Water Resources Act 1963

23 General restrictions

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act, as from the end of the period of three months beginning with the second appointed day (in this Act referred to as " the initial period ") no person shall abstract water from any source of supply in a river authority area, or cause or permit any other person so to abstract any water, except in pursuance of a licence under this Act granted by the river authority and in accordance with the provisions of that licence.

(2) Where by virtue of the preceding subsection the abstraction of water contained in any underground strata is prohibited except in pursuance of a licence under this Act, no person shall after the end of the initial period begin, or cause or permit any other person to begin, to—

(a) construct any well, borehole or other work whereby water may be abstracted from those strata, or

(b) extend any such well, borehole or other work, or

(c) instal or modify any machinery or apparatus whereby additional quantities of water may be abstracted from those strata by means of a well, borehole or other work,

unless the abstraction of the water, or the additional quantities of water, as the case may be, is authorised by a licence under this Act, and the well, borehole or work as constructed or extended, or the machinery or apparatus as installed or modified, fulfils the requirements of that licence as to the means whereby water is authorised to be abstracted.

(3) Subject to the provisions of Part X of this Act with respect to the Water Act 1958, the restrictions imposed by this section shall have effect notwithstanding anything in any other enactment contained in any Act passed before the passing of this Act, or in any statutory provision made or issued, whether before or after the passing of this Act, by virtue of such an enactment.