A. W. & C. Barsby: Legal Research and Publishing

Chapter 8 - Services

8-2 Links to regulatory bodies. OFGEM; OFTEL. Link to HMSO for the Utilities Act 2000.

8-2 Under the Water Act 2003, there will be a new regulator for the water industry, to be known as the Water Services Regulatory Authority. Link to HMSO for the Water Act 2003.

8-5 There are also separate provisions in the Act (ss. 40-44) on bulk supplies of water.

8-5 If a water main is "requisitioned", the cost can be paid over a period of years. There are no hard and fast rules about distances; but, as the text indicates, if land is a considerable distance from a water main the cost of connection may be prohibitive.

8-5 A water main under a private road may or may not belong to the water company. The text does not go into this issue, but for a full treatment see Private Roads: The Legal Framework (3rd ed., 2003) available direct from A. W. & C. Barsby.

8-10 DEFRA is conducting a major consultation exercise over the legal position of private drains and sewers. Link to DEFRA website, which contains some useful information.

8-11 The right to take water is classed as an easement, as is the right to put pipes under land, though the right does not strictly correspond to the rule which determine what can be an easement.

8-12 The 1989 Regulations have since been amended on several occasions. They will be superseded by Regulations with the same name made in 2000, which have themselves since been amended, though the amendments will not be fully in force until 2004. Link to to HMSO for the 2000 Regulations.

8-19 Link to Environment Agency for guidance on small private sewerage treatment plants.

8-20 Historically, easements which allow something to be stored on land have been the subject of some legal doubt, because a right cannot be a valid easement if it interfers too much with the use of land by its owner. But recent cases on parking suggest that, provided that the interference is not too great, the right to store or locate something can be on land can be an easement. It thus seems unlikely that there would be any problem with the right to place a septic tank on land, especially since the tank and associated pipes and soakaway would generally be underground.

8-21 The Electricity Act has 1989 been ameded quite extensively by the Utilities Act 2000.

8-23 Link to HMSO for the 1988 Regulations. These have since been amended on several occasions.

8-25 link to HMSO for these regulations.

8-31 Link to HMSO for these regulations.

8-34 The Telecommunications Code has been amended by Schedule 3 to the Communications Act 2003. Link to HMSO for Schedule 3.

8-36 Link to DFT for information about street works. The site contains links to some of the Codes of the Practice and to regulations which have been made under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991.

8-41 Some but not all of these codes are available in the Internet: see above.

8-43 Link to HMSO for these Regulations.