to have turned off the water

[sunnydelight]

We live in Sydney with water restrictions and all water is metered so I'm really careful with what I use. The Council are doing some work to our drive due to changed access, I saw they had attached a hose to my outside tap earlier and assumed they needed it to hose down the surface. When I looked out a minute ago one of the guys was washing his truck - complete with suds - in the lane beside the house and when I went out and told him to stop he clearly thought I was being unreasonable. I thought it was pretty cheeky - I only use bath water to wash my own car - was I being a grumpy old woman?

God no! Cheeky fecker - where was he from, central coast? (also on water restrictions, as I'm sure you know).
Did you actually turn the tap off, rip his hose from it and stamp on it? I think I might have done. Or asked him to stump up a few $ in water fees. And then complained to the council about him - after all, he's technically robbing you.

bet you're a lot nicer than me, aren't you

No! I would have done that too. I wouldn't have been happy about them using it at all. We are only allowed to use recycled water for car-washing here.

I am allowed to water my garden on a Saturday and a Wednesday between 6am and 8am and I was doing it at LITERALLY 8.01am and a police car stopped.

Wow, savoy - they are a bit jobsworth, aren't they?? Bored and on the look out for contraveners, hey? Do you get fined if you water outside the allotted hours?

we can only water on one day a week in perth are dam is so low! and they say it's going to rain on sunday, my day!!!

Of course YANBU. Cheeky twat. I would probably have tried to hose him down before the water went off though.

Ah - all you locals get it! DH thought I overreacted. I did turn the tap off and disconnect the hose thumb, and complained to the council (and got a prompt apology).

I live in cold and wet Blighty and would have done the same.

YANBU. Are water restrictions normal in Oz?

Not in all of Oz, werewolf, but large parts of it. Something to do with their refusal to accept "recycled" water, I believe - they don't have water treatment plants the same as in the UK. Or desalination plants, which would be another good idea. And we don't get enough rain.

Glad you got an apology from the council, Sunny! :)

Oh, interesting that they don't have a similar system to the UK. Tbh I'm surprised.

I'd have done the same thing too!

We are getting a desal plant here (Adelaide), they are taking their time to building it now.

Wow, I didn't know that, thumbwitch! They won't accept treated water??!
Unlike me to make eco-statements but desalination is Very Bad in the grand scheme of things, as the salt has to go back in the ocean. It fucks up all sorts of things, including (potentially) the climate. Ozzies should learn to love pre-owned water!

It's bloody cheeky and I would have done the same.

In the whole month I was there I can't really remember ANY rain. In Wales, that would be a miracle and we'd be dancing in the streets!

Hope it rains down overnight.

and I didn't know that about the desalination, grace - would have thought there were sufficient uses for rock salt that they wouldn't need to dump it back in the ocean tbh but maybe not.

My apologies - it appears that they are starting to introduce water treatment plants - here is the first one in Brisbane, which appears to have been constructed in the last couple of years. So they're a bit behind with the whole mass recycling of water thing.