Water safety: NSW councils fail to inspect all residential pools
Just seven per cent of residential pools in NSW are being inspected by councils each year. This comes as The Daily Telegraph can reveal the state government has ignored recommendations on improving pool inspection regimes.
Just seven per cent of residential pools in NSW are being inspected by councils each year.
The Daily Telegraph can also reveal the state government has ignored recommendations from the Child Death Review Team on improving pool inspection regimes.
This includes a recommendation that council inspectors should target pools at properties where children live.
Figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveal there are 364,041 pools registered in NSW but just 27,770 were checked for safety compliance last financial year. Of those, nearly one in five were found to be in breach of safety guidelines.
Ninety-one children under the age of four have died in NSW private swimming pools from 2002-2017.
In 38 per cent of cases children accessed a pool through a faulty fence or gate, while in 26 per cent of cases there was a “lack of fence”.
The Child Death Review Team, an independent body which makes recommendations on reducing child fatality numbers, is worried there is no “uniform approach to council inspection regimes”.
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The body has also complained that the NSW Government had not supported multiple recommendations, including one that said the state should work with councils to ensure pools at locations where children live were being targeted for inspections using birth data.
“The primary purpose of swimming pool regulation is to ensure the safety of young children. Inspection regimes are determined by individual councils with no overall guidance on prioritisation,” it stated in its annual report.
Some councils inspected less than four per cent of pools in their area last year.
This included Campbelltown Council, which has 9311 pools in its LGA but inspected just 290.
Liverpool Council has 5000 pools but did 190 inspections.
Cumberland Council inspected 173 of its 3354 pools while Inner West Council checked 80 of its 1836 pools.
The Finance Department, which oversees the pools register, said it was the responsibility of individual councils to manage inspection programs.
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