Barnet Council tries to phase out the bath

Barnet council is consulting its residents about planning rules it's proposing that will encourage builders only to install showers and not to provide baths.

The rules would apply to house extensions and developments of less than 10 homes. Planning committees will look at whether water flows to power showers have been restricted, water meters have been fitted and a water butt installed, but ultimately the council could refuse planning permission to developments that unnecessarily include a bath.

Presumably the subjective term of 'unnecessarily' allows them to wave through things like housing developments for people of restricted mobility. As a new father, however, I might even argue that I need the bath to wash my daughter, since I doubt she would appreciate a shower at her tender age.  (Not that she enjoys baths either.)

No doubt there'll be a lot of hoo-hah made about this proposal (Vanessa Feltz was on the BBC this morning doing her 'outraged' thing, which put me right off my breakfast) but as Hugh Ellis of Friends of the Earth said: "I would hate the whole debate to get focused on baths... We have got some excellent local authorities that have led the way in addressing climate change and London should be very proud of that."

Fines and bath reduction - council level green action [via How to Save the World for Free]

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Photo credit:  Bathtime Kitty - the plughole mystery by Prozacblues used under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence