Norfolk and Suffolk Hosepipe Ban

5 April 2012, 05:00 | Updated: 5 April 2012, 05:49

People in Norfolk and Suffolk won't be able to use their hosepipes from today as a ban starts to save water.

After the driest 18 months in over a century, seven water companies across the country have agreed to the hosepipe ban. It will mean that you can't water your garden or clean your car using a hosepipe.

Anyone who ignores the ban could be fined up to £1000. Below is a list of what you can and can't do under the new ban.

What you can't do:

Watering a garden using a hosepipe.

Cleaning a private motor-vehicle using a hosepipe.

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

Cleaning a private leisure boat using a hosepipe.

Filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool, except by using a hand held container filled directly from a tap.

Drawing water, using a hosepipe, for domestic recreational use.

Filling or maintaining a domestic pond using a hosepipe, except where fish or other aquatic animals are being reared or kept in captivity.

Filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain, except where an ornamental fountain is in a fish pond.

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

Cleaning paths or patios using a hosepipe.

Cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces using a hosepipe.

What you can do:

Use a hosepipe in a garden or for cleaning walls or windows of domestic premises, paths or patios, a private leisure boat or an artificial outdoor surface, where such use is necessary for health and safety reasons.

Use a hosepipe in the course of a business to clean a private motor vehicle, or for cleaning walls or windows of domestic premises, paths or patios or an artificial outdoor surface, where this is done as a service to customers.

Use a hosepipe to water a garden attached to a domestic dwelling or to water plants on domestic premises by people with severe mobility problems or who hold a current Blue Badge issued by their local authority.

Use a hosepipe to water an area of grass or an artificial outdoor surface used for playing sport or recreation (but not for any ancillary use), where this is required in connection with a national or international sports event only.

Use of drip or trickle irrigation watering systems fitted with a pressure reducing valve and a timer, that are not handheld and which place water by drip directly onto the soil surface or beneath the soil surface, without any surface run off or dispersion of water through the air using a jet or mist.

Any exemptions: There are some exemptions:

Non-domestic horticultural or agricultural activity.

Any activities that are necessary for health and safety reasons (i.e. necessary to remove or minimise any risk to human or animal health/safety or prevents/control the spread of causative agents of disease).

Source: http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/