No hosepipe ban – but take shorter showers...

BIRMINGHAM and the Black Country look set to escape a hosepipe ban as other areas of Britain clamp down.

Seven million people in the north west of England are facing a tough ban that will start from August 5.

The ‘temporary use ban’ announced by water company United Utilities comes amid what has been described as the longest heatwave since 1976.

But here in the West Midlands, Severn Trent Water says the company has no plans for a hosepipe ban.

A spokesman confirmed this week: “We have no imminent plans for hosepipe ban.

“We’re all okay at the moment with water reserves, and a ban is not part of our current plan.”

The news comes as Birmingham faced several more days of almost uninterrupted dry weather, according a to Met Office forecasters this week. Despite there being no ban, customers in the region are being asked to cut their water consumption during the hot spell.

One suggestion was to shower for no longer than four minutes or water the lawn with a watering can.

Doug Clarke Severn Trent said: “Demand for water is massively up thanks to several weeks of extremely hot weather.

“While we have lots of water available, our reservoir levels are healthy and we’re putting millions of extra litres of water into the system, people are using water as fast as we can treat and pump it into supply. This is especially the case during peak demand in the mornings and evenings. That’s particularly when we want to ask customers to restrict their supply so we can avoid areas of low pressure.” of