Land Drainage Act 1976

Part I — Introductory

Water authorities

General supervision, and discharge of functions by committees

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Regional land drainage committees

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• (1) The regional land drainage committee established by that name for every water authority shall continue in existence and shall continue to consist of—

• (a) a chairman and a number of other members appointed by the Minister;

• (b) 2 members appointed by the water authority ; and

• (c) a number of members appointed by or on behalf of constituent councils.

• (2) The total number of members of a water authority's regional land drainage committee shall continue to be such as was determined, or last determined, by the water authority before the commencement of this Act; but, subject to subsections (3) to (5) below, a water authority may from time to time make a determination varying that number and any such determination shall be submitted to the Minister.

• (3) The total number of such members shall not be less than 11 and, except where an order under subsection (5) below otherwise provides, not more than 17.

• (4) Any determination that a regional land drainage committee shall consist of more than 17 members shall be provisional, and shall take effect only if the Minister makes an order under subsection (5) below.

• (5) If the water authority submit a provisional determination to the Minister, he may by order—

• (a) confirm it; or

• (b) substitute for the number of members determined by the water authority some other number not less than 17.

• (6) Subject to subsection (7) below, the council of any county or London borough any part of which is in the area of a water authority shall be a constituent council for the authority's regional land drainage committee, and references in this Act to constituent councils, in relation to a regional land drainage committee, shall be construed accordingly.

• (7) The constituent councils for the Thames Water Authority's regional land drainage committee shall consist of—

• (a) the council of any county any part of which is in the Authority's area,

• (b) the council of any London borough any part of which is in the Authority's area, and

• (c) the Greater London Council;

but no part of the London excluded area shall be treated as being in the Authority's area for the purposes of paragraph (b) above.

Members and proceedings of regional land drainage committees

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• (1) The chairman of a regional land drainage committee shall be one of the members of the water authority appointed to that authority by the Minister.

• (2) The remaining members appointed to a regional land drainage committee by the Minister under section 2(1)(a) above shall be appointed from among persons who in his opinion have had experience of, and have shown capacity in, or otherwise have special knowledge of, matters relating to land drainage or agriculture and, in particular, matters so relating which affect the area of the water authority or part of that area.

• (3) The number of members to be appointed to a regional land drainage committee by or on behalf of each of the constituent councils shall (subject to this subsection) continue to be such as was specified, or last specified, by the Minister by order before the commencement of this Act; but whenever the number of members of any such committee is varied by a determination under section 2(2) above the Minister shall by order specify, subject to subsections (4) to (7) below, the number of members to be appointed to the committee as aforesaid.

• (4) An order under subsection (3) above shall be so framed that the number of members appointed by or on behalf of constituent councils is one more than the total number of those appointed under section 2(1)(a) and (b) above.

• (5) In determining for the purposes of an order under subsection (3) above the number of persons to be appointed to a regional land drainage committee by or on behalf of each constituent council, the Minister shall have regard to the estimated penny rate product for each relevant area of that council for the relevant year; and where, having regard to the proportion which that product bears to the aggregate of the estimated penny rate products for the relevant areas of all the constituent councils for that year—

• (a) he considers it to be inappropriate that that council should appoint a member of the committee, or

• (b) he considers that one or more members should be appointed jointly by that council and one or more other constituent councils,

he may by the order so provide.

• (6) Where, in accordance with subsection (5)(b) above, an order provides for the joint appointment of one or more members of a regional land drainage committee, and the councils by whom that appointment is to be made are unable to agree on an appointment, the member or members in question shall be appointed by the Minister on behalf of those councils.

• (7) The Greater London Council shall be entitled to appoint one member of the Thames Water Authority's regional land drainage committee.

• (8) In the appointment of members of a regional land drainage committee, that committee's constituent councils or the Minister (where he appoints on behalf of those councils) shall, so far as may be practicable, select persons appearing to them or him to have a practical knowledge of land drainage or agriculture.

• (9) The provisions of Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect with respect to the members and proceedings of regional land drainage committees.

• (10) In this section—

• " estimated penny rate product " for any area for any year has the same meaning as is provided by section 45(3) below; and

• " relevant year ", in relation to any determination, means the latest financial year for which, at the time when that determination falls to be made, precepts have been issued under section 46 below.

• (11) References in this section to a relevant area of any constituent council, in relation to a water authority's regional land drainage committee, are references to a part of the council's area comprised in any local land drainage district; and for this purpose a water authority area in relation to which no local land drainage scheme is in force shall be treated as a single local land drainage district, and any parts of a water authority area in relation to which no such scheme is in force shall be treated as included in a single such district.

Local land drainage schemes and local land drainage committees

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Members and proceedings of local land drainage committees

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• (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) below, a local land drainage scheme shall provide that any local land drainage committee to which it relates shall consist of not less than 11 and not more than 15 members,

• (2) A regional land drainage committee may include in a local land drainage scheme which they submit to the water authority a recommendation that a committee to which the scheme relates should consist of a number of members greater than 15; and a scheme so submitted shall be taken to provide for the number of members of a committee if it contains a recommendation under this subsection relating to that committee.

• (3) The power conferred on the Minister by section 4(7) above shall include power to direct that a committee to which a recommendation under subsection (2) above relates shall consist either of the recommended number of members or of some other number of members greater than 15.

• (4) A local land drainage committee shall consist of—

• (a) a chairman appointed from among their own members by the regional land drainage committee;

• (b) other members appointed by that committee ; and

• (c) members appointed, in accordance with and subject to the terms of the local land drainage scheme, by or on behalf of constituent councils.

• (5) The number of members appointed to a local land drainage committee by or on behalf of constituent councils shall be one more than the total number of members appointed by the regional land drainage committee.

• (6) The members of a local land drainage committee appointed to that committee by the regional land drainage committee shall be appointed from among persons who in the opinion of the regional land drainage committee are qualified to be appointed to the local land drainage committee by their knowledge and experience of land drainage or agriculture.

• (7) The provisions of Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect with respect to the members and proceedings of local land drainage committees.

• (8) The council of any county or London borough any part of which is in a local land drainage district shall be a constituent council for the local land drainage committee for that district, and if any part of any London borough is within the district the Greater London Council shall also be a constituent council for the committee; and references in this Act to constituent councils, in relation to a local land drainage committee, shall be construed accordingly.

Internal drainage boards

Internal drainage districts and internal drainage boards

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Members and proceedings etc. of internal drainage boards

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• (1) An internal drainage board shall consist of elected members.

• (2) The provisions of Part I of Schedule 2 to this Act shall have effect with respect to the members and proceedings, officers and other employees, and reports and accounts of internal drainage boards.

• (3) The provisions of Part II of Schedule 2 to this Act shall have effect with respect to the persons to vote at the election of members of internal drainage boards, and any such election shall be conducted in accordance with rules made by the Minister containing provisions—

• (a) for allowing any person or body of persons entitled to vote at an election to vote by a deputy ;

• (b) for the preparation of registers of electors (including provisions with respect to the making of objections to entries in any such registers and the hearing and determination of such objections) and for securing that the registers are open to inspection; and

• (c) with respect to the holding and conduct of elections, including provisions as to returning officers, nominations, polls and the counting of votes.

• (4) This section shall not apply to an internal drainage board existing at the commencement of the Land Drainage Act 1930 unless it is applied to them by a scheme under section 11 below or unless subsections (1) to (3) of section 33 of that Act (which, with Schedule 3 to that Act, are replaced by subsections (1) to (3) above and Schedule 2 to this Act) were applied to them by a scheme under Part II or an order under Part III of that Act.

Main rivers and their control

Control of main rivers

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Main river maps

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• (1) In this Act " main river map " means a map of a water authority area relating to the water authority's land drainage functions—

• (a) which shows by a distinctive colour the extent to which any watercourse in that area is to be treated as the main river, or part of the main river, for the purposes of this Act, and

• (b) which indicates (by a distinctive colour or otherwise) which (if any) of those watercourses are watercourses designated in a scheme made under section 50 below.

• (2) The main river maps at the commencement of this Act shall consist of any maps sent to water authorities under paragraph 9 of Schedule 2 to the Water Act 1973 and, so far as not replaced by any such maps, the following maps, that is to say—

• (a) in the case of areas which immediately before 1st April 1974 consisted of the Thames Catchment Area and the Lee Catchment Area, maps prepared under section 5 of the Land Drainage Act 1930 and current immediately before that date,

• (b) in the case of other areas, main river maps kept by river authorities immediately before that date under section 11 of the Water Resources Act 1963.

• (3) The Minister may at any time send a water authority one or more new maps to be substituted for the whole or part of the main river map of the authority's area, and containing a statement to that effect specifying the date on which the substitution is to take effect; and the substitution shall take effect in accordance with the statement.

• (4) Until a main river map of a water authority area has been prepared showing the boundaries of that area for the purposes of the water authority's land drainage functions, the boundaries of the water authority area as shown on the area map for the purposes of the authority's functions relating to water conservation shall be treated also as the boundaries of the water authority area for the purposes of their land drainage functions.

• (5) Where—

• (a) the area of a water authority is altered so as to affect any of the particulars shown on their main river map, or

• (b) the Minister confirms a scheme under section 50 below, or

• (c) a water authority apply to the Minister for the variation of their main river map, so far as it shows the extent to which any watercourse is to be treated as the main river or part of the main river,

the Minister shall take such action as he considers appropriate either—

• (i) by requiring the relevant water authority to send him any part of their main river map, altering it and sending it back to them, or

• (ii) by preparing a new main river map and sending it to the water authority, or

• (iii) by notifying the authority that he does not intend to vary their main river map.

• (6) Before altering a map or preparing a new map under subsection (5)(c) above the Minister shall give notice of his intention to do so in such manner as he thinks best adapted for informing persons affected, and shall consider any objections made to him within the time and in the manner specified in that notice, and may then alter or prepare the map, whether in accordance with the proposals contained in the notice or otherwise.

• (7) Every water authority shall, subject to subsection (5) above, keep their main river map at their principal office and provide reasonable facilities for inspecting that map and taking copies of and extracts from it.

• (8) Any local authority whose area is wholly or partly within a water authority area shall, on application to the water authority, be entitled to be furnished with a copy of the authority's main river map, on payment of such sum as the local authority and the water authority may agree.

• (9) A main river map shall (subject to subsection (4) above) be conclusive evidence for all purposes as to the boundaries of the water authority area in relation to their land drainage functions.

• (10) A main river map shall be conclusive evidence for all purposes as to what is the main river.

• (11) A main river map shall be taken to be a document within the meaning of the Documentary Evidence Act 1868, as that Act applies to the Minister; and that Act, as it so applies, shall have effect in relation to a main river map as if the map had been issued by the Minister.

Transfers of functions and reorganisation of internal drainage districts

Schemes for transfer to water authority of functions in relation to main river

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Schemes for reorganisation of internal drainage districts and for conferring functions on water authority

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• (1) A water authority may at any time, and if so directed by the Minister shall, prepare and submit to the Minister for confirmation a scheme making provision for any of the following matters, namely—

• (a) the alteration of the boundaries of any internal drainage district;

• (b) the amalgamation of the whole or any part of any internal drainage district with any other such district;

• (c) the abolition as from such date as may be specified in the scheme of all Commissioners of Sewers exercising jurisdiction within the water authority area or, in the case of Commissioners of Sewers who exercise jurisdiction partly within and partly without that area, the abrogation of the powers of those Commissioners within that area;

• (d) the abolition or reconstitution of any internal drainage district and of the drainage board thereof ;

• (e) the constitution of new internal drainage districts within the water authority area;

• (f) the constitution of internal drainage boards for all or any of the separate internal drainage districts constituted by the scheme ;

• (g) where it appears desirable so to provide in the case of any internal drainage board, the amendment of the method of constituting that board so far as is necessary to secure that the members of the board shall be persons elected as such members in accordance with the provisions in that behalf contained in section 7 above and in Schedule 2 to this Act;

• (h) the making of alterations in, and the addition of supplemental provisions to, the provisions of any local Act or of any award made under any such Act, where such alterations or supplemental provisions are necessary or expedient for enabling the area for the benefit of which drainage works are authorised by the local Act or award to be drained effectually;

• (i) any matters supplemental to or consequential on the matters mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (h) above for which it appears necessary or desirable to make provision, including the transfer to a water authority or internal drainage board of any property, rights, powers, duties, obligations and liabilities vested in or to be discharged by the water authority or internal drainage board affected by the scheme.

• (2) A scheme under this section which makes provision for the constitution of a new internal drainage district may provide for the water authority submitting the scheme to be constituted the drainage board of that district and for conferring on it in relation to that district the powers and duties of an internal drainage board; and any expenses incurred by the water authority as the drainage board of such a district shall be defrayed under and in accordance with the powers so conferred and not in any other manner.

• (3) As soon as any scheme under this section has been submitted to the Minister, the water authority shall—

• (a) send copies of the scheme to every drainage authority, ocal authority, navigation authority, harbour authority and conservancy authority affected by it; and