TOWN of Victoria Park pool owners have been urged to fix their fences and barriers after about 50 were found to be “non-compliant”.
The figure was revealed as the council considers giving chief executive Anthony Vuleta the power to issue and withdraw infringement notices for non-compliant barriers instead of notices being issued by a council resolution.
Royal Life Saving Society WA (RLSSWA) inspected swimming pool barriers between March and November and found about 50 barriers were non-compliant compared to 12 when the organisation completed its inspection four years ago.
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READ NOWEarlier this year, City of South Perth conducted an audit of its swimming pool register, which contains 2682 pools and spas, and it revealed 384 pools and spas were required to be followed up for non-compliance, no access to conduct the inspection or to determine whether expired building permits had been built and to inspect those that were built.
Most of those follow up inspections are being conducted by RLSSWA and will began this month.
RLSSWA health promotion and research senior manager Lauren Nimmo said having compliant home pool barriers was integral to reducing the impact of drowning in the community.
“We would encourage all home pool owners to get out and have a look at their pool barrier and check that it is still in good condition and complies with the regulations,” she said.
She said research into home swimming pool barriers’ compliance showed the most common faults reported were gates that were not self-closing or self-latching, or climbable objects near the barriers.
Mr Vuleta said it was the responsibility of the Town to ensure compliance and the council’s building staff checked pools and barriers outside of the four-yearly inspection.
There are more than 800 private pools in the Town of Victoria Park
RSSLWA’s Home Swimming Pools Barrier most recent report showed between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2016 that 64.6 per cent of barriers were deemed compliant at first inspection and overall compliance at third inspection was 92.3 per cent.
Between July 1, 2002 and June 30, 2017, 62 children aged 0-4 year old drowned in Australia and of these 32 occurred in home swimming pools, including backyard swimming pools, portable pools and outdoor spas.
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