3(1)A river purification authority may on the application of the holder of a licence vary the licence; and, where the effect of the variation would be to increase the quantity of water authorised to be abstracted, the provisions of this paragraph shall apply in relation to the application for variation and to the variation of the licence.
(2)A river purification authority may consider at any time an application for a licence under section 17 of this Act if they are satisfied that, in all the circumstances, the applicant could not reasonably have met the closing date.
(3)Subject to the following provisions of this paragraph, the provisions of—
(a)section 17 of this Act, other than subsection (2);
(b)paragraph 1 above, other than sub-paragraphs (2)(a), (3) and (4); and
(c)paragraph 2 above,
shall apply to such an application for variation or to such late application and to any licence varied or granted in pursuance of that application.
(4)An applicant for variation of or a late applicant for a licence shall publish in a newspaper circulating in that part of the control area which includes the waters to which the licence relates or would relate a notice stating briefly—
(a)the nature of the application; and
(b)the date by which objections to the application should be made, in writing, to the river purification authority.
(5)Objections to an application made under this paragraph shall not be considered by the river purification authority unless they are made to them in writing not later than the period of fourteen days beginning with the date of publication of the notice referred to in sub-paragraph (4) above.
(6)An application made under this paragraph shall be deemed to have been granted unconditionally if the authority fail to intimate their decision on the application to the applicant within the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the date of publication of the notice referred to in sub-paragraph (4) above; and the river purification authority shall grant or vary the licence accordingly.
(7)A licence granted following an application made under this paragraph shall, subject to the provisions of Part II of this Act, remain in force until the end of the calendar year in respect of which it was granted.