Is there any point in a 2 bucket wash if you do a long pre-clean?

flowrider

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I heard on the news yesterday that they're wanting to be able to force people onto meters due to the leaks, they've conveniently missed the point that most of the leaks are due to the water boards own issues and nothing to do with the end consumer.

They want more meters as it's a great revenue stream for them (see what I did there...). It boils my blood that they're forcing meters on a waste water ticket when it's all about revenue, if they wanted to save water they'd look at investing in their infrastructure and repairing that. There's a leak down the hill from me that's been there for over 6 months - they know about it, it's just in the difficult / expensive category so not a priority.
I'm in the fortunate position that my metered water bill is cheaper than the local water rates.
 

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I'm in the fortunate position that my metered water bill is cheaper than the local water rates.
They said that would be the case for most people, depends if you want to get washed or not is what they didn't say.

Just did a check and with the latest rise the average water bill is £393 pa mine is £804 pa... so I'm one of the 50% above average...
 

L John

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Sub, so the argument is the water board are losing too much water, so we can waste water too and that makes it fair because they're wasting water by not fixing leaks, getting bonuses that are too high etc?

I wouldn't be surprised if Sub leaves the bath running every night with the plug out, just to feel a win.
If only we were all like Sub, surely that would be better for all of us.
Washing the car with 300 gallons during a hose ban, WIN!
 

AnthonyUK

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I think everyone is missing the point on this thread. Sub is a submariner. He sees water differently.

I have the upmost respect for anyone that can operate in a tin can underwater for long periods of time but the ones I have met have 'certain personality traits' so to speak.
 
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Submariner1

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Demand the police investigate??
Any Director will tell you the Annual Return has a specific warning underneath where you sign, stating its a criminal offence to declare false information.
By deliberately understating the figure to maintain the infrastructure, without providing a note to the accounts , you are illegally manipulating the stated profit. And hey guess what ... that is a crime.
Pretty basic crap!

And it worked, just as it did when they notified me last month that I needed a survey as I had to have a water meter. Guy just lied his head off, and eventually admitted , no I didnt have to have one!

As for the hose pipe ban, I was away for 3 weeks in Barbados .... and no I didnt spend my time looking at UK news. No email warning me they had imposed a ban, no letter warning me of the ban.
So I was dammed, if I was going to pay that.

No wonder these water boards rip us off, if Customers havent the guts to stand up to them.
 

Binnedit

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Subs, transactions that are not completed or committed to are not reportable within Financial Statements, and the declaration on the Confirmation Statement (was Annual Return), only applies to that document.

Having said that, I agree with your sentiment regarding the Water Companies. Mine overcharged me for 13 years, amounting to c £2.5k. When they wrote to me to advise of the overcharge, and subsequent refund. No compensation or compound interest was forthcoming, even when I took them to the Ombudsman. They've basically got you over a barrel.
 

keefysher

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Surface Water Drainage is the biggest challenge to the water companies. Unfortunately public apathy is something the WCs rely upon.

Check your bills to see where they charge for SWD where you have soakaways and no run off to the WC drains. Highway drains are covered in the Council Tax that you pay for. Very few SWD drainage schemes have been built since the war ;)

This part of the country has natural aquifers, in the chalk where the water goes to.

Billions owed to joe public, but you can only claim for 12 years. Per household it's only tens of pounds per year, but over decades and number of households it adds up, phenomenal amount of money owed :(:(
 

AnthonyUK

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It's all well and good diverting the topic to the water companies but I for one would like to hear some explanation regarding the original post :D
 

rorywquin

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No, I refused the meter, and won on the grounds the water boards loose 3.1 Billion litres per day due to infrastructure leaks.

When I first lived in the UK (2001) we asked for a meter - our metered water bill was about 1/3 of what we had been paying.

Having lived through years and years of drought in South Africa (with heavy penalties for over usage) we learned not to be wasteful with water. It is a habit that we still have.
 
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Submariner1

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When I first lived in the UK (2001) we asked for a meter - our metered water bill was about 1/3 of what we had been paying.

Having lived through years and years of drought in South Africa (with heavy penalties for over usage) we learned not to be wasteful with water. It is a habit that we still have.

We built a holiday home in the Carribean and the design was all about water preservation, despite an almost daily quick but heavy shower; water outages were a weekly occurrance sometimes only running for a few hours a day.
Simples ... a huge tank in the roof area ... topped up by a pumped collection/filter system. So water usage dropped to 25%.
And a seperate collection system to an underground tank to collect all bath and handbasin waste water to water the lawn and plants ( surpringly the soapy water didnt kill the plants ).
As expected in the dry season we still got snide comments about a green lawn from idiots who let all their rainwater run straight inti the ground and defo didnt collect the bath water LOL.

So yes I see your point .... but in areas that have a water shortage ... er the UK is not one of those.

As for lower meter bills ... that was the con, go in cheaper at first then hike the prices once the customer is nailed in.
The point is if they didnt have leaks, we could have unrestricted water at far lower prices than we currently do.
 

rorywquin

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As for lower meter bills ... that was the con, go in cheaper at first then hike the prices once the customer is nailed in.
The point is if they didnt have leaks, we could have unrestricted water at far lower prices than we currently do.

Our water bills were always lower than our friends on un-metered (early 2000s).

Back in SA, all the waste water went into the garden - bricks in the cistern, shared baths etc etc. The problem there was that the people who had free water just wasted it. If we went over our quota, the rate was 3x for all water used (not just the excess).
 

Craiglxviii

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I have the upmost respect for anyone that can operate in a tin can underwater for long periods of time but the ones I have met have 'certain personality traits' so to speak.
Do you mean, spending 90 days locked in a long hard tube packed full of seamen?
 

Craiglxviii

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Surface Water Drainage is the biggest challenge to the water companies. Unfortunately public apathy is something the WCs rely upon.

Check your bills to see where they charge for SWD where you have soakaways and no run off to the WC drains. Highway drains are covered in the Council Tax that you pay for. Very few SWD drainage schemes have been built since the war ;)

This part of the country has natural aquifers, in the chalk where the water goes to.

Billions owed to joe public, but you can only claim for 12 years. Per household it's only tens of pounds per year, but over decades and number of households it adds up, phenomenal amount of money owed :(:(

So. Many years back I was involved in a research project called the National Water Interconnection Grid. It was a proposal by, of all things, the gas distribution people to copy their solution across to water. You see, gas unloaded at the Isle of Grain can be burnt in Glasgow with no other intervention other than the valves being directed the right way; there is a national gas grid just like there is an electricity grid. Only, with gas there is a physical medium as opposed to some bits of electric string. So, the theory went, we could start off uphill somewhere in Scotland and have water flowing downhill to the South; if it was routed correctly we would only need pumps on the uphill leg. The project ran for 3 years, I was involved for the final 14 months of it which were draft costing and preliminary scoping. It was sound, it would have allowed for significant movement of water from the plentiful rainfall (and more importantly, FAR less knackered infrastructure than else) The Grim North downwards.

Now, part of that study involved looking at water wastage. The figures were almost Lovecraftian. So much water was being lost from reservoir to tap, in some places well into the teens of double digits % wise. In most areas the losses were at street level but in more than a few cases, the losses were at the mains side- the 12-18" lines that run to street side, and even upstream of them. More importantly one could track where losses were being reported and plot them over time, and it became instantly apparent that only the leaks visible to the public were being fixed. The rest were just being left. Thames Water ran a whole initiative over installing smart meters along the M4 Corridor specifically due to these wastageissues, while at the same time refusing to renew their manhole covers until they actually posed a hazard to traffic e.g. had either dropped or broken.

Needless to say, the project quietly died a death, along with the study into the rejuvenation of the National canal network, another project which had real legs to it.

That was when I discovered that political lobbying is a far more powerful and persuasive tool in achieving results, than reality.
 

JBell

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A third bucket???????

This is the one you put on your head and walk around shouting "Delete" while wasting 25 mins continually rinsing the car off
 

John Laidlaw

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I do have a third bucket for my wheels admittedly :D
 
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