Council treads warily on pools

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 2

Council treads warily on pools

rwZ. Pr»i» Aieeetottowi AUCKLAND. Oct. 3. Every private pool more than a few inches deep will have to be fenced if the Auckland City Council adopts a by-law recommended by its works committee yesterday by three votes to two. The by-law would affect even collapsible plastic pools containmore than 500 gallons. The committee decided that a minimum fence standard should be 12 gauge, 2in wire mesh. Picket or other types of fences would be sufficient if these had no gaps wider

than 21n. Hedges would not be enough, said the Auckland city building surveyor (Mr C G. Geldard). The committee also decided that an approved fence around the whole section would be accepted as an enclosure of the pool, if it had self-closing gates. Mr Geldard said the bylaw would require his staff to Inspect every bouse tn the council’s area. Those with collapsible pools could be discovered only during the middle of summer. After receiving a telegram from an Auckland

businessman, who asked the Mayor whether the council would order fencing around the pools in the domain, the Mayor (Sir Dove-Myer Robinson said: “We’ve got to tread very carefully here. No-one is more keen to prevent pool tragedies than I am, but we have to bear in mind the rights of the pool owner. At this stage it is only a recommendation from a committee, and was passed with a majority of one. No-one can say a majority of one imposes policy on the council

“Is it responsible to ask a pool owner to build, at some expense to hhnself,

a fence to protect children who are not under proper control and who trespass on his property?”