Clause 9 - Rights to abstract for drainage purposes, etc
Water Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Mr Elliot Morley (Minister of State (Environment and Agri-Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Scunthorpe, Labour)
I enjoyed the enthusiasm of the hon. Member for Salisbury (Mr. Key) for water meadows, which was clear from his knowledge about warping. He will know that I have an interest in such issues myself; indeed, as I said, in my own part of the world, warping was an important part of land reclamation. It involved dredging and also inundation, in relation to the silt on the land. The process is well known and understood.
My officials, who as ever are extremely well prepared, have a definition from the Oxford English dictionary, so that we know exactly what we are talking about. The concise Oxford dictionary says that to warp is to
''silt over (land) with warp, by flooding'',
whereas a water meadow is
''a meadow periodically flooded by stream or river''.
I understand the point that the hon. Gentleman made, but I assure him that I of all people do not want to see restrictions in the Bill that would hinder the management of water meadows. We have few enough water meadows in this country, and they are an important environmental and ecological resource. The intention behind the clause is to bring all significant abstractions of water under control.
I accept that, generally speaking, warping would not involve abstraction from rivers in the way that we would understand the term—it generally involves inundation, and the use of sluice gates and flooding. Warping, or controlled inundation of land, is often done as part of flood measures. Land is often allowed to flood during the winter peaks, when there are high levels of water in the rivers, so they overflow into water meadows and flood plains. Sometimes the process is natural and sometimes it is deliberate. Where it is natural, it is often a cycle of management, similar to washes, for instance, which were used traditionally. The land floods in the winter, cattle are put on for
grazing in the spring and summer, and they are taken off again in the winter.
Those practices will not come under abstraction control, because they are not under abstraction control now and there is nothing in the Bill that would change those patterns. I can therefore give the hon. Member for Salisbury an assurance in relation to his circumstances. As far as I can see, abstraction licences will not apply to the Salisbury water meadows, unless abstraction from the river is applied.
It might be useful if I give the hon. Gentleman some written details in relation to the circumstances of the case that he has made on what would and would not apply, so that we are clear. It is not our intention, generally speaking, to interfere with such management, but it is our intention to bring major extractions from river systems under control. In some cases, warping may fall within that category, depending on the circumstances.