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Course focus

Drainage Law

Date:
27 January 2009
Venue:
ETC Venues, London
CPD:
4.5

Training programmes

Drainage Law

The law relating to sewers and drains is one of the most obscure areas in English Law. Are you a planning officer judging applications? Do you work as a land drainage engineer? Are you a highways officer with duties in this field? Do all developers in your area propose soakaways on their developments regardless of ground conditions? The course aims to improve your knowledge to enable you to get the best possible result for your organisation.

The course will cover:

  1. Sewers and drains and their ownership, construction and maintenance. The Public Health Act 1875 and other statutes. Vesting of sewers. The Water Act 2003 and regulation of the industry. The various bodies. What right do the public have for the provision of a sewer? Public sewers.
  2. Drainage of premises. The discharge of sewage effluents. Sewage disposal and sewage disposal works. Highway drains. The law relating to connections, authorised and illegal. Can a drain become a sewer? The difference history may make. Evidence and proving it. Does the sewerage undertaker have the final word?
  3. The role of the sewerage undertaker. The application of the common law of nuisance and the Human Rights Act 1998 to flooding from sewers. The law of statutory nuisance. Offences relating to pollution of controlled waters. The Environment Agency.
  4. Disputes between sewerage undertaker and local authority. The map of public sewers. The role of the Secretary of State and his jurisdiction on appeal. The action to take and tactics to adopt.
  5. Case studies and a chance to discuss examples. Where should your problem cases go next? Come and ask!

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