Environment Act 1995

Flood defence committees

14 Regional flood defence committees

(1) There shall be committees, known as regional flood defence committees, for the purpose of carrying out the functions which fall to be carried out by such committees by virtue of this Act and the 1991 Act.

(2) Subject to Schedule 4 to this Act (which makes provision for the alteration of the boundaries of and the amalgamation of the areas of regional flood defence committees)—

(a) there shall be a regional flood defence committee for each of the areas for which there was an old committee immediately before the transfer date; but

(b) where under section 165(2) or (3) of the 1991 Act any function of the Agency falls to be carried out at a place beyond the seaward boundaries of the area of any regional flood defence committee, that place shall be assumed for the purposes of this Act and the 1991 Act to be within the area of the regional flood defence committee to whose area the area of sea where that place is situated is adjacent.

(3) The Agency shall maintain a principal office for the area of each regional flood defence committee.

(4) In this section “old committee” means a regional flood defence committee for the purposes of section 9 of the 1991 Act.

15 Composition of regional flood defence committees

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, a regional flood defence committee shall consist of the following, none of whom shall be a member of the Agency, that is to say—

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

(b) two members appointed by the Agency;

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

(2) Any person who immediately before the transfer date is, by virtue of his appointment—

(a) by a Minister of the Crown,

(b) by or on behalf of any council, or

(c) by the National Rivers Authority,

the chairman or a member of an old committee which, by virtue of section 14 above, is replaced by a new committee shall be treated, on and after that date, for the remainder of the period for which he would, under the terms of his appointment, have held office in relation to the old committee, as if he had been appointed as the chairman or, as the case may be, a member of the new committee, and on the same terms, by that Minister or, as the case may be, by or on behalf of that council or, in the case of a person appointed by the National Rivers Authority, by the Agency.

(3) Subject to section 16 below and to any order under Schedule 4 to this Act amalgamating the areas of any two or more regional flood defence committees—

(a) the total number of members of a new committee for any area shall be the same as the total number of members of the old committee for that area immediately before the transfer date;

(b) the number of members to be appointed to a new committee for any area by or on behalf of each of the constituent councils or, as the case may be, jointly by or on behalf of more than one of them shall be the same as the number of members of the old committee for that area which fell to be so appointed immediately before the transfer date.

(4) In any case where—

(a) the appointment of one or more members of a regional flood defence committee is (by virtue of subsection (3) above or an order under section 16(5) below), to be made jointly by more than one constituent council, and

(b) 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 relevant Minister on behalf of those councils.

(5) In appointing a person to be the chairman or a member of a regional flood defence committee under subsection (1)(a) or (c) or (4) above the relevant Minister or, as the case may be, a constituent council shall have regard to the desirability of appointing a person who has experience of, and has shown capacity in, some matter relevant to the functions of the committee.

(6) The councils of every county, county borough, metropolitan district or London borough any part of which is in the area of a regional flood defence committee shall be the constituent councils for the regional flood defence committee for that area, and the Common Council of the City of London shall be a constituent council for the regional flood defence committee for any area which comprises any part of the City.

(7) In this section—

• “old committee” has the same meaning as in section 14 above;

• “new committee” means a regional flood defence committee established under section 14 above;

• “the relevant Minister”—

  (a)

  in relation to the regional flood defence committee for an area the whole or the greater part of which is in Wales, means the Secretary of State; and

  (b)

  in relation to any other regional flood defence committee, means the Minister.

16 Change of composition of regional flood defence committee

(1) The Agency may, in accordance with the following provisions of this section, from time to time make a determination varying the total number of members of a regional flood defence committee.

(2) The Agency shall submit any determination under subsection (1) above to the relevant Minister.

(3) For the purposes of this section—

(a) the total number of members of a regional flood defence committee shall not be less than eleven; and

(b) any determination by the Agency under subsection (1) above that a regional flood defence committee should consist of more than seventeen members shall be provisional and shall take effect only if the relevant Minister makes an order under subsection (4) below.

(4) If the Agency submits a provisional determination to the relevant Minister with respect to any regional flood defence committee and he considers that the committee should consist of more than seventeen members, he may by order made by statutory instrument—

(a) confirm it; or

(b) substitute for the number of members determined by the Agency some other number not less than seventeen.

(5) Subject to the following provisions of this section, whenever—

(a) the total number of members of a regional flood defence committee is varied under this section, or

(b) the relevant Minister considers it necessary or expedient to make an order under this subsection,

the relevant Minister shall by order made by statutory instrument specify the number of members to be appointed to the committee by each of the constituent councils.

(6) An order under subsection (5) above shall relate—

(a) where paragraph (a) of that subsection applies, to times after the coming into force of the variation; and

(b) where paragraph (b) of that subsection applies, to such times as are specified in the order.

(7) An order under subsection (5) above shall be so framed that the total number of members appointed under section 15(1)(a) and (b) above is one less than the number of those appointed by or on behalf of constituent councils.

(8) For the purpose of determining for the purposes of subsection (5) above the number of persons to be appointed to a regional flood defence committee by or on behalf of each constituent council, the relevant Minister—

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

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

may include provision to that effect in the order.

(9) In this section—

• “member”, in relation to a regional flood defence committee, includes the chairman of the committee;

• “the relevant Minister” has the same meaning as in section 15 above.

17 Local flood defence schemes and local flood defence committees

(1) A scheme, known as a local flood defence scheme, may be made by the Agency, in accordance with the following provisions of this section—

(a) for the creation in the area of a regional flood defence committee of one or more districts, to be known as local flood defence districts; and

(b) for the constitution, membership, functions and procedure of a committee for each such district, to be known as the local flood defence committee for that district.

(2) Any local flood defence scheme which was made under the 1991 Act or continued in force by virtue of paragraph 14(1) of Schedule 2 to the [1991 c. 60.] Water Consolidation (Consequential Provisions) Act 1991 and which, immediately before the transfer date, is in force in relation to the area of a regional flood defence committee, shall on and after that date have effect, and may be amended or revoked, as if it were a local flood defence scheme made under this section in relation to that area; and, accordingly, subject to any such amendment or revocation—

(a) any local flood defence district created by that scheme and in being immediately before that date shall be treated, on and after that date, as a local flood defence district created by a scheme under this section in relation to the area of that regional flood defence committee; and

(b) any local flood defence committee created by that scheme for any such district and in being immediately before that date shall be treated, on and after that date, as the local flood defence committee for that district.

(3) A regional flood defence committee may at any time submit to the Agency—

(a) a local flood defence scheme for any part of their area for which there is then no such scheme in force; or

(b) a scheme varying a local flood defence scheme or revoking such a scheme and, if the committee think fit, replacing it with another such scheme;

and references in the following provisions of this section and in section 18 below to local flood defence schemes are references to schemes under either of paragraphs (a) and (b) above.

(4) Before submitting a scheme to the Agency under subsection (3) above, a regional flood defence committee shall consult—

(a) every local authority any part of whose area will fall within the area to which the scheme is proposed to relate; and

(b) such organisations representative of persons interested in flood defence (within the meaning of Part IV of the 1991 Act) or agriculture as the regional flood defence committee consider to be appropriate.

(5) It shall be the duty of the Agency to send any scheme submitted to it under subsection (3) above to one of the Ministers.

(6) A local flood defence scheme may define a local flood defence district—

(a) by reference to the districts which were local land drainage districts immediately before 1st September 1989;

(b) by reference to the area of the regional flood defence committee in which that district is situated;

(c) by reference to a map;

or partly by one of those means and partly by another or others.

(7) A local flood defence scheme may contain incidental, consequential and supplementary provisions.

(8) Either of the Ministers may approve a local flood defence scheme with or without modifications; and any scheme approved under this subsection shall come into force on a date fixed by the Minister approving it.

18 Composition of local flood defence committees

(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) below, a local flood defence scheme shall provide that any local flood defence committee to which it relates shall consist of not less than eleven and not more than fifteen members.

(2) A regional flood defence committee may include in a local flood defence scheme which they submit to the Agency a recommendation that a committee to which the scheme relates should consist of a number of members greater than fifteen; 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 each of the Ministers by section 17(8) 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 fifteen.

(4) A local flood defence committee shall consist of—

(a) a chairman appointed from among their own members by the regional flood defence committee;

(b) other members appointed by that committee; and

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

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

(6) In appointing a person to be a member of a local flood defence committee, the regional flood defence committee shall have regard to the desirability of appointing a person who has experience of, and has shown capacity in, some matter relevant to the functions of the committee to which he is appointed.

(7) Any person who, immediately before the transfer date is, by virtue of an appointment by an old regional committee or by or on behalf of any council, the chairman or a member of a local flood defence committee which is continued in force by virtue of section 17(2) above shall be treated, on and after that date, for the remainder of the period for which he would, under the terms of his appointment, have held office in relation to the local flood defence committee—

(a) as if he had been appointed as such under this section by the regional flood defence committee or, as the case may be, by or on behalf of that council; and

(b) in the case of the chairman, as if he were a member of the regional flood defence committee.

(8) The councils of every county, county borough, metropolitan district or London borough any part of which is in a local flood defence district shall be the constituent councils for the local flood defence committee for that district, and the Common Council of the City of London shall be a constituent council for the local flood defence committee of any local flood defence district which comprises any part of the City.

(9) In this section “old regional committee” means a regional flood defence committee for the purposes of section 9 of the 1991 Act.

19 Membership and proceedings of flood defence committees

Schedule 5 to this Act shall have effect in relation to regional flood defence committees and local flood defence committees.