PRIVATISED water companies like North West Water have been slammed for failing to take enough action to prevent a repeat of last year's drought.

And the influential Council for the Protection of Rural England is calling on the new Government to take tough action against the companies.

Firms have been accused of not investing enough money in the supply network and failing to deal with demand during summer months.

The CPRE also believes calls for more reservoirs should be ignored in a bid to protect Britain's countryside.

North West Water says levels in East Lancashire's reservoirs are nearly back to 100 per cent.

But the company, which recently announced a £60 million improvement programme for East Lancashire, has still come in for criticism.

Soaring profits of £377 million in the last 12 months were slammed by politicians and pressure groups. The CPRE has been urging tougher restrictions at a summit called by the government. The meeting got underway this week.

The voluntary organisation wants:

Leakage targets which firms will be forced to stick to.

A reduction of the amount of water taken from rivers.

New regulations which will force planning authorities to take into account water shortages before agreeing to permission for large scale developments.

A spokesman for the CRPE said: "In recent years there has been much rhetoric about the need to improve water management.

"But despite early warnings of impending shortages, little progress has been made to tackle demand and reduce wastage and we are facing renewed calls for more reservoirs.

"We cannot rely on voluntary action alone by water companies to stop the countryside being sucked dry of water or the flooding of treasured landscapes."

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