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HARBOURS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1970 - SECT 41

Short title.

41. This Act may be cited as the Harbours Act (Northern Ireland) 1970.

1. Establishing a harbour authority and conferring functions on it.

2. Winding-up and dissolving a harbour authority.

3. Transferring functions from one harbour authority to another or to a body
constituted by or specified in the order.

4. Reconstituting a harbour authority or altering its constitution.

5. Conferring functions on a harbour authority or varying or abolishing the
functions of an authority.

6. Abandoning a harbour.

7. Regulating the procedure of a harbour authority or of any committee of a
harbour authority.

8. Settling or varying the limits within which a harbour authority is to
exercise its functions.

9. Controlling the movement of ships, in the interests of safety and the
uninterrupted movement of ships, in one or more harbours and in the approaches
to one or more harbours.

10. Constructing, reconstructing, improving, maintaining or managing a
harbour.

11. Marking or lighting a harbour, raising wrecks in a harbour or otherwise
making safe the navigation of a harbour.

12. Regulating the carrying out by any person of harbour operations or any
activities on harbour land.

13. Authorising the making of byelaws with respect to any matter.

14. Amending or repealing any statutory provision of local application
affecting a harbour.

15. Securing the welfare of persons employed by a harbour authority and
empowering the provision of pension benefits in respect of them.

1. Provisions transferring property from one harbour authority to another or
from a person carrying on harbour operations to a harbour authority.

2. Provisions transferring persons in the employment of a harbour authority to
the employment of another and provisions preserving pension benefits in
respect of employees or former employees of the authority.

3. Provisions dissolving any body of constables maintained by a
harbour authority and with respect to the appointment, dismissal and functions
of constables in relation to a harbour.

4. Penal provisions.

5. Provisions for the settlement of disputes.

1. The designation of areas, routes or channels which ships are to use, or
refrain from using, for movement or anchoring.

2. The person who may give directions under the order in relation to the
movement of ships.

3. The equipment by means of which provisions of an order relating to the
movement of ships are to be put into effect and the qualifications of persons
operating the equipment.

4. The equipment which a ship must carry in order to enter the harbour when
visibility is restricted and the radiotelephone equipment which a ship must
carry in order to enter the harbour, being equipment and radiotelephone
equipment which satisfies standards or requirements laid down or recommended
by or under any international convention or conference.

5. The conferring of powers of entry and inspection in relation to premises,
vehicles, ships or aircraft in or on which there is any such equipment as is
referred to in paragraph 3 or 4.

6. The payment of fees in connection with the inspection or testing of any
such equipment as is referred to in paragraph 3 or 4.

7. The application, subject to modifications, of section 2 of the
Merchant Shipping (Liability of Shipowners and Others) Act 1900 to any person
by whom provisions of an order relating to the movement of ships are
administered and otherwise with respect to the liability of any such person
arising out of the execution of those provisions.

1.(1) Where a local harbour authority constructs, alters or extends any tidal
work in contravention of section 11(1) or of any condition imposed under
section 11(2), an appropriate department may

(a)by notice in writing require the authority at its own expense to remove the
work and to restore the site of the work to the condition in which it was
before the contravention; or

(b)remove the work and restore the site of the work to the condition specified
in paragraph (a).

(2) Where a local harbour authority does not comply with a notice under
sub-paragraph (1)(a) within a period of thirty days from the date on which
an appropriate department served the notice, the department may remove any
such work as is specified in that sub-paragraph and restore the site of the
work to the condition specified in that sub-paragraph.

(3) Where an appropriate department incurs any expenditure in pursuance of
sub-paragraph (1) or (2), it may recover the amount of that expenditure from
the responsible harbour authority as if it were a debt due under a contract.

(4) In this paragraph and in paragraph 2 "responsible harbour authority" means
the local harbour authority which, in relation to a tidal work, has
contravened section 11(1) or a condition imposed under section 11(2).

2.(1) Where a local harbour authority abandons any tidal work, or allows it to
fall into disrepair, an appropriate department may by notice in writing
require the authority at its own expense

(a)to repair and restore the work;

(b)to remove the work and to restore the land on which it is constructed to
the condition in which the land was before the work was constructed.

(2) Where

(a)a local harbour authority abandons any work consisting of a tidal work and
of other work or allows a work so consisting to fall into disrepair; and

(b)an appropriate department is satisfied that any part of the work which is
not a tidal work is in such a condition as to interfere with or to cause
reasonable apprehension that it may interfere with, navigation or public
rights over the foreshore;

(3) Where a local harbour authority does not comply with a notice under
sub-paragraph (1), within a period of thirty days from the date on which
an appropriate department served the notice, the department may execute such
works of repair, restoration or removal as are necessary to comply with the
notice.

(4) Where an appropriate department incurs any expenditure in pursuance of
sub-paragraph (3), it may recover the amount of that expenditure from the
responsible harbour authority as if it were a debt due under a contract.

3.(1) Where any tidal work in the harbour of a local harbour authority is
damaged or decays, the authority shall

(a)forthwith notify the Commissioners of Irish Lights;

(b)lay down such buoys, exhibit such lights and take such other steps to
prevent any danger to navigation, as those Commissioners may specify.

(2) If a local harbour authority contravenes sub-paragraph (1), it shall be
guilty of an offence and liable

(a)on summary conviction thereof, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds;

(b)on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

4.(1) An appropriate department may cause a survey and examination to be made

(a)of any tidal work; and

(b)of the land upon which it is proposed to construct any such work.

(2) Where an appropriate department incurs any expenditure in pursuance of
sub-paragraph (1), it may recover the amount of that expenditure from the
local harbour authority which proposes to construct, alter or extend the work
in question as if it were a debt due under a contract.

5.(1) A local harbour authority shall, while a tidal work is being
constructed, altered or extended

(a)exhibit, at or near the work, every night from sunset to sunrise such
lights as an appropriate department may specify;

(b)take such steps to prevent any danger to navigation as
an appropriate department may specify.

(2) A local harbour authority shall, in relation to any tidal work, after the
work is completed

(a)exhibit every night from sunset to sunrise such lights as the Commissioners
of Irish Lights may specify, at such places as may be so specified;

(b)take such steps to prevent any danger to navigation as those Commissioners
may specify.

(3) If a local harbour authority contravenes sub-paragraph (1) or (2), it
shall be guilty of an offence and liable

(a)on summary conviction thereof, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds;

(b)on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

6. In this Schedule "an appropriate department" means the Board of Trade or
the Ministry.

1. References to a vesting order made under section 22 of the Local Government
Act (Northern Ireland) 1934 or to the powers conferred by that section shall
be construed as references to a vesting order made under, or the powers
conferred by, section 26, respectively.

2. References to the Ministry of Development or to a local authority shall be
construed as references to the Ministry of Commerce or a harbour authority
respectively.

3. Subject to paragraph 1, the references to section 22 of, or Schedule 2 to,
that Act shall be construed as references respectively to that section or
Schedule as applied by section 26 and modified by this Schedule.

4. In paragraph 27 of that Schedule, the reference to the area of a local
authority shall be construed as a reference to the locality where the land is
situated.

5.(1) In paragraph 28 of that Schedule, for the definition of "land" there
shall be substituted the definition contained in section 45(1)(a) of the
Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954.

(2) In that Schedule "estate" shall have the meaning assigned by section 45(2)
of the said Act of 1954.

6. Where an application is made to the Ministry for a vesting order in respect
of a lesser estate than a fee simple or the Ministry makes such an order,
section 22(2) of and Schedule 2 to the said Act of 1934 shall have effect with
such modifications as may be necessary to enable that estate to be acquired by
means of the vesting order and to enable compensation in respect thereof to be
duly paid or discharged and shall have effect as if for the first paragraph of
paragraph 6 of that Schedule there were substituted the following:

"6. A vesting order shall operate, without further assurance, to vest in the
harbour authority, as from the date on which the vesting order becomes
operative (in this Schedule referred to as " the date of vesting") all such
estates in, to or over the land to which the order relates as are specified in
the order, freed and discharged from all the estates of any other person
whomsoever therein except as is specified in the order, and the rights and
claims of any such other person in respect of the estate so vested, shall as
from the date of vesting, be transferred and attached to the extent to which
compensation may be payable in accordance with this Schedule to the rate or
funds of the harbour authority out of which the expenses of the authority in
acquiring the land are to be defrayed (in this Schedule referred to as "
the compensation fund") and shall be discharged by payments made out of the
compensation fund.".

Schedule 5Amendments. Schedule 6Repeals

© 1970 Crown Copyright

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