Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968

22 Amount of general drainage charge.

(1) The general drainage charge raised by a river authority for any year shall be at a uniform amount per acre ascertained in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) of this section.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) of this section, the said amount shall be ascertained by—

(a) dividing the aggregate amount demanded by the precepts issued by the river authority to the councils of counties, county boroughs and London boroughs under section 87(4) of the [1963 c. 38.] Water Resources Act 1963 in respect of the year for which the charge is raised by the aggregate amount of the appropriate penny rate products on the basis of which the amount so demanded was apportioned in pursuance of section 87(3) of that Act among those councils; and

(b) multiplying the quotient by one penny and by such number as the Minister may specify by order made for the purposes of this paragraph ;

and the number so specified shall (apart from any adjustment made to it to take account of rough grazing land) be such as the Minister considers will secure, so far as reasonably practicable, that the aggregate amount produced by any charge levied by reference to a quotient ascertained in pursuance of paragraph (a) of this subsection will be equal to the aggregate amount which, if the chargeable land in the river authority area were liable to be rated, would be produced by a rate levied on that land at an amount in the pound (of rateable value) equal to that quotient multiplied by one penny.

(3) Where an amount ascertained in pursuance of subsection (2) of this section includes a fraction of a penny, the fraction shall—

(a) if it is one farthing or less, be disregarded ;

(b) if it is greater than one farthing but less than three farthings, be treated as one half-penny ;

(c) if it is three farthings or more, be treated as one penny.

(4) An order under this section may be made so as to apply either to all general drainage charges which may be raised by river authorities or to the general drainage charges proposed to be raised by any one or more river authorities specified in the order, and any such order applying to the charges of more than one river authority may make different provision as respects the charges of the different authorities.

(5) In subsection (2) of this section " appropriate penny rate product " has the same meaning as that expression has for the purposes of the said section 87, and the reference in that subsection to subsection (4) of that section does not include a reference to it as applied by subsection (5) of that section.