Council U-turns on hosepipe ban explanation for street clean-up delay
Ipswich Borough Council has offered a different explanation for why street cleaning on Upper Brook Street paused for two days – dropping its earlier reference to the hosepipe ban in favour of "operational reasons," despite initially saying the ban was behind the stop.
Why it matters: The council has now given two different explanations, four days apart, for Upper Brook Street's stop-and-start deep clean – and confirmed no other streets are currently lined up for similar treatment while Anglian Water's Temporary Use Ban remains in force...despite also saying that the hosepipe ban wasn't behind the pause.
The details: Two council workers were seen pressure washing Upper Brook Street on the morning of Tuesday, 25 August, transforming the pavement between Poundstretcher and Sainsbury's within a couple of hours.
The work then stopped, leaving a clean strip opposite Poundstretcher and a clean patch opposite Sainsbury's, with the rest of the street untouched.
The stretch was not completed until the morning on Thursday, 27 August.
The incomplete work was criticised by residents and members of the public (Photos: Oliver Rouane-Williams/Ipswich.co.uk
What they said on 25 August: After Ipswich.co.uk asked the council three times that day whether the hosepipe ban had halted the work, a spokesperson said: "During the Anglian Water Temporary Use Ban, the Council carefully considered the restrictions in place and reviewed its operations to ensure water is used responsibly. Usually, the Council uses grey water for cleaning purposes; however, given the lack of rainwater on this occasion metered water has been used to fill the tank in the van."
The spokesperson added that "pavement cleaning during this restriction has only been undertaken when there is an environmental, public health or public safety need," citing "the accumulation of bird fouling, food waste, spillages and trip/slip hazards" on that stretch – though this conflicts with our observations of the street, which, while objectively grimy, didn't appear to pose any of the aforementioned hazards.
The council said the cleaning "will be completed in due course."
What they said two days later: Ipswich.co.uk put it to the council that the remaining stretch had since been completed while the ban was still in force, and asked why. A spokesperson replied that the ban "was not a deciding factor" in the pause, and that the work had instead been carried out "over two separate visits" for reasons that were "purely operational."
The spokesperson said: "The Anglian Water Temporary Use Ban does not apply to local authority activity such as this. The Council is able to continue to undertake pavement cleaning during the period of the Anglian Water Temporary Use Ban. The Council has pressure washed a section of Upper Brook Street over two separate visits, the reason this wasn't completed in one visit was purely due to operational reasons and the Anglian Water Temporary Use Ban was not a deciding factor in the need to pull offsite and revisit."
For context: On both occasions, the council maintained that the ban does not restrict local authority cleaning carried out for environmental, public-health or safety reasons – only cleaning "for reasons of appearance only," which it has said is on hold in the town centre while the ban remains in place.
What's next: The council has confirmed there are no other locations currently scheduled for similar cleaning. Asked whether cleaning would resume or extend elsewhere in the town centre, a spokesperson said: "As a result [of the ban], there will be no scheduled pressure washing of the public highway for reasons of appearance only. Where areas are assessed as being of environmental or safety concern then these areas will be cleaned using the minimum amount of water and only the area that it is of immediate concern will be cleaned."
The clean-up came as the council's new Neighbourhood Cleansing Team – six posts funded with £400,000 over two years and approved by the Executive on Tuesday, 14 July 2026 – began work, with its initial priority the main entry routes into town.
It also came shortly after Ipswich.co.uk launched its "State of Our Streets" campaign.
Oliver Rouane-Williams
The bottom line: The stretch of Upper Brook Street between Poundstretcher and Sainsbury's is now fully cleaned. But the council has given two different accounts of why it took two visits to get there – first citing the hosepipe ban, then saying the ban "was not a deciding factor" – and has confirmed no other part of the town centre is currently in line for the same treatment. We shall keep pushing for that to change.
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