Topic: not allowed/banned hoses at our site upminster essex possibly nationwide

[gerkin]

our water supplier anglia  ! have taken the steps of banning all hoses on our site
standpipes will be replaces with self filling troughs which we then have to fill ourwatering cans at and walk back and forward till watering is done

there reason old water can be syphoned back into the main
they have rejected the idea of non return valves on the pipe


this is due to come in force from next spring

our water is turned off on oct 1st

was told may be implemented nationwide !!

is everyone aware of this ruling

can we get a petition or similar[nationwide } to make our feeling known?

[macmac]

We have self filling troughs and no standpipes.I've never known it different here and at times it is a backwards and forwards job .But like weeding and slugs you learn to live with it.

[Ellen K]

Are you sure it's the Water Board and not your landlord trying to save on his water bill?

[Kleftiwallah]

A very good thing in my opinion.  It only takes some bolshie tw%t to stand over the standpipe and his hose refusing to allow anyone else access untill his plot is a lake.   Cheers,     Tony.

[OllieC]

We were made to get rid of self filling troughs 6 years ago in case they syphoned back into the mains (if water pressure briefly stopped obeying Physics  ::) ). We have free standing troughs about 6 ft away from the tap, with a short length of hose that isn't allowed to be left in the trough. It works well enough - I can take water out quicker than the trough fills so it's no slower than watering by hand with a hose.

[Amazingrotavator(Derby)]

The only time we can use hosepipes is to fill our waterbutts. We can't water direct onto our gardens. I take my generator down along with the waterbutt pump. We are allowed to use a hose pipe this way as long as it's not from the stand pipe.Highly recommend water butt pumps, it don't half save your legs.

[aj]

We have no water. I'd love self-filling troughs. Honestly, not having water makes us grow things differently, makes us think about conservation and we do better planning because of it.

[steve76]

never been allowed hoses at our site for as long as the old timers can remember, we do have troughs and one tap with one of them push down taps on it that shuts of after a minute or so lucky for me i have one right at the end of my plot and very big buckets to carry it down to the other end of the plot..

[raisedbedted]

They've been taking away our self filling troughs almost forcing people to use hosepipes.

I wish they would ban hosepipes, there are people on our site who water with a hose for 4-5 hours each and every day!  I'm sure they would be water wise if they had to carry the water rather than leaving it runninhg on their dahlias and sweet peas.

[Trevor_D]

Of course hosepipes are banned! Some folk would install sprinkler systems and permanent seep-hoses if they could!

We've got self-filling water tanks - with ballcock valves, same as at home - on or near every plot. If necessary, we run in more so that no-one has to walk too far. But hosepipes are totally banned. And so are stand-pipes.

The water is turned off late autumn and on again in the spring, although we do turn it back on briefly if required. During the summer it's on a timer: on very early morning; off late evening.

A lot of Council-run sites have their water bill paid for them, so individual members are shielded from the true cost of water. We pay our own bill. Last year it was nigh on £900, for 100+ members. (And that comes out of the £13 rental for a half-plot, which is what at least 50% of our members are paying! And we have to pay rent to our landlords. And we buy machinery and loan it out free of charge, with free fuel!)

[Borlotti]

No hose pipes allowed on our Council site, and water turned off before the winter (not sure when).  Have tried to fill my water butt up (in the middle of my allotment) with a hose pipe, but couldn't understand the physics, even although it was explained many times by OH, something about sucking the water in the hose pipe, but it never worked for me, and I quite enjoy watering with a watering can or two, if my arms will take it.  Find it quite relaxing on a hot summers evening.   Still don't understand how water can go up hill, or up the water tank, well it didn't for me.  It did fill the water butt with watering cans but think it is leaking as next time I looked it was empty.  Don't allowed sheds or the water could run off the roof into the water butt, otherwise a bit of a waste of space, might cut it in half and grow carrots in it.

[aj]

You get quite devious when faced with no water. I have all sorts of containers dotted around that fill up over winter, with sliding and angled lids to prevent the water drying up when it's warmer. One of the best [my secret stash] is a delivery container with door-like lid, so the water collects on the top and drains through into the container.

Also, I bought an IBC container this year. Brilliant.

At one of my schools, we got one of those pallet frames and put a water butt in it, with polythene over the top, funnelled down in the middle to fill the water butt up. Designed by a 14 yr old. If he can do it, so can anyone.

With water going up - if the opening of the outlet is below the opening of the inlet, then the water should flow if sucked hard enough. It's called 'head' and the pressure of the water 'above' pushes the water out the tube as it's 'below'.

Even though the tube itself rises above the level of the water.

I used to be an engineer you know....

[lincsyokel2]

The only time we can use hosepipes is to fill our waterbutts. We can't water direct onto our gardens. I take my generator down along with the waterbutt pump. We are allowed to use a hose pipe this way as long as it's not from the stand pipe.Highly recommend water butt pumps, it don't half save your legs.

Ditto. I then bought a  240v barrel pump, and I already have a petrol generator, so i fill a barrel from the tap with a hose whilst pumping it out with the barrel pump and another hose. Perfectly legal, two separate hoses.

[strawberry1]

You wouldn`t do that lincsyokel if you had to pay for the water you use. I bet the standpipe is dismantled before long, to the disadvantage of the other considerate plotholders. We obviously aren`t all in it together re water conservation

[lincsyokel2]

You wouldn`t do that lincsyokel if you had to pay for the water you use. I bet the standpipe is dismantled before long, to the disadvantage of the other considerate plotholders. We obviously aren`t all in it together re water conservation

Bracebridge Heath has its own resevoir......................and the cost of water is in the plot rent. Last year the Allotment Association paid for two more stand pipes on the site. The biggest waster of water is Anglian Water itself. It loses a third of what it pumps in unrepaired leaks. They could of course try not paying a dividend to the shareholders and spend the money on fixing the leaks instead. I guess some of us are happy to labour away for free while the money goes as unearned income to people who dont need it.  Bearing in mind we used to own the Water Boards until Maggie gave our property away to people with money. No body asked me if i wanted to sell my share of this public asset.

[Ellen K]

^^ Is the water on your site metered?  If so, even if everything you say is true, it's not relevant.   You are ramping up the bill for the whole site so everyone else is paying. 

[Kea]

You get quite devious when faced with no water. I have all sorts of containers dotted around that fill up over winter, with sliding and angled lids to prevent the water drying up when it's warmer. One of the best [my secret stash] is a delivery container with door-like lid, so the water collects on the top and drains through into the container.

Also, I bought an IBC container this year. Brilliant.

At one of my schools, we got one of those pallet frames and put a water butt in it, with polythene over the top, funnelled down in the middle to fill the water butt up. Designed by a 14 yr old. If he can do it, so can anyone.

With water going up - if the opening of the outlet is below the opening of the inlet, then the water should flow if sucked hard enough. It's called 'head' and the pressure of the water 'above' pushes the water out the tube as it's 'below'.

Even though the tube itself rises above the level of the water.

I used to be an engineer you know....

I'd like to see your system work on our site...after all it relies heavily on something we don't get.....Rain!

[lincsyokel2]

^^ Is the water on your site metered?  If so, even if everything you say is true, it's not relevant.   You are ramping up the bill for the whole site so everyone else is paying.  

no, you still dont get it do you...........the Allotment Association makes a profit and subsidises the site. For example, we have on plot that a communal plot, we grow strawberrys on it, and in the late summer we have a Strawberries and Cream Open day, we make about £200 profit from that one day. everyone chips in on the upkeep of the communal plot.

And everything I posted is relevant. Explain why Anglian Water wasting 1/5 of what we pay them is 'irrelevant' to the cost of water? Explain why letting vast amounts of pumped water  leak out before it gets to the consumer doesnt affect the cost of the service?

[kt.]

We are allowed to fill waterbutts with hoses but not water your plot with it.  If I need to fill my watercan from a tap that is being used to water a plot with a hose, I leave the hose disconnected afterwards, with the tap turned off.  We are on a water meter and water bills increasing, has been the cause of our last 3 rent rises.  Personally, I am against hose pipes on the site.  We used to have 1 tap for about every 25 plots, we now have 1 tap per 5 plots so hoses are not needed.  If you are fit and well enough to work an allotment, you are fit and well enough to carry a watering can.  All new tenants are informed of the benefits of having a water butt when taking over the plot. 

[Digeroo]

I'd like to see your system work on our site...after all it relies heavily on something we don't get.....Rain!

We have had very little rain since February so filling up butts on site is also not possible.  My guess is there will be a lot of hosepipe bans in place next year.  Unless we have a lot of rain over the winter the entire Thames Water Area will be desparately short of water.  It is still bone dry hear two feet down, so it will have to rain a considerable amount before the water table starts to fill up again.

I really do not see the point in having a hose pipe ban and then allowing someone to pump it straight out of the butt. 

I have used a great deal of mulching.   Even my parsnips are mulched up.