Important new judgment on 160 year old dispute

29/06/16

The Chancery Division has given judgment in Canal & River Trust v Thames Water Utilities Ltd [2016] EWHC 1547 (Ch).  The dispute, which concerns the amount payable by Thames Water in return for taking water from the River Lee, has been ongoing intermittently since at least the early 1850’s.

Approximately a sixth of the water supplied by Thames Water to domestic and commercial customers in London comes from the River Lee.  The Canal & River Trust is charged with the management of a number of waterways in England & Wales, including the River Lee. 

Parliament has attempted to settle the amount to be paid by Thames Water to the Canal & River Trust, including in the River Lee Water Act 1855 (the “1855 Act”) and through a water abstraction licensing scheme introduced in the 1960’s.  The sum payable was most recently set with effect for 1995-2000, and the parties have been in dispute since 2000 regarding the amount that should be paid after that date.

The Canal & River Trust brought proceedings to ask the Court to give guidance as to the amount payable and the bases of liability.  In a judgment handed down on 29 June 2016, Mrs Justice Asplin found that:

1. Under the 1855 Act, the rights that the Canal & River Trust’s predecessors once had to the water in the River Lee were given up once and for all and in perpetuity, and transferred to Thames Water’s predecessors.
2. The payments that Thames Water is obliged to make under the 1855 Act relate to the whole quantity of water that it abstracts from the River Lee.  Those payments relate to the maintenance and repair of the river and to the once and for all transfer of rights under the 1855 Act.
3. The Canal & River Trust is not entitled to make any claim against Thames Water on any other basis in respect of the abstraction of water from the river.

The judgment is here