This heatwave....

[solo]

I'll be glad when it ends. I'm tired of filling paddling pools, and running water slides and sprinkler toys for the kids. You lot down south with the hose pipe bans don't know how lucky you are!

 

[johnny_t]

That touches on an ongoing debate I'm having with my wife. We don't have a water meter, or any shortage. Our paddling pool is big - It takes about two hours to fill to halfway up, and I do that most days and then let it out over the garden at night.

Now I understand that water isn't a finite resource like oil, and by letting it out I'm just putting it back into the great big cycle of things, and there's no point going easy on the water in some fit of solidarity for them daft b*ggers that chose to cram into the South East, but is there any reason why I shouldn't continue this fill and drain cycle ??

 

[Thermo]

were still allowed to fill paddling pools, its only watering the garden or washing cars we cant do (its amazing my little one want sthe paddling pools filled up every day, after they mysteriously empty overnight!)

 

[solo]

Sounds like you're suffering from Water Rustlers.

 

[Pensdown]

were still allowed to fill paddling pools, its only watering the garden or washing cars we cant do (its amazing my little one want sthe paddling pools filled up every day, after they mysteriously empty overnight!)

Funny you mention that, my pond pump keeps springing a leak spraying water all over the fruit trees so I have to top the pond up every other day or so

 

[Thermo]

sounds like weve got as big a problem with leaks as the water companies!

 

[empip]

Spinners poured cold water on claims that Blair had violated the hosepipe ban when a gardener was snapped spraying water over the PM's lush green beds. The hose contraption was, in fact, what is known as a "trigger-action douser" with a rechargeable battery pumping water from a portable "bowser", a receptacle holding a hefty six watering-cans of water...
While Downing Street boasted of the highly "targeted" way it kept its perennials in bloom, it admitted the bowser was filled from the tap. Water companies agree that Blair did not break the hosepipe ban in place in the Thames Water region because the douser was not attached to mains running water from a tap...

Cynics might say the bowser/douser is entirely in keeping with the government's habit of obeying the letter of the law but not always its spirit. Philosophically, there is a fag paper between fixing No 10's taps to a hose and using them to fill a giant bowser.

Neil Fishlock agrees. "It's a swizzle filling a big water butt from the mains and wheeling it round the garden. It's not quite playing the game." Sounder practice would be to connect your bowser to your downpipe and collect rainwater.

Ordinary folk, it seems, are shaming the government by turning to water butts. The problem with the hosepipe ban, according to Marsh and Thames Water, is that the law was drawn up 60 years ago and only prevents you hosing your garden or vehicle, leaving loopholes elsewhere.
As reservoirs empty, we can all continue to turn hoses on patios, paddling pools, hot tubs and other thirsty gadgets of modern times.

So there you go .... Too many inadequate laws too many loopholes..

 

[2scoops0406]

We have no hosepipe ban, but that's cos I'm not a Thames water customer, but an Anglia one instead, now if I lived on the opposite side of the road, I'd be well stuffed, as they are all Thames customers.

 

[Diyisfun]

solo wrote

I'll be glad when it ends. I'm tired of filling paddling pools, and running water slides and sprinkler toys for the kids. You lot down south with the hose pipe bans don't know how lucky you are!
===========
I sent email to Thames water last week..YOU CAN FILL A PADDLING POOL..

But how stupid is that..You can have the kids playing under a hose all day in the pool let the water flood the garden.. But I cant use the hose to grow my veg

 

[empip]

solo wrote

I'll be glad when it ends. I'm tired of filling paddling pools, and running water slides and sprinkler toys for the kids. You lot down south with the hose pipe bans don't know how lucky you are!
===========
I sent email to Thames water last week..YOU CAN FILL A PADDLING POOL..

But how stupid is that..You can have the kids playing under a hose all day in the pool let the water flood the garden.. But I cant use the hose to grow my veg

...the law was drawn up 60 years ago and only prevents you hosing your garden or vehicle, leaving loopholes elsewhere.
As reservoirs empty, we can all continue to turn hoses on patios, paddling pools, hot tubs and other thirsty gadgets of modern times...

 

[Diyisfun]

Empip...It took them 3 days to replyto my email..I suppose thats faster than they get to a leak.

 

[sifly]

I agree, it's a daft situation when you can use hosepipes to fill the pools but not to water the veggie patch.
I guess you can still water your veg and plants using a watering can, but it's such a long way from the tap! I find that letting my 2 and a half year old hold the hosepipe near the paddling pool (which coincidently is by the veggie patch), while daddy goes and turns on the tap helps It takes me soo long to walk back to her to help re-direct the hose into the paddling pool too.

 

[empip]

Empip...It took them 3 days to replyto my email..I suppose thats faster than they get to a leak.

The ODPM's office took several weeks to reply to me on a seperate issue, so you did well !

 

[Pensdown]

Empip...It took them 3 days to replyto my email..I suppose thats faster than they get to a leak.

The ODPM's office took several weeks to reply to me on a seperate issue, so you did well !

What was their excuse, "sorry, the boss is out of the office"

 

[empip]

Empip...It took them 3 days to replyto my email..I suppose thats faster than they get to a leak.

The ODPM's office took several weeks to reply to me on a seperate issue, so you did well !

What was their excuse, "sorry, the boss is out of the office"

How about 'lying' on a stack of e-mails? I guess 'laying' would work too.