Subject to subsection (2) below, the appropriate agency may—
without making payment for it, appropriate and dispose of any matter removed in the course of the carrying out of any work for widening, deepening or dredging any watercourse; and
deposit any matter so removed on the banks of the watercourse, or on such width of land adjoining the watercourse as is sufficient to enable the matter in question to be removed and deposited by mechanical means in one operation.
Subsection (1) above shall not authorise the deposit of any matter if the matter deposited would constitute a statutory nuisance within the meaning of Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
The appropriate agency and the council of any district or London borough or Welsh county or county borough may enter into an agreement providing—
for the disposal by the council of any matter removed as mentioned in subsection (1) above; and
for the payment by the appropriate agency to the council, in respect of the disposal of the matter by the council, of such sum as may be provided by the agreement.
In this section "banks" and "watercourse" have the same meanings as in Part IV of this Act.