Minimising our water use throughout the year
How we reduce water use across west Norfolk
West Norfolk is one of the driest parts of the UK and we work hard as a council to reduce our water usage throughout the year.
Some of our year-round water for growing and maintaining municipal plants comes from recycled rainwater we have collected.
Our hanging baskets and planter displays are hand-watered in a targeted way from bowsers which are filled from our nursery watering system – a rainwater harvesting system that’s topped up if needed from the mains water supply.
Unlike traditional hanging baskets and planters, we use self-watering baskets/planters that do not leak. They minimise water evaporation and do not need as frequent watering.
We use water-saving tree watering bags around the base of our young trees – these release water slowly into the ground, therefore reducing water usage.
At Downham Market, rainwater is harvested from an old swimming pool and used to water annual bedding, baskets and planters via a bowser.
Hosepipe use is not allowed on our allotment sites. Only one site has a mains water connection and that cannot be connected to a hosepipe.
Reducing usage further during the hosepipe ban
In response to Anglian Water’s hosepipe ban, we’ve taken some extra voluntary steps to help efforts to save water in the region.
The watering of public bedding displays in our formal gardens is exempt from the hosepipe ban, however to help reduce water usage we have switched from sprinkler systems to targeted hand-watering within St James Park in The Walks in King’s Lynn.
At Hunstanton seafront, we use water from a mains-fed irrigation tank that feeds a pop-up overnight irrigation system for the Esplanade Gardens, however we are trying to reduce usage as much as possible during this time.
We have two small water features at Hunstanton but these simply recycle the same water around and around.
Watering grass used for sport or recreation is covered by a statutory exception for health or safety. We do water some of our sports pitches, such as for tennis, bowls and croquet via irrigation systems to keep them in a safe, playable condition, however this happens at non-peak times.
There are some areas where we sowed wildflowers earlier in the year which we have stopped watering to reduce water usage.
We do not irrigate grass and will not be laying new grass turf during the hosepipe ban period to reduce water usage further.