HOSEPIPE BAN: Lincolnshire restrictions in place NOW as heatwave continues - with £1,000 fines for those who breach ban

The ban has come into force just two weeks after Anglian Water said they had no plans to impose restrictions.

The hosepipe ban was started on Friday morning (July 10) – although it was to be enforced from 1am on Saturday, July 11.

The ban means residents should not use hosepipes for watering their gardens, washing cars, patios and boats or filling swimming and paddling pools.

Customers who do not comply with the restrictions may be committing an offence under the Water Industry Act 1991 and may, on conviction, be liable to a fine of up to £1,000.

Customers can report a suspected breach of the restrictions using Anglian Water’s online form or by contacting the customer service team.

This decision to introduce the ban follows months of prolonged dry weather, warm temperatures and three successive heat waves, which have seen the company producing 30% more water than usual, as well as heat-related challenges affecting normal water treatment and production.

Dr Geoff Darch, Head of Strategic Asset Planning for Anglian Water said: “This year has been exceptionally hot and dry and we're already into the third heatwave of the summer. Understandably customers have wanted to stay cool and have fun in the sun, and our teams are working 24/7 to keep taps flowing across the region, but the unrelenting conditions are placing the environment and water supplies under increasing strain. Every day of sustained hot weather increases the challenge of balancing supply and demand, and we are now at the point where we need to ask customers to help by hanging up the hosepipe, letting lawns go brown, cars go dirty and using water even more wisely to help protect the environment and ensure water remains available for all customers.

He added: “Implementing a Temporary Use Ban for our customers has been a very difficult decision to make and one which we have not taken lightly but protecting supplies to our customers and protecting our region’s precious environment in the face of such unusually hot conditions and high demand means doing everything we can to limit our non-essential water use as much as possible. We are grateful for everyone’s support.”

Recognising there have been issues with leaks in the water system, Dr Darch added: “We recognise fixing leaks is one of the most important things to our customers, and we have one of the lowest leakage levels in the UK as a result of years of focus in this area, recognising the dry region we serve. Nonetheless, we’ve upped the teams working on this throughout the spring.”

Under the terms of the ban, there will be a small number of exceptions to protect jobs, livelihoods and those who are most vulnerable. Customers can still water their gardens and grow their own fruit and vegetables if they use a watering can instead of a hose or sprinkler.

At present, the ban will only apply to the domestic use of hosepipes. A Temporary Use Ban can only be applied to domestic customers, rather than commercial customers. However, Anglian Water has been urging businesses to do their bit too in support of residents by using water wisely, for example, by not washing commercial vehicles.

Prosecution will generally take place when multiple reminders have been ignored, there is evidence of repeated breaches or misleading information has been provided.

Under the terms of the ban, there will be a small number of exceptions to protect jobs, livelihoods and those who are most vulnerable.

Customers can still water their gardens and grow their own fruit and vegetables if they use a watering can instead of a hose or sprinkler.

What is banned under the new restrictions?

Anglian Water have provided a list of activities that you can no longer do while the ban is in place.

They said:

The use of a hosepipe, including using sprinklers, pressure washers, dripper hoses, automatic irrigation

systems and similar devices, is prohibited for the following (but note the exceptions section below):

1. Watering a garden using a hosepipe

2. Cleaning a private motor-vehicle (or a trailer for such a vehicle) using a hosepipe

3. Watering plants on domestic or other non-commercial premises using a hosepipe

4. Cleaning a private leisure boat using a hosepipe

5. Filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool

6. Drawing water, using a hosepipe, for domestic recreational use (such as hot tubs)

7. Filling or maintaining a domestic pond (manmade or natural) using a hosepipe

8. Filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain (includes a cascade or any other display of moving

water, and includes filling by permanent plumbing)

9. Cleaning walls, or windows, of domestic premises using a hosepipe

10. Cleaning paths or patios using a hosepipe

11. Cleaning other artificial surfaces using a hosepipe

Customers may still undertake the above activities (except activities 5 and 8) if they use mains water from a bucket or watering can (where this is feasible) or use water that is not sourced from the mains such as grey water, rainwater from a water butt or private boreholes

Exemptions from the ban

There are some exemptions from the ban – such as using a hosepipe where the welfare and/or health and safety of animals including fish is paramount, using a hosepipe for any of the restricted purposes is required for unavoidable health and safety, such as removing or minimising any risk to human or animal health or safety or preventing or controlling the spread of causative agents or disease.

The legal notice also addressed car wash businesses.

The notice says: “A hosepipe can be used in the course of a business to clean private motor vehicles where this is done as a service to customers and where this cannot be reasonably done using a bucket.”

A full list of the exemptions is available at: https://www.anglianwater.co.uk/siteassets/household/environment/tubs/statutory-notice-for-temporary-use-ban.pdf