Swimming-pool owners question fencing by-law

Press, 5 October 1984, Page 5

Swimming-pool owners question fencing by-law

If swimming pools have to be fenced, what is going to happen about spa pools, rivers, creeks, drains, baths, and nappy buckets? a public hearing on swimming pool fencing was asked yesterday. The Christchurch City Council hearing was to allow a wide range of public comment on the proposed by-law that swimming pools of 15,000 or more litres in the City Council area must be fenced.

The hearing was chaired by Cr Helen Garrett, and members of the panel included Crs Mollie Clark, Louise Moore, and Alister James. Pool owners were not consulted when the bylaw was drafted and this hearing gave them the op-, portunity to propose specific changes. The draft by-law says that every owner on whose property a pool will be installed will nave to notify the council engineer. If the pool holds less than 15,000 litres or is less than 600 mm deep, such notification is unnecessary. The by-law would be retrospective. ~ Mr B. C. Bluck, the council’s building engineer, said that council by-laws since 1972 had allowed swimming pools in the front yards of properties on the basis that ’‘adequate safety precautions are undertaken.” No requirements had applied to pools built inside or in rear yards because surveys had established that in most cases they were fenced for privacy. Mr Bluck said that two

options appeared to be available — either fence the pool itself or fence the property. He said that the second alternative would be easier to administer and that if this was done correctly it would be very effective. Fencing the pool would require regular inspection and the cost of this would have to be recovered by an annual inspection fee. However, it was the more effective alternative, he said.

“This imposition of a fee may not be appreciated by the majority of pool owners,” he said. Mr P. T. Donnelly, a statistician, said that many existing pools were in key positions which could generally be viewed from the interior of the house.

"It is my contention that requiring people to fence the immediate swimming pool area will almost certainly encourage new pool owners to tuck their newly constructed pools out of sight.

“The consequences of this will be to reduce the amount of supervision pools receive. A pool readily seen from a majority of rooms of a house is a far safer place to swim than a pool that is not under immediate observation,” he said. Mr C. D. McCobb said that it seemed ridiculous that pools had to be fenced when other areas did not require such barriers. “If I had the Wairarapa Stream in my backyard would I have to fence my pool and not worry about the stream. And what about

spa pools?” he said. Many pool owners at the hearing said that it was up to neighbours to ensure that they had good fences and to keep their children from wandering — riot the pool owners’ responsibility. The Plunket Society, which is in favour of fencing pools, said that since 1978 there had been nine drownings of pre-school children in private swimming pools in Christchurch and four within the City Council area.

The Royal Life-saving Society submitted that of all the children drowned in home pools, the group aged under two was easily the biggest. A simple fence of pleasant design would keep this age group away from the water, would not be expensive to construct, and would probably be acceptable to home owners. Certain areas of static water, such as troughs and sheep dips, could also be fenced, the society believes.

A submission on behalf of 80 pool owners, who had earlier attended a public meeting at the Heaton Intermediate School to discuss the by-law, proposed that the by-law be amended so that a fence should either completely enclose the property on which the pool was located or that part of the property within which the pool was situated. Mr R. S. Williams, sales manager of Duncan Grey, Ltd, a pool manufacturer, said that education was the only answer to preventing drownings.. The local re-

cords showed clearly the high results water safety achieved locally by the fact that, with the exception of one epileptic, there had been no drowning in domestic pools of a child or person over the age of five for eight years and nine months. It is intended that a revised draft by-law incorporating any amendments agreed on as a result of the submissions will be submitted to the November 1 meeting of the town-plan-ning committee meeting of the City Council to enable the by-law to be made by special order at the November 19 and December 17 council meetings to come into force on January 1, 1985.