Section 47.
1Subject to the provisions of this Schedule, the Lands Clauses Acts, except the provisions relating to access to the special Act, shall be incorporated with this Act.
2In construing the said Acts for the purposes of this Schedule—
(a)the expression " the special Act" shall mean this Act;
(b)the expression " the promoters of the undertaking " shall mean the Postmaster-General; and
(c)the expression " land " shall include any estate or interest in or over land.
3The bond required by section eighty-five of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, or by section eighty-four of the Lands Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1845, shall be under the seal of the Postmaster-General and shall be sufficient without sureties.
4The provisions of the Lands Clauses Acts with respect to land purchased compulsorily shall not be put in force until the sanction of Parliament has been obtained in the manner hereinafter mentioned.
5At least three months before an application is made to Parliament for sanction to the compulsory purchase of land under this Act, the Postmaster-General, with the consent of the Treasury, shall serve a notice on every owner or reputed owner, lessee, or reputed lessee, and occupier of any land intended to be so purchased—
(a)describing the land intended to be taken, and in general terms the purposes to which it is to be applied;
(b)stating the intention of the Treasury to obtain the sanction of Parliament to the purchase thereof;
(c)inquiring whether the person so served assents or dissents to the taking of his land; and
(d)requesting him to forward to the Treasury any objections he may have to his land being taken.
6At some time after the service of the said notice, the Treasury shall cause a local inquiry to be held by a competent officer into the objections made by any person whose land is required to be taken and by other persons, if any, interested in the subject matter of the inquiry.
7If after the said inquiry has been held the Treasury are satisfied that the land ought to be taken, they may submit a Bill to Parliament containing provisions authorising the Postmaster-General to take the land, and any such Bill shall be deemed to be a public Bill, and, if passed into an Act, to have conveyed the sanction of Parliament to the purchase compulsorily of the land therein mentioned or referred to, and the period for the compulsory purchase shall be three years after the passing of the Act:
Provided that, if while the- Bill is pending in either House of Parliament a petition is presented against anything comprised therein, the Bill may be referred to a Select Committee and the petitioner shall be allowed to appear and oppose as in the case of private Bills.