Subject to section 217 of this Act, a competent authority may by order authorise the stopping up or diversion of any footpath or bridleway if they are satisfied as mentioned in section 209(1) of this Act.
An order under this section may, if the competent authority are satisfied that it should do so, provide—
for the creation of an alternative highway for use as a replacement for the one authorised by the order to be stopped up or diverted, or for the improvement of an existing highway for such use;
for authorising or requiring works to be carried out in relation to any footpath or bridleway for whose stopping up or diversion, creation or improvement, provision is made by the order;
for the preservation of any rights of statutory under takers in respect of apparatus of theirs which immediately before the date of the order is under, in, on, over, along or across any such footpath or bridleway;
for requiring any person named in the order to pay, or make contributions in respect of, the cost of carrying out any such works.
An order may be made under this section authorising the stopping up or diversion of a footpath or bridleway which is temporarily stopped up or diverted under any other enactment.
The competent authorities for the purposes of this section are—
the local planning authority; and
in relation to development for which planning permission was granted by another authority to whom had been delegated the power of granting it, that other authority.