The relevant Minister may make grants, of such amounts as the Treasury may from time to time sanction, towards expenditure incurred by the Authority in providing or installing apparatus, or carrying out other engineering or building operations, for the purposes of a flood warning system.

Grants under this section shall be made subject to such conditions as may be imposed by the relevant Minister with the approval of the Treasury.

Where any such expenditure as is mentioned in subsection (1) above is about to be incurred by the Authority, the relevant Minister may, with the approval of the Treasury, make advances to the Authority on account of the expenditure.

In this section—

• “flood warning system” means any system whereby, for the purpose of providing warning of any danger of flooding, information with respect to—

  1. a

     rainfall, as measured at a particular place within a particular period; or

  2. b

     the level or flow of any inland water, or part of an inland water, at a particular time; or

  3. c

     other matters appearing to the Authority to be relevant for that purpose,

  is obtained and transmitted, whether automatically or otherwise, with or without provision for carrying out calculations based on such information and for transmitting the results of those calculations;

• “inland water” means any of the following in any part of Great Britain, that is to say—

  1. a

     any river, stream or other watercourse, whether natural or artificial and whether tidal or not;

  2. b

     any lake or pond, whether natural or artificial, and any reservoir or dock; and

  3. c

     any channel, creek, bay, estuary or arm of the sea;

• “rainfall” includes any fall of snow, hail or sleet; and

• “the relevant Minister” has the same meaning as in section 147 above.