In article , Mary
Fisher wrote:

"Stan The Man" wrote in message
...
In article , Mary
Fisher wrote:

"Stan The Man" wrote in message
...
They never issue any press releases about the good news because it
doesn't suit their political agenda

Can you explain what you mean, please?

The publicity generated by the Environment Agency at the onset of
hosepipe restrictions is overblown (so much so that research shows that
14% of people all over the country wrongly believe that they are
subject to hosepipe bans); but they never seek more than the statutory
level of publicity when hosepipe bans are ended.

That's because:

a) hosepipe bans per se contribute very little to water savings since
gardeners use less than 1% of water (but the surrounding publicity does
lead, allegedly, to a reduction in domestic water use of the order of
10% - including savings made inside the home where the Govt has no
power to restrict usage short of the ultimate sanction of
standpipes/rota cuts)

b) the water shortage is much more to do with John Prescott's new house
building agenda (coupled with insufficient reservoirs) - and supply
pipe leaks - than it has to do with gardening (or rainfall - which
statistics have been much distorted by the Environment Agency to suit
the Govt's agenda)

So gardeners and their hosepipes are the sacrificial lambs to a much
bigger God: the need to build tens of thousands of new homes in the
south east, many of them for immigrants, without having the water
supply infrastructure in place to support them.

The lack of water infrastructure to support new house building won't go
away unless the water companies can be forced to build new reservoirs -
and they take 20 years to make. So even if we suffer months of
flooding, the Govt still wants us to use less water so that they can
give our 'donations' to the new housing estates. Hence, no publicity
when hosepipe bans are lifted.

Fortunately, the advance of water metering presents the water compnaies
with a dichotomy. If we are brainwashed into using less water, the
water industry gets less revenue from metered properties. Fokestone &
Dover water company, which lifted its hosepipe ban this month, has a
vested interest in doing so because it announced earlier this year that
all its customers would be compulsorily metered.

That doesn't explain it! It does seem like a rant against the government
(which I might well support but it doesn't explain what you said about a
political agenda - to me anyway).

Try this: the Govt needs to force us to use less water, whether it
rains or not. They want us to continue to use less water, whether it
rains or not. Hosepipe bans are the only way they know to make this
happen. So the Govt wants the bans to remain in place for as long as
possible. At the very least, they want the perception of water shortage
to continue for as long as possible. Hence they won't publicise the
lifting of hosepipe bans - and they force the water companies to do the
same (albeit they are required by law to at least put a small display
ad in the local paper to say that the ban is lifted).