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Hosepipe Ban 2018 – First Mainland Hosepipe Ban Since 2012

A hosepipe ban is to be put in place in England for the first time since 2012.

United Utilities will enforce a hosepipe ban in the North West of England affecting around 7 million people.

The water company will introduce a Temporary Use Ban from Sunday 5th of August in areas including parts of Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside.

In the meantime, customers are being asked to use water wisely and to avoid using garden sprinklers and hosepipes.

The main water restrictions by United Utilities include:

  • Watering a garden and/or plants using a hosepipe
  • Cleaning a private car, van, motorbike, trailer, caravan or leisure boat using a hosepipe
  • Filling or maintaining a domestic swimming pool, paddling pool or ornamental fountain
  • Cleaning walls or windows using a hosepipe
  • Using a water from a hosepipe for domestic recreational use
  • Cleaning paths or patios using a hosepipe
  • Cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces using a hosepipe.

You can still use water outdoors if you:

  • Use tap water to fill a bucket or watering can
  • Use grey water, which is water that’s been used before ie bath water
  • Have your own water supply such as a private borehole.

£1000 Fine During Hosepipe Ban

United Utilities say they have the power to impose fines of up to £1000 on anyone ignoring the hosepipe ban.

Martin Padley, director of water services at United Utilites said: “Despite some recent rainfall, reservoir levels are still lower than we would expect at this time of year and, with forecasters predicting a return to hot dry weather for the rest of July we will need to impose some temporary restrictions on customers.

“We are enormously grateful to customers for having helped reduce the demand on our network over the last couple of weeks but unless we get a period of sustained rainfall before 5 August these restrictions will help us safeguard essential water supplies for longer.”

United Utilities said the ban was alongside the company’s efforts to maintain essential supplies, including maximising water abstraction from groundwater supplies, moving water around its regional integrated network of pipes, and running a campaign to encourage customers to use water wisely.

Along with a very dry period, United Utilities has also had its resources put under pressure by the moorland fires on Saddleworth Moor and surrounding areas.

See our Current Situation page for the latest updates.

19 replies on “Hosepipe Ban 2018 – First Mainland Hosepipe Ban Since 2012”

Not at the moment. If there is one in the future it will be publicised in the local and national press and social media.

If a barrel was prefilled from the mains before the ban, could the water be used during the ban via a hosepipe and pressure washer set up to clean paths and cars?

Technically yes. This can also be done with water butts filled naturally by rainwater. But with your suggested method you may run into trouble proving you filled it before the ban came into place.

I personally believe United Utilities sell water to other authorities across the UK and profit from this and then we are left with the water shortage – the amount of rain in the North West over the winter last year should last the summer! It is a joke. There are so many reservoirs and really should be no excuse. Why are we the first in the Uk to have a ban imposed?? .. a very annoyed customer.

I wonder if fully paying water customers (not on a meter) will receive any compensation? Unlikely as they are a monopoly and don’t care as long as they can pay the ‘fat cats’ and share holders.

So watering my tomato plants, via a hose, would be illegal? Even though the plants are food, and growing my own is more efficient with resources than buying?

The only reason why it is “worse” is some capitalist does not get a chance at making money, largely off public resources like water, air, dirt and plants. OK, the plants are man-made, they have been selectively bred, but current tomato breeders certainly did not lay the ground work of domesticating a food, from the New World.

The privatisation of public utilities was, rhetorically, about greater efficiency. Getting rid of bureaucracy. But this has not happened, there is the bureaucracy, but multiplied by the number of water companies, raised to the power of the average number of engine cylinders in the hundreds of executives’ company cars (at least 6, more like 8 or 12).

Living near to the wettest city in England I’m blaming the companies and their lack of infrastructure….there was plenty of water but they didn’t bother to collect it….

I think hosepipes should be banned permanently. Get a water butt, recycle the water you use in the house. It’s our most precious resource and we waste it all the time. Don’t even get me started on the amount of water our vain modern society wastes on car washes.

This is fake. I remember the Summer of 76. Water Companies assured everyone lessons had been learned and if a drought ever happened again they would have in place measures to avoid any need for a hosepipe ban. If they fake me out with a ban in my area I will switch on all three hosepipes I have & leave them running all night and day. 42 years of warnings. Four DECADES of incompetence. I will show them what a water shortage looks like.

Again the water companies whinge after two 10 % price rises over the last 10 years to fix leaks which is wasting millions of gallons a day no improvement is can be seen Must water companies are foreign owned by foreign Utility companies company to EU law and just rake off big profits subsidising their own country supplies. It is about time the gutless government took control and stopped these companies ripping us off Countries in Africa have can survive drought for 20 or so years, here we appear to run out of water in a few weeks

We had one of the wettest springs for a long time and the water companies are talking about hose pipe bans. In case they hadn’t noticed nine tenths of the world is water, We constantly being told that global warming is melting the ice caps and that were else will rise so water companies start make significant investment to maintain our water supply. You don’t see hose pipe bans occurring in Spain, Portugal or the like.
So water companies stop whingeing and invest in the infrastructure to maintain our supplies.

This is a joke! These water companies are creaming off huge profits while not fixing leaks or improving their infrastructures. The first time we have a dry spell it all goes wrong and the customer has to suffer. So we pay for a product and then when they can’t provide what we’ve paid for they threaten us with a £1000 fine. You couldn’t make it up!

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