(1)Nothing in the charges provisions shall affect any general drainage charge raised before the date of the passing of this Act, and accordingly the principal Act shall continue to have effect in relation to any such charge as if this Act had not been passed.
(2)Any river authority who have raised a general drainage charge before the date aforesaid may, if they think fit, determine that this subsection shall apply to the authority for any of the years ending with 31st March 1969, 31st March 1970 or 31st March 1971 in respect of which the authority have not already made a determination under this subsection ; and where an authority have made a determination under this subsection with respect to any year they may raise a general drainage charge for that year as if section 52 of this Act and the charges provisions, except sections 21(2), 27(2) and (3) and 29 and this section, had not been passed.
(3)A river authority who have made a determination under subsection (2) of this section may, if they think fit, also determine that this subsection shall apply to the authority for the year or years to which the determination under that subsection relates; and where an authority have made a determination under this subsection—
(a)the principal Act and any regulations under section 2 of that Act shall have effect, in relation to any general drainage charge to be raised by the authority in accordance with the said subsection (2) for the year or, as the case may be, each of the years aforesaid as if—
(i)section 2(3) of that Act (which defines precept rates) and any corresponding provision of the regulations were omitted; and
(ii)for any reference to the precept rate for any year in section 2(2) of that Act and those regulations there were substituted a reference to the amount produced by multiplying one penny by the quotient ascertained, for the purposes of the charge for the year in question, in pursuance of section 22(2) (a) of this Act; and
(b)the excepted provisions mentioned in subsection (2) of this section shall be treated as including section 22 of this Act so far as that section is required for the purposes of sub-paragraph (ii) above.
(4)A river authority who have made a determination under subsection (2) of this section, or determinations under subsections (2) and (3) of this section, with respect to any year shall not be entitled to raise a general drainage charge for that year otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of the said subsection (2) or, as the case may be, of the said subsections (2) and (3); but subject to that, nothing in those subsections shall prevent a river authority from raising a general drainage charge in accordance with the charges provisions other than those subsections.