Pool safety checklist floated to save children

• POOL owners failing to comply with safety requirements could find themselves in deep water after a planned crackdown to reduce drowning deaths in the Hunter.
  
  Royal Life Saving and Kidsafe Hunter have recruited Newcastle and Lake Macquarie councils in the Hunter Pool Safety Network to develop a uniform checklist for compulsory, random inspections and tough penalties for pool owners caught in the wrong.
  
  To date, there has been no legal obligation for councils to conduct inspections.
  
  Royal Life Saving Hunter regional manager Matt Sharman said checking all the region's 25,000 plus pools would be costly, but was necessary to prevent drowning deaths.
  
  "We don't want to become the pool police, but it is getting to the stage where we need to ensure every pool in every local shire area is checked, and checked regularly," he said.
  
  The Royal Life Saving National Drowning Report released this week revealed 32 children under the age of five drowned in Australia in the 12 months until June 30.
  
  Close to 60 per cent of those deaths happened in backyard pools, including that of Harry Connors, a two-year-old who drowned in his family's pool at Charlestown in November.
  
  Floaties company director Phil Evans said Gosford and Wyong councils have also joined the Hunter Pool Safety Network, which aims to involve all Hunter councils.
  
  Kidsafe Hunter chief executive Leonie Forsyth recommended local governments introduce a levy to pay for the regular, random checks.
  
  "There are people out there who will put a fence up to make their pool compliant, and after the inspection they will take it down," she said.
  
  Lake Macquarie City Council's chief building surveyor supported the recommendation, but said legislative changes needed to be made at a state level to allow for a levy.
  
  The deaths of three toddlers in Hunter and Central Coast backyards last summer will be investigated as part of a special inquiry into eight NSW preschooler drownings to open in December.
  
  Article sourced from The Herald, 17/09/2009