

(1) References in the street works code to an authority or managers concerned are so far as regards works executed or proposed to be executed in a street, to the following, that is to say—

(a ) the street authority if the street in question is a maintainable highway or is prospectively a maintainable highway, or the street managers if it is not;

(b ) if the works include the breaking up or opening of a public sewer in the street, the sewer authority;

(c ) if the street is carried by or goes under a bridge vested in a transport authority, or crosses or is crossed by any other property held or used for the purposes of a transport undertaking, the transport authority; and

(d ) if the street is carried by or goes under a bridge not vested as aforesaid, the bridge authority or managers.

(2) References in the street works code to an authority or managers concerned are, so far as regards works executed or proposed to be executed in controlled land, to the following, that is to say—

(a ) the street authority for the street on which that land abuts; and

(b ) if the works include the breaking up or opening of a public sewer in that land, the sewer authority.

(3) The said references do not include, either as regards works in a street or as regards works in controlled land, references to authorities, bodies or persons concerned as mentioned in paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) of section one of this Act as having the control or management of sewers, drains or tunnels therein not being public sewers, but the provisions of section thirteen of this Act shall have effect for their protection.

(4) In this Act the expression ‘street authority’ (used in relation to a street that is a maintainable highway or is prospectively a maintainable highway, and in relation to controlled land abutting on such a street) means—

(a ) where the street is a maintainable highway, the highway authority; or

(b ) where the street is prospectively a maintainable highway, the appropriate local authority.

(5) In this Act the expression ‘street managers’ (used in relation to a street that is not a maintainable highway) means—

(a ) if there is an authority, body or person liable to the public to maintain or repair the street, that authority, body or person; or

(b ) if there is no authority, body or person so liable, any authority, body or person having the management or control of the street.

(6) Any reference in this Act to an authority or managers concerned includes a reference to an authority, body or person being such an authority or managers by virtue of functions exercised by them or him on behalf of the Crown.

The street works code

The street works code

S-3 Settlement of a plan and section to be a condition of execution of major works.

3 Settlement of a plan and section to be a condition of execution of major works.

(1) Subject to the provisions of subsections (3) and (4) of this section, undertakers shall not execute any works to which this section applies until a plan and section thereof have been settled as mentioned in the next or the next but one succeeding section by agreement between the undertakers and each of the authorities or managers concerned or by arbitration, and for that purpose undertakers proposing to execute any such works in a street shall submit a plan and section thereof to each of the authorities or managers concerned.

(2) This section applies to all code-regulated works except—

(a ) inspecting, maintaining, adjusting or repairing apparatus;

(b ) placing, altering, renewing, changing the position of or removing a service pipe or service line or an overhead telegraphic line in or from a place not in a trunk road or a classified road, or in or from a place in such a road in so far as the works are to be executed elsewhere than in the carriageway of the road and so as not substantially to affect the traffic on the carriageway thereof;

(c ) placing, elsewhere than in a maintainable highway, apparatus which is required only in connection with the doing of any building or other work on land adjacent to the street and is intended to be removed on the completion of the building or other work;

(d ) any breaking up or opening (other than breaking up or opening a public sewer), tunnelling or boring in so far as it is to be executed for the purposes of works falling within any of the preceding paragraphs, and any other works so far as requisite for or incidental to works so falling.

(3) In the case of works to which this section applies being emergency works—

(a ) the undertakers may execute them without submitting a plan and section thereof under subsection (1) of this section or before a plan and section thereof have been settled; but

(b ) as soon as is reasonably practicable after so executing any such works they shall furnish a plan and section thereof to each of the authorities or managers concerned.

(4) Subsection (1) of this section, and paragraph (b ) of the last preceding subsection, shall not have effect as to street managers concerned in respect of a street which they have no liability to the public to maintain or repair if the undertakers have given them a notice...

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