York residents will not face hosepipe bans or other restrictions in the future, Yorkshire Water chiefs pledged today.

The assurance to city consumers, who did not suffer bans during the 1995 shortages because levels of the River Ouse remained sufficiently high, came after the sunny Bank Holiday weekend.

The wet winter, which brought flooding chaos to parts of North and East Yorkshire in March, and last year's damp summer, are part of the reason for plentiful supplies this year.

But the company, which recently took over York Waterworks plc, has gone further, saying it does not envisage any future problems in the entire Yorkshire region thanks to millions of pounds spent on securing supplies in the last three years.

Spokesman David Simister said: "There won't be any hosepipe bans this year. Reservoir levels at the moment stand at 97 per cent full.

"It's been a very wet winter and it was a very wet summer last year." He added: "We have also done a lot of work on our leakage reduction since the well-recorded events of 1995."

Mr Simister said it had beaten the target set by water watchdog OFWAT for the last two years and was on target again this year.

He added that each day the company was saving enough water to supply an entire city the size of Leeds.

Yorkshire Water's media relations manager, Richard Sears, said it had spent £300 million on its infrastructure since 1995 which gave it the flexibility to transfer supplies from areas of abundance to those in need, and had cut leakage by a third.

In addition, the Environment Agency had recently granted the company powers to continue abstracting water from the Rivers Ouse, Wharfe and Ure.

"Because they have given us the ability to do that, that will secure supplies well into the next Millennium - we don't envisage any problems in the future", Mr Sears said.

He acknowledged that this was a major pledge, adding: "We like to think it reflects the level of investment we have carried out."

Ironically new measures to save water have recently been announced. Mr Simister said he believed these included plans for dishwashers and washing machines which used less water, and possibly meters for power showers, coming in from 2001 to meet European standards.

In the meantime Yorkshire Water was advising people to take simple saving measures, like ensuring dishwashers and washing machines were full before use.

The company was also giving out water saving devices at open garden events it was sponsoring for the Red Cross this year - but the ones it had been asked to support were in West Yorkshire rather than North Yorkshire.

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