How Truro keeps its flowers watered during the hosepipe ban

Anyone strolling past the flower beds in Truro this month might have paused to wonder how they are still in bloom while the rest of us have coiled up the hosepipe and put it away for the summer.

The city council has now explained itself, and the short version is that the water keeping the displays alive is not coming out of anyone’s tap.

Watering has been cut back, not switched off

Truro City Council‘s Parks Department says it is well aware of the drought, the current hosepipe ban and the requests from South West Water to use water carefully. It also knows that the sight of council staff watering floral displays and parks during a drought is the kind of thing that raises eyebrows, and it says that concern is understandable.

So the department has reduced its watering significantly. The beds and baskets are getting far less than they would in a normal summer, and what they are getting is being chosen with the shortage in mind.

Water from the council’s own borehole

The water going on to the displays has not been drawn from the mains. The council says it has been using water from its own borehole, a private source that sits outside the hosepipe restrictions covering household supplies across the county.

A 40,000-litre tank at Idless

There is a second store to fall back on. The council has invested in a rainwater harvesting system at its Idless Nursery site, and after the last hosepipe ban it was extended to a capacity of 40,000 litres.

That store matters more now than it did a few weeks ago. Some rain fell earlier last week, and the council says the harvested rainwater will be the first source it reaches for when the displays next need watering.

📷Overlooking the cathedral and city skyline, Truro Cornwall England UK