A HOSEPIPE ban will come into force in Craven and across Yorkshire from Friday, August 26.

Yorkshire Water, which announced the ban earlier today, says it has taken the step following the lowest rainfall in parts of the county since records began more than 130 years ago.

Neil Dewis, the company's director of water, said: “The hot, dry, weather means that Yorkshire’s rivers are running low and our reservoirs are around 20 per cent lower than we would expect for this time of year. We’ve been doing everything we can to avoid putting in restrictions but unfortunately, they’re now necessary as part of our drought planning.

“We’re grateful to our customers, who have been saving water where they can this summer. It is really important that we all continue to do so, to help protect our water resources and the environment.

“We’ve been working hard in the background to balance our water stocks through our region-wide grid system and reduce water lost from leaky pipes - this year we have extra people in our field teams and have adopted a seven-day working pattern so that we can find and fix leaks quicker.

“We’ve been monitoring reservoir levels, weather forecasts and other environmental indicators closely to determine whether we might need to put further measures in place.

“As we’ve now reached that trigger point, we need to make sure that we have enough supply for the essential needs of people across the region this year and next, as well as making sure we’re able to protect our local environment by limiting the amount of water we have to draw from the rivers. Our decision to introduce a hosepipe ban is based on the risk that water stocks continue to fall in the coming weeks and the need to be cautious about clean water supplies and long term river health."

He added: “Having a hosepipe ban in place also allows us to apply for drought permits from the Environment Agency, which means we can abstract more water from our rivers and reduce flows out of our reservoirs so that we can continue to provide the water our customers rely on us for.

“The ban will come into effect on August 26 and we’ll keep everyone updated on when it will end.”

People can still undertake activities, such as cleaning a car or watering the lawn, as long as they use buckets or watering cans instead of a hosepipe. They can also use water not sourced from a tap, such as from a water butt, or private borehole.

Businesses will be allowed to use a hosepipe if it is directly related to a commercial purpose.

Blue badge holders, those on Yorkshire Water’s Priority Services register or WaterSure tariff for medical reasons, are also excluded from the ban.

For more information on what is included in the ban, go to: www.yorkshirewater.com/hosepipes