Hosepipe ban Options

[Guest_xjay1337_*]

No doubt they will shoot you with a high pressured water jet.

[Andy Capp]

Careful, or you'll be called a grammar nazi by the anti-spelling mafia!

Anti-misspelling

[JeffG]

Anti-misspelling

No - I meant what I wrote.

[Vodabury]

With a ban on hosepipes on the way, how will effect you?

Not much I guess on a domestic level. What will be a much bigger issue are power shortages, which are likely to happen unless we get a sensible and coherent long-term energy production strategy. Just as we cannot make it rain to fill the reservoirs, we cannot make the wind blow to turn the wind turbines.

[Cognosco]

With a ban on hosepipes on the way, how will effect you?

Take a bit longer to water the garden - using the watering can!

[Guest_xjay1337_*]

Take a bit longer to water the garden - using the watering can!

Yeah but that's effort. Where as you can use a hosepipe and especially if you have a detached house, no-one will be any the wiser.

[Vodabury]

Yeah but that's effort. Where as you can use a hosepipe and especially if you have a detached house, no-one will be any the wiser.

If fining people for hosepipe use can become "an earner", then I would not put it past the authorities to start using satellite/plane/drone surveillance!

[user23]

How much can they fine you?

[Cognosco]

If fining people for hosepipe use can become "an earner", then I would not put it past the authorities to start using satellite/plane/drone surveillance!

Just a thought if you are not on a water meter will you be entitled to a rebate from the water company for not being able to use an hosepipe?

There are people who usually find ways of overcoming bans etc. Just like the two weekly general refuse collection, loads of people apparently are just putting the normal refuse in the green bins and it is still being collected no problem.

[Vodabury]

How much can they fine you?

The newspapers say up to £1000

[Cognosco]

The newspapers say up to £1000

Who gets the fine money? Not the water company I hope as that would encourage them to incur more drought conditions surely?

[Vodabury]

Who gets the fine money? Not the water company I hope as that would encourage them to incur more drought conditions surely?

Perhaps WBC could tender for the enforcement and collection! Anyone caught with a green garden this summer could be fined by a non-green meanie.

[Dodgys smarter b...]

The newspapers say up to £1000

You might like to listen to today's Jeremy Vine show on the BBC iplayer.(approx 12 mins in) Spokesperson for the Water Companies (Water U.K.) stating that they could find no evidence that ANYONE has EVER been fined for using a hosepipe during a ban.

Works sometimes.

[Vodabury]

You might like to listen to today's Jeremy Vine show on the BBC iplayer.(approx 12 mins in) Spokesperson for the Water Companies (Water U.K.) stating that they could find no evidence that ANYONE has EVER been fined for using a hosepipe during a ban.

Works sometimes.

Yes, thanks, I heard it in the car this afternoon. We will see what happens this summer...

Imagine a scenario. It is now August and continued dry weather is now causing acute water shortages in SE England. There is much criticism of the water companies in the media, shareholders are uneasy, bonuses are threatened and the government is under pressure to take firm action. A tabloid runs a story of a family sticking two fingers up to the hosepipe ban. I could see a prosecution coming in such circumstances.

[blackdog]

A selfish few will continue to use hosepipes on the assumption that they won't get fined. Simple solution - fine people for having green lawns or clean cars.

It's really about whether you think that hosing down you car are keeping your lawn neatly green is more important than having water coming out of your taps. If it comes to it it wouldn't be the first time that a drought resulted in the water supply being restricted to standpipes in the street (no doubt xj will attach a hose to the standpipe to wash his car ).

[Squelchy]

Imagine a scenario. It is now August and continued dry weather is now causing acute water shortages in SE England. There is much criticism of the water companies in the media, shareholders are uneasy, bonuses are threatened and the government is under pressure to take firm action. A tabloid runs a story of a family sticking two fingers up to the hosepipe ban. I could see a prosecution coming in such circumstances.

Far too many 'what if's' here.

You might like to consider why there hasn't been a prosecution so far. One water company even hired a helicopter to see who had green lawns, but still no prosecutions. If you listen to that clip a bit more (and you said you have) then you'll realise exactly the problem.

[Vodabury]

Far too many 'what if's' here.

You might like to consider why there hasn't been a prosecution so far. One water company even hired a helicopter to see who had green lawns, but still no prosecutions. If you listen to that clip a bit more (and you said you have) then you'll realise exactly the problem.

I don't know whether or not there will be any hosepipe-ban prosecutions this coming summer. If you are saying you think there won't be any, then fine. But, sometimes things do change - we'll have to wait and see.

[Blake]

The focus of this question is wrong. I'd suggest looking at the source of this shortage.

The staggering ineptitude that is Thames Water has an awful lot to answer for. That disaster of a company loses HUGE amounts of water through its leaky pipe network. Have you seen how little leakage has been reduced by in the last five years? This firm needs a **** good fine to put its own house in order before attacking its consumers. All this talk of draconian bans and yet the firm still has the audacity to increase its prices.

Someone needs to take punitive measures to the real villain of the piece.

[Brewmaster]

If fining people for hosepipe use can become "an earner", then I would not put it past the authorities to start using satellite/plane/drone surveillance!

Oh dear, I wish I hadn't bought a bright yellow hose!

[Brewmaster]

A selfish few will continue to use hosepipes on the assumption that they won't get fined. Simple solution - fine people for having green lawns or clean cars.

It's really about whether you think that hosing down you car are keeping your lawn neatly green is more important than having water coming out of your taps.

Good sense, as we have come to expect from you, Blackdog.

I never water the lawn (the bloody thing grows fast enough without it!) and rarely clean the car. Does it go any faster, run more economically, or rust less quickly if it is dirty? A bucketful of soapy water and a sponge, with another bucketful for rinsing, should be enough for any reasonable person.

We have taken to syphoning the bathwater into water butts for watering the garden, but we have a very large one and we grow lots of vegetables, so I reserve the right to use the hosepipe judiciously rather than see plants producing food die.

But, in view of my previous post, I shall have to do it at night!