Visitors to North Hertfordshire’s parks and outdoor pools can now use the free drinking fountains that have been installed.

The new drinking fountains, put in by by North Herts District Council, are a permanent fixture and will provide an all-year-round fresh supply of drinking water for visitors to the sites.

The fountains will hopefully reduce the use of single-use plastics by encouraging visitors to refill their bottles, rather than buy bottled water.

Each fountain also has a bottle filling tap for topping up reusable water bottles.

The drinking fountains have been installed at:

Avenue Park, Baldock.

Priory Memorial Gardens, Royston

Howard Park and Gardens, Letchworth

Bancroft Park, Hitchin

Hitchin Outdoor Swimming Pool

Letchworth Outdoor Swimming Pool

The installation of the fountains follows the passing of a council motion in July last year on single-use plastics.

As a result, the Council is launching a Plastic Free North Herts campaign, to encourage residents, businesses and its own staff to reduce, reuse and correctly recycle plastics.

Councillor Steve Jarvis, NHDC's Executive Member for Environment and Leisure said: "These water fountains will provide a quick and easy way for people to find a drink when visiting parks and outdoor pools.

"They will also enable people to make more use of reusable water bottles, reducing the huge environmental problem of single-use plastics bottles."