Sarah in Uxbridge, West London was watering her garden in the last week of July, when her neighbour popped her head over the garden fence and asked to see proof that she was exempt from the hosepipe ban. “I was using my hose,” she says, “but I genuinely hadn’t realised it had come into force in our area, as this was the first or second day.
“I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know – I’m not sure how I missed it – and I’ve stopped using it since. I know it’s the right thing to do. But I was also quite shocked that she asked me for proof, and then was really stern with me. She could have just let me know, in a normal way? We’ve not lived here long and I sensed she was a busy body – now I know for sure. She’ll probably turn the whole road against me!”
Hosepipe bans have long caused tongues to wag, and curtains to twitch, as they stoke division across Britain. Yet this year, with widespread public anger at the behaviour of water companies, neighbourly tension in some areas has reached boiling point.
In a leafy village in East Anglia, Jaz, 38, says that his neighbour announced to the road WhatsApp group that if she saw anyone flouting the ban, she’d be “straight onto the police”. Jaz has a beautiful garden which is “almost as important to my wife as our kids are”, he jokes, but he won’t be flouting the ban, so is safe from his neighbour’s wrath.
