Hosepipe ban: Sheffield politicians criticise Yorkshire Water – ‘they have got to take some responsibility’

The company is bringing in a ban on August 26, saying that March, April, May, June and July were dry months, with 34% less rain than the long-term average. Other areas have declared a drought.

The ban includes using a hosepipe to wash your car, water your garden, fill a paddling pool or clean outside.

Sheffield City Council’s LibDem leader Coun Shaffaq Mohammed said: “It’s obvious with the weather at the moment and the lack of rainfall – you can see it for yourself if you go up to the reservoirs in the Peak District.

“There’s a need to save water, so part of that will be hosepipe bans. I have to say the water companies have got to take some responsibility – they’re losing 2.4 billion litres a day.

“The water company bosses are very happy with bonuses ranging around £2.7 million – I support the call to freeze those bonuses until they fix this problem.

“In the meantime, we consumers need to do our bit, we need to save water regardless.”

He urged people to follow the hosepipe ban and said he was doing his bit to save water at home.

“We need to shine a spotlight on the water companies – at the moment there is a lot of scrutiny of energy companies but the water companies have to be brought to account.”

Coun Mohammed said water companies need to plan better: “The problems of 1976 started in 1975. There was a hot summer and not a very wet autumn or winter.

“We don’t want to be in the position where we have to go to the end of the street to get water. ”

‘They don’t want to invest anything back’

Leading Sheffield Labour councillor Mazher Iqbal demanded more investment from the water companies.

He said: “The challenge we’ve got is, like many of these large companies, they don’t want to invest anything back.

“They don’t spend on infrastructure and that’s the key problem. Yes, the Government needs to do more.

“Yorkshire Water has over five million customers paying £500 each – they’re not a company that is struggling – they can’t say sorry we haven’t got the money.

“Yes, we’re seeing record temperatures this year. We’ve had record temperatures over a period of time – they need to plan ahead as this is what the weather is.”

He also urged people to save water and said he’d moved plants out of the sun in his garden and taken other measures.

He added: “Yorkshire Water is not a Mickey Mouse outfit, it’s a large business network – it’s their responsibility, surely?

“I’ve not seen anything about maintenance and improving infrastructure.”

Coun Iqbal, who represents Darnall, said: “The problem of rats in areas like mine, it’s not because people throw food around. That’s down to the pipework.

“Because they’re not investing in infrastructure, it’s caused other problems. That’s unfair on us who pay our bills. We’ve moved on to water meters which is expensive with the cost-of-living crisis.

“I’m not blaming them for the hot weather but they do need to take responsibility for what they do. They’re just letting Sheffield customers down.”

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