(1)Subject to subsection (2) below, the Authority may raise at an amount per hectare of chargeable land in a local flood defence district a charge to be known as a general drainage charge and to be levied in accordance with sections 135 and 136 below.
(2)The Authority shall not levy a general drainage charge in respect of any local flood defence district unless the regional flood defence committee for the area in which that district is situated have recommended that such a charge should be raised.
(3)For the purposes of this section and sections 135 and 136 below the area of a regional flood defence committee in relation to which no local flood defence scheme is in force shall be treated as a single local flood defence district; and any parts of such an area in relation to which no such scheme is in force shall be treated as included in a single such district.