SAFETY FIRST: Horsham Rural City Council cadet building surveyor Peter Kolev inspects a Horsham pool fence for compliance with safety standards. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
HORSHAM Rural City Council has warned people to maintain their pools and spas after five swimming pools failed to comply with safety laws in December.
Council cadet building surveyor Peter Kolev said swimming pools, including temporary or blow-up pools, deeper than 30 centimetres required self-closing or self-latching safety barriers.
He said barriers were designed to protect children under five who were most vulnerable around water.
"Three of the non-compliant pools were temporary pools and the other two were a bit neglected because they were under used," he said.
"Most of the cases were resolved within 48 hours so people either emptied the pool, complied with the legislation or they took safety precautions until they could comply.
"Most of the pools were temporary swimming pools. Some people are not aware they have to provide a safety barrier around temporary swimming pools."
Mr Kolev said while safety barriers reduced the risk of drowning by 25 per cent, adult supervision for children was vital.
"Even if there are safety barriers around a pool, parents need to keep an eye on their children," he said.
"In about 70 per cent of cases involving deaths there was a lack of supervision, so having a fully compliant barrier but no supervision can have fatal results."
Mr Kolev said council would ramp up random inspections of pools to follow Victoria's Building Commission recommendations.
"We are going to do random inspections; every pool in the municipality will be inspected at least once every two years," he said.
"Every pool is on a register and there will be details of when the swimming pool was constructed and the relevant standard at the time. We are not punishing people, we are just assisting home owners to look after their swimming pools because they are the ones responsible for that maintenance."
Wes Davidson Real Estate owner Wes Davidson, who installed a pool late last year, said it was important that people maintained the safety of their pool areas.
"We see a lot of pools that don't comply because people don't realise they need to maintain their pools," he said.
"When we are selling a property with a pool, we are careful to make sure everything is ticked off and compliant because we can't settle if the permits aren't right.
"I think the main thing is for people to make sure the contractor doing the pool knows the regulations because there have been a few incidents where things were not quite right."