Hosepipe ban lifted

Subject: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Alan Day
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 05:58 PM

With the almost the whole of the country under water,Sussex Water Authority have decided to lift the hosepipe ban.
The summer drought has enabled them to push for everyone to have water meters ,a subject which comes up as soon as we do not have rain for a few days.It also enables them to push up prices as everyone complains about the amount of water they are wasting due to burst pipes etc and due to increased costs replacing old pipes the higher prices are justified.Have you ever heard the Water Companies putting up prices during a flood?
The real problem is of course massive house building projects reducing the inadequate water supply .This may mean the building of new resevoirs,which would mean another increase in costs.
I have four water butts around my house,I wonder if there is a Water Butt Tax being planned or in the pipeline?
Al

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Les from Hull
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 07:29 PM

Well I blame that nice Mrs Thatcher for stealing our water from the Local Authorites and selling it to the highest bidder without compensating the communities who had invested in their own future by buying land and building resevoirs. First our milk, then our water. It's a good job we got rid of her before she got our beer!

Shouldn't this be in the BS section? Or were you planning to sing a song about it? I could do you 'I asked for water and she gave me gasoline'!

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 07:40 AM

The problem is that all the money you pay goes towards Directors Bonuses and Shareholders guaranteed profits and not on fixing and replacing leaking pipes.
I used to work for Yorkshire Water and saw the graphs of water stocks for 1994, the year before the big hosepipe ban which had questions in parliament about the disgraceful situation. The year I saw graphs for was an excessively rainy Winter with overflowing reservoirs, followed by a fairly nondesript Summer. By September we were about a week short of the time when hose bans would have been initiated. The absence of enough water was not due to the weather - no heatwaves - average Summer rainfalls - the problem was that at least a third of the water leaving reservoirs poured out of broken pipes. That means anything up to 4 months water supply instead of a hospipe ban.

Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 08:02 AM

Actually, floods do not usually do much to help in droughts. They are usually too much water in the wrong place.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 08:16 AM

We sure have had some rain, but in terms of rainfall per person, SE England compares with desert countries like Libya.
And still they come.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Scrump
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 10:40 AM

I have four water butts around my house,I wonder if there is a Water Butt Tax being planned or in the pipeline?

I expect water butts will be taken into account when the new council tax valuation comes into effect. The more you have, the higher tax you will pay, so the answer is, yes (unfortunately). Naturally I will be ripping out our downstairs toilet, double glazing, etc., prior to the council snoopers' visit, to make sure my council tax is kept to a minimum.

[Talking of tax, I've just received a tax coding notice from that nice Mr Brown, saying that because I earnt a certain amount of interest on some savings last year (this was my redundancy pay, which has now nearly all gone), my personal allowance will be reduced this year.

I can't quite get my head around this yet (my brain turns to jelly when it comes to anything to do with accountancy or financial matters, which I find boring in the extreme), but it seems I'm being penalised for having earned interest on money last year, even though I paid tax on that interest. The fact that I no longer have the money to earn any more interest on this year, doesn't seem to come into it.]

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: autolycus
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 12:43 PM

'And still they come.'

Your point is?

Whose 'they'?






       Ivor

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: autolycus
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 12:43 PM

Sorry, i meant "who's 'they'"?




      Ivor

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Leadfingers
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 12:47 PM

The Government still seem s to be Hell bent on building Lord knows how many more houses in the South East to accomodate the Hordes who are being attracted to the silly wages paid in the City of London !

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 01:28 PM

So, how long did this thread stay above the line before a Clone realized a "hosepipe" isn't something one plays on a concertina?

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Bert
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 10:36 PM

Hosepipe ban lifted. So you can start beating your wife again Alan ;-)

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Alan Day
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 04:06 AM

Even with my peculiar sense of humour I can't work that one out Bert.
My wife has got a good left hook that I respect, so I keep well out of the way of it.
Al

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: GUEST,buspassed
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 06:43 AM

Hosepipe ban?

A friend of ours got round this nonsense by fitting a hosepipe adaptor to a plastic watering can, fitting the hose to it and 'Hey Presto' a self-filling watering can.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 07:38 AM

So tell me again: why wouldn't they let Errol Flynn in the country then?

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Alan Day
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 10:30 AM

Yes Foolstroupe it's a load of balls.
Al

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 05:33 AM

That's good to hear.... I lost several shrubs to the "drought" this year. They got waterlogged in their pots.

In a previous hot summer, a friend of Canadian extraction was wandering around a DIY store and had to be helped out by an assistant when she discovered the outdoor water storage systems. According to the sign, for just a few pounds you could have your rainwater piped straight into your butt.

LTS

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: GUEST,jimlad
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 07:52 AM

And it came to pass that there was a hosepipe ban here in 'Gods Country'.

Down my road a feller who works shifts was leaving at 5AM for work at the local Tripe and Black Pudding Cooperative. Before he went he turned on his lawn sprinkler and left a note for his wife to disconnect it when she got up at 8AM. Verily our milkman came at 6:30AM and being a honest law-abiding yeoman
disconnected the hose and leaving it running,pushed it through shift workers letter box.
I have often wondered how he explained the situation to his insurers of how all his downstairs carpets were ruined.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 09:25 PM

Separated by a common language again:

water butts: water barrels?
hosepipe: ?

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Slag
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 09:30 PM

Pray for more global warming. That will mean more water for all.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Rowan
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 12:55 AM

Ebbie, I think the Poms use the term "hosepipe" to describe what we (in OZ) call a hose. To Poms with an ancient dress sense (or a sense of ancient dress, which includes those who sing songs from before 1900) "hose" could mean a garment you'd put your lower leg into.

And the receptacles posters above are calling "water butts/barrels", most people in OZ would call "tanks"; but we, like yo'all, call tracked armoured vehicles armed with artillery "tanks" too. Very confusing!

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: JennyO
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 07:35 AM

And as for what Liz said:

for just a few pounds you could have your rainwater piped straight into your butt

Thanks, but I think I'll pass on that one.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 08:03 AM

Which is why I emphasised the Canadian extraction of my friend...

To most Brits a butt is a large barrel or tank filled with liquid (rainwater or beer, sometimes the difference is minimal...).

Just to confuse the issue a butt is also the target that archers shoot at. Imagine that:- if it's not having rainwater piped into it, your butt is being shot at with arrows!


Spent yesterday in the garden clearing up. Total loss of plants to waterlogging during the hosepipe ban (which I did not break!) is:~ 2 hollies, 1 laurel, 1 clemetis, 1 yellow climbing thing I can't remember the name of, 1 yew tree (the moss around it is doing just fine), 3 roses and a lavender.

I'm not a happy bunny.

LTS

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Scrump
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 09:04 AM

Strictly speaking, a "butt" is a cask of 144 gallons. I guess the original casks used for collecting water were this size, so it became a general term for water casks.

The word "barrel" is often used to mean any size of cask, but it really is a 32-gallon cask. People oftem talk of 'barrels' of beer, regardless of size, when they mean 'casks'.

See here for more detail.

IIRC from trips to the US, it's more common in the US than the UK to refer to what we in the UK call 'socks' as 'hose' (i.e. the wool or cotton things you wear on your feet inside your shoes).

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: jimlad9
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 09:36 AM

Can I just 'butt' in here to say that in the area of England that I have been blessed to have been born and bred in ( Lancashire,aka Gods Country a butt is also a type of cover for Grouse Shooters to hide in and usually consists of a horseshoe shaped pile of turf/peat blocks about 4 ft high.

Another thought about having raniwater straight into your butt (US) is that it was a very popular 'quack' treatment called Colonic Irrigation which the late Pricess Di and others of that ilk practiced. More money than sense I say,send that money to Oxfam,Amnesty International or NSPCC I say.

And finally for a full list of Beer containers check out the lyrics to that 'Olde Englishe' folk song 'Good Luck to the Barley Mow". If its not in Mudcat I will show my bum (english) on the Town Hall steps

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 11:44 AM

Oh jimlad, did the ASBO not teach you anything about showing your bum on town hall steps??

LTS

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Scrump
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 11:51 AM

It's OK, I gather his local town hall isn't in a 'respect zone', so he can show what he wants on the steps without fear of any official intervention.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 12:02 PM

That's like, so ...


EEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUUuwwwwwwwwwwww!

LTS

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Scrump
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 12:03 PM

Was that a squeak?

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: bubblyrat
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 12:20 PM

Surely, the whole point is that water is an " essential" to everyday living, and therefore,as a Utility,it should NOT,under any cicumstances ,be under the control of the Private Sector,which,of course,will always put profits & dividends before any ideas of public service.?? What CRETIN put OUR water supply in the hands of French & German speculators ???One thing is for sure---as long as the status quo is maintained, the hosepipe/reservoir/leaking pipe situation will only get WORSE....So PUT UP,SHUT UP ---or RISE UP !!!!!!!
                RED ROGER..... (it"s the only way )

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 01:52 PM

Presumably bubblyrat, Electricity, Gas, and Food should all also be under under Public sector control as well then. Move to North Korea, and you'll find that those are under state control, when there are any at all....

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: jimlad9
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 01:53 PM

Squeaky Liz

Does ASBO mean A**e Showing Banning Order,if not then I am OK.

LOL

Jimlad9

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: tarheel
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 01:57 PM

a water butt,or barrell...does this mean that you collect your water for use at your home in these barrells for washing,drinking,etc?
sorry this sounds strange to me but being a usa citizen all my life,
we use to collect rain water in a barrell for taking a bath outside when we were kids, because we didn't have a bath tub ,but would sometimes use a galvanized wash tub!)

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Rowan
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 04:49 PM

I forgot about butts as archery targets; several lifetimes ago I used to be a toxophilite, too.

Tarheel, I can't speak to the frequency (or lack) of collecting rain water from one's roof in the UK but it is routine in most rural areas of Australia, has been very frequent in Adelaide (where the main water supply is the lower end of the Murray) and is becoming more frequent in other urban areas around OZ as the current drought bites ever harder. When I was just south of your border (down Lexington way) there were quite a few houses I saw with rainwater tanks (as I'd call them) but none in the urban areas.

In OZ they are usually transported and thus have size limitations; traditionally they were corrugated iron (steel, actually but that's folklore for you) but concrete ones were very common until recently, when UV-resistant plastic (food grade) seems to be the go.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Alan Day
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 05:52 PM

In the Winter Liz it is a good idea to take your plant pots out of their saucers and they are less inclined to get waterlogged.
The Water Butts are used in our house for watering the garden and not for use in the house.I have attached down pipes in various places from the guttering to go into water butts .In the Winter I disconnect the down pipes,connect up the guttering to enable the heavy rain to go into the main drains.With the new plastic guttering snap on clip system this takes about ten minutes.In the Summer I take away the bypasses and then it fills up the water butts for the plants.
Sorry about all these new words folks, but it is nice for us English to reverse the trend on the odd occassion.
Al

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: bubblyrat
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 07:18 PM

I take your point,Bunnahabhain,but the more I look at capitalism ,the more flaws & cracks I can see appearing.Almost as many as in our poor,neglected,water-pipes !! Please don"t make petulant remarks about North Korea just because you disagree with my views on the provision of efficient public services; it"s very childish.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 07:30 PM

"posters above are calling "water butts/barrels", most people in OZ would call "tanks"; "

in India the word 'tank' is used to what we in Oz call 'dams'.

Aussie farm dams are often not even placed on a stream, but anywhere where the natural flow of water will allow an obstruction to form a pool of water.


BTW, there has been much recent political talk in oz of putting a tax on rainwater collected from the roof of one's own house. Farmers have been protesting about such a tax on water they retain on their own farmland that does not run away to a stream.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 05:00 AM

Alan - the pots in question don't have saucers and they were waterlogged over the summer, during the hosepipe ban... that's the irony of it all.

Water from the water butt usually came from the guttering so rather than it going down the drain and away, it was stored for use on the garden when needed. My grandfather spoke of using water butt water for general washing and watering, the drinking water came from the pump. Coming from a long line of agricultural folk, it was the 'done thing' to have a water storage unit of some sort. To not have a water butt was unheard of and I found it very strange when I moved to London and found hardly anyone stored rainwater in this way. If our drainpipes weren't so stupidly placed I'd consider having one installed here.

LTS

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Scrump
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 05:02 AM

Tarheel - in the UK many of us have 'water butts' (these are often purpose-made plastic containers you can buy from garden centres or DIY stores) that you use to collect rainwater. We have several in different parts of the garden, to collect water from the house roof, the greenhouse, shed, etc. You can get a simple gizmo that fits into the rainwater downpipe and delivers the water into a butt standing nearby, and when the butt is full, the water continues down into the drains or soakaway. So the butt won't overflow and flood your garden during wet weather. The butts have a tap near the bottom so you can fill your watering can, etc. from them.

Most people use the water thus collected to water the plants in their garden during dry weather, to avoid using the mains water (which many of us have to pay for by the litre, as it's often metered).

I guess there may be some folk who use it for other purposes such as washing but I don't know of any personally. However we do have a near neighbour who uses their bathwater to water their garden (they have rigged up some sort of piping system to divert the bathwater into a butt during droughts).

I guess if the UK water companies don't get their act together and build more reservoirs to allow for the thousands of new homes being built (especially in the south-east of England), we might all end up depending on the water we collect ourselves to survive :-(

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Rowan
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 05:31 PM

Liz, if you wanted to collect rainwater from a London roof, there's a couple of things you'd need to watch for.

Pigeon poop is great fertiliser for all sorts of bugs and bacteria; it might be great for gardens but not for human consumption. For this reason, many in Australia have a 'first flush diverter' that allows such water to be diverted away from the main storage tanks.

Another is heavy metal contamination from either lead (in older houses) or zinc, in newer ones with galvanised steel. Normally, both metals don't get liberated into the water in quantities likely to do harm but, where you have acid rain, the metals get liberated.

A third thing to watch for is the effects of chimney flues on your water quality; you can get a fair amount of creosote on a roof downwind from the flue and the water is tainted something awful.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Alan Day
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 05:51 PM

That's a good point Rowan I am on the Gatwick Flightpath (Not quite on the runway) and we do get some oily deposits.Luckily the tap is at the bottom of the Water Butt so any oil deposits in theory should be floating on the top.One other problem is that they are a breeding ground for mosquitoes (gnats)some of which were very aggressive last year.
Al

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 06:42 PM

"so any oil deposits in theory should be floating on the top ... they are a breeding ground for mosquitoes"

Well that should discourage teh mosquitos...

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Scrump
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 09:21 AM

That's why most 'proper' water butts come with a lid. The mozzies can't get into the butt to lay their eggs in the water.

If you don't have a proper lid, you could fix a piece of polythene sheet or similar, over the top of it, to keep insects out.

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Alan Day
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:52 PM

The inadequate lid that normally is half under the water.The little devils seem to squeeze through the hole the pipe goes in to.
In our pond my wife mistook baby goldfish for mozzies and from six original fish we now have about sixty and I have given away about two hundred to a childrens home for their new pond. The local heron is so fat it can hardly take off and the plastic heron that was bought to scare it,it comes down to mate, even though I was assured I bought the ugly one.
Al

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: jimlad9
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 04:06 PM

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 06:05 PM

Get duckweed. That seems to have prevented the majority of mosquitoes finding my pond. It just looks like an extension of the lawn, it's so green!

LTS

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 09:37 PM

... then you will have to get ducks to eat the duck weed...


hmmmmm...

"There was an old lady who swallowed a fly..."

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 06:18 AM

Still waiting for a duck. All I get is tits.

LTS

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Alan Day
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 07:44 AM

A subject Liz we must talk about one day
and the duck.
Al

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:42 AM

It hasn't been that long since Liz last publicised her tits round here..

Subject: RE: Hosepipe ban lifted
From: Scrump
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:46 AM

Tits like coconuts.