The Building and Energy regulator has said that while Local Governments have shown overall improvement in inspecting private pool safety barriers, progress is still to be made to protect young children from drowning risks.
The enhanced program follows an Ombudsman’s report which found more than 8,600 private swimming pools in the State were overdue for barrier inspections in mid-2015.
Executive Director of Building and Energy, Saj Abdoolakhan said that under WA laws, all private swimming pools, spas and portable pools with water more than 30cm deep must have a safety barrier that complied with the law and restricted the access of young children.
“Local Governments are required to carry out compliance inspections of the safety barriers of private pools in their districts,” Mr Abdoolakhan said.
“If a period of four years lapses between checks, the pool is considered overdue for inspection.”
He said Building and Energy’s latest report reveals that at 30 June, there were 2,571 overdue inspections across the State.
As a percentage, 1.5 per cent of pools were overdue for inspection.
Mr Abdoolakhan said this was an improvement from the last two reporting periods (both 1.6 per cent).
“The report notes that Local Governments inspected the pool safety barriers at almost 48,000 private properties during 2021-22,” he said.
“Nine Local Authorities, all in regional WA, did not provide their inspection information.
“Reasons for overdue inspections included not being able to access properties, staff resourcing, COVID-19, bushfires and the ongoing impact of Cyclone Seroja.”
Mr Abdoolakhan said the report showed a low percentage of overdue inspections, “but there is still room for improvement, particularly for Local Governments with a significant number of overdue inspections and for those that have not provided data”.
