1(1)An application for a licence under section 17 of this Act shall contain such information as to—
(a)the inland or ground waters from which water is intended to be abstracted;
(b)the point of abstraction and the amount of water to be abstracted;
(c)the land to be irrigated and the method and purpose of that irrigation; and
(d)such other matters relevant to the consideration of the application,
as the river purification authority may require.
(2)A river purification authority shall—
(a)in each year, within the period of fourteen days beginning with the closing date publish in at least one newspaper circulating in the control area a notice stating briefly—
(i)the nature of any application made to them for a licence in such an area;
(ii)where and when particulars of such application may be inspected; and
(iii)the period within which objections should be made, in writing, to the authority; and
(b)maintain at their office a register containing particulars of any application made or licence granted under this section, to be available for inspection by any person free of charge at all reasonable hours,
and the particulars of any such application or licence shall be entered in that register within the period of seven days beginning with the receipt of the application, or, as the case may be, the granting of the licence.
(3)Any person who objects to an application for a licence under this section must do so in writing to the river purification authority within the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the closing date.
(4)An application for a licence under this section shall be deemed to have been granted unconditionally, and the river purification authority shall grant a licence accordingly, if the authority fail to intimate their decision on the application to the applicant within the period of fifty-six days beginning with the closing date.
(5)On making an application under this section, there shall become payable to the river purification authority by the applicant such reasonable fee as the authority may from time to time determine.
(6)If during the process of applying for a licence the applicant ceases to occupy the land referred to in section 17(1) of this Act, the river purification authority to whom the application has been made shall, at the request of the succeeding occupier, consider the application as if it had been made by the succeeding occupier.