Water Resources Act 1963

74 Revocation or variation of consent under s. 72

(1) Where a river authority have granted consent under section 72 of this Act in respect of any discharge, they may at any time by notice in writing to the person to whom the consent was granted revoke or vary the consent, ether on the application of that person or without any such application.

(2) Any person aggrieved by the revocation or variation of a consent granted to him under that section, or, where he has applied to the river authority for the variation of any consent so granted, by the refusal of the authority to vary the consent in accordance with the terms of his application, may by notice under this subsection appeal to the Minister against the revocation, variation or refusal, as the case may be.

(3) If, within the period of three months beginning with the date on which an application is made to a river authority for the variation of any such consent or within such extended period as may at any time be agreed upon in writing between the applicant and the river authority, the river authority do not give notice to the applicant of their decision on the application, the authority shall be treated for the purposes of this section as having refused to vary the consent in accordance with the terms of the application.

(4) Any notice under subsection (2) of this section shall be served within such time and in such manner as may be prescribed by regulations under this Act:

Provided that the time so prescribed shall not be less than twenty-eight days from the date on which notice of the revocation, variation or refusal to which the first-mentioned notice relates is given by the river authority to the person to whom the consent in question was granted, or, in a case falling within the last preceding subsection, from the end of the period after which the river authority are to be treated as having refused to vary the consent in question in accordance with the terms of that person's application.

(5) On any appeal to the Minister under this section the Minister may allow or dismiss the appeal or, in the case of an appeal against a variation, may, with the consent of the person to whom the consent was granted, determine that it shall be varied in a way different from that specified in the notice under subsection (1) of this section.

(6) Subsections (5) and (6) of section 39, and section 54 (2), of this Act shall apply (with the necessary modifications) to appeals under this section as they apply to appeals under Part IV of this Act.