AN unusually dry April has failed to dampen North West Water's belief that they will be able to avoid any restrictions for customers this summer.

Despite only 40 per cent of anticipated rain falling in April, reservoir stocks throughout the region now stand at around 90 per cent full.

The Pennine Reservoir chain supplying East Lancashire is at an average of 86.5 per cent of capacity, a significant rise on this time last year when the chain was just 43 per cent full.

Company water supply general manager John Barnes, said: "In spite of the dry weather, reservoir stocks are healthy thanks to our customers' efforts in using water wisely and our continuing drive to reduce leakage from our pipes.

"We are in a good position to meet demand if the dry weather continues but, as the summer approaches, we hope that gardeners in particular will be conscious of the need to save water. "Garden watering with sprinklers and hosepipes pushes up demand for water enormously. A hosepipe left running for just 15 minutes uses 33 gallons of water - as much as one person would normally use in a day."

The company claim to have spent an additional £85 million in "drought busting" measures over the last 12 months.

Mr Barnes added: "While we cannot guarantee that there will be no restrictions, we are fairly confident that will be the case.

"Obviously, if it did not rain from now until September, we would have to act accordingly."

North West Water has produced a booklet for gardeners, entitled The Water Saver's Gardening Guide, which gives practical advice on how to protect plants in dry weather.

It is available free from the company and from a number of local garden centres.

The company have also built a low-water garden at Tatton Park in Cheshire which will be open during the Bank Holiday Weekend.

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