Residents 'face hose pipe ban until winter' as Yorkshire Water welcomes first heavy rain for months

The good news is that continued rainfall across much of Yorkshire over the last week has led to a slight increase in groundwater and reservoir levels for the first time in eight months.

Yorkshire’s reservoirs stocks are now 30.8% – a 0.2% increase for the seven days to Monday.

Heavy rainfall on Monday afternoon and into Tuesday morning has also still to make its way through the catchment to the reservoirs.

The bad news is that Yorkshire Water has said that, while the change is weather conditions is positive, hosepipe restrictions will remain in place and will continue until reservoirs have recovered over the autumn and, even, into winter.

Dave Kaye, Yorkshire Water’s director of water services, said: “With the start of autumn, we’ve seen a lot more rain.

"It’s incredibly welcome news and it has already had a positive impact on our reservoirs and river levels.

"Further heavy rain earlier this week will still be making its way through the catchments, which will also contribute to improvements in reservoir and groundwater levels over the coming days.

“While this is positive, we still have a long way to go to get our reservoir levels back to where they need to be.

"Reservoirs are still the lowest they have ever been for this time of year, and we need this wet weather to continue throughout the autumn and winter.

The recent rain follows a historically dry first half of the year, drought declaration for Yorkshire by the Environment Agency in June, and the county’s hottest summer on record.

In the meantime, Yorkshire Water was recently granted a number of drought orders and permits to enable it to abstract more water from the Ouse and the Wharfe and to reduce the flows out of reservoirs in the south and north-west of the region.

The utility giant also says it is working hard to reduce water leakages, too, with faster repairs, which helps, too.