Water Act 1981
| Year | 1981 |
Water Act 1981
1981 CHAPTER 12
An Act to provide for increasing the borrowing powers of the British Waterways Board and to make further provision relating to water supply.
[15th April 1981]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Increased borrowing powers of British Waterways Board.
(1) For paragraph (iv) of subsection (3) of section 19 of the Transport Act 1962 there shall be substituted the following paragraph—
‘(iv) for the British Waterways Board 25 million or such greater sum not exceeding 35 million as the Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument specify.’
(2) After the said subsection (3) there shall be inserted the following subsection—
(3A) An order made under paragraph (iv) of subsection (3) above shall be made by statutory instrument, and no such order shall be made unless a draft of the order has been approved by resolution of the House of Commons.’
(3) Section 3 of the Transport (Financial Provisions) Act 1977 is hereby repealed.
2 Exemption from charges for water for fire fighting.
(1) Notwithstanding anything in section 30 or in any charges scheme made under section 31 of the Water Act 1973 or in any agreement made under section 27 of the Water Act 1945 , but subject to the provisions of any order made under subsection (2) below, no charge may be made by statutory water undertakers in respect of—
(a ) water taken for the purposes of extinguishing fires or of testing apparatus installed or equipment used for extinguishing fires,
(b ) the availability of water for those purposes.
(2) The Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument make provision as to the method by which and the criteria by reference to which statutory water undertakers shall calculate the charges payable to them for water supplied where the supply of water provided for the purposes mentioned in paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) above is by means of a service pipe which also supplies water for other purposes; and such order may make provision for arbitration.
(3) This section shall not prevent the making of charges in respect of work carried out at the request of or for the benefit of any person receiving a supply of water for the purposes mentioned in paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) above.
(4) This section shall not prevent the making of charges in respect of a supply of water for domestic purposes where any of the water is used for any of the purposes mentioned in paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) above.
(5) This section shall come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument appoint; and different days may be so appointed for different provisions of this section, or for different purposes of the same provision and in particular, different days may be so appointed for the coming into force of the same provision in different water authority areas or for different parts of the same area.
(6) An order under subsection (5) above may make such transitional, incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as the Secretary of State may consider necessary or expedient in connection with the provisions of this section which are thereby brought into force.
(7) A statutory instrument containing an order under subsection (2) above shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.
(8) In this section—
(a ) ‘service pipe’ and ‘a supply of water for domestic purposes’ have the meanings assigned to them by section 1(1) of Schedule 3 to the Water Act 1945 ;
(b ) ‘statutory water undertakers’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 11(6) of the Water Act 1973 .
3 Application of sections 35 to 38 of Part VIII of Schedule 3 to the Water Act 1945.
(1) Sections 35 to 38 of Part VIII of Schedule 3 to the Water Act 1945 (which make provision as to the supply of water for public purposes) shall by virtue of this section apply throughout every water authority area; and accordingly any local statutory provision applying those sections with or without modifications shall cease to have effect.
(2) In this section ‘local statutory provision’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 38(1) of the Water Act 1973.
4 Separation of common water service pipes.
(1) Notwithstanding anything in any agreement, where on the passing of this Act the supply of water to two or more houses is by a single service pipe, statutory water undertakers shall not require the provision of separate service pipes for those houses until either—
(a ) the existing supply pipe becomes so defective as to require renewal or is no longer sufficient to meet the requirements of the houses; or
(b ) a payment in respect of the supply of water to any of the houses remains unpaid after the end of the period for which it is due; or
(c ) the houses are, by structural alterations to one or more of them, converted into a larger number of houses; or
(d ) the owner or occupier of any of the houses has interfered with or allowed another person to interfere with the existing service pipe or the stopcock fixed to it and...
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