McMouse - do you know you can get an annual discount on your wastewater rates by having all your roof water going into butts? I have - it's only £13 a year but it's a small victory for the woman in the street..... I had to send a photo of the butts and explain what I use the water for, but I got the discount!
Thanks boxtops. Ours is an old house and all rainwater normally goes into soak-aways except where we divert to butts. Been getting the discount for years now. It caused some problems when we had the drouth hosepipe ban because I had so much stored rainwater (5,000 litres) that when I used the butt pump to water the front garden pot plants someone reported me. Water people came round and were satisfied all was ok.
Yes - a kindly neighbour at a previous address shopped me to Severn Trent for using a hosepipe - I was able to demonstrate that it had been syphoning my bath water onto my potato patch ...