Hosepipes and helicopters

[liam88]

WE now have a helicopter partolling our sky's every night to enforce...........wait for it.....................the hoespipe ban!!! Pretty funny stuff! Does this go on anywhere else?

[Anto McC]

We have Helicpoters everynight to enforce the Drugs,guns and various other illegal activity bans if thats what your on about :D Seriously though that's stupid

[liam88]

We have Helicpoters everynight to enforce the Drugs,guns and various other illegal activity bans if thats what your on about :D Seriously though that's stupid

Aye-I understand the helicopters where it's there are fights/flashpoints etc....rough estate in Guildford has one for joy riders, Belfast has 'em for riots...the rest of Guildford we get one for hoespipes :D

[Pauro 76]

Aye-I understand the helicopters where it's there are fights/flashpoints etc....rough estate in Guildford has one for joy riders, Belfast has 'em for riots...the rest of Guildford we get one for hoespipes :D

that is hilarious! god who uses a hosepipe at nights anyway? And what happens if they spot someone using a hosepipe. Do they drop down and land in someone's back garden or what? :D

[dcfcsteve]

It does sound daft alright, but without trying to sound like a 'square' it is a serious issue.

There is a genuine issue with water supply in the South-east of England. Every decade the weather appears to be getting warmer, the rainflow lower, and the population undoubtedly greater. There is therefore increasing demands upon the water table. Now - a large chunk of the responsibility for straining water supplies must rest with the water companies themselves, who have been incredibly slow at updating the supply infrastructure with its numerous leaks. However - in the short term, the best way to ensure the water doesn't run out in a very hot Summer is to stop people using so much of it. The easiest significant cut in water usage is gardens, car washing etc - the other options being to wash yourself/your dishes/your clothes/your family less, drink less tea, cook less etc, none of which are viable options.

The problem with a hose-pipe ban is that there'll always be a significant amount of people who want to ignore it - people just don't take it seriously. They wouldn't ignore it during the day, as their nosey neighbours would probably grass them up. Therefore, having your sprinklers so that they come on at night is the sneaky way of getting round the ban.

Those enforcing the hosepipe ban know that significant numbers of people would use the cover of darkness to break the ban. Therefore, unless those people believe they'll get caught, they'll make the ban worthless. Chances are that they actually fly very few such helicopter missions in reality - all they need is the fear of being caught to stop most likely offenders. You also have the added bonus of any helicopter sound (police, air ambulance, private use etc) being credited to the water police, which reinforces the deterrent aspect.

I can't see any viable or cost effective alternative method to ensure a hose pipe ban isn't flouted significantly under the cover of darkness. The only other alternative is to leave them be and risk large parts of the South of England literally running out of water in a warm Summer. In that context, their actions are far from comical.

Sorry to stick a serious twist on it all.... :D

[Don Vito]

We have somethin simlar over here, they use a helicoptor to see if people are burning anything outside such as rubbish. We all got letters telling us not to burn our paper rubbish anymore and we all wondering how the feck they were going to patrol it. Well a few weeks after it came in, a friend of me auld lads was burning some rubbish in his back garden when he saw a helicoptor landing in the field next to his house and this fella hopped over the wall. Me auld lads friend says "who the f*ck do you think you are? this is private property". The chopper man just handed him a fine for a couple of hundred euro and flew off!

Just think though, what a job. Imagine tellin the ladies that you fly all over the country in a helicoptor putting out fires!

[paul_oshea]

ya i remember hearing something about that as well, as the auld fella was colelcting rubbish and i was saying sure why dont ye just burn it where you used to, but he said that fellas got caught from the chopper.

quality job alright. :cool: