@Gary, love it. Going to use that on the next scammer that ask me that question.
Going to add an extra word before nasty "downright". :-)
Glory.
Received an updated Council Tax Bill today Dated 13th.
Where possible the overpayment will be refunded automatically to the named liable persons.

Grumbe.
Marvelous that that we have to pay promptly but those that request we do that does not apply that to themselves.
Still waiting on the Energy Rebate.
Also, sent a nice lengthy missive to Utilitia's CEO, recorded of course.
It started off explaining that I hate receiving bovine excrement & being threatened.
Followed by the definition of
Insure
Ensure
Assure

Also stated the difference between "may have developed & has developed".
Included copies of all monthly logs of usage of said meter since Feb 2019 & to provide the nature of the fault & the date it occurred.
Doubt I'll get a sensible reply.

No, the £150.
As for Utilitia, that would be nice.
Unless they can show & confirm the meter is faulty, I'n more than happy to keep the digital meter I have.
Have no desire to "upgrade" to a so called "smart" one.

Weather, English weather....
Nice and sunny so put the washing out to dry.
Back in and put kettle on, look out it's not so bright and sunny.
Sit down with a cuppa, look out. It's now hammering down with rain.
Ah well, it hadn't been out too long so let it be (great Beetles track)
Minutes later, bright sun, clear sky, so go out to do shopping.
Get back, check washing. It's nearly dry. Go back in and put kettle on.
(I think you know where this is going......)

Weather, English weather....
Nice and sunny so put the washing out to dry.
Back in and put kettle on, look out it's not so bright and sunny.
Sit down with a cuppa, look out. It's now hammering down with rain.
Ah well, it hadn't been out too long so let it be (great Beetles track)
Minutes later, bright sun, clear sky, so go out to do shopping.
Get back, check washing. It's nearly dry. Go back in and put kettle on.
(I think you know where this is going......)

Here in Cambridge, would love some rain for garden and allotment.

Seeing rain stop play at Headingley, thought we could do with some here to cool things down a bit.
I also forgot to make an extra post yesterday.
Receiving the amended CT bill, something bugged me about it.
Called the council (didn't wait too long on hold).
A "lovely" conversation ensured.
I asked that seeing another "field" had been added compared to the original, got interrupted before I could continue.
The question was: what field?
Less payments, so on the original bill, why could not an extra field labeled "Energy Rebate" be added?
Bad move.
The amount of bovine excrement was too much for my "poor" ears, so said, fair comment which brings me back to the bill itself.
Your normal procedure with situations like this is to put any overpayment on the following bill as a credit.
Normally I would accept that but not in this instance.
Should it be a credit & based on the "new" CT payments, that overpayment will put this account in credit for close to 16 years.
You can't guarantee that I will live that long, so to avoid any "lengthy" issues with my estate on death, please refund in full.
BTW, a recorded letter is on its way confirming what is said here today,, so...
...based on your own council procedures with non payment of CT after the 1st 2 months, where you give account holders 7 days after the 1st May to catch up or legal proceedings will commence - normally, this occurs around the 20th of the month.
To account for time spent in the mail, I'm allowing 23 days compared to your 20 to refund me.
If not received by close of business 17th July. A 10% interest surcharge will be added to said refund on the 18th & that 10% surcharge will be added every 7 days.
If still not received by 1st Aug we will instigate legal proceedings to recover said monies.
Have a nice weekend.
Bye.. I know that nothing will happen & they will probably laugh. What they fail to realise if they do so, is that the letter has to be added to my account. :-)

Here in Cambridge, would love some rain for garden and allotment.

Lazy, use the hose.

Don't you need a pipe for that?

Here in Cambridge, would love some rain for garden and allotment.

Lazy, use the hose.

Don't you need a pipe for that?

I do use a hose to siphon from the water butts. Only works for one of our allotment plots as the other the only water butt is too low. Even on the one it works on, I could water the whole plot in a twentieth of the time it takes by siphoning which I tend to do when I hve another job such as digging or picking fruit to do.

Oh, I assumed an allotment would have a water supply, seen as plants often like to be watered. What are you meant to do, bring a big tank in the back of your car?

There are water butts, filled by mains, just no taps to attach a hose to. This is common on allotments sites to prevent excessive wastage when someone forgets to turn the tap off.

It does appear to be reasonable for allotments to have pipes, or at least a large collection of water tanks to collect rain water. But sadly there are quite a number that do not.
Why???
Lots of reasons & excuses :-(
Here's a few I've heard over the years:
Too far from mains water and so too expensive to install a mains supply.
Our connection to the mains started to leak and we couldn't afford to get it repaired so had it cut off.
"Old Fred" used to maintain our water tanks and nobody has taken the job over since he died.
We've had to remove all the buildings in recent years as they were falling down and we couldn't afford to repair them (the roofs were used to feed rain water into the tanks, so the tanks don't get filled.)
We can only have a small shed/tool store on each plot, and the roof is too small to fill even a small barrel.

And so on. With the drive to grow-your-own I would have thought it prudent to enable allotments to have a decent water supply, either by harvesting rainwater, or from the mains.
One allotment I heard of in the south of England had/has massive problems. The allotment association decided to ban the use of artificial fertilisers, and the local river authority wouldn't let them spread manure. OK, I get the first, but the second??????? "The smell will upset the neighbours" - not as bad as that from the pig farm half a mile away which those neighbours tried to get shut down (I'm not sure how that is proceeding).

And so on. With the drive to grow-your-own I would have thought it prudent to enable allotments to have a decent water supply, either by harvesting rainwater, or from the mains.

As well as the mains water to the dip tanks, we have a 6,000 litre tank taking water off the trading shed to reduce the bill. (We are a self managed society who lease the site from the council and then let plots to members.

Don't you rent these allotments? So they do have a fair income from you and the other users.

Yep, some of the capital built up was recently used to purchase a 20x8metre polytunnel divided into 20 plots.

As well as the mains water to the dip tanks, we have a 6,000 litre tank taking water off the trading shed to reduce the bill. (We are a self managed society who lease the site from the council and then let plots to members.

Water bills do amuse me, living in Scotland where it's flat rate. Come on, it's not like England is a desert, what are your water companies doing?!

‘Why go to the Sahara when you can visit Kent?’: ‘desert’ life in Dungeness

Water bills do amuse me, living in Scotland where it's flat rate. Come on, it's not like England is a desert, what are your water companies doing?!

Looking at importing water from parts of England further North and West. At current water usage rates, the population growth in the East if England is not sustainable without a serious reduction in usage or bringing water in from outside.