Where has all the water gone?

This is the parched scene at Trentabank Reservoir in Macclesfield Forest as the North West struggles through its driest six months for 70 years with a hosepipe ban looming.

Weathermen now say the area needs two months worth of rain in a few days to avoid a hosepipe ban.

The Express has learned that the ground is now so parched that four inches of rain would have to fall for depleted reservoirs to see any increase in water levels.

That is as much as would normally be expected in June and July combined.

Despite heavy downpours on Monday night forecasters at the Met Office are predicting no more than half an inch of rainfall by the end of the week.

Trentabank is one of four Macclesfield reservoirs in the ‘Ridgegate’ system used by United Utilities. The others are Langley ‘Bottoms’, Teggs Nose and Ridgegate.

Together they are currently just 53 per cent full, with United Utilities (UU) admitting to the Express that the usual level is about 80 per cent.

A UU spokesman added: "Current levels are much lower than we would want them to be, but the situation in Macclesfield is even with the rest of the North West because we are moving water around.  All reservoirs are connected to one big system, so we are moving water through pipes from areas like North Wales where levels are relatively high in comparison."

Last week the firm applied for a ‘drought permit’ to access more water in Cumbria and said a July hosepipe ban was a possibility if more rain does not come.

Retired father-of-one Allan Eves, 75, of Boothby Street, Macclesfield, regularly walks by Trentabank to watch the herons and admitted he was ‘very concerned’ by the current low water level.

He said: "We have noticed a dramatic difference. Not that long ago it was brimming full. It is worse than last year and the worst we can remember."

Carol Burton is manager at the Leather’s Smithy pub close to Trentbank and Ridgegate reservoirs.

She said: "The water level is low - you can see the banks. They go low every summer but it is very low for this time of year."