How to change an existing licence.
Apply to change an existing abstraction licence
If you would like to:
Make a minor change, such as updating your name and address. Use form:
Reduce the quantity of water you abstract. Use form:
Cancel or revoke your abstraction licence. Use form:
Important! Please provide your licence number when filling in the form to revoke your water abstraction licence. This is particularly important if you hold more than one licence so we can make sure we revoke the right one.
Please note: once you have revoked your licence there's no guarantee we'll be able to grant you another one.
To make a significant change to your licence, such as increasing the quantities or extending the authorised period please contact us, details at the bottom of the page.
Death/bankruptcy or transferring licence holder (formerly known as succession)
Death/Bankruptcy
If the licence holder dies or is an individual (not a company) who is declared bankrupt, the licence can become the responsibility (can be ‘vested’) in their trustee. The trustee must notify us within 15 months that they are responsible for the licence. If they do not notify us, the licence will cease to have effect after 15 months.
Transfer holder
If you want to transfer all or part of your licence to someone else, please contact us, details at the bottom of the page.
Irrigation
At the end of dry summers, irrigators may need to extend their authorised period to lift root crops. Our briefing note explains our approach to extending the abstraction season. If you think you might need to extend the authorised period on your licence, please contact us as soon as possible, details at the bottom of the page.
In some areas farmers may wish to vary their licences to take peak flows in summer to fill reservoirs. Although we can't guarantee these flows will be available, we recognise that if they’re available, they could help.
We will not apply summer charge rates to peak flows abstracted in summer for filling farm reservoirs. This means that if farmers keep their existing licensed quantities, we will not increase the annual charge for taking peak flows in summer. We will look into updating this in our charging scheme in due course.
In some cases, farmers may have to install their own calibrated measuring device to know when peak flows are available. Calculating the stop/start level may take some time and require extra flow measurement, so we encourage farmers to apply as soon as possible. The summer peak flow abstraction would be time limited to our Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy (CAMS) common end dates. This change doesn't apply if farmers already have a licence to fill their reservoir with a wider range of summer flows.
Contact us
You can contact us by:
Telephone: 03708 506 506 (Monday - Friday 8am - 6pm)
By post (the address for all completed application forms):
Permitting Support Centre
Water Resources Team
Quadrant 2
99 Parkway Avenue
Parkway Business Park
Sheffield S9 4WF
Contacting you
We prefer to correspond by email. If you are happy for us to send all correspondence relating to your licence application by email, please only provide your email address. If you want to receive correspondence by post please leave the email address section blank on the forms.
