LAST night's storms in East Lancashire have done ‘almost nothing’ to alleviate drought fears, water bosses said.

Around an inch of rain fell overnight and more is expected later today and tomorrow.

But United Utilities said that reservoir levels were continuing to fall.

And they said that four inches of rain was now needed in the coming days to see any small increase in depleted reservoirs.

Last week, when the prospect of water shortages were first announced, it was thought that an inch of rain could solve the problem in the short term.

Forecasters at the Met Office are predicting little rain until the end of the week, which was the original deadline given by United Utilities for reservoir levels to recover.

However, the rain has delayed any possible hosepipe ban.

Rather than being days away, it will not now be imposed for a fortnight, bosses said.

Roy Chetham, who runs his own weather station in Huncoat, said rainfall had been ‘unusually high’ on Monday night.

Some 21.8mm of rain (0.86 inches) was recorded, which is more than the whole of May (18.3mm) and almost as much as the whole of April (24.1mm).

Mr Chetham said: "The drought has now been broken but we could easily go back to very dry conditions.

"I don’t think the rain will stop the water company’s view on the situation.”

United Utilities has put a drought action plan into place after the driest January to May since records began left reservoirs 60 per cent full, when they would have normally been at 80 per cent.

A United Utilities spokesman said: “We need almost constant rainfall to make an impact on the very dry conditions and four inches of rain is the minimum to stop a hosepipe ban.

“I don’t think that a lot of rain is something that we can rely on but at this stage a hosepipe ban is on hold for the timebeing.

“The downpours that we have had unfortunately have had little impact on the situation.”

The firm said people should cut down on their water use immediately.

Measures including not running the tap when you brush your teeth, having shorter showers and only switching on the dishwasher when it is full are being encouraged.