[kenny199]

We had aproblem with the town council,they did not want to turn the water on again until the 1st April,even after the dry weather.My plot went from swamp to dust bowl in three weeks.The council guy said that the water was not going on ,Isaid I was refusing to move out of the town hall until he did."Why cant you use what is in the troughs" he said"Because it has already been used"I said ".Me and my fellow plot holders need the water on now.Seeds are being planted and various plants are being planted ,we need the water on NOW!!!! I am not going any where until you do""After we turn on the water we  check all the water troughs to see if there are any water leaks"He said" "! can do that for you ,no charge!!"The only problem there was, was the trough nearest to my plot with a sticky ballvalve which I duly reported the following day.If your council wants to muck you about over problems stand firm and they will usually cave in.If you stand up for you and your fellow plottersrights they have no other option.I did have another string to my bow .If you make a complaint to your council and they do nothing after 12 weeks you can report the council to the Local Government Ombudsman and they can give the council s backside an official kiicking

[digalotty]

its a shame you have to go that far for such a simple thing it just shows how people can be jobsworths

[kenny199]

Tell me about it .Our tenants society have invited me to be council liason.Could be fun!!!

[Aunt Sally]

One of our most senior plot holders turns the water on or off each spring and autumn.  Much easier way to do things.

[Aidy]

One of our most senior plot holders turns the water on or off each spring and autumn.  Much easier way to do things.

Snap, only it now turns out he is not that senior (yet anyway) as I was shown the stop cock last night, can you believe upto a few years back, bearing in our location we had a chap come to turn it on from Oldham  do it, how mad is that.

[archibtbm]

One of our most senior plot holders turns the water on or off each spring and autumn.  Much easier way to do things.

Same at our site as there are pigeon racers on our site, the council treat us as grown ups

[8doubles]

Stopcock keys are about £6 at the builders merchants.

[mike1987]

ours is off indefinatly due to serious leaks all over the site where people have put there own pipes to there plots

[compostqueen]

If you harvested rainwater you wouldn't be dependent on the council to turn the water on.  It makes sense to be self-sufficient with water as far as you possibly can.  Even though our site has water I don't know any plotholder that isn't harvesting water. My brother is on a site without water but they manage just fine by harvesting. It makes sense with the amount of rainfall we get in this country.

[andy135]

If you harvested rainwater you wouldn't be dependent on the council to turn the water on.  It makes sense to be self-sufficient with water as far as you possibly can.  Even though our site has water I don't know any plotholder that isn't harvesting water. My brother is on a site without water but they manage just fine by harvesting. It makes sense with the amount of rainfall we get in this country.

I do that also.............................. but I still get a water bill every year! 

[compostqueen]

So, what's the answer then?  Not harvesting water?  It's not always about money. It's about saving water, surely.  It's a precious resource that shouldn't be wasted

[andy135]

So, what's the answer then?  Not harvesting water?  It's not always about money. It's about saving water, surely.  It's a precious resource that shouldn't be wasted

So I don't go into my local petrol station to get petrol which means I dont have to pay for it.
On our site,water is metered and the bill is divided between all the plots. Those who save/dont use mains water still have to pay the same water bill as those who have the hose pipe running for two hours per day. That is what bugs me.

[Aidy]

So, what's the answer then?  Not harvesting water?  It's not always about money. It's about saving water, surely.  It's a precious resource that shouldn't be wasted

So I don't go into my local petrol station to get petrol which means I dont have to pay for it.
On our site,water is metered and the bill is divided between all the plots. Those who save/dont use mains water still have to pay the same water bill as those who have the hose pipe running for two hours per day. That is what bugs me.

Andy, I can not agree with you more, we may go self managed next year, although we are metered we dont get charged the full amount but that will change if we do go self managed, last year I kicked off with another plot holder who spent an hour watering her established fruit trees  if that wasnt bad enough, it was forcast rain for the next full week and it wasnt wrong, this really gets my back up and I have made it perfectley clear to our commitee that if we do end up paying the full amount it will kick off big time ( mind you as they have sort of made me responsible for turning water on n off I could nip and turn the lot off if they tried to water them  )

[mikem]

The best way (in my opinion) to stop people using too much water, apart from turning it off, is to ban hoses.  We do and people get fed up carrying watering cans and therefore only use water on what really needs it.

[compostqueen]

It seems selfish and unnecessary to use hoses but you'll always get lazy folks who don't want to save water but will happily waste it

If water was turned off completely then people would have to save water. It would certainly save rows about water rates