Plymouth local council remove a pool and trampoline from council flats
Plymouth local council has removed a pool and trampoline from council flats in the area due to public liability and health and safety worries.
However, the residents of Stonehouse have been angered over the decision that city council officials ordered them to remove the children’s swimming pool and trampoline in their communal gardens.
The trampoline was brought just three months ago, but the pool has been entertaining around 10 children of Block 110 of the King Street Flats in the summer for the last two years.
A letter to the residents from a Plymouth City Council housing officer, stated: “Due to health and safety concerns and public liability insurance issues I must ask you to remove the swimming pool and trampoline as a matter of urgency.”
The officer adds that if the items are not removed, the council will remove them and charge residents for the cost of doing so.
However, the residents do not understand why they need to remove the items as they feel the health and safety standards are satisfactory.
Resident David Milon, 61, said he had spent eight years as a school governor, at Marlborough Primary School and at Parkside Community College in Devonport, before retiring. He said that the trampoline and pool had been paid for by two residents.
“The officer put a note through the door saying they're coming next Wednesday to remove it and they'll charge us,” he said.
“I said, 'What about the children? What do you want them to do – play on the street? I was a governor for eight years; health and safety was one of my duties. I don't know what they mean,” he added.
Resident Lisa Bligh, 30, has two children, Mathew, aged 13, and Anthony, 11 and said: “They're both not happy. Because we're so inner-city, there's not really a park they can go to safely. It gives the kids something to play with in their free time and we can see what they're doing.”
She said the 12-foot circular pool, supported by poles, was normally erected at the end of April and taken down in September.
“The trampoline has netting around it and there are signs that say the children can't go in the pool unless they have an adult with them. In a house, you can have a pool or trampoline; why is it different because we're in a block of flats?”
Danger risks
A council spokeswoman from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents revealed that 39 children have accidentally drowned in pools. Therefore, personal injury and public liability, is a major concern, and whilst they do not want to ruin anybody’s fun, they must maintain strict risk controls.
“There are lots of precautions that need to be in place nowadays to enable equipment like this to be set up in a public area, such as risk assessments and public liability insurance, which is the responsibility of an organiser. But the bottom line is we just don't want anyone to get hurt. Having an unsupervised swimming pool and trampoline in a communal hard surfaced area is dangerous.
“We don't want to spoil anyone's fun and we sympathise with our tenants in this situation, but we cannot allow a four-foot-deep swimming pool and 10ft trampoline to remain unattended in a communal area which is accessible at any time of the day or night.
"The potential for a serious accident is just too great in these circumstances,” she commented.
Updated on 8/5/2009