Section 78: Use of certain conduits for electricity purposes.

(1) In this section:
"authority" includes a local authority and a statutory body; "conduit" includes a tunnel or subway;
"relevant conduit" means
(a) a water main or any other conduit maintained by a water authority for the purpose of conveying water from one place to another; or
(b) a public sewer
(2) The functions of an authority with control of a relevant conduit shall include the power to :
(a) carry out, or to authorise any person to carry out, any works in relation to that conduit for or in connection with the installation, maintenance, adjustment, repair or alteration of apparatus for purposes connected with the transmission or distribution of electricity;
(b) keep the electricity apparatus installed in that conduit or to authorise any other person to keep that apparatus so installed;
(c) authorise any person to enter that conduit to inspect electricity apparatus kept installed there;
(d) enter into agreements on such terms, including terms as to the payments to be made to the authority, as it deems fit, in connection with the doing of anything authorised by or under this section; and
(e) carry on an associated business consisting of the making and carrying out of such agreements.
(3) Where any enactment expressly or impliedly imposes any limitation on the use to which a relevant conduit may be put, that limitation shall not have effect so as to prohibit the doing of anything authorised by or under this section.
(4) Where the doing by an authority with control of a public sewer of anything authorised by this section would, apart from this subsection, constitute a contravention of any obligation imposed (whether by virtue of any conveyance or agreement or otherwise) on a licensee, the doing of that thing shall not constitute such a contravention to the extent that it consists in, or in authorising, the carrying out of works or inspections, or keeping of apparatus, wholly inside a public sewer.
(5) Subject to subsections (3) and (4) of this section, subsection (2) of this section is without prejudice to the rights of any person with an interest in land on, under or over which a relevant conduit is situated.