Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968

33 Hearing and determination of appeals.

(1) It shall be the duty of the chairman or a deputy chairman of the local valuation panel to whose clerk a notice of objection is transmitted in pursuance of section 32 of this Act to arrange for the convening of a local valuation court to hear and determine the appeal to which the notice relates; and subsections (5) and (6) of section 88 of the said Act of 1967 shall apply to the constitution of the court and to the rehearing of the appeal in case of such a failure to agree as is mentioned in the said subsection (6).

(2) Subsection (2) of section 76 of the said Act of 1967 (which regulates the procedure of local valuation courts) shall apply to a court convened in pursuance of subsection (1) of this section as if for the reference to the Minister of Housing and Local Government there were substituted a reference to the Minister and as if the reference to subsection (3) of that section were omitted.

(3) On the hearing of an appeal to a local valuation court in pursuance of this section, the following persons, that is to say-

(a) the person whose notice of objection to the determination in question has resulted in the hearing; and

(b) any other person who is the owner or occupier of any land to which the determination relates; and

(c) the drainage board by whom the determination was made,

shall be entitled to appear and be heard as parties to the appeal and to examine any witness before the court and to call witnesses.

(4) The court to which an appeal is brought in pursuance of the foregoing provisions of this section shall, after hearing the persons mentioned in subsection (3) of this section or such of them as desire to be heard, either quash the determination to which the appeal relates or alter the determination in such manner as the court thinks just or dismiss the appeal.

(5) Section 77 of the said Act of 1967 (which provides for appeals from local valuation courts to the Lands Tribunal) shall have effect in relation to a decision of a local valuation court under this section as if for the reference to section 76 of that Act there were substituted a reference to the foregoing provisions of this section and as if the words from " and the valuation officer " onwards were omitted.

(6) Where the amount of any drainage rate has been calculated by reference to an annual value specified in a determination under section 30 of this Act or a rateable value attributable to a determination under section 31 of this Act and the determination is quashed or altered on appeal or cancelled in accordance with section 32(3) of this Act, then, except in so far as the parties agree otherwise, that amount shall be recalculated accordingly and any sum overpaid shall be repaid or allowed and any sum underpaid may be recovered as if it were arrears of drainage rates ; and where such a determination which has been quashed is subsequently restored on appeal, the amount of any drainage rate falling to be recalculated in consequence of the appeal shall, except as aforesaid, be recalculated accordingly and any sum overpaid shall be repaid or allowed and any sum underpaid may be recovered as aforesaid.