Section 6 Controlled operations: carrying out of works to remedy a default.

If a F1public gas transporter F2applies in England or Wales to a magistrates court or in Scotland to the sheriff, and satisfies the court that any controlled operations have been carried out F3in breach of section 5(2), or that there has been a F4relevant failure to comply, and that the works specified in the application which consist of the filling in of an excavation, well, borehole or shaft made or sunk in contravention of the last foregoing section F5or in circumstances involving a relevant failure to comply, or the taking of any other steps to make good the default, ought to be carried out in the interests of safety, or in order to safeguard property, to preserve water resources or to prevent the suspension, or continued suspension, of the operations of an underground gas storage, the court may make an order authorising the public gas transporter to execute those works in such manner as F6he thinks fit.

Any person having an interest in the land in which the controlled operations have been carried out shall be entitled to appear and be heard on the application by the public gas transporter to the court, and the court shall not entertain the application unless satisfied that the public gas transporter F7has taken reasonable steps to give notice of the application to all such persons who are known to F8him.

The public gas transporter shall, as against all persons interested in the land in which the works are to be carried out, and any other land to which entry is required for the purpose of obtaining access to that land, have all such rights as are necessary in order to enable F9him to execute the order.

Except in a case of emergency, a public gas transporter shall not in pursuance of subsection (3) of this section demand admission as of right to any land which is occupied unless twenty-four hours’ notice of the intended entry has been given to the occupier, and where a public gas transporter in exercising F10his powers under subsection (3) of this section [causes] any damage to land or chattels, any person interested in the land or chattels shall be entitled to compensation in respect of that damage from the public gas transporter.

Any expenses reasonably incurred by the public gas transporter in executing the order of a court under this section (but not including any compensation paid by the public gas transporter under this section) may be recovered by the public gas transporter from the person who carried out the controlled operations or, as the case may be, F11was responsible for the relevant failure to comply.

Any person who wilfully obstructs a person acting under the authority of the order of a court under this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding F12level 1 on the standard scale.

Any application under this section to a magistrates’ court shall be made by complaint.

In the application of this section to Scotland—

In this section “relevant failure to comply” means—