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We cannot confirm Wessex Water's current position from its own published notice, so this page asserts nothing about it. That is deliberate: a wrong all-clear here would send someone out with a hosepipe under a restriction carrying a fine of up to 1,000 pounds, and a wrong restriction would cost them a brown lawn for no reason. Check Wessex Water's own notice, linked below, before using a hosepipe. Everything else on this page, the supply area, the exclusions, the penalties and the history, is stable information that does not depend on today's status.
What this site last recorded, on 30 July 2026, and which is what we can no longer stand behind today: No Temporary Use Ban notice appears on Wessex Water's own water-resources page, re-read on 30 July 2026. The page does carry a dated resources position: its June 2026 update records 82mm of rainfall in June, 149 per cent of the monthly long-term average, six-month rainfall at 126 per cent of average, surface reservoirs average for the time of year at 73 per cent of capacity, and groundwater below average for June. That is a resources statement, not a 'we have no hosepipe ban' statement, so this status still rests on the absence of a notice and carries the shorter 24-hour freshness window.
We could not confirm Wessex Water’s current status from their own page, so we are not asserting a restriction. Check with your supplier before using a hosepipe.
We are an unofficial tracker, so Wessex Water’s own notice is the version that legally applies to you.
Wessex Water supplies 2.8 million people across Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, most of Bristol's surrounding area, and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire. Its footprint interlocks with two others in a way that produces regular confusion: Bristol Water supplies the city of Bristol itself, and South West Water supplies the peninsula to the west, including the Devon towns currently under a restriction.
So a BA, BS, DT, SP or TA postcode can belong to any of three companies, and the one to the west has a live notice. Wessex Water is also the sewerage company across a wider area than it supplies water to: a Wessex Water sewerage bill does not make it your water supplier.
Source: Wessex Water
The sections on why a restriction was declared, and on what it restricts, are not shown here: with the status unconfirmed there is nothing verified to describe, and inventing it would be worse than leaving it out. Wessex Water's own notice is the authoritative statement of its current position.
If a Temporary Use Ban were in force here, breaching it would be a criminal offence. The maximum penalty is a fine of £1,000 on summary conviction, under section 76(5) of the Water Industry Act 1991. It is not a fixed penalty: Wessex Water cannot issue one and would have to prosecute. In practice companies publish an enforcement policy that starts with a warning, so a first breach realistically produces a letter.
Wessex Water has not restricted hosepipe use in recent seasons, including through the 2022 drought that produced restrictions in neighbouring South West Water territory, and the reason is visible in the resources page above: a mixed system of groundwater, surface reservoirs and river abstraction with active stream support, in a region whose rainfall over the last six months has run above the long-term average. The pattern to note is that this company's constraint tends to appear in groundwater rather than in reservoir storage, and groundwater responds to winter rainfall, not to a July heatwave.
Source: Wessex Water
We could not confirm Wessex Water's current status from its own notice, so this site asserts nothing either way. Check Wessex Water's own notice before using a hosepipe.
Because we could not confirm it against Wessex Water's own published notice, and this site does not assert a status it cannot stand behind. A wrong all-clear costs a reader up to 1,000 pounds; a wrong ban costs them a brown lawn. Neither is acceptable, so it says so instead.
We cannot confirm Wessex Water's current position, so this page will not tell you either way. A watering can or bucket is safe whatever the status, because a Temporary Use Ban never restricts them. For a hosepipe, check Wessex Water's own notice first.
Up to 1,000 pounds, imposed by a magistrates' court on conviction under section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991. It is not a fixed penalty: Wessex Water would have to prosecute, and starts with a warning.
Usually, but not automatically everywhere. Most companies exempt Priority Services Register customers and Blue Badge holders who cannot reasonably use a can or bucket, some automatically and some on registration. Wessex Water's own notice sets the wording.
Your water bill, on the water supply line rather than the sewerage line: in much of England and Wales those are two different companies. Wessex Water supplies the wessex water supply area across the south west of england.
Only at the Dorset edge. South West Water's notice covers named Mid and East Devon towns plus Lyme Regis, which is in Dorset but supplied by South West Water.
Its June 2026 update put surface reservoir storage at 73 per cent of capacity at the end of June, described as average for the time of year.
The supply area covers Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire, wrapping around the separate Bristol Water area and meeting South West Water at the Devon border.
7 outward postcode districts resolve to Wessex Water here, as primary supplier or as one candidate among several. An outward code is the part before the space: SO14, not SO14 3AB.
Town pages here: Bournemouth, Swindon. Each resolves from its own outcode rather than this company's headline status, which matters most where a town sits outside a restriction its supplier has declared.
Source: Wessex Water
Source of record: Wessex Water’s own status page, last checked 30 July 2026; the company's page is dated 2 July 2026. We do not publish a hosepipe ban on the strength of a news report; every status rests on a primary source.