Commentary on Sections Part 4 : Street Works Section 47: Duties relating to the location of unexpected apparatus
120.Section 47amends section 80 of NRSWA which imposes duties on a person carrying out works in the street where he discovers apparatus belonging to another person which is either not marked, or is wrongly marked, on existing location records.
121.Subsection(2) amends section 80(1) of NRSWA to clarify that the records in question are those kept by undertakers under section 79 of that Act.
122.Subsection (3) inserts a new subsection (1A) into section 80 to provide that regulations may prescribe exceptions to the duty in section 80. Subsection (4) substitutes subsections (2) and (2A) into section 80. Subsection (2) provides that a person executing works of any description in the street who finds apparatus which does not belong to him, and who is unable, after taking such steps as are reasonably practicable, to ascertain to whom the apparatus belongs, must comply with such requirements as may be prescribed in regulations for making and keeping a record of the location and nature of the apparatus and whether it is in use, and to inform the street authority or any other person of those matters. Subsection (2A) provides that regulations under subsection (2) may make provision as to the form and manner in which records are to be kept, and the manner in which or time at or by which information is to be given, and also for records which are to be kept by undertakers to be included in the records kept by them under section 79(1).
123.Section 80(4) of NRSWA provides that it is an offence not to comply with the requirements set down in section 80(1) and 80(2). Subsection (5) provides that the offence applies in respect of any requirement imposed upon a person under subsection (2).
124.Subsection (6) allows for the establishment of one or more registers of information to be held on apparatus which is unearthed in the course of works where it is not possible to identify who the apparatus belongs to.