Is there a hosepipe ban in my area? Which suppliers have imposed a ban and counties at risk of restrictions
A hosepipe ban will be introduced across Kent and Sussex due to a record demand for drinking water, South East Water bosses said.
Parts of the region have been left with little or no water this week amid the hot weather, forcing schools to shut and residents to get drinking water from bottled water stations.
South East Water said despite providing an extra 120 million litres of water a day, demand in June has broken records, including from the Covid lockdown heatwave.
David Hinton, the firm’s chief executive, said: “This situation has developed much more rapidly than last year.
“Understandably, we’ve seen customer demand increase in line with the hotter weather, however this has impacted our ability to keep all customers in supply at all times.
“Despite asking for customers’ help to use water for essential uses only, regrettably we’ve now been left with no choice but to introduce this temporary use ban restriction to protect customers’ supplies across Kent and Sussex.”
Where are hosepipe bans in place?
South East Water’s ban stretches from Haywards Heath in West Sussex to Whitstable in Kent. It comes into effect from Monday 26 June.
You can see if your area is affecting by entering your postcode into the South East Water website here.
“The temporary restrictions will mean that you will not be able to use hosepipes for watering your gardens, washing cars, patios and boats and filling swimming and paddling pools,” South East Water said.
People who break the rules could be hit with a £1,000 fine.
There is als a hosepipe ban in a large area of south-west England. Restrictions that were in place in the region since last summer were extended across Cornwall and large parts of Devon in April.
You can enter your postcode into the South West Water website here to see if your exact area is affected.
Activities covered by the hosepipe ban include using hosepipes to water gardens or clean cars.
The hosepipe ban does not apply to Blue Badge holders or those on South West Water’s priority register. Businesses and farmers are also unaffected.
Anyone who breaches the restrictions will face a fine of up to £1,000.
The ban is expected to be lifted on 1 December – or “sooner if the area receives drought breaking rainfall”, the supplier said.
Why has South East Water issued a hosepipe ban?
South East Water said: “The South East has experienced a prolonged period of dry weather, meaning we’re pumping much more drinking water to customer taps than normal.
“This, coupled with the high temperatures experienced in recent weeks, has seen demand for treated water reach record levels.
“Regrettably, over the last week, this has begun to impact customers across Kent and Sussex, who have experienced low pressure or no water, as stocks of drinking water have reduced to very low levels in local storage tanks.”
On Friday, three schools in East Sussex partially closed due to water shortages. Mark Cross, from the Church of England Primary School in Crowborough, said it could not open to all year groups because of reduced sanitary facilities and no running water.
Areas experiencing no or low water pressure during the week include Crowborough, Wadhurst, Mayfield, Lewes, Newhaven in East Sussex, and Biddenden, Staplehurst, Cranbrook and Ashford in Kent.
Wealden MP Nusrat Ghani has been calling on South East Water to introduce a hosepipe ban since earlier this week, blasting the company for “appalling” outages across her East Sussex constituency.
“Today is day six of misery and we’re still counting. It’s always too hot or too cold for sewateruk to cope with demand in Wealden. We have been here before and lessons are never learnt,” she tweeted on Friday before the ban was announced.
