Over the weekend, as temperatures rose, a mild panic descended. Gardens teemed with hot children, and parents keen to dig out paddling pools to cool them down. But with a hosepipe ban across much of southern and eastern England, could you legally fill these pools up? And if you took a chance, would those fabled figures, the hosepipe police, descend?
Nick Ellins of policy body, Water UK, says filling a paddling pool is perfectly acceptable, but if you're in a hosepipe-ban area, you must do it with a container; hosepipes tend to run on, which wastes water. If there's any confusion about other hosepipe use, your water company website has a full list of restrictions.
Ellins says the notion of hosepipe police, or even just hosepipe hotlines, is nonsense. People sometimes report neighbours to the water company, but despite talk of maximum £1,000 fines, Ellins says he has never heard of any prosecutions. The water companies usually just respond by dropping around to explain the hosepipe ban, or sending a letter. The point of the ban is to reduce unnecessary water use, but also to prompt positive action; taking shorter showers, for example. "It encourages people to think about water differently," says Ellins.
