(1)The Ministers shall, as soon as practicable after the passing of this Act, and after consultation with such persons, or bodies representative of persons, as they consider appropriate, by order establish authorities, to be called " river authorities ".
(2)The names of the river authorities established by virtue of this section shall be those specified in the second column of Schedule 1 to this Act; and, subject to the following provisions of this section, the area for which any such river authority is so established shall be an area consisting of the river board area, or combination of river board areas, specified in relation to that river authority in the third column of that Schedule.
(3)The area for which a river authority is for the time being established by virtue of this section or of section 10 of this Act shall be called a " river authority area ".
(4)All the river authorities established by virtue of this section—
(a)shall come into existence on such day as may be appointed for the purposes of this paragraph by an order made by the Ministers (in this Act referred to as " the first appointed day "), and
(b)on and after such day (subsequent to the first appointed day) as may be appointed for the purposes of this paragraph by an order made by the Ministers (in this Act referred to as " the second appointed day ") shall perform the functions assigned or transferred to them by or under this Act.
(5)The functions assigned by or under this Act to river authorities, other than functions transferred to them by or under section 5 or (except as otherwise provided in that section) section 82 of this Act, are in this Act referred to as their " new functions "; and the functions transferred to river authorities by or under those sections (except as otherwise provided in the said section 82) are in this Act referred to as their " transferred functions ".
(6)In this section, and in Schedule 1 to this Act, any reference to a river board area is a reference to that area as it exists immediately before the first appointed day for the purposes of the functions of river boards relating to land drainage.
(7)The provisions of Schedule 2 to this Act shall have effect for the purposes of this section.