Explanatory note

The Doncaster Area Drainage Acts 1929 and 1933 impose obligations on mine owners to construct and maintain, and provide funds for the construction and maintenance of, drainage works. The Acts provide for the transfer of the works and funds to the National Rivers Authority (which exercises the functions of the former Ouse and Trent Catchment Boards) in the event of a mine permanently ceasing to be worked.

This Order amends the 1929 Act so as to oblige the Coal Authority to maintain in proper condition those drainage works constructed under the Act in respect of coal mines which vest in it by virtue of section 7(3) of the Coal Industry Act 1994 and which permanently cease, or have already permanently ceased, to be worked. The Coal Authority may, however, take steps specified in the new section, to vest the works in the National Rivers Authority and to end the Coal Authority’s liability to maintain them.