'We have a hosepipe ban but water leaking down our streets'

Millions of people are facing restrictions on water use as the UK's first regional hosepipe ban of 2025 comes into force. Despite Yorkshire Water saying it has cut leakage by 15% in recent years, bill payers say they are frustrated at the number of leaks which appear to go unchecked.

"It's literally going out of that hole and straight into a drain," says Neela Patel.

The business owner said water has been pouring along Greasbrough Road, in Rotherham, for two weeks.

"They've put a few cones up but I've not seen much work done so we're not sure what's going on.

"We just want it resolved, they've put a hosepipe ban on and it's just flowing out of there."

Fellow shop owner John Smallwood says everyone in the area had reported it, calling it "ridiculous" to impose restrictions on customers while water was being wasted in this way.

"They came and stopped the traffic, caused a lot of havoc and not been back," he explains

"It's just a tonne of water going down the drain."

The ban which came into force earlier on Friday affects householders across much of Yorkshire, parts of North Lincolnshire and parts of Derbyshire.

It prohibits the use of a hosepipe for activities such as watering the garden, washing the car or filling a paddling pool. Anyone flouting the restriction could be fined up to £1,000.

The Environment Agency declared a drought in Yorkshire a month ago, citing the driest spring for more than a century.

Yorkshire Water says it has been left with reservoir water levels at about 50% - compared to expectations they would be about 80% full.

Dean Majors, a massage therapist from Skipton, North Yorkshire, says he reported a leak outside his home on Canal Street at the end of June.

Water had been pooling outside his house, with some passing down a drain and through an overflow pipe into the nearby canal.

"It just got worse and worse and every time any traffic came through, water just splashed down the overflow."

Mr Majors also reported a leak outside his business, The Backcave, last May, with the residual water so deep that he floated rubber ducks on it.

He says the leak outside his home was fixed on Thursday, joking that the company had remembered his duck stunt.

Yorkshire Water loses about 21% of all water to leakage - above the average of 19% around the country.

The loss in Yorkshire equates to about 260 million litres every day.

Carol Lilleker, from Laughton-en-le-Morthen, near Dinnington in South Yorkshire, has had water leaking from beneath a manhole cover in the village since 27 June.

She says despite several calls to Yorkshire Water it has not been repaired and "thousands of gallons of water" must have been lost.

"We reported it. Our neighbours across the road reported it. The school's reported it. Several other people have reported it," she adds.

"We're going to have a hosepipe ban on Friday, which is understandable - we can understand the reasons why that's going to happen - but it's a bit much when thousands and thousands of gallons of water are flowing past our houses and nobody seems to be doing anything."

In West Yorkshire, Kevin Baker noticed a significant leak on Green Hill Road, in Armley, Leeds, six weeks ago.

"They came along, put traffic lights on, dug a hole, scratched their heads and went away and it's been pouring out ever since."

He says having passed it on Thursday he noticed a digger was there and hoped that meant it was finally being dealt with.

Having had a leak at his home that Yorkshire Water charged him for, he explains it was incredibly frustrating.

"It just felt like no action was taken on top of the frustration that they can charge me an exorbitant amount of money for what was a very small leak on my system."

Yorkshire Water says it understands how "frustrating leaks are" for its customers.

"Leakage is the lowest it has ever been in Yorkshire, and it's something that we work on all year round," a spokesperson says.

"We reduced leakage by 15% over the last five years, and will be spending £38m over the next five years to continue bringing the number of leaks down."

It said it had dedicated more resources to reducing leaks and had recruited 100 extra leakage inspectors to "help us find and fix leaks faster".

It says its team fix on average 334 leaks every week and prioritise those losing the most water.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here.