On tap?

The UK's biggest water provider is linking up with the government to end a long-standing culture of tap water "snobbery" by urging restaurants and chafes to routinely serve free tap water to their customers. Thames Water is to take the lead at a time of growing consumer dissatisfaction with bottled mineral water, and concerns about its cost and carbon footprint.

The initiative will come alongside a drive to encourage the UK hospitality industry to offer customers tap water as a matter of course. It is led by the government-funded Consumer Council for Water (CCW), which has drawn up plans for a national kite mark, or accreditation scheme, which would allow consumers to choose restaurants with the friendliest policies on serving tap water based on a "tick" symbol displayed on doors, menus and websites.

Thames Water - which serves about 13 million business and domestic customers in London and the Thames Valley - will this month announce a campaign to encourage catering outlets to serve tap water without people having to ask for it. The environment minister Phil Woolas said: "It is not up to us to say what people drink. But people pay significant sums for mineral water and I welcome any campaign to drink more tap water, which is of a better quality than it has ever been before." Britons drink 3bn bottles of bottled water every year. Half a billion are flown or shipped in from overseas, leaving a huge carbon footprint. Transporting bottled water in the UK is estimated to produce about 33,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions - equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 6,000 homes.

But, just for the record - if you visit Intimo and would like tap water. It's quite simple.

Just ask!