The hosepipe ban boss who will never run dry

By
Fiona Mcwhirter

18:23 EST, 7 April 2012

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19:53 EST, 7 April 2012

Water water everywhere: Southern Water chairman Colin Hood

Water water everywhere: Southern Water chairman Colin Hood

As hundreds of thousands of his customers struggle to cope with the hosepipe ban, Southern Water chairman Colin Hood can draw unlimited water from a stream that flows past his Scottish mansion.

The ban, which was introduced across swathes of the South of England last week, is now set to last for the whole summer, and may carry on into next year unless there are several weeks of heavy rain.

Anyone caught using a hosepipe faces a fine of up to £1,000.

But 500 miles to the north of the drought-hit English counties, Mr Hood, 56, and his wife Alison, are unaffected by such restrictions at their £1 million residence, Kinvaid House in Perthshire.

The property sits next to a tributary of the River Tay and the Hoods have ancient rights under common law to extract as much water for domestic purposes as they like.

These purposes include car washing and garden irrigation – activities prohibited since last week in the one million households in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight served by Southern Water.

Indeed, Mr Hood is within his rights to set up a sprinkler system this summer to keep his six-and- a-half acres of garden and paddock well watered.

The Southern Water chairman is already being accused of being out of touch with his customers.

Brian Millen, of the Blackpalfrey Motor Club of Kent, which organises classic car rallies, said: ‘Because of the ban, my car won’t be as clean as usual and I’ve had to cut back on bedding plants in the garden.

Tales from the riverbank: Kinvaid House and estate in Luncarty, Perthshire which is one of the homes of Southern Water Chairman Colin Hood

Tales from the riverbank: Kinvaid House and estate in Luncarty, Perthshire which is one of the homes of Southern Water Chairman Colin Hood

‘This guy, like the bosses of so many major companies, is insulated by money and status and doesn’t know what life is like for his customers. He’s privileged and out of touch with the environment he’s  trying to control.

‘No matter where he lives, I hope he
listens to local feeling.’ Glasgow-born Mr Hood, who holds a number of
non-executive directorships  with utility and transport companies, is
estimated to earn more than £950,000 a year.

Southern water

He joined the board of Southern Water in February 2011 and was appointed chairman two months ago, just as the drought crisis loomed across vast swathes of England after a succession of unusually dry winters.

Mr Hood, who also has a home in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, was unavailable for comment. But  a spokesman for Southern Water, which recorded an operating profit last year of £191 million, defended Mr Hood’s right to unlimited water.

On tap: How Shochie Burn flows closely past Kinvaid House

On tap: How Shochie Burn flows closely past Kinvaid House

DROUGHT MINISTER POURS COLD WATER ON HOSEPIPE ‘SCOOP’

Richard Benyon

A bizarre row erupted  yesterday over claims  that the Government’s ‘Drought Minister’ flouted the hosepipe ban – less  than 48 hours after it was introduced.

Richard Benyon, the Tory Minister in charge of water conservation, called in police after journalists from a Sunday newspaper photographed water gushing from a hosepipe at his Elizabethan house on his 20,000-acre estate in Berkshire.

Mr Benyon, who was  not at home during the incident, angrily denied anyone in his house had flouted the ban.

Instead, he accused one of the journalists of turning the tap on, in what he dismissed as a ‘pathetic scam to stitch me up’.

The Environment Minister said his caretaker, who was in the house with Mr Benyon’s wife Zoe  and two of the couple’s children, saw the paper’s female photographer coming away from the tap.

He said: ‘No one has used that hose pipe for a long time so it can only have been her who switched it on.’

Mr Benyon, one of  the richest MPs in the Commons, also accused the paper’s team of trespass and aggressive behaviour and said he had reported the incident to police.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said : ‘The caller did not require police attendance and there is no further police involvement.’

He said: ‘His house has the water
rights because it is an old mill house. It is also in a part of the
country where the weather patterns in terms of rainfall and, therefore,
available water resources are completely different to the South of
England.

‘The Southern Water region is
officially classified as “water-stressed” and the current drought
follows the second driest 12 months on record.

‘This has simply not been the case in Scotland.’

Mr Hood’s ownership of Kinvaid House gives him what is known as ‘riparian rights’ to the Shochie Burn, which borders the property en route from its Highland source to the River Tay.

This means he effectively owns part of the stream and has the legal right to fish there  – the tributary is known for its stocks of salmon and trout – and to extract water for agricultural or domestic purposes. He has built stables on the property for his animals, including horses, sheep and hens, all of whose troughs must be kept topped up with water.

Kinvaid House, near the  village of Moneydie, also has its own ornamental lake, where the Hoods keep a small rowing boat.

Besides Southern Water, Thames Water, South East Water, Anglia Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Veolia Water Central and Veolia Water Southeast have imposed bans, affecting 20 million people, making it the most extensive hosepipe ban in living memory.

Customers have been given tips on how to save water, including taking a five-minute shower every day instead of a bath and using the washing machine only when full. The measures were introduced after England and Wales received just 37 per cent of their average March rainfall.

But Scotland has seen such torrential downpours that  some rivers have burst their banks. The discrepancy has led to calls for a grid network to be built to transport water from Scotland and Northern England to the South, but critics say the building costs would be  too high.

Tougher new controls on water use are expected to be in force by July.
A summer of brown lawns and dirty cars, buses, trains and planes beckons as firms are banned from using water for non-essential use.

For the first time, commercial car washes, window-cleaning firms and gardeners hired to look after parks, gardens and lawns are also to be banned from using hosepipes and sprinklers.

Ornamental ponds will dry up and garden water features will cease. Even public swimming pools face closure, although this would be a  last resort.
From the east of England to London, through the Thames Valley to Oxfordshire, and  the whole of the South of England, every water company is preparing to ask the Government for a drought order that will outlaw  non-essential use of water.

Under threat: Gardeners will be banned from using water for non-essential use - such as ornamental ponds and water features

Under threat: Gardeners will be banned from using water for non-essential use – such as ornamental ponds and water features

Work is under way now because it can take up to ten weeks to obtain such powers. Applications are made to Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman but she cannot make a decision until a public inquiry has taken place.

Companies are also planning to apply for permits to allow them to extract more water from rivers that are already running low.

The current hosepipe ban could also ruin plans by towns to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Councils fear that patriotic red, white and blue floral hanging baskets will shrivel and die because they can’t be watered.

 

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have not been moderated.

Hopefully when scotland gets its independance, this leech will have to apply for a work visa and it will be refused. Hope he can find such lucrative work in scotland.

There is nothing to prevent anyone from collecting rainwater, and using a pressure washer to supply a hosepipe.

How do we manage to pump oil and gas around the world, land Men on The Moon yet we can’t pump water a few hundred miles?

Really scraping bottom of barrel here. I could get the story and headline if the guys house was in drought area, but it is an area where we have plenty of water, irrespective of whether or not he has common law rights to water from the river.
His access to water is nothing to do with privilege and status, if to do with him living in Scotland.
Frankly getting sick of 90% of newspaper stories now being sensationalist and miles from the truth. Lets not allow facts to get in way of a good headline.

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