Neighbour demanded proof of our hosepipe ban exemption

[HoseBan]

My NDN has just demanded to see proof that we are exempt from the local hose pipe ban !!!!

I have said to them I won’t be showing them anything as it’s private but they can report me if I want and the water company can check.

We literally have just been filling a small paddling pool daily for the dc for after school and today have a little sprinkler toy as it’s boiling.

I know some people aren’t aware that there are exemptions (eg being on priority services register or certain tariff) but I’m so shocked they demanded proof !!!

So how are you going to prove that Mrs Bobbins used a hose to fill a paddling pool and not a bucket, when you inspect her house at 3pm with an already full pool?

By snooping?

By saying your suspicious and then what ... CCTV to monitor?

Obviously you would just rely on neighbours reporting neighbours. I don't think the water police would literally be like real police. All you need is enough motivated people dotted around the community and it all becomes a lot easier.

Yeah I don’t think filming people in their own back garden is particularly on. If any of my neighbours did that it would be the end of any neighbourly relations. By all means feel free to start a war over a hosepipe ban.

All these people watching children as they use paddling pools wearing very little clothing won't prove problematic at all.

Would you condone neighbours peering into the gardens and homes of others?

Odd.

That is such a strange interpretation of what I suggested. I would suggest you're the problematic one.

Look, if you see someone doing something illegal in their garden then you can report them. That's true for the burning of dangerous waste or fly tipping in their garden.. if you are misusing water then that's just another example of someone contributing towards an environmental hazard. I'm not suggesting hiding in hedges or doing anything crazy. Just basic vigilance.

It's not peculiar.

How would you decipher whether a neighbour is using a garden hose during a ban? Espionage.

To compare the burning of hazardous waste with the use of a hosepipe seems a singularly unconvincing argument.

I suggested before. Basic vigilance. How do you know someone isn't fly tipping in their garden or burning hazardous waste? You don't sit their glued to your window with binoculars. Most people I know use hoses to water their plants. They move around the garden with them and I can hear my neighbours doing it from my house with the windows open. I would hardly have to get involved in any kind of high level espionage.

The idea that people would have to stare at paddling pools with scantily clad children is pretty insane. Kids don't usually sit in the paddling pools until they're full by which case the hose would be away anyway. It's all a bit weird that your mind has gone there. Most people have overlooked gardens. If they wanted to spy on kids in paddling pools I'm not sure why they would be super eager to report their neighbours for hose misuse.

Both are associated with environmental hazards. One is a hazard in itself and the other is contributing to one. If rivers and habitats dry up because we are too selfish not to use a hose then that is terribly sad

Okay, so you spit your neighbour using a hose.

Then what? How do you prove it?

Give the water company an alert with the time and date. In most cases they can use water metres to judge is a hose was used. Job done!

What if the hosepipe were being used by a child to fill a paddling pool?

I'm rather taken aback by your attitude. It comes across as distinctly loathsome.

How?

I'm using 25 litres in a paddling pool.

How does that prove I used a hose instead of buckets.

For some of you it must be like living with the Stasi next door! There will always be selfish sods, and all flavours of politicians will be trying to sew division in communities.

How pathetic to be advocating timing your neighbours like this. I would suggest getting a life.

Your first point has absolutely nothing to do with mine. As for the rest of your post, I will not ration my water use while the water companies are greedy, self-serving, price gouging, polluting bastards.

It’s genuinely terrifying just how easy it is to turn individuals into agents of the state.

You might be exempt but that doesn’t mean you should be filling a paddling pool for your grandchildren. Your meant to use it for watering plants that will otherwise die and animals because you can’t carry a watering can. How selfish can you be! People are having there water turned off because there’s not enough ( no drinking water) but your grandchildren can have a paddling pool because your exempt. It beggars belief.

is this a joke? Or just generally a total piss take?

Entitled

Totally lacking in responsibility

Share your frustration with the water companies.

And remind me again whose fault it is that the water companies have spent years neglecting their infrastructure while continuing to reward shareholders handsomely?

Well if we hadn't wasted so much on benefits, then we could have had bonuses and infrastructure