Water Industry Act 1991

4 (1) If, where an application for a compulsory works order has been made by a water undertaker, any notice of an objection to it is received, before the end of the relevant period, by the Secretary of State from— E+W

(a) any person on whom a notice under paragraph 1 or 3 above is required to be served; or

(b) from any other person appearing to the Secretary of State to be affected by the order as submitted to him or as proposed to be modified under paragraph 3 above,

then, unless the objection is withdrawn, the Secretary of State shall, before making the order, either cause a local inquiry to be held or afford to the objector and to the undertaker an opportunity of appearing before, and being heard by, a person appointed by the Secretary of State for the purpose.

(2) Where any objection received by the Secretary of State as mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) above relates to any powers of compulsory acquisition, the Secretary of State may require the objector to state in writing the grounds of his objection; and if the Secretary of State is satisfied that the objection relates exclusively to matters that can be dealt with in the assessment of compensation, he may disregard the objection for the purposes of that sub-paragraph.

(3) In this paragraph “the relevant period”, in relation to an application for any order, means the period ending with whichever is the later of—

(a) the end of the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the date of the first publication of the notice published with respect to the application for the purposes of paragraph 1(1)(b) above; and

(b) the end of the period of twenty-five days beginning with the date of the publication in the London Gazette of the notice published for the purposes of the application by virtue of paragraph 1(1)(d) above,

together, in the case of an application for an order modifications to which have been proposed by the Secretary of State, with any further periods specified with respect to the modifications in notices under paragraph 3(2) above.