Public Health Act 1936

Watercourses, ditches, ponds, &c.

259 Nuisances in connection with watercourses, ditches, ponds, and &c.

(1) The following matters shall be statutory nuisances for the purposes of Part III of this Act, that is to say—

(a) any pond, pool, ditch, gutter or watercourse which is so foul or in such a state as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;

(b) any part of a watercourse, not being a part ordinarily navigated by vessels employed in the carriage of goods by water, which is so choked or silted up as to obstruct or impede the proper flow of water and thereby to cause a nuisance, or give rise to conditions prejudicial to health:

Provided that in the case of an alleged nuisance under paragraph (b) nothing in this subsection shall be deemed to impose any liability on any person other than the person by whose act or default the nuisance arises or continues.

(2) A person who throws or deposits any cinders, ashes, bricks, stone, rubbish, dust, filth or other matter likely to cause annoyance into or in any river, stream or watercourse, or who suffers any such act to be done, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.

260 Power of parish council, or local authority, to deal with ponds, ditches, and &c.

(1) A parish council may—

(a) deal with any pond, pool, ditch, gutter or ,place containing, or used for the collection of, any drainage, filth, stagnant water, or matter likely to be prejudicial to health, by draining, cleansing or covering it, or otherwise preventing it from being prejudicial to health, but so as not to interfere with any private right, or with any public drainage, sewerage or sewage disposal works;

(b) execute any works, including works of maintenance or improvement, incidental to or consequential on any exercise of the foregoing power;

(c) contribute towards the expenses incurred by any other person in doing anything mentioned in this subsection.

(2) Without prejudice to their right to take action in respect of any statutory nuisance, a local authority may exercise any powers which a parish council may exercise under this section.

261 Provision for obtaining order for cleansing offensive ditches lying near to, or forming, boundary of district.

Upon a complaint by a local authority against the local authority of an adjoining district that a watercourse or ditch which forms the boundary between their districts, or which lies in the adjoining district but near to that boundary, is so foul and offensive as injuriously to affect the district of the complainants, a court of summary jurisdiction having jurisdiction in the place where the watercourse or ditch is situate may make such order as it deems reasonable with respect to the cleansing of the watercourse or ditch and the execution of any work appearing to the court to be necessary, and with respect to the persons by whom the work is to be executed, and the persons by whom, and the proportions in which, the costs of the work are to be paid.

262 Power of local authority to require culverting of watercourses and ditches where building operations in prospect.

(1) If a local authority consider that any watercourse or ditch, situate upon land laid out for building, or on which any land laid out for bunding abuts, should be wholly or partially tilled up or covered over, they may by notice require the owner of the land laid out for building, before any building operations are begun or while any such operations are in progress, wholly or partially to fill up the watercourse or ditch, or to substitute therefor a pipe, drain or culvert with all necessary gullies and other means of conveying surface water into and through it.

(2) Any question arising under this section between a local authority and an owner as to the reasonableness of any works which the authority require to be executed may, on the application of either party, be determined by a court of summary jurisdiction.

(3) Any person who, on any land to which a notice given by a local authority under this section applies, begins or proceeds with any building operations before executing the works required by the notice, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds and to a further fine not exceeding forty shillings for each day on which the offence continues after conviction therefor.

(4) Nothing in this section shall empower an authority to require the execution of works upon the land of any person other than the owner of the land laid out for building, without the consent of that person, or prejudicially to affect the rights of any person not being the owner of the land so laid out.

263 Watercourses in urban district not to be culverted except in accordance with approved plans.

(1) It shall not be lawful within a borough or urban district, or a rural district or contributory place in which section fifty-two of the Public Health Act, 1925, was in force immediately before the commencement of this Act, to culvert or cover any stream or watercourse except in accordance with plans and sections to be submitted to and approved by the local authority, but such approval shall not be withheld unreasonably and, if the authority, within six weeks after plans and sections have been submitted to them, fail to notify their determination to the person by whom the plans and sections were submitted, they shall be deemed to have approved them.

(2) Any question arising under this section between a local authority and an owner as to the reasonableness of any works which the authority require to be executed as a condition of their approval, or as to the reasonableness of their refusal to give approval, may, on the application of either party, be determined by a court of summary jurisdiction.

(3) A local authority shall not, as a condition of approving plans or sections under this section, require an owner to receive upon his land, or to make provision for the passage of, a greater quantity of water than he is otherwise obliged to receive or to permit to pass, and, if the owner at the request of the authority makes provision for the passage of a larger quantity of water than he is obliged to permit to pass at the time of the commencement of any work under this section, any additional cost reasonably incurred by him in complying with the request of the authority shall be borne by them.

(4) Any person who contravenes this section shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds and to a further fine not exceeding forty shillings for each day on which the offence continues after conviction therefor.

264 Urban authority may require repair and cleansing of culverts.

The owner or occupier of any land within a borough or urban district, or a rural district or contributory place in which section fifty-three of the Public Health Act, 1925, was in force immediately before the commencement of this Act, shall repair, maintain and cleanse any culvert in, on or under that land, and, if it appears to the local authority that any person has failed to fulfil his obligations under this section, they may by notice require him to execute such works of repair, maintenance or cleansing as may be necessary.

The provisions of Part XII of this Act with respect to appeals against, and the enforcement of, notices requiring the execution of works shall apply in relation to any notice given under this section.

265 Power of local authority to defray cost of, or execute, works relating to watercourses.

A local authority may, if they think fit, contribute the whole or a part of the expenses of the execution of works for any of the purposes mentioned in the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act, or may by agreement with any owner or occupier themselves execute any such works which he may be required, or is entitled, to execute.

266 Saving for land drainage authorities, the London County Council, railway companies and dock undertakers.

(1) The powers conferred by the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act shall not be exercised—

(i) with respect to any stream, watercourse, ditch or culvert within the jurisdiction of a land drainage authority, except after consultation with that authority;

(ii) with respect to any stream, watercourse, ditch or culvert vested in the London County Council, without the consent of that council:

Provided that nothing in this subsection shall apply in relation to the taking of proceedings in respect of a statutory nuisance.

(2) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act shall prejudice or affect the powers of any railway company or dock undertakers to culvert or cover in any stream or watercourse, or, without the consent of the railway company or dock undertakers concerned, extend to any culvert or covering of a stream or watercourse constructed by a railway company and used by them for the purposes of their railway, or constructed by dock undertakers and used by them for the purposes of their undertaking.