hosepipe/water ban

[nikita**]

What do you think of the hosepipe ban? Water companies could apply for drought orders from the Department for the Environment which could mean further ban and price increase.

[Haggisdj]

Hear hear andy_hughes! We need water, gas, and electric to survive. People should not be able to make a profit from these.

We should not have to pay VAT on then either. The Tories put 12% on them and was going to put it up to 17.5%...

[LeMarchand]

Were we given a choice about privatisation? I thought Maggie just sold everything off to her cronies...

Anyway, it is completely ridiculous that a company making �1 million profit/day would rather scaremonger in a ploy to later raise prices than sort out the system.

Privatisation of our national utilities was a bad move: the directors and shareholders just want an increasingly large cut of the profits, and it's the users that have to pay more to ensure that the fat cats get even richer.

[ianess]

Hey Drisgirl....I thought we were on the same side..........I live only a couple of feet above high tide level so heavy rain or snow coupled with a high tide is none too funny down here! Keep the sluice gates closed in your valleys please. The Hydro board could always lay a pipeline down to the poor peasants in the South East with no water of course. They pinched our oil, now they want our water, and of course if they want nuclear power plants they won't want them anywhere near their back yard will they?

spacechimp.......excuse my lack of knowledge on the subject but just what exactly DO you use your toilet for?

[andy-hughes]

Oooops, I meant 'nationalise' in my last paragraph - the red mist was descending, so I couldn't see to type properly!

[Lonnie]

I agree totally with what andy-hughes has said, it really is the only solution.

[Drisgirl]

Ianess - I am on your side seriously.I was meaning the flood banks/barriers they had built in Perth (I'm not in Perth) but remember the devastaion it caused when the Tay burst its banks.You think I'm Pitlochry - but Im not:)Heres to the next onslaught - hope youre not in North Muirton or near the Inch:)

[peterd]

This baffles me, after all we are an island. How do Spain / Portugal etc go on in the summer? Do they have bans ?

[nikita**]

The profit side should not be handed to the Fat Cats but pumped straight back into repairing and overhauling the system. Then they will not have to bleat when there is not enough rain or demand a higher bills

[spacechimp]

Well, we wouldn't want to reverse all of Thatcher's brilliant work now would we? We could subsidise the water boards a little, I suppose.

[nikita**]

Hi Spacechamp, welcome on board.

I do not understand your answer about subsidise ?? What the water board?

[spacechimp]

Understanding these words is a result of having greater experience, perhaps?

[nikita**]

Hi ya spicechimp. Yeh, I dont understand. A bit on the Blonde side.

[spacechimp]

The water boards are the companies which supply water. Subsidisation is giving money (in this case tax payers') to cover all or part of the cost of something.

I was just saying that if we gave the water companies some money to fix the leaks, they'd be more likely to do it.

[spacechimp]

Then again, with a substance as necessary was water, perhaps complete nationalisation isn't so awful.

[nikita**]

Yeh, the Water Board sucks. One rule for one another for rule..... We have so much food and water in this part of the world and they still cannot manage it. In some parts of the world where tourist industry is the main business, the hotels take up all the supply of water and the local villages go dry and people suffer greatly. This happenes in many third world countries. I mention this because Companies are allowed to use as much water as they like when there is a ban on water usage for residential users.

[Oneeyedvic]

Nikita - You keep saying "Companies are allowed to use as much water as they like when there is a ban on water usage for residential users." - I am curious as to why you say this. As far as I was aware, this is the first ban since the 70's. At that time, there certainly weren't lots of car washes etc.

And don't forget, all our food is purchased from businesses - could be handy to let them use as much as they need.

[nikita**]

Here we go again. I dont know where u live but we get hosepipe ban nearly every year, except a few years ago when the whole area was flooded. During the ban sprinklers were used by S**y and Pr**t**r & G****le(legal reasons I cannot mention co.names) The gardens surrounding them had sprinklers all summer long.

[ianess]

Drisgirl........who mentioned Pitlochry? I can only guess exactly where you are going by your replies but honestly Pitlochry was not on my list. Not a million miles out though. No, I know Perth quite well, and North Muirton may not be the most desirable of places in any condition but there are a lot worse. A few years back I was driving a bus along the Inches and my passengers had their feet on the seats to keep out of the water! The "high heid yins" spent all that money on flood defences but still the basements flood and the sewers back up with the tide.
My eldest and my grandson live in the Earn Valley area and shortage of water definitely is not a problem.
Isn't it strange how "Scotland" gets lumped together on the weather forecasts when every few miles it seems to have its own micro-climate?

I take it Chatterbank has gone for good then?

[GMH]

I am scratching my head at the moment why we need a hosepipe ban at this time of year when only a couple of days ago we had the odd bit of snow! Aren't these things usually associated with hot weather?

I can remember back in August 1990 there were hosepipe bans all over the place. Even sprinklers were prohibited. (Don't ask me what 1976 was like as that was well before my time!)

[madein1978]

I think I found a reason I'm glad I live in Scotland! Our water is nice and soft, and thanks to the copious amounts of rain up here, we got plenty!