Ordinary watercourse consent: Land Drainage Consent Rules
The Land Drainage Consent Rules carries 7 published figures read from 7 sources' own pages, from 50 to 50 GBP, read 12 October 2026.
7 of the 20 named sources read in full publish a figure; 13 publish none, read 12 October 2026.
Every figure, with its source
One row per published figure: the figure as the source's own page publishes it, the page, and the day it was read. A figure that is not on a page we read is not on this one.
| Source | Figure | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Land Drainage Act 1991 - control of flow of watercourses (Part II) | 50GBP | 2026-10-12 |
| Natural Resources Wales - apply for land drainage consent | 50GBP | 2026-10-12 |
| Surrey County Council - ordinary watercourse consents | 50GBP | 2026-10-12 |
| West Sussex County Council - ordinary watercourse land drainage consent | 50GBP | 2026-10-12 |
| Warwickshire County Council - ordinary watercourse land drainage consents | 50GBP | 2026-10-12 |
| Dudley Council - ordinary watercourse consents | 50GBP | 2026-10-12 |
| Derby City Council - land drainage consent | 50GBP | 2026-10-12 |
The sentence each figure was read from (7)
- Land Drainage Act 1991 - control of flow of watercourses (Part II), read 2026-10-12:
The drainage board concerned may require the payment of an application fee by a person who applies to them for their consent under this section; and the amount of that fee shall be £50 or such other sum as may be [F5prescribed].
- Natural Resources Wales - apply for land drainage consent, read 2026-10-12:
An application for a land drainage consent is currently £50.00 (VAT exempt) and is payable in respect of each separate structure, channel, pond or other element forming the project.
- Surrey County Council - ordinary watercourse consents, read 2026-10-12:
Each consent costs £50, and this is usually payable per structure/intervention including for temporary works within the channel.
- West Sussex County Council - ordinary watercourse land drainage consent, read 2026-10-12:
The cost is £50 for each consentable structure.
- Warwickshire County Council - ordinary watercourse land drainage consents, read 2026-10-12:
There is a charge of £50 for each structure or operation for applications made under the Land Drainage Act 1991.
- Dudley Council - ordinary watercourse consents, read 2026-10-12:
Please note there is a fee for consent applications which is currently set at £50.
- Derby City Council - land drainage consent, read 2026-10-12:
The fee for Land Drainage Consent currently stands at £50 per structure, which is dictated to us by the legislation.
Read in full, publishes no figure
13 named sources were read in full on the dates shown and print no usable figure. They are counted, never filled in.
- Land Drainage Act 1991 - contents, read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- GOV.UK - Owning a watercourse, read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- GOV.UK - Flood risk activities: environmental permits, read 2026-10-12: every candidate on the page was refused
- GOV.UK - Environmental permitting charges guidance, read 2026-09-12: every candidate on the page was refused
- SEPA - operating vehicles, plant or machinery in or near surface water, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Farm Advisory Service - water management regulations in Scotland, read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- DfI - Northern Ireland Drainage Council, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- DAERA - drainage plans, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead - ordinary watercourse consents, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Hampshire County Council - watercourse and ditch ownership and maintenance, read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Suffolk County Council - riparian ownership in Suffolk, read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- GOV.UK - internal drainage districts in southern England, read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- data.gov.uk - List of Internal Drainage Boards, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
Methodology
Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2).
7 of the 20 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 13 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 0 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere.
The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source in GBP (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences), so N counts sources, never sentences; 27 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded.
The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): one row per jurisdiction per activity: the consenting body, the statutory power, the fee, the determination period and what happens without consent, each quoted from the authority's own page - and then the comparison nobody publishes, because each of the ~150 lead local flood authorities publishes only its own page: the fee and determination period for ordinary watercourse consent across every LLFA in England, beside Wales (NRW), Scotland (SEPA under the Controlled Activities Regulations, where field drainage that does not affect a natural watercourse needs no authorisation at all) and Northern Ireland (DfI Rivers under the Drainage (NI) Order 1973).
The change history is the second figure: which authorities have moved off the £50 statutory fee, and when
27 candidate sentences on these pages were refused by a reviewer; each refusal and its reason is recorded in the review ledger.
Sources (20)
- Land Drainage Act 1991 - control of flow of watercourses (Part II)(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Land Drainage Act 1991 - contents(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- GOV.UK - Owning a watercourse(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- GOV.UK - Flood risk activities: environmental permits(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- GOV.UK - Environmental permitting charges guidance(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Natural Resources Wales - apply for land drainage consent(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- SEPA - operating vehicles, plant or machinery in or near surface water(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Farm Advisory Service - water management regulations in Scotland(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- DfI - Northern Ireland Drainage Council(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- DAERA - drainage plans(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Surrey County Council - ordinary watercourse consents(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- West Sussex County Council - ordinary watercourse land drainage consent(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Warwickshire County Council - ordinary watercourse land drainage consents(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Dudley Council - ordinary watercourse consents(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Derby City Council - land drainage consent(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead - ordinary watercourse consents(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Hampshire County Council - watercourse and ditch ownership and maintenance(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Suffolk County Council - riparian ownership in Suffolk(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- GOV.UK - internal drainage districts in southern England(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- data.gov.uk - List of Internal Drainage Boards(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
Cite or embed this figure
The Land Drainage Consent Rules carries 7 published figures read from 7 sources' own pages, from 50 to 50 GBP, read 12 October 2026.
7 of the 20 named sources read in full publish a figure; 13 publish none, read 12 October 2026.
Cite as: "landdrainagecontractors.co.uk Land Drainage Consent Rules", updated 2026-10-22, https://landdrainagecontractors.co.uk/datasets/land-drainage-consent-rules/.
Download the CSV (7 rows, computed 2026-10-22)