Land Drainage Act 1991

Supplemental and enforcement provisions

52 Registers of drainage hereditaments

(1) It shall be the duty of the drainage board for each internal drainage district to prepare in the prescribed form and within the prescribed period, or such longer period as the relevant Minister may allow in any particular case—

(a) a register containing the prescribed information in respect of the drainage hereditaments in that district; and

(b) a map showing the prescribed particulars of such of those hereditaments as are of the prescribed description.

(2) It shall be the duty of the drainage board for each internal drainage district—

(a) to maintain the register and map prepared by them in pursuance of subsection (1) above; and

(b) to alter the register or map in such circumstances and in such manner, and within such periods, as may be prescribed.

(3) It shall be the duty of the drainage board for each internal drainage district to keep the register and map maintained by them in pursuance of subsection (2) above open to inspection at prescribed places by members of the public at all reasonable times.

53 Power to require information

(1) The drainage board for an internal drainage district may serve on the owner of any hereditament in the district in respect of which a drainage rate is levied a notice requiring him to state in writing the name and address of any person known to him as being an occupier of that hereditament.

(2) A person shall be guilty of an offence under this section if, where a notice is served on him under subsection (1) above, he—

(a) fails without reasonable excuse to comply with the notice; or

(b) in pursuance of the notice—

(i) makes any statement in respect of the information required which he knows to be false in a material particular; or

(ii) recklessly makes any statement in respect of that information which is false in a material particular.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(4) Where—

(a) a person is convicted of an offence under this section in respect of a failure to comply with a notice; and

(b) the failure continues after conviction,

then, unless he has a reasonable excuse for the continuance of the failure, he shall be guilty of a further offence under this section and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to be punished accordingly.

54 Powers for enforcing payment

(1) Arrears of any drainage rates made under this Chapter may be recovered by the drainage board for an internal drainage district in the same manner in which arrears of a non-domestic rate may be recovered under the [1988 c. 41.] Local Government Finance Act 1988 by a charging authority.

(2) The drainage board for an internal drainage district may by resolution authorise any member or officer of the board, either generally or in respect of particular proceedings—

(a) to institute or defend on their behalf proceedings in relation to a drainage rate; or

(b) notwithstanding that he is not qualified to act as a solicitor, to appear on their behalf in any proceedings before a magistrates' court for the issue of a warrant of distress for failure to pay a drainage rate.

(3) In proceedings for the recovery of arrears of a drainage rate the defendant shall not be entitled to raise by way of defence any matter which might have been raised on an appeal under section 45 or 51 above.

(4) The powers conferred by this section are in addition to, and not in substitution for, the powers conferred by any provision of any local Act on any drainage board in relation to arrears of drainage rates; and for the purposes of any such provisions a rate made under this Chapter shall be treated, subject to subsection (5) below, as a rate to which those provisions apply.

(5) Notwithstanding anything in any local Act—

(a) no distress for arrears of any rate made under this Chapter shall be levied on the goods or chattels of any person other than a person from whom the arrears may be recovered by virtue of subsection (1) above; and

(b) no proceedings shall be taken, whether by action or otherwise, for the enforcement of any charge on land created by a local Act for securing payment of arrears of any rate made under this Chapter.

(6) The drainage board for an internal drainage district shall not be required to enforce payment of any drainage rate in any case where the amount payable is, in their opinion, insufficient to justify the expense of collection.