BEXHILL HOSE PIPE BAN

The wet week has come too little and too late for the town's supplier South East Water to hold off any longer from imposing similar restrictions to those applied elsewhere in the region by Southern Water and other companies.

The South East Water ban covers customers in East and West Sussex and West Kent and will affect around 268,000 households.

The company says the ban has been introduced to help preserve the region's water resources after one of the driest winters since records began.

There has also been continued high demand for water during the recent hot weather, despite the company's pleas for customers to use water wisely during the current water shortages.

The hosepipe ban prohibits the use of hosepipes for watering private gardens and washing private vehicles. It also prohibits the use of garden sprinklers, which use as much water in an hour as a family of six does in one day.