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Our Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) look after hundreds of kilometres of watercourses, along with pumping stations, flood defences, and other important structures that help to manage water levels, reduce flood risk and keep the area sustainable.
Most of the watercourses we maintain are man‑made rather than natural. They have been created over many centuries to improve drainage across the landscape and reduce the impact of flooding to communities infrastructure and some of the most productive farmland in the country. During dry summer periods, many of these channels naturally hold little or no water.
We also care for a smaller number of natural or semi‑natural rivers and streams. These waterways often support a richer variety of plants and wildlife. Where this is the case, we work closely with ecologists and fisheries specialists to protect and enhance local habitats and biodiversity.
Keeping water flowing freely and managing vegetation in these natural, modified and manmade waterways is important, as it not only reduces flood risk but helps reduce environment impacts such as eutrophication, this can happen when nutrients from surrounding farmland enter a watercourse and cause excessive plant or algae growth, which can harm wildlife and water quality if left unmanaged.
Watercourses and structures that the Board decide to carry out work on are known as Board Maintained Assets. We aim to inspect or carry out maintenance on each of these at least once a year to ensure they continue to function effectively.
In some situations, we are unable to maintain stretches of watercourse that connect our assets. This may be because they have been piped underground without an agreed maintenance arrangement, or because inappropriate development has taken place that restricts safe access.
We also work on behalf of the Environment Agency to maintain sections of main rivers and a large stretch of the Humber tidal defences. We maintain several watercourses alongside motorways under long‑standing agreements with National Highways and are partly funded by the Mining Remediation Authority to carry out drainage works in areas that have previously been impacted by mining subsidence.
Ultimately and in all cases riparian owners are responsible for watercourse maintenance. A Riparian Owner is one who owns land or property through which a river, stream, ditch, and watercourse passes, whether piped or not. The origin of the word ‘riparian’ is borrowed from the Latin ‘Riparius’ meaning “related to the river-bank”.
Regardless of boundaries set out in official documents the ‘Ad medium filum’ rule is a rebuttable presumption that where a watercourse forms the boundary to a property, the ownership and responsibility for the watercourse is that of the adjacent land owner’s up to the watercourse’s centre-line. Importantly, because the land under most public highways is not owned by the Highway Authority the same rule applies to this land, this means that most roadside watercourses are the responsibility of the adjacent owner, not the Highway Authority.
The Riparian Owner has a statutory responsibility to allow the free passage of water by maintaining the banks and bed of watercourses passing through their land. These rules are clearly set out in the Land Drainage Act 1991 (Sections 23 to 25) and local land drainage bylaws.
As the Land Drainage Authority, IDBs can use their powers to decide to maintain some watercourses for the wider public good at the public expense by raising funds through land drainage rates and council tax. These watercourses are usually larger or arterial watercourses where there is likely to be more flow, but the IDB may maintain smaller watercourses for other reasons.
The IDB do not own a watercourse unless they own the land under that watercourse which would make them the Riparian Owner. Rarely the IDB may ‘vest’ a watercourse by taking ownership of land on which it is situated, however it is important to understand that IDBs do not adopt watercourses. IDBs are not a utility, they are a public authority who provide land drainage and flood risk management services at the public expense.
In law, IDB’s maintenance powers and responsibilities are permissive, this means the IDB do have statutory powers to undertake works if they decide, but do not have a statutory requirement to maintain any watercourse where they do not own the land.
This map shows watercourses that our IDBs have decided to maintain on a regular basis. The IDB’s staff and contractors will try to undertake some level of maintenance or inspection on all the watercourses every year, however this may not always be possible due to access issues, inclement weather, or resource availability.
IDB’s can decide to change the maintenance map at their respective meetings. Because a watercourse was once maintained by the IDB this does not imply a precedent for continued maintenance.
Where possible we will publish our planned maintenance regime on this map. We aim to publish this in the early summer before the maintenance season begins.
From time to time the Consortium undertakes work to build new assets or carry out works to improve existing assets. Typically works may involve building new pumping stations but could also involve major works to improve or cut new watercourses. Sometimes IDB’s will work with partner authorities on larger flood defence schemes.
This type of investment is generally referred to as ‘capital works’. These works can be funded by the respective IDB through land drainage rates and council tax or by capital grant.
IDBs are a [Flood] Risk Management Authority or ‘RMA‘. Public RMAs, which include IDBs, the Environment Agency and Local Authorities can apply for National Flood Defence Grant-in-Aid from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). From time to time, as a public authority an IDB will also apply for funding from other government departments. An IDB can also ask for funding from a fund called the Local Levy, this is a fund raised through Council Tax by local authorities and managed on behalf of local taxpayers by the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.
An IDB may agree that a developer can pay a contribution to improve or upkeep the local land drainage system which is required to facilitate the development.