Old Park Farm Garden Holders Association

As temperatures have risen dramatically over the last few days, Severn Trent is urging everyone to think about using water wisely while enjoying the sunny weather, to ensure there’s enough clean drinking water for everyone during this hot weather, whilst helping to save money on bills too. In particular they have asked customers to water gardens with a watering can rather than a hose.

There is no hose pipe ban in place at the moment, but this could change very quickly if there are no significant amounts of rainfall soon.

They have published at list of tips, here are a few of them:-

Top tips for saving water are: 

• When watering plants, use a watering can rather than a hose 
• A sprinkler or hose can use as much as 1,000 litres of drinking water in just one hour – which is more water than a family of four would normally use in a whole day! – and thirsty lawns will quickly bounce back once it starts raining again     
• Get yourself a water butt – it’s a great way to save water when it rains, and you can use the water for your garden when it’s dry – we’ve got discounted water butts available.   
• Clean your car with a bucket or with leftover water from the paddling pool, rather than a hosepipe or pressure washer, it’ll save loads of water and help keep your bills down   

So, please use water responsibly, I recently had a complaint from a tenant stating that the gardener next door had had there hose connected for four hours, four hours!!!!. If that hose was running you could fill 4 x 1000 litre tanks in that time, that is equivalent to half of our sites normal average daily water consumption.

I appreciate that we are currently experiencing an extreme weather event, but we need to reduce our water consumption, so when possible, use a watering can to water the base of plants rather than soaking your entire plot with a hose pipe. When filling water butts or tanks, dont leave them unattended risking them overflowing.

I have been urged to turn the water off for a couple of days, but after considerable thought, rightly or wrongly I have resisted that request for 3 reasons,

1. It is going to be a blistering hot day tomorrow (Tuesday), and it would be disastorous, if after all the hard work that gardeners put into growing there produce, should any crops fail due to lack of water.
2. The decision to restrict water should not lie with any one person or persons other than the “Management Committee” as a whole, as I believe this would exceed there power of authority.
3. There is no reference within our current “Site Water Usage Policy” with reference to “Heatwave’s” or “Extreme Weather Events”. This will need to be addressed, and the policy amended in the future.

Should Severn Trent introduce a hose pipe ban in the coming days or weeks, I would expect all tenant to abide by this ban, and though we have nothing in our Policy with regards to such a ban, should any tenant fail to abide by it. Please be aware, should any tenant/s fail to abide by it, it would be my responsibility as Secretary to inform the relevant authority who have been tasked to enforce it, and I assure you, I will.

I will hopefully be able to get our Committee together in the coming days to discuss our water consumption specifically, and will update the website accordingly.

John Stooke – Secretary