Clause 5 - Existing impounding works
Water Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr Bill Wiggin (Leominster, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 5, in
clause 5, page 4, line 22, at end insert
'unless the impounding works are contained in an area less than 50m x 20m x 3m'.
I suspect that this also has to do with whether clause 5 stands part of the Bill. This is not a wrecking amendment. In the previous debate I intimated that I wanted the Minister to clarify the Bill's implications for the smaller user, impounder or pond builder and to recognise the significant differences between somebody who digs a hole in a field and watches it fill up with water during the winter and somebody who actively seeks to store water to spray on their crops during the summer. Nobody should have more red tape thrust on them. I am, however, worried that the Bill seeks to do that. On reading earlier legislation, I could not see enormous differences, so I should be grateful if the Minister could shed some light on the purpose of this change to section 25 of the Water Resources Act 1991. We shall need illumination when the details come out.