Council under fire as park sprinklers used during water shortage

Areas of Mansfield and Ashfield have seen water shortages in recent days, leaving some residents without water for hours at a time, leading to complaints when a sprinkler system was used to water sports pitches.
By Katrina Taylor
Published 2nd Jun 2020, 20:52 BST
Updated 4th Jun 2020, 12:23 BST
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MP Lee Anderson spoke out about the incident: “After a weekend of water shortages anyone walking through Kingsway Park in Kirkby this morning would have been shocked to see the sports pitches being watered with a high pressure sprinkler courtesy of the Ashfield Independent-led council.

“This sends out totally the wrong message to the residents of Ashfield who have struggled all weekend with little or no water.”

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A post on Ashfield District Council’s official Facebook page stated that residents may have seen ‘incorrect information’ regarding the watering of the sports pitches.

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The high-powered sprinkler system in actionThe high-powered sprinkler system in action
The high-powered sprinkler system in action

They confirmed in a statement: “We want to reassure all residents that the water being used was stored water from an onsite water tank.

“The water tank was filled by the mains supply nearly two weeks ago so is not fit for human consumption, and this would have had no impact on the main supply over the past few days.”

A spokesperson from Severn Trent Water said: “We’d like to apologise to any customers in the Mansfield and Ashfield area, who’ve been seeing some low pressure at certain times of the day.

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“The problems are being caused by the incredibly high levels of demand for water we’re seeing at the moment – with customers across the Midlands using hundreds of millions of litres more than they usually do.

“The issues tend to be short-lived, usually at times of peak demand, and we’ve ramped up production of treated water to record levels in response but we’d love it if everyone could ditch the sprinklers and the pressure washers to make sure there’s enough water for the great hygiene we all need at the moment, and for drinking and flushing toilets.”

There are some handy water saving tips available at https://www.stwater.co.uk/wonderful-on-tap/save-water/you-can-make-a-difference/

They also have their £1 million charity challenge to encourage customers to use less water: https://www.stwater.co.uk/news/news-releases/severn-trent-to-donate-p1m-to-charity-if-customers-cut-daily-dem/

Related topics:Ashfield District CouncilLee AndersonAshfieldMansfieldSevern Trent WaterFacebook