Water Act 1945

PART I Interpretation.

Definitions, and &c.

1 (1) In this Schedule the following expressions shall, subject to any express provision or anything in the context to the contrary, have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say:—

• " authorised " means authorised by the special Act;

• " bridge authority " means—

  (a)

  in the case of a county bridge, the county council;

  (b)

  in the case of any other bridge maintainable at the public expense, the authority who are the highway authority in respect of the highway carried by the bridge;

• " building " includes a part of a building if that part is separately occupied;

• " building byelaws " means byelaws made under Part II of the Public Health Act, 1936, with respect to buildings works and fittings, and includes byelaws made with respect to those matters under any corresponding enactment repealed by that Act, or under any such enactment as amended or extended by a local Act;

• " business " does not include a profession;

• " catchment board " and " catchment area ", in relation to such a board have the same meanings as in the Land Drainage Act, 1930;

• " communication pipe " means—

  (a)

  where the premises supplied with water abut on the part of the street in which the main is laid, and the service pipe enters those premises otherwise than through the outer wall of a building abutting on the street and has a stopcock placed in those premises and as near to the boundary of that street as is reasonably practicable, so much of the service pipe as lies between the main and that stopcock;

  (b)

  in any other case, so much of the service pipe as lies between the main and the boundary of the street in which the main is laid, and includes the ferrule at the junction of the service pipe with the main, and also—

  (i)

  where the communication pipe ends at a stopcock, that stopcock; and

  (ii)

  any stopcock fitted on the communication pipe between the end thereof and the main;

• " consumer " means a person supplied, or about to be supplied, with water by the undertakers;

• " county " means an administrative county;

• " county district " means a non-county borough, an urban district or a rural district;

• " enactment " means any Act of Parliament, whether public general, local or private, any statutory order or any provision in an Act of Parliament or statutory order;

• " factory " means a factory within the meaning of the Factories Act, 1937;

• " fire authority " has the same meaning as in the [1 & 2 Geo. 6. c. 72.] Fire Brigades Act, 1938;

• " fishery board " and " fishery district " have the same meanings as in the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1923;

• " highway authority " means, in the case of a highway maintainable at the public expense, the authority in whom that highway is vested;

• " house " means a dwelling-house, whether a private dwelling-house or not, and includes any part of a building if that part is occupied as a separate dwelling-house;

• " land drainage authority " means a drainage authority within the meaning of the Land Drainage Act, 1930;

• " limits of supply, " in relation to any water undertaking, means the limits within which the undertakers are for the time being authorised to supply water;

• " local authority " means the council of a borough or of an urban or rural district, and " district," in relation to the local authority of a borough, means that borough;

• " main " means a pipe laid by the undertakers for the purpose of giving a general supply of water as distinct from a supply to individual consumers and includes any apparatus used in connection with such a pipe;

• " Minister " means Minister of Health;

• " navigation authority " means any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, having powers under an enactment to work, maintain, conserve, improve or control any canal or other inland navigation, navigable river, estuary, harbour or dock;

• " owner " means the person for the time being receiving the rackrent of the premises in connection with which the word is used, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person, or who would so receive the same it those premises were let at a rackrent;

• " prescribed " means prescribed by the special Act;

• " railway company " means any persons authorised by an enactment to construct, work or carry on a railway, and includes the London Passenger Transport Board;

• " rivers board " means a joint committee, board or other body, constituted under subsection (3) of section fourteen of the Local Government Act, 1888, or by or under a local Act, for the purpose of exercising powers of a sanitary authority under the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, 1876;

• " service pipe " means so much of any pipe for supplying water from a main to any premises as is subject to water pressure from that main, or would be so subject but for the closing of some tap;

• " sewerage authority " has the same meaning as in the Public Health Act, 1936;

• " special Act " means the enactment with which any provisions of this Schedule are incorporated, with or without modifications, and includes those provisions as so incorporated;

• " statutory order " means an order or scheme made under an Act of Parliament, including an order or scheme confirmed by Parliament;

• " statutory undertakers " means any persons authorised by an enactment to construct, work or carry on any railway, canal, inland navigation, dock, harbour, tramway, gas, electricity, water or other public undertaking;

• " street " includes any highway, including a highway over any bridge, and any road, lane, footway, square, court, alley or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not;

• " a supply of water for domestic purposes " means a sufficient supply for drinking, washing, cooking and sanitary purposes, but not for any bath having a capacity (measured to the centre line of the overflow pipe, or in such other manner as the Minister may by regulations prescribe) in excess of fifty gallons; and includes—

  (a)

  a supply for the purposes of a profession carried on in any premises the greater part whereof is used as a house; and

  (b)

  where the water is drawn from a tap inside a house and no hosepipe or similar apparatus is used, a supply for watering a garden, for horses kept for private use and for washing vehicles so kept:

  Provided that it does not include a supply of water for the business of a laundry or a business of preparing food or beverages for consumption otherwise than on the premises;

• " supply of water in bulk " means a supply of water for distribution by the undertakers taking the supply;

• " supply pipe " means so much of any service pipe as is not a communication pipe;

• " telegraphic line " has the same meaning as in the Telegraph Act, 1878;

• " trunk main " means a main constructed for the purpose of conveying water from a source of supply to a filter or reservoir, or from one filter or reservoir to another filter or reservoir, or for the purpose of conveying water in bulk from one part of the limits of supply to another part of those limits, or for the purpose of giving or taking a supply of water in bulk;

• " undertakers " means the persons whose water undertaking is authorised or regulated by the special Act;

• " watercourse " includes all rivers, streams, ditches, drains, cuts, culverts, dykes, sluices, sewers (other than sewers vested in a local authority or joint board of local authorities) and passages, through which water flows;

• " water fittings " includes pipes (other than mains), taps, cocks, valves, ferrules, meters, cisterns, baths, waterclosets, soil-pans and other similar apparatus used in connection with the supply and use of water.

(2) Any reference in this Schedule to the persons having the control or management of a street or bridge shall be construed as a reference, in the case of a highway or bridge maintainable at the public expense, to the authority who are the highway authority, or, as the case may be, the bridge authority in respect thereof and, in the case of any other street or bridge, to the -authority or person responsible for the maintenance thereof, or, if no authority or person is responsible therefor, to the owners of the soil of the street or, as the case may be, of the structure of the bridge.

(3) References in this Schedule to any enactment shall be construed as including references to that enactment as amended by any subsequent enactment, including the Water Act, 1945.