Allotment water supply
You pay an annual water charge as part of your rental agreement. Water is provided at most sites through standpipes.
We encourage you to construct and use water saving structures to gather rainwater. Most often this will reduce the distance you have to travel on site to collect water for your plot.
As most sites have livestock on them and need to be provided with a fresh supply of water, the water supply must not be turned off unless there is a serious leak.
Connecting to the water supply
Connections that are made into the water supply by tenants are illegal and will result in the instant termination of their tenancy.
You should only use the standpipes and taps supplied or your own stored rainwater.
Hosepipes/sprinklers
Hosepipes can be used on allotment sites but we ask that you these in a considerate manner.
Sprinklers are not permitted.
You can:
- Run a temporary hosepipe from the main tap to your plot
- Use the hosepipe for hand watering
As long as you:
- Make sure your hosepipe does not have any holes or leaks
- Respect that it is a shared water supply
- Don't not leave the hosepipe connected for long periods of time, when you leave your plot or overnight
- Store your hosepipe neatly on your plot when it’s not being used
- Do not cause a hazard or obstruction
- Turn off all taps before leaving the plot
- Do not connect any permanent piping to a tap or mains pipe
If you fail to abide by these rules your at risk your plot tenancy being terminated.
Leaking tap/pipe
If you identify a serious water leak please try and turn the water off at the mains and report the leak to the allotments office as soon as possible so that we can arrange to have the leaks fixed.
Water pressure
There is a city-wide problem with poor water pressure on the allotment sites. In the short term, there is not too much we can do about this but in time we hope to replace and improve the water supplies on sites which should eliminate this problem.
Use in summer time is obviously high. Consider using the water in the evenings rather than at peak times when pressure is at its lowest.