Land Drainage Act 1976

116Interpretation

(1)In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

• " agricultural land " means any land used as arable, meadow or pasture ground only, land used for a plantation or a wood or for the growth of saleable underwood, land exceeding one quarter of an acre used for the purpose of poultry farming, market gardens, nursery grounds, orchards or allotments, including allotment gardens within the meaning of the [1922 c. 52.] Allotments Act 1922, but does not include land occupied together with a house as a park, gardens (other than as aforesaid), pleasure grounds, or land kept or preserved mainly or exclusively for purposes of sport or recreation, or land used as a racecourse ;

• " banks " means banks, walls or embankments adjoining or confining, or constructed for the purposes of or in connection with, any channel or sea front, and includes all land between the bank and low-watermark;

• " the City " means the City of London ;

• " the Common Council " means the Common Council of the City of London;

• " conservancy authority " has the same meaning as in the [1894 c. 60.] Merchant Shipping Act 1894 ;

• " constituent council ", in relation to a water authority's regional land drainage committee, has the meaning provided by section 2(6) above and, in relation to a local land drainage committee, has the meaning provided by section 5(8) above ;

• " drainage " includes defence against water (including sea water), irrigation, other than spray irrigation, and warping;

• " drainage authority " has the meaning provided by section 17(7) above;

• " drainage body " means a drainage authority or any other body having power to make or maintain works for the drainage of land ;

• " harbour " and " harbour authority " have the same respective meanings as in the Merchant Shipping Act 1894;

• " land " includes water and any interests in land or water and any easement or right in, to, or over land or water;

• " land drainage " means the drainage of land and the provision of flood warning systems, and " land drainage functions " shall be construed accordingly ;

• " local authority " means any of the following, namely, the council of a county, district or London borough, the Common Council of the City of London, and the Greater London Council;

• " local land drainage committee " has the meaning provided by section 4(1) above ;

• " local land drainage district " has the meaning (subject to sections 3(11) and 89(2) above) provided by section 4(1) above;

• " local land drainage scheme " has the meaning provided by section 4(1) above ;

• " London excluded area " means so much of Greater London, and of any area adjoining Greater London, as does not lie, for the purpose of the exercise of land drainage functions, within the area of any water authority;

• " main river " has the meaning provided by section 8(3) above;

• " the Minister " means the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food;

• " the Ministers " means the Minister and the Secretary of State acting jointly;

• " navigation authority " means any person or body having powers under any Act of Parliament to work or maintain a canal or other inland navigation (including a navigation in tidal water);

• " prescribed " means (except in section 115) prescribed by regulations made by the Minister ;

• " qualified authority ", in relation to an internal drainage district, means an authority in whose case an agreement made with the drainage board of the district under section 81 above is in force;

• " water charges option order " means an order made pursuant to section 62 above ; and

• " watercourse " includes all rivers and streams and all ditches, drains, cuts, culverts, dikes, sluices, sewers (other than public sewers within the meaning of the [1936 c. 49.] Public Health Act 1936) and passages, through which water flows.

(2)Where any provision of this Act refers, in relation to an internal drainage district, to the making of any appeal or petition by a sufficient number of qualified persons, the persons who are qualified are the owners and the occupiers of any land in the district in respect of which a drainage rate is levied; and their number shall be sufficient if (but only if)—

(a)they are not less than 40 ; or

(b)they are not less than one-fifth of the number of persons who are qualified to make the petition or appeal; or

(c)the annual value for the purposes of the last drainage rate levied in the district of all the land in respect of which they are qualified persons is not less than one-fifth of the annual value of all the land in respect of which that rate was levied ;

but in relation to a district divided into sub-districts the persons qualified to make a petition under section 69 above as being the owners or occupiers of land in one of the sub-districts shall also be sufficient in any case where the condition in paragraph (b) or (c) above would be satisfied if the sub-district were an internal drainage district.

(3)The references to the value of land in paragraph (c) of subsection (2) above are references to—

(a)in the case of any land as respects which the rate referred to in that paragraph was assessed (in accordance with section 64 above) by reference to annual value (within the meaning of that section), that value;

(b)in the case of any land as respects which the rate referred to in that paragraph was assessed (in accordance with section 65 above) by reference to rateable value, the value arrived at by applying to the rateable value (within the meaning of that section) the relative fraction applied in respect of the said rate pursuant to that section (whether pursuant to subsection (2) or to subsection (3)).

(4)References in this Act to the execution or carrying out of drainage works include references to the improvement of drainage works and in sections 15, 20, 22, 28, 50 and 98 also include references to the maintenance of drainage works.