In article m, VX
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Mar 2006 21:18:40 +0000, Stan The Man wrote
(in message ):

(snip)
What confuses me is whether the hosepipe ban could ever apply to a hosepipe
that is connected only to a water butt that contains water that I put there
myself, ie that I recycled, or rainwater that I diverted from the roof rather
than allowing it to go straight into the drain. Surely they can't stop me
using a hose (or an underground irrigation system connected by a hose) with
that? They way they say it on the TV makes it sound like you can't use a hose
at all no matter where you obtained the water from, and that can't be quite
right, surely.

You will always be able to attach a hose to a private water supply -
which is what a water butt is. In fact you will make the water
companies very happy. Is your system gravity fed? How well does it
work? Tell all.

The water
compnaies don't have any powers to impose restrictions on the people
who use 99% of our abstracted water. They can only prohibit the 1% that
goes to an outside tap.

Just to make sure I got this- does this mean that the fact that when using
mains water I always run a hose through the kitchen window and use the
kitchen tap- does this mean the hosepipe ban would not apply to me?

Good spot but HM Govt saw that coming and the Water Industry Act 1991
doesn't actually mention which tap the water is drawn from. The
Temporary Hosepipe Ban legislation simply bans the use of hose for the
specific purposes of watering priovate gardens and washing private
vehicles. So, you would be liable to a fine if you connected the hose
to an inside tap - but not if you took the hose off and left the tap
running indefinitely.