Today, Keith Marshall and Louise Buchanan released a report examining how Councils were going at meeting their legal
obligations around completing residential swimming pool inspections.
“Motivated by interactions with our local Tasman District Council (TDC), we got to thinking about what the situation
nationwide might be” said Ms Buchanan, a former senior organisational development manager from the corporate sector.
“This report arises from our review of pool inspection data from across the local government (Council) sector.”
In 2016, Parliament made an array of legislative changes to amend the Building Act to update and refresh various
swimming pool fencing obligations that had been initiated with the revolutionary, and hugely effective, 1987 Fencing of
Swimming Pools Act (FOSPA). Among a range of important matters, and because regular inspection was noted as being a
crucial tool in ensuring ongoing pool safety, the refreshed 2016 legislation included a legal requirement for Councils
to inspect all residential swimming pools within their areas every 3 years starting from 1st January 2017.
The Marshall-Buchanan review found that:Overall, the sector is making a reasonably good fist of things with just over half of Councils meeting their legal
obligations.Performance of individual Councils ranges from stunningly good to abjectly poor.In addition:Around 1 in 6 Councils seem to have made little or no effort to comply with the law.Information is generally patchy at being able to demonstrate legal compliance.Such inconsistency in the degree to which the sector meets their legal obligations makes for a situation wherein,
potentially, “post code” law applies.There are no inherent reasons why any Council shouldn’t be complying (given that so many are currently doing so).
In addition, the report offers some comments and views on the nature of accountability for those Councils currently not
meeting their legal obligations and suggests the need for wider consistency across the sector.
“We think accountability is an area requiring some immediate attention; both from the individual elected Councils
themselves, and from the Crown”, said Mr Marshall. “This is not just a simple matter about not meeting a statutory legal
obligation; ultimately, regular inspections are crucial to ensuring ongoing child safety.”
“Ultimately, we both have a huge regard for the competence of the local government sector,” said Mr Marshall, a former
Council Chief Executive on-and-off over the past 30 years. “In that regard, it’s great to see that the sector is
(largely) on top of this important child safety issue, notwithstanding the need to make some much-needed improvements.”