Anglian Water relax hosepipe embargo

The supplier which serves large parts of the Luton and Dunstable area announced that it was lifting the ban yesterday after several weeks of heavy rain.

Paul Valleley, Anglian Water’s Director of Water Services, said: “I am delighted that we are able to make this announcement. It was never our intention to keep these restrictions in place a moment longer than necessary.

“When we introduced the ban back on April 5, we had just been through the driest year on record and gone two winters without the rainfall needed to recharge reservoirs and aquifers.

“We were heading into the summer with reserves well below normal.”

He added: “Almost from the moment we announced the ban it started raining and April turned out to be the wettest in our 113-year records.

“There’s no way we could have predicted it, but in some places we had three times the average rainfall in April. Crucially, it fell just within the traditional ‘recharge’ season – the time of the year when there is less competition for water from the environment, and much of what falls ends up in reservoirs and aquifers.”

But the general ban still remains in place for customers of Veolia Water who say that although rainfall has replenished supplies to an extent, it still needs months of wet weather during the autumn and winter to restore groundwater to normal levels.

But the company has relaxed its policy concerning business use.