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 !!!

Is this a rage bait thread? There are indeed exemptions. I'd be exempt for the next four weeks in my area as I've just had some new turf laid. However, the ban is to preserve a valuable commodity and I'm not sure using a hose for a paddling pool and sprinkler toy is classed as an essential need. All you're doing is helping the reservoirs run dry quicker.

We would be fine to use a hosepipe but honestly OP, just because you can it doesn’t mean you should.

Why the fuck not? Presumably it's paid for, probably by OP.

Where I live there's a patch of road that's constantly on the verge of leaking, literally throwing out gallons of water every hour when it goes. I report it , my neighbours report it, after a couple of weeks the water company comes along, closes one side of the road and does a bodge job, then fucks off, and two weeks later it's leaking again. In the interim you can hear clanking noises underground, then eventually it all bursts out. Again. This has been going on for NINE FUCKING YEARS.

We've reported it to council, MP, environment agency, no one gives a shit/can do anything. I'm sure we're not the only ones in such a shocking situation and we're paying for all this water that's flowing down the fucking street on a regular fucking basis. Even if I was paying for OP's two inches of water in her paddling pool myself without getting any benefit from it, which I'm not, I'd consider it a better use of water resource than our street being half submerged every few weeks due to the water company being crap and unaccountable. As things stand, given that I'm not funding OP's paddling pool, I hope she enjoys it. She's surely using loads less water than the leak on our road.

Yeah, right? They should just stare at the wall if they want something nice to look at.

Food. But it doesn't specify 'only crops that the person is dependent upon to eat or is used to feed livestock' anyhow. It also seems to include 'maintaining vehicles', but I can't imagine that topping up the radiator is how that would be interpreted, it would be for washing a car as well.

To eat? to shelter from the sun under? to look at? the same reason everyone who isn't disabled has plants in their garden.

Some people might consider laying new turf to be unnecessary…

"Monitoring water resources" https://www.anglianwater.co.uk/services/water-supply/monitoring-water-resources

Instead of piling on a disabled person. Check the reservoir levels that, affect the hose pipe ban areas. They're so much higher than last year.

Google is your friend.

I have a collection of specialist plants. Until yesterday I could water them with a hosepipe. It has a small attachment on the end I use for directing the water at just the right spot into the pots (hundreds of the buggers), and doing it like that uses the exact amount of water needed by each plant. No waste. Using a watering can takes bloody hours with the rose attachment on, wastes a shit ton of water, is really heavy and exhausting and I can't use it without the rose as the water sloshes out of the spout too strongly and washes the soil out of the pots. So using a watering can takes much longer, is way too physically demanding for me, and wastes far more water than if I did it with the hosepipe.

To say that I'm pissed off would be an understatement.

But why should disabled people have prerferentall treatment?

I'm disabled

What a weird thing to say. Disabled people likely grow plants in their garden spaces just like anyone else and a hosepipe, with the exemption. means they can water then if unable to do it with a watering can.

Where are you getting the water from for the watering can?

Not for a child, no, as you are perfectly asked to fill a paddling pool with buckets.
But a disabled parent might not be.

But it's not ok to ask a neighbour for proof of why they are exempt.

Are we really in this place again, when a necessary rule issued for the greater all round good becomes a tussle of "yes, but me, me, me.."
Ffs.

In my area the reservoirs are at 83% so we’re not running out water. More water is wasted by leaks that can take ages to be filled and I understand the pumping equipment hasn’t been properly maintained or replaced recently.

so my view is if neighbour with disabilities wanted to use some water to fill a paddling pool I wouldn’t care.

We are on the priority services register due to multiple medical needs within the household.

I'm hoping that the heat has halved IQs. Otherwise wtf.

Anyway I'll delay my watering until late this evening.

Wimbledon has suddenly got interesting again.

Well I’m on the priority service register as both my DC are deaf. However I’ve not filled my youngest paddling pool, nor used the hose to water plants - surely should be for those who need it for mobility or medical reasons.

It's not all disabled people, just those who are "unable to make reasonable adjustments because of a health condition or disability". If you can use a watering can you should be using one, disability or not. I'm not sure this counts as preferential treatment, it's more 'helping disabled people be able to do something that able bodied people can already do'.

Exemptions vary from company to company and from ban to ban. Go and look on your water supplier's website and see what it says.

I would have just 'lol' @ them and walked off.

It is. or at least it is for anglian water. it's not that everyone on the PSR is exempt, it's those who are "registered on our Priority Services Register and unable to make reasonable adjustments because of a health condition or disability."

An online search reveals:

'You can still use a hosepipe if: You're registered on our Priority Services Register and unable to make reasonable adjustments because of a health condition or disability. If you think you're eligible, you can register for Priority Services. It's needed to protect human health and safety.'

Not sure why a disability would require a hosepipe or paddling pool. Equally, I don't see how a small paddling pool is different from a bath. The neighbour is a busybody who should stick their nose out of other people's business.

Do you realise that it's only those on Water Sure are exempt from the ban and it's not to water their plants.

Insane you think someone with a medical condition automatically should be able to water their plants, fill a paddling pool or anything not related to their disability whilst the rest of us are conserving water

Don't be daft

Why should able bodied be able to have a paddling pool filled up with buckets but a disabled parent can’t do that so their children can’t have a paddling pool? It’s a hosepipe ban not a paddling pool ban