'No threat of hosepipe ban'

WATER officials have reassured residents there is no threat of a summer hosepipe ban this year – despite soaring temperatures.

Met Office figures show winter rainfall in Lincolnshire dropped to 89 per cent of its expected level with spring rainfall also declining to just 72 per cent of its long-term average.

These decreases coincided with average temperatures rising by 0.2°c to 3.9°c in winter and by 0.5°c to 14.3°c in spring.

Forecasters also predicted a "barbecue summer" in April and issued the summer's first Heat-Health Watch warning this week, as reported.

But Anglian Water remains confident rising temperatures will not force it to impose the first hosepipe ban since 1991.

The 200-acre Covenham Reservoir, near Louth, is currently 88 per cent full and company spokesman Sara Rowland said a combination of reservoirs and underground water sources would be sufficient to meet demand.

"Water resources in reservoirs are between 85 to 92 per cent full," she said.

"Our water supply comes from big reservoirs including Rutland and Covenham. These are large sites of water which were artificially built."

She said 64 per cent of Anglian Water customers had water meters which made people think twice about wasting the resource.

"We do have various action plans and we do currently monitor water resources and levels," she added.

"The first thing we would do if we felt there was a problem would be up the ante in terms of educating people about saving water.

"There is no threat of a hosepipe ban. It's not anticipated at the moment, but that does not give us carte blanche to use it."

Met Office forecaster Helen Chivers said: "The summer has started fairly warm and dry. Met Office forecasts issued in April said there would be above-average temperatures, which we are seeing at the moment.

"For rainfall it was predicted it would be near average. The summer weather has started off dry, so in the next couple of months we would expect showers will bring nearer to average rainfall."

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust spokesman Rachel Shaw said it was important to remain watchful throughout summer with hot weather having the potential to cause fires on dry grassland.

"One little spark could start a fire if it's very dry grassland," she said. "It can spread very quickly and have very harmful effects on wildlife. It will recover but it's not something you want."