Land Drainage Act 1991

25 Powers to require works for maintaining flow of watercourse

(1) Subject to section 26 below, where any ordinary watercourse is in such a condition that the proper flow of water is impeded, then, unless the condition is attributable to subsidence due to mining operations (including brine pumping), the drainage board or local authority concerned may, by notice served on a person falling within subsection (3) below, require that person to remedy that condition.

(2) For the purposes of this section in its application in relation to any watercourse—

(a) the drainage board concerned is the drainage board for the internal drainage district in which the watercourse is situated; and

(b) the local authority concerned is the local authority for the area where the land as respects which the powers under this section are exercisable is situated;

but references in this section to the drainage board concerned shall, in relation to a watercourse which is not in an internal drainage district, be construed as references to the NRA.

(3) Subject to subsection (4) below, a notice under this section in relation to a watercourse may be served on—

(a) any person having control of the part of the watercourse where any impediment occurs; or

(b) any person owning or occupying land adjoining that part; or

(c) any person to whose act or default the condition of the watercourse mentioned in subsection (1) above is due.

(4) No notice under this section requiring any person to carry out any work on land not owned or occupied by him shall be served without the consent of the owner and the occupier of the land, except in a case where it is not practicable, after reasonable inquiry, to ascertain the name and address of the owner or occupier.

(5) A notice under this section shall indicate—

(a) the nature of the works to be carried out and the period within which they are to be carried out; and

(b) the right of appeal to a magistrates' court and the period within which such an appeal may be brought under section 27 below.

(6) Subject to the right of appeal provided by section 27 below, if the person upon whom a notice is served under this section fails to carry out the works indicated by the notice within the period so indicated—

(a) the drainage board or local authority concerned may themselves carry out the works and recover from that person the expenses reasonably incurred by them in doing so; and

(b) without prejudice to their right to exercise that power, that person shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(7) In proceedings by the drainage board or local authority concerned for the recovery of any expenses under subsection (6) above it shall not be open to the defendant to raise any question which he could not have raised on an appeal under section 27 below.

(8) Nothing in this section shall affect the right of an owner or occupier to recover from the other, under the terms of any lease or other contract, the amount of any expenses incurred by him under this section or recovered from him by the drainage board or local authority concerned.