MP leads campaign for tighter control on pools

Pressure is growing on the Government to introduce new laws requiring most hotels with swimming pools to employ lifeguards.

Colin Breed, Liberal Democrat MP for South-east Cornwall, this week said in Parliament that hotels and holiday camps with pools should be compelled to have a licence.

The adjournment debate followed a demand by coroner David Bruce earlier this month for a licensing system after recording a verdict of accidental death on a girl and a young woman who drowned in a holiday camp pool in Cornwall.

Breed said hotels should have to prove they were meeting Heath and Safety Executive standards that say pools need a lifeguard if the water is deeper than 1.5m or greater in area than 170sq m, and if there are any abrupt changes in depth. If these standards are followed, a lifeguard is also essential if diving is allowed, if the pool is used by children under the age of 15, if it gets crowded or if food or alcohol is available.

Breed said HSE standards were not being fully enforced by local authorities, who were responsible for inspecting non-municipal pools used by the public.

At the inquest into the deaths of Tshan Kamara, seven, and Vanessa Gregson, 19, at Honicombe Manor Holiday Village last May, Bruce highlighted the steepness of the pool's gradient and the lack of a lifeguard, and recommended the pool's immediate closure until the gradient had been adjusted.

Nine people died in hotel and holiday camp pools in 1998. Figures for municipal pools are declining, but they have stayed static for hotels and holiday camps.

There are currently no laws governing private pools. Councils can take action under Health and Safety at Work legislation against pool owners. But supporters of licensing said these laws were not specific enough and made it too easy for cases to be overturned on appeal.

by Cathy Cooper

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 20 - 26 January 2000