Luton and Dunstable remain under a hosepipe ban - while Toddington and Barton-le-Clay have had theirs lifted.

Despite recent heavy rainfall, residents of Luton and Dunstable, who are supplied by Veolia Water, still have to comply with regulations which mean they cannot use their hosepipes.

This means the £300,000 fountain in St George’s Square will remain turned off.

Veolia spokesman Mike Pocock said: “Unfortunately at present, we will not be relaxing the temporary use ban further, as we need to conserve our supply of water to prepare for the possibility of a third dry autumn and winter.

“Following the unusually dry weather we have experienced over the 24-month period prior to April this year, we will need prolonged and substantial rainfall over a longer period to recharge our aquifers and to move us out of a drought situation.”

Villages including Toddington and Barton-le-Clay, which are supplied by Anglian Water, are now able to use their hosepipes after the ban was lifted on Thursday.

Anglian spokesman Paul Valleley said: “When we introduced the ban on April 5, we had just been through the driest year on record and gone two winters without the rainfall needed to recharge reservoirs and aquifers.

“Almost from the moment we announced the ban it started raining and April turned out to be the wettest in our 113-year records.

“There’s no way we could have predicted it, but in some places we had three times the average rainfall in April. Crucially, it fell just within the traditional ‘recharge’ season – the time of the year when there is less competition for water from the environment, and much of what falls ends up in reservoirs and aquifers.”