Pond pleas ignored

One month ago, the Nelson City Council replied to a resident who had raised concerns about local water safety after her grandchild had fallen into the Tahunanui Modellers' pond.

Eighteen-month-old James Irwin was quickly fished out, but it got his grandmother thinking. On July 6, Lorraine Irwin wrote to the council.

"I know the Washbourne Gardens have a great childproof fence around their pool in Richmond," she wrote.

"What we would like to know is why this hasn't been done in the Queen's Gardens, a great place to take small children on a winter's day. There must be some reason. We presume our council are trying to make Nelson a child-friendly city."

The reply came two days later from parks operations co-ordinator Lindsay Barber. "No-one has yet drowned in the Tahunanui Modellers' Pond or Queen's Garden's pond," he wrote.

Twenty-one month-old Zachary Micheal Kennedy died on Friday after drowning in a pond in the Queen's Gardens.

Zachary was found by members of the public about 11.35am. Attempts to revive him at the scene were unsuccessful.

Mr Barber wrote that swimming pools were required to be fenced because they were located in a domestic environment where there might not necessarily always be close supervision.

By comparison, children accompanying parents on an outing to the gardens were generally well supervised.

James' mother Margaret Jane told The Nelson Mail Mr Barber's response was a "fob off".

"You hear of so many kids falling in there over the last 40 years. I don't think this is a new event."

She said "in a split second" her son had run off to the modellers' pond, but he was quickly fished out by his father. "Everyone just stood around giving us the filthiest looks as if we were atrocious parents, but no-one ran.

"It just shows how quickly it can happen."

Mrs Irwin said it was time to fence such areas.

There needed to be a small deterrent, because at the moment, no parent could ever relax around those large bodies of water.

"At that age, they haven't got any fear. They just keep running. If there was a small fence, it would stop this sort of thing from happening."

She said too often things only changed after a tragedy happened.

"The council needs to look at it again."

Council parks and facilities manager Paul McArthur has said the council had considered fencing Queen's Gardens in the past. Following the fatality, the policy would be automatically reviewed.

The council would be guided by what came out of the police investigation into the accident, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News