Add pool safety checks to your summer maintenance schedule

With the weather warming up and school holidays around the corner, it’s time to make sure your backyard pool is safe and compliant with all regulations.

Between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020, 21 children drowned in Australia, with a disturbing nine of these being under 14-years of age in swimming pools*. *Royal Life Saving - National Drowning Report 

Don’t take any chances around the pool. It’s every pool owner’s responsibility to make sure their pool is safe and they’re up-to-date with swimming pool laws, safety requirements, and pool registration.

No matter when your pool was built or installed, all pools and spas must be registered on the NSW Government online register to avoid fines. If you are selling or leasing your property you will need a current Swimming Pool Compliance Certificate.

With 21,323 registered pools on the Northern Beaches, Council’s swimming pool compliance team act on hundreds of complaints and concerns about unsafe backyard pools every year.

Common reasons pools are non-compliant and unsafe on the Northern Beaches are:

To be certain your swimming pool is complaint you should consider making an application for a swimming pool compliance certificate which can be obtained from Council or a registered pool certifier.

Council prioritises swimming pool safety and compliance, and we strictly enforce the requirements of the Swimming Pools Act.  We want residents to report any concern they have so that we can investigate and help bring unsafe pools to standard.

If a pool is found to be non-compliant on inspection, owners must act within a strict timeframe to ensure it is fully compliant. We will then carry out a follow-up inspection to ensure on-going compliance.

And remember to Do the Five - fence the pool, shut the gate, teach your kids to swim – it’s great, supervise – watch your mate and learn how to resuscitate.