Drainage and Improvement of Lands (Ireland) Act 1863
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1863 c. 88 |
| Year | 1863 |
(26 & 27 Vict.) C A P. LXXXVIII.
[28th July 1863]
'WHEREAS it is expedient that the Proprietors of Lands inIreland should be enabled to construct and maintain Works for Drainage and other Improvement of their Lands:' Be it therefore 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:
Preliminary.
Preliminary.
1 Short Title.
1. This Act may be cited for all Purposes as ‘TheDrainage and Improvement of Lands Act (Ireland), 1863.’
2 To apply to Ireland only.
2. This Act shall extend toIreland only.
3 Definition of Terms.
3.‘Watercourse’ shall include all Rivers, Streams, Drains, Sewers, and Passages through which Water flows:
‘Person’ shall include any Body of Persons, corporate or unincorporate, unless there is something in the Context inconsistent therewith:
‘Commissioners’ shall mean Her Majesty's Commissioners of Public Works inIreland for the Time being, or any One or more of them:
‘Owner,’ as used throughout this Act, shall have the same Meaning as it has in ‘The Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845:’
In the Construction of this Act the Word ‘District’ shall mean and include the Lands mentioned and described or referred to in the Maps or Plans and Schedules as approved of by the Commissioners of Public Works:
‘Land’ shall extend to all Arable, Pasture, or otherwise profitable, and to all waste uncultivated Land, and shall also extend to Messuages, Tenements, Mills, Weirs, Easements, Fisheries, and other Hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal, and any Estate or Interest therein, and any undivided Part thereof, or any of them:
‘Petitioners’ shall mean those who shall petition for the Purpose of putting this Act into execution.
Elective Drainage Districts.
Elective Drainage Districts.
4 Constitution of elective Drainage Districts.
4. Any Person or Persons interested in any Land liable to be flooded or injured by Water, or the Drainage whereof may be capable of being improved, may, with the Consent of the Commissioners of Public Works, as herein-after mentioned, constitute such Land, or other Area of Land, a separate Drainage District.
5 Commissioners to be a Body Corporate.
5. The ‘Commissioners’ for the Purpose of this Act shall be a Body Corporate and possess a Common Seal.
6 Mode of constituting elective Drainage District.
6. The following Proceedings shall be taken for the Purpose of obtaining the Sanction and Order of the Commissioners of Public Works:
(1) (1.) A Petition shall be presented to them, stating the proposed Boundaries of the District, by reference to a Map, or in such other Manner as they shall think expedient, and also stating the Exigencies which render the Formation of such Drainage District necessary: It shall be signed by the Petitioners, and shall be accompanied by proper Schedules, Maps, Plans, and Sections showing the Drainage Works proposed to be executed within such District, including therein all Works necessary for any Outfall, and showing the Land to be drained or improved by such Drainage, and showing in One or more of such Schedules the reputed Proprietors and Occupiers thereof; and the Lands or other Property required to be taken for or likely to be injured by the proposed Works or the making of any Outfall, and the reputed Proprietors and Occupiers thereof, and showing, so far as may be possible, the Line, Course, and Situation of the Streams, Watercourses, Drains, Rivers, and Lakes intended to be cleared, scoured, or embanked, and the requisite Variations, Diversions, Abridgments, or Enlargements of the same, and the Direction and Extent of any new Drains, Watercourses, or Works necessary to be made, and the Land in and through which the same are to be made; and such Petition shall also be accompanied by an Estimate of the Expense of the proposed Works, including in such Estimate the probable Amount of Money payable as Compensation in respect of any Injury likely to be occasioned by such Works, or for the Purchase of any Land, Houses, Fisheries, Weirs, Mills, or other Property required to be taken or purchased for the Purpose of such Works, and other miscellaneous Expenses likely to be incurred; and such Schedules shall also set forth the then actual Value of the Land to be drained or improved by Drainage by the proposed Works, so far as the Petitioners shall be able to ascertain the same, and the probable Increase in such Value by the proposed Works; and such actual Value and estimated Increase shall be stated in the said Schedules, and also the Proportions in which such Lands should contribute towards the Payment of the Costs of the proposed Works, specifying such Proportions in the Ratio of the estimated Increase in the Value of such Lands; and the said Petitioners shall cause to be made Copies of the said Schedules, Maps, Plans, Sections, and Estimate, and shall cause such Copies to be deposited in such convenient Place or Places as the said Petitioners shall think proper, within or in the immediate Vicinity of the District in which such Land or the River or Part of a River shall be situate, there to remain open for public Inspection at all reasonable Times for Three successive Weeks; and all Persons shall be at liberty to inspect or make Copies of or Extracts from the said Schedules, Maps, Plans, Sections, and Estimate, and Copies thereof or Extracts therefrom shall be made for any Person who shall require the same, on Payment of the Costs of making such Copies or Extracts:
And the said Petitioners shall cause a Notice, stating the Place or Places in which Copies of the said Schedules, Maps, Plans, Sections, and Estimate have been deposited as aforesaid, to be lodged with the Clerks of the Unions respectively, and to be published in some Newspaper usually circulated in the District in which the Land or River, or Part of a River, proposed to be drained or improved, shall be situated, or in the immediate Vicinity thereof, and also to be served on the Proprietor by Delivery of the same personally, or if such Proprietor is absent from Ireland , to his Agent, or by leaving the same at the usual or last known Place of Abode of such Proprietor as aforesaid, or by forwarding the same by Post in a pre-paid Letter addressed to the usual or last known Place of Abode of such Proprietor; and in all Cases where it shall be proposed to take or remove any Mill or Factory, or to lower, raise, or modify any Weir, Dam, or other Work or Obstruction connected with any Mill or Factory, a Copy of such Notice shall be served on the Owner, Lessee, or Occupier, or Person in charge of such Mill or Factory, and be posted on the Door or Wall thereof; and by such Notice all Parties interested shall be required, on or before a Day to be therein named, not sooner than Two Months from such Publication and Posting or Service as aforesaid of such Notice, to transmit to the said Petitioners their Objections, if any, to the said Schedules, Maps, Plans, Sections, and Estimate, and all other Objections which such Parties shall think fit to make with respect to anything proposed to be done under the Provisions of this Act; and the Petitioners shall by the same Notice specify their Intention of having an Inspector sent to the District, before whom all Persons interested in the proposed Works, or having any Objection thereto, shall be required to appear at a Time and Place to be fixed by such Notice:
(2) (2.) After the Expiration of the Period mentioned in such Notice for sending in Objections, the said Commissioners shall send an Inspector to the District for the Purpose of making Inquiries as to the Propriety of constituting the proposed District, and as to the Assent of the Proprietors thereto; and they shall deliver to such Inspector the Schedules, Maps, Plans, Sections, and Estimate which shall have been deposited with them under the Provisions herein-before contained: The Person so sent as Inspector by the Commissioners shall in no Case be the same Person who may have previously reported for the Petitioners, nor shall the Person so sent by the Commissioners be afterwards in any way employed in the Execution of any of the Works in the District:
(3) (3.) The Inspector shall proceed to the District, and make all necessary Inquiries with respect to the Propriety of constituting such District, and also with respect to the Area of Land to be comprised therein: And such Inspector shall, at the Time and Place named in such Notice as aforesaid, or at such other Time and Place as the Petitioners may by any further Notice appoint, attend, and shall have Power to adjourn from Time to Time, or hold such new Meeting as he may find necessary, and shall inquire into the Correctness of the Schedules containing the Names of such Proprietors and Occupiers as aforesaid, and shall hear all such Objections as shall have been or shall then be made by any Person or Persons interested in the said Lands or River, or any Person on his or their Behalf, as to any Omission or Misdescription in such Schedules, or any Name improperly inserted therein, and shall hear all such other Objections as shall have been or shall be then and there made by such Person or Persons to the Schedules, Maps, Plans, Sections, and Estimate which shall have been made under the Provisions herein-before contained; and the said Inspector shall also hear and inquire, on Oath (which he is hereby authorized to administer) or otherwise, into all such Objections by any of the Persons aforesaid to...
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