On Mar 15, 11:58*pm, "jbm" wrote:
" *wrote in message

...

The Cambridgeshire Water spokesman on TV said Grafham Water was
currently at 96% capacity. Not bad for mid-March.

Drought? What drought?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----

Grafham Water is topped up by pipeline from the River Great Ouse, which
currently has no extraction restrictions on it.

Anglian Water have stated that Pitsford Water (serves Northampton) is under
60% capacity. It is currently being topped up (limited amount) from the
River Nene, which is restricted by the drought order in the area. This top
up is expected to be stopped by the end of April, when the current
extraction order runs out. It is very unlikely to be renewed because of
environmental considerations. Hose pipe bans for domestic customers in the
Anglian Water region were announced the other day, coming into effect on 5th
April 2012. At the moment, commercial concerns (including sports clubs, golf
courses, car washes and the like) are not affected. It remains to be seen
how long that will last.

Drought? THAT drought!

jim, Northampton

You consider a 60% full reservoir to be a drought?

A public hosepipe ban to be a drought?

Dear me, the idiots really are running the asylum. Public hosepipe use
should be banned all year round anyway, because most are only used to
water grass and flower beds, and compulsory home metering would put
paid to that anyway.

Maybe you should pay a visit to Somalia. Then you might understand
what drought conditions look like.

Drought? WHAT drought?

On Mar 16, 4:15*pm, "
wrote:
On Mar 15, 11:58*pm, "jbm" wrote:





" *wrote in message

....

The Cambridgeshire Water spokesman on TV said Grafham Water was
currently at 96% capacity. Not bad for mid-March.

Drought? What drought?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----

Grafham Water is topped up by pipeline from the River Great Ouse, which
currently has no extraction restrictions on it.

Anglian Water have stated that Pitsford Water (serves Northampton) is under
60% capacity. It is currently being topped up (limited amount) from the
River Nene, which is restricted by the drought order in the area. This top
up is expected to be stopped by the end of April, when the current
extraction order runs out. It is very unlikely to be renewed because of
environmental considerations. Hose pipe bans for domestic customers in the
Anglian Water region were announced the other day, coming into effect on 5th
April 2012. At the moment, commercial concerns (including sports clubs, golf
courses, car washes and the like) are not affected. It remains to be seen
how long that will last.

Drought? THAT drought!

jim, Northampton

You consider a 60% full reservoir to be a drought?

A public hosepipe ban to be a drought?

Dear me, the idiots really are running the asylum. Public hosepipe use
should be banned all year round anyway, because most are only used to
water grass and flower beds, and compulsory home metering would put
paid to that anyway.

Maybe you should pay a visit to Somalia. Then you might understand
what drought conditions look like.

Drought? WHAT drought?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I fully agree that metering should be compulsory as it is
with gas and electricity. Water may well fall out of the sky but it
needs to be collected, stored, sometimes purified and then pumped.
All this involves an infrastructure that needs continuous servicing.
One of these days I will get round to having a meter fitted.
As a light user I would gain considerably but if I lay water out to
dry in the garden and other indulgences I would pay a lot more. Can't
see much wrong with that.
If this is a drought then I'm from Cherrapunji.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

"Tudor Hughes" wrote in message
...



If this is a drought then I'm from Cherrapunji.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let's clarify the situation. I have to admit it did surprise me when Kent
and Sussex were included in the drought order. Most of the UK is under
normal conditions as far as rainfall and water supply is concerned. By area,
a tiny part of the country is however running into serious trouble. The area
most at risk is North Cambridgeshire and East Northamptonshire. Just north
of Cambridge last June, they had had less than 10% of the normal rainfall in
the preceding 6 months. Late summer and early autumn brought that figure up
to about 50% for the whole year. Here in Northamptonshire we had about 60%
of our normal annual rainfall in 2011. This situation has now existed for
over 18 months, and there is no sign that things are going to improve in the
near future.

The Anglian Water region (Beds Herts & Bucks, Northants, Cambs, Lincs,
Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex) is supplied mainly from bore holes, with rivers
being used as necessary. With the extremely low level of ground water,
serious concern is being expressed as to the continued viability of
extracting water from them. Out in the Fens of Cambridgeshire and
Lincolnshire there are an increasing number of road and rail failures due to
subsidence of the under lying ground due to shrinkage. Also, most rivers are
running low in the region, most notably the Nene which rises in West
Northamptonshire, and is used to supply most of the first 5 counties I
listed above. Continued extraction from the rivers will have a massive
impact on the local environment. Just to exemplify this, the Billing Brook
that runs across the bottom of my estate, rising from a spring about half a
mile away, and is a major tributary of the River Nene, would normally be
flowing about 2 feet deep at this time of year. Right now you can walk
across it without getting the top of your shoes wet. And an area just above
the bank of this stream which would normally be inches deep in spring water
is rock hard dry.

Last year, Northampton had 377mm of rain. We can normally expect well over
600mm. So far this year (almost 3 months of the so called wet season) we
have had 81mm, less than 15% of the expected annual total.


=========================
From the Anglian Water web site:

The Anglian Water Region

* The area we cover is 27,500 square kilometres.
* This is 20 per cent of the land area of England and Wales, which makes us
geographically the largest water and sewage company in the country.
* The area covered is the driest in the UK, with only two thirds of the
national average rainfall each year (approximately 600mm).
* Despite this, Anglian Water has not issued a hose pipe ban since 1990.
* This is the fastest growing region in the country, with an estimated
million more homes being built in the next 25 years, and a predicted 34 per
cent growth in households by 2033, which is higher than the predicted
national rate.
* Our region has over 3,300 Km of rivers and the UK’s only wetland national
park – the Norfolk Broads.

==========================

The penultimate statement is the one that's causing the most concern, and
has prompted Anglian Water to take action to start conserving water NOW! And
the third last is now false! No, I am sorry, but a drought most certainly
does exist, although in a small area of the country, and it's not going to
improve in the near future.

jim, Northampton

On Mar 16, 5:30*pm, Tudor Hughes wrote:
On Mar 16, 4:15*pm, "









wrote:
On Mar 15, 11:58*pm, "jbm" wrote:

" *wrote in message

....

The Cambridgeshire Water spokesman on TV said Grafham Water was
currently at 96% capacity. Not bad for mid-March.

Drought? What drought?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----

Grafham Water is topped up by pipeline from the River Great Ouse, which
currently has no extraction restrictions on it.

Anglian Water have stated that Pitsford Water (serves Northampton) is under
60% capacity. It is currently being topped up (limited amount) from the
River Nene, which is restricted by the drought order in the area. This top
up is expected to be stopped by the end of April, when the current
extraction order runs out. It is very unlikely to be renewed because of
environmental considerations. Hose pipe bans for domestic customers in the
Anglian Water region were announced the other day, coming into effect on 5th
April 2012. At the moment, commercial concerns (including sports clubs, golf
courses, car washes and the like) are not affected. It remains to be seen
how long that will last.

Drought? THAT drought!

jim, Northampton

You consider a 60% full reservoir to be a drought?

A public hosepipe ban to be a drought?

Dear me, the idiots really are running the asylum. Public hosepipe use
should be banned all year round anyway, because most are only used to
water grass and flower beds, and compulsory home metering would put
paid to that anyway.

Maybe you should pay a visit to Somalia. Then you might understand
what drought conditions look like.

Drought? WHAT drought?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

* * * * *I fully agree that metering should be compulsory as it is
with gas and electricity. *Water may well fall out of the sky but it
needs to be collected, stored, sometimes purified and then pumped.
All this involves an infrastructure that needs continuous servicing.
* * * * *One of these days I will get round to having a meter fitted.
As a light user I would gain considerably but if I lay water out to
dry in the garden and other indulgences I would pay a lot more. *Can't
see much wrong with that.
* * * * *If this is a drought then I'm from Cherrapunji.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

You certainly would benefit from a meter if you are a light user.

My water + sewerage bill last year would have been £650, but the shock
of that finally tipped me over the edge and I filled in the form for
meter installation.

The yearly bill was cancelled and the meter fitted within 4 weeks, and
from that point I was billed in arrears over 6 monthly periods.

I am keeping a careful eye on my meter readings, because leaks within
my property boundary can become very expensive, and I predict that my
yearly bill will be no more than £275 - a saving of £375 in 12 months.

As for problems of shrinkage in the Fens causing road and rail
foundations to collapse, that is a potential problem which has been
brewing for decades. One only has to drive along fen roads in some
areas to see how modern farming methods have resulted in the field
levels falling to 15 or 20 feet below road and rail heights.

No one does anything about it until the obvious happens, and the
farming lobby is so powerful that maximise revenues is all they will
ever entertain as a policy.

Most people have seen that pole at Woodwalton which was once level
with the top of the soil and is now well above human height, but this
is the British way - do nothing for years and collect the profits,
then bleat like crazy when all the abuse of previous decades begins to
catch up.

Sorry, I am ranting now.

But when governments plan vast new housing developments with en-suite
bathrooms in every house, they seem only interested in placating large
house construction company lobbyists, not worrying about how the
demand for extra water is going to be satisfied. There are rivers in
Wiltshire that have become dry over their upper reaches simply because
of the rapid expansion of Swindon, but no one seemed to give that any
thought at the planning stage, or if they did they were certainly not
going to spend any money on it.

Presumably the same could be said for Peterborough, Northampton and
Milton Keynes in the past.

I will stop now, and spare you all any more of this.

On Mar 18, 11:30*am, "
wrote:
On Mar 16, 5:30*pm, Tudor Hughes wrote:









On Mar 16, 4:15*pm, "

wrote:
On Mar 15, 11:58*pm, "jbm" wrote:

" *wrote in message

...

The Cambridgeshire Water spokesman on TV said Grafham Water was
currently at 96% capacity. Not bad for mid-March.

Drought? What drought?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----

Grafham Water is topped up by pipeline from the River Great Ouse, which
currently has no extraction restrictions on it.

Anglian Water have stated that Pitsford Water (serves Northampton) is under
60% capacity. It is currently being topped up (limited amount) from the
River Nene, which is restricted by the drought order in the area. This top
up is expected to be stopped by the end of April, when the current
extraction order runs out. It is very unlikely to be renewed because of
environmental considerations. Hose pipe bans for domestic customers in the
Anglian Water region were announced the other day, coming into effect on 5th
April 2012. At the moment, commercial concerns (including sports clubs, golf
courses, car washes and the like) are not affected. It remains to be seen
how long that will last.

Drought? THAT drought!

jim, Northampton

You consider a 60% full reservoir to be a drought?

A public hosepipe ban to be a drought?

Dear me, the idiots really are running the asylum. Public hosepipe use
should be banned all year round anyway, because most are only used to
water grass and flower beds, and compulsory home metering would put
paid to that anyway.

Maybe you should pay a visit to Somalia. Then you might understand
what drought conditions look like.

Drought? WHAT drought?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

* * * * *I fully agree that metering should be compulsory as it is
with gas and electricity. *Water may well fall out of the sky but it
needs to be collected, stored, sometimes purified and then pumped.
All this involves an infrastructure that needs continuous servicing.
* * * * *One of these days I will get round to having a meter fitted.
As a light user I would gain considerably but if I lay water out to
dry in the garden and other indulgences I would pay a lot more. *Can't
see much wrong with that.
* * * * *If this is a drought then I'm from Cherrapunji.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

You certainly would benefit from a meter if you are a light user.

My water + sewerage bill last year would have been £650, but the shock
of that finally tipped me over the edge and I filled in the form for
meter installation.

The yearly bill was cancelled and the meter fitted within 4 weeks, and
from that point I was billed in arrears over 6 monthly periods.

I am keeping a careful eye on my meter readings, because leaks within
my property boundary can become very expensive, and I predict that my
yearly bill will be no more than £275 - a saving of £375 in 12 months..

As for problems of shrinkage in the Fens causing road and rail
foundations to collapse, that is a potential problem which has been
brewing for decades. One only has to drive along fen roads in some
areas to see how modern farming methods have resulted in the field
levels falling to 15 or 20 feet below road and rail heights.

No one does anything about it until the obvious happens, and the
farming lobby is so powerful that maximise revenues is all they will
ever entertain as a policy.

Most people have seen that pole at Woodwalton which was once level
with the top of the soil and is now well above human height, but this
is the British way - do nothing for years and collect the profits,
then bleat like crazy when all the abuse of previous decades begins to
catch up.

Sorry, I am ranting now.

But when governments plan vast new housing developments with en-suite
bathrooms in every house, they seem only interested in placating large
house construction company lobbyists, not worrying about how the
demand for extra water is going to be satisfied. There are rivers in
Wiltshire that have become dry over their upper reaches simply because
of the rapid expansion of Swindon, but no one seemed to give that any
thought at the planning stage, or if they did they were certainly not
going to spend any money on it.

Presumably the same could be said for Peterborough, Northampton and
Milton Keynes in the past.

I will stop now, and spare you all any more of this.



For those who are interested in switching to metered water, I have
just had my March bill and have used 29 cubic metres of water in the
past 6 months.

I pay 116p per cubic metre for the water plus £17 standing charge, and
168p per m3 for it to be returned to the sewers (less 5% of
consumption which is deemed to not be returned) and another standing
charge for that of £21.

All in all my 6 months charge comes to just under £118, compared to at
least £325 (2011 figure, so is likely to be more this year) for 6
months based on rateable value - unmetered.

Anything that saves me £207 over 6 months is worth having.

On Monday, March 5, 2012 9:54:11 PM UTC, wrote:
Well you can all see for yourselves that high pressure is set to dominate
over England and Wales and a lot of Scotland and Northern Ireland after
midweek.

The "hole" remains...

http://expert-images.weatheronline.c...33006_2206.gif

Richard

On Mar 22, 11:27*am, "
wrote:
On Mar 18, 11:30*am, "





wrote:
On Mar 16, 5:30*pm, Tudor Hughes wrote:

On Mar 16, 4:15*pm, "

wrote:
On Mar 15, 11:58*pm, "jbm" wrote:

" *wrote in message

...

The Cambridgeshire Water spokesman on TV said Grafham Water was
currently at 96% capacity. Not bad for mid-March.

Drought? What drought?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----

Grafham Water is topped up by pipeline from the River Great Ouse, which
currently has no extraction restrictions on it.

Anglian Water have stated that Pitsford Water (serves Northampton) is under
60% capacity. It is currently being topped up (limited amount) from the
River Nene, which is restricted by the drought order in the area. This top
up is expected to be stopped by the end of April, when the current
extraction order runs out. It is very unlikely to be renewed because of
environmental considerations. Hose pipe bans for domestic customers in the
Anglian Water region were announced the other day, coming into effect on 5th
April 2012. At the moment, commercial concerns (including sports clubs, golf
courses, car washes and the like) are not affected. It remains to be seen
how long that will last.

Drought? THAT drought!

jim, Northampton

You consider a 60% full reservoir to be a drought?

A public hosepipe ban to be a drought?

Dear me, the idiots really are running the asylum. Public hosepipe use
should be banned all year round anyway, because most are only used to
water grass and flower beds, and compulsory home metering would put
paid to that anyway.

Maybe you should pay a visit to Somalia. Then you might understand
what drought conditions look like.

Drought? WHAT drought?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

* * * * *I fully agree that metering should be compulsory as it is
with gas and electricity. *Water may well fall out of the sky but it
needs to be collected, stored, sometimes purified and then pumped.
All this involves an infrastructure that needs continuous servicing.
* * * * *One of these days I will get round to having a meter fitted.
As a light user I would gain considerably but if I lay water out to
dry in the garden and other indulgences I would pay a lot more. *Can't
see much wrong with that.
* * * * *If this is a drought then I'm from Cherrapunji.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

You certainly would benefit from a meter if you are a light user.

My water + sewerage bill last year would have been £650, but the shock
of that finally tipped me over the edge and I filled in the form for
meter installation.

The yearly bill was cancelled and the meter fitted within 4 weeks, and
from that point I was billed in arrears over 6 monthly periods.

I am keeping a careful eye on my meter readings, because leaks within
my property boundary can become very expensive, and I predict that my
yearly bill will be no more than £275 - a saving of £375 in 12 months.

As for problems of shrinkage in the Fens causing road and rail
foundations to collapse, that is a potential problem which has been
brewing for decades. One only has to drive along fen roads in some
areas to see how modern farming methods have resulted in the field
levels falling to 15 or 20 feet below road and rail heights.

No one does anything about it until the obvious happens, and the
farming lobby is so powerful that maximise revenues is all they will
ever entertain as a policy.

Most people have seen that pole at Woodwalton which was once level
with the top of the soil and is now well above human height, but this
is the British way - do nothing for years and collect the profits,
then bleat like crazy when all the abuse of previous decades begins to
catch up.

Sorry, I am ranting now.

But when governments plan vast new housing developments with en-suite
bathrooms in every house, they seem only interested in placating large
house construction company lobbyists, not worrying about how the
demand for extra water is going to be satisfied. There are rivers in
Wiltshire that have become dry over their upper reaches simply because
of the rapid expansion of Swindon, but no one seemed to give that any
thought at the planning stage, or if they did they were certainly not
going to spend any money on it.

Presumably the same could be said for Peterborough, Northampton and
Milton Keynes in the past.

I will stop now, and spare you all any more of this.

For those who are interested in switching to metered water, I have
just had my March bill and have used 29 cubic metres of water in the
past 6 months.

I pay 116p per cubic metre for the water plus £17 standing charge, and
168p per m3 for it to be returned to the sewers (less 5% of
consumption which is deemed to not be returned) and another standing
charge for that of £21.

All in all my 6 months charge comes to just under £118, compared to at
least £325 (2011 figure, so is likely to be more this year) for 6
months based on rateable value - unmetered.

Anything that saves me £207 over 6 months is worth having.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks for that info - it makes me even more determined to
install a meter, and so should everyone. Presumably there is a one-
off charge for the installation of a meter. My savings will be less
than yours but anything is worth having especially since my pension
will be worth slightly less, thanks to That Lot. *******s!

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

In article
,
Tudor Hughes writes:
Presumably there is a one-
off charge for the installation of a meter.

My memory is so poor nowadays that I can't be sure, but I don't think
that there was any charge when Thames Water installed my own meter about
six months ago.
--
John Hall
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw

On Mar 5, 9:54*pm, "Eskimo Will" wrote:
Well you can all see for yourselves that high pressure is set to dominate
over England and Wales and a lot of Scotland and Northern Ireland after
midweek. The effect of recent rains will diminish rapidly as evaporation
increases and soils dry rapidly. It is really quite shocking how dry my
local area has become. OK, the garden soil is nice and moist still and
rivers are flowing well, but the upland bogs above 500 metres are just
squelchy now rather than proper knee-deep boggy as they should be. Any dry
spell now and river flows will decrease markedly.

http://www.lyneside.demon.co.uk/Hayt...antage_Pro.htm
Will Hand (Haytor, Devon, 1017 feet asl)
---------------------------------------------

Will, the run up to April looks like a very dry spell of weather, but
whats the feeling beyond this current blocking spell, is there a break
on the way back to April showers or the like? I really wish I had a
crystal ball because the outcome determines what lawn treatments I
should or should not be doing?

I seem to be jixed with the weather since I started lawn care, surely
not two dry springs in a row...

Keith (Southend)
http://www.southendweather.net
"Weather Home & Abroad"

John Hall wrote:

In article
,
Tudor Hughes writes:
Presumably there is a one-
off charge for the installation of a meter.

My memory is so poor nowadays that I can't be sure, but I don't think
that there was any charge when Thames Water installed my own meter about
six months ago.

There's no charge here in the South West Water Authority area for meter
installation.
But we're still the highest rated water area in the whole country because
we've had to pay to clean the beaches that holidaymakers use :-)
--
MCC