Water Act 1948

2 Combination of certain orders under principal Act

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, an order under section twenty-three of the principal Act, made on the application of persons who propose to become statutory water undertakers and authorising those persons to supply water, may provide—

(a) for transferring to the applicants, whether by agreement or compulsorily, the undertaking or part of the undertaking of any water undertakers, whether statutory or not;

(b) for requiring any statutory water undertakers to give to the applicants, or the applicants to give to any such undertakers, a supply of water in bulk (whether within or outside their limits of supply), and for requiring the applicants or those undertakers, as the case may be, to take such a supply ;

(c) for authorising the compulsory acquisition by the applicants of such rights to take water from any stream or other source as may be specified in the order.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, an order under section nine of the principal Act, providing for the constitution of a joint board or joint committee of two or more statutory water undertakers or for the amalgamation of the undertakings or parts of the undertakings of two or more statutory water undertakers, may make provision, in relation to the undertakers constituted by the order, for any purpose authorised by the last foregoing subsection in relation to the applicants for an order under section twenty-three of the principal Act, and may provide—

(a) for authorising the undertakers to construct, acquire by agreement, alter or continue, and to maintain, waterworks and works connected therewith ;

(b) for authorising the undertakers to raise capital or borrow money for any purposes of their water undertaking.

(3) An order under section twenty-three or section nine of the principal Act which makes provision for any purpose authorised by this section may contain such incidental, consequential and supplementary provisions as the Minister thinks necessary or expedient for that purpose, including provisions for the amendment or repeal of any local enactment and for the transfer of property and liabilities:

Provided that no such order shall, except as provided by section three of this Act, empower the undertakers to acquire compulsorily any land, or shall vary compulsorily the amount of compensation water required by any enactment to be discharged into any water course or the periods during which or the manner in which such compensation water is required to be discharged.

(4) Where application is made under the said section twenty-three or section nine, as the case may be, for an order requiring any statutory water undertakers to give or take a supply of water in bulk, a copy of the notice of the application required by Part I of the First Schedule to the principal Act (which regulates the procedure for making orders under the sections aforesaid) shall be served in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 3 of that Schedule—

(a) on those undertakers ; and

(b) on the catchment board for any catchment area, the fishery board for any fishery district, and any river board having jurisdiction over any water-course, from which water is taken by the persons who are to give the bulk supply.

(5) Subsections (3) to (5) of section twenty-six of the principal Act (which provide for securing the provision of compensation water, and for restricting the taking of water, in relation to the acquisition of rights under that section) shall have effect as if references therein to the acquisition of rights under that section included references to the acquisition of the like rights by an order made under section nine or twenty-three of that Act.

(6) Notwithstanding anything in section twenty-three of the principal Act, paragraph 8 of the First Schedule to that Act (which provides that in certain circumstances an order shall be subject to special parliamentary procedure) shall apply to any order under that section which makes provision for any of the matters specified in subsection (1) of this section.