7.—(1) The Council may use any watercourse or any public sewer or drain for the drainage of water in connection with the construction, operation or maintenance of the authorised works and for that purpose may lay down, take up and alter pipes and may, on any land within the limits of deviation, make openings into, and connections with, the watercourse, sewer or drain.
(2) The Council shall not discharge any water into any watercourse, public sewer or drain except with the consent of the authority to which it belongs; and such consent may be given subject to such terms and conditions as the authority may reasonably impose but shall not be unreasonably withheld.
(3) The Council shall not make any opening into any public sewer or drain except in accordance with plans approved by, and under the superintendence (if provided) of, the authority to which the sewer or drain belongs, but such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld.
(4) The Council shall not, in the exercise of the powers conferred by this article, damage or interfere with the bed or banks of any watercourse forming part of a main river.
(5) The Council shall take such steps as are reasonably practicable to secure that any water discharged into a watercourse or public sewer or drain under the powers conferred by this article is as free as may be practicable from gravel, soil or other solid substance or oil or matter in suspension.
(6) This article does not authorise the entry into controlled waters of any matter whose entry or discharge into controlled waters is prohibited by section 85(1), (2) or (3) of the Water Resources Act 1991(1).
(7) In this article—
(a)“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain which belongs to a sewerage undertaker, the Environment Agency, an internal drainage board or a local authority;
(b)“watercourse” includes all rivers, streams, ditches, drains, cuts, culverts, dykes, sluices, sewers and passages through which water flows except a public sewer or drain; and
(c)other expressions used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991 have the same meaning as in that Act.
8.—(1) The Council may for the purposes of this Order—
(a)survey or investigate any land within the limits of deviation;
(b)without prejudice to the generality of sub-paragraph (a) above, make trial holes in such positions as the Council thinks fit on the land to investigate the nature of the surface layer and subsoil and remove soil samples;
(c)place on, leave on and remove from the land apparatus for use in connection with the exercise of any of the powers conferred by sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) above; and
(d)enter on the land for the purpose of exercising any of the powers conferred by sub-paragraphs (a) to (c) above.
(2) No land may be entered, or equipment placed or left on or removed from the land under paragraph (1) above, unless at least 7 days' notice has been served on every owner and occupier of the land.
(3) Any person entering land under this article on behalf of the Council—
(a)shall, if so required, before or after entering the land produce written evidence of his authority to do so; and
(b)may take with him such vehicles and equipment as are necessary to carry out the survey or investigation or to make the trial holes.
(4) The Council shall make compensation for any damage occasioned, by the exercise of the powers conferred by this article, to the owners and occupiers of the land, such compensation to be determined, in case of dispute, under Part I of the 1961 Act.
9. Any person who, without reasonable excuse, obstructs another person from constructing any of the authorised works under the powers conferred by this Order shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.