The council of a county or a council who are a local authority may remove, appropriate, or use, sell or otherwise dispose of all old materials existing in any street other than a highway maintainable at the public expense at the time of the execution by the council of any works in the street, unless those materials are removed by the owners of premises in the street within 3 days from the date of service of a notice from the proper officer of the council requiring the owners of those premises to remove the materials.
Where a council remove, appropriate, or use, sell or otherwise dispose of any materials in a street under subsection (1) above, they shall, on demand, pay or allow to the owner of any premises in the street such proportion of the reasonable value of the material as is attributable to those premises, and the amount thereof shall be settled, in case of dispute, by arbitration, or, if the amount claimed does not exceed level 3 on the standard scale and either party so requires, by a magistrates' court.