The Management of Drainage Channels for Biodiversity
The Great Fen - Land Owners & Tenants
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Highland Water Contributions – Procedure Note
The procedures outlined below provide for timely receipt of information for the Environment Agency’s estimates, and the making of payments to Internal Drainage Boards (IDB), during the year, on account of their estimated costs.
1. If an IDB intends to make a request for a Contribution towards expenditure, then they are asked to notify the Environment Agency by no later than 1st October in respect of the coming financial year, giving brief details of the work to be done and the likely cost.
2. The forms shown in Appendix A should be used for this purpose. Each drain and pumping station should be shown separately.
However if an IDB’s accounting arrangements do not provide for the allocation of costs to individual drains and pumping stations, an alternative arrangement may be used. Under such circumstances the IDB will be asked to produce the estimates and actual costs in total, for drains and pumps receiving highland water.
3. The completed forms should be submitted to the Finance Section of the
Environment Agency, for preparation of budgets and subsequent payment, at the
following address: John Harvey, Chief Accountant
Finance Department
Environment Agency
Kingfisher House
Goldhay Way
Orton Goldhay
Peterborough
PE2 5ZR
4. The IDB’s submitting estimates as above, will receive interim payments on account as follows:-
40% of estimated contributions on or about 30th May
40% of estimated contribution on or about 1st December
5. The December interim payment will be adjusted to include the balance of the final claim for the previous financial year.
6. Final claims, based on the actual costs for each year, should be made using the forms shown in Appendix B. However, other formats, eg. computer printouts will be acceptable if the same information as shown in Appendix B is provided. Such final claims should be submitted by no later than 1st October of the following year (ie. together with the estimated claims for the coming year).
Each drain and pumping station must be shown separately on the forms, and the claims should be fully calculated.
7. Contributions to Capital Schemes will be subject to the advance approval of the scheme by the Regional Flood Defence Committee (RFDC) and will be based on the net cost of the scheme (i.e. after deduction of any grants or contributions receivable by the IDB). Such contributions and their timings will be subject to budgetary constraints.
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News – The Board’s intended amalgamation with Drysides IDB has been advertised on 28th Feb 2010. The period for observations expires on the 23 march. Once the objection period is over for the draft scheme any comments will be passed onto Defra then it is up to them to take the process forward. – Advertise the draft order – arranging for the order to be sealed – advertising the sealed order – advertising the confirmed order. The Board do not have a time scale
The 2009 election was not contested and the following did not seek re-election, D Fountain, N Lindsey and Ralph Potts. Ralph was an active member who served the former districts and Whittlesey IDB for over 44 years.
Conservation – The Board have instructed the Middle Level Commissioners and the Wildlife Trust to produce their Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) by the 1st April 2010. It will be under the Middle Level BAP Partnership.
The Drysides Internal Drainage Board considered the future viability of the District, as a separate IDD, in the light of Hansons proposals for Bradley/Must Farm Pits and that Messrs G R P Easton will shortly be relinquishing the land tenanted from Hansons.
In all the circumstances, it was felt that the position of the Drysides Board as a separate board, would soon become untenable and that the better option would be to seek an amalgamation with the Whittlesey IDB.
The proposal was put before the Central Regional Flood Defence Committee at their meeting on 2nd April 2009. The paperwork has since been lodged with the legal team at Kingfisher House in Peterborough.
The amalgamation will now have to go through due legal process and be approved by Defra which will probably take about one year.
Forthcoming meetings:
