Putting up 6ft pool in public park - no garden

[itsgettingweird]

I really can't work out if I am or not!

I live in a street that's not quiet but not busy either. There is a public park that has loads of grass and a small play area and also lots if public open spaces.

Someone from flats adjacent to park has put up a 6ft swimming pool in the park. It's close to the play equipment meaning parents can't sit on bench by swings when their children play due to SD.

It's unsupervised and currently about 6 local kids in it (not sure if owner of pools kids or just locals or mixture of both)
It's not the mixing that concerns me.

But AIBU to think this isn't safe anyway but you really shouldn't do this as you then take over a public space when the whole family is there like they did yesterday evening?

There is a space that's a bit no lands land between park and flats that has a wooden fence (just like the single barrier) around it and I think if they'd put it there it wouldn't be so bad?)

I'm completely torn between thinking the kids need some fun after lockdown and constantly looking out of my window to check they're safe as no other adult around and the effect this is having on me relaxing.

So AIBU to think they shouldn't put it there?

If I were you I'd put a pin in it, literally

This sort of thing used to happen all the time when I was young in the 60s, no-one cared and everyone had fun. It's only nowadays the elf' and safety police seem to want to come out to ruin it.

I am the first person to say that 'elf & safety' laws these days are beyond ridiculous in many cases - but not in this one. A child can drown in a very small amount of water, and there is no way a pool should be left with water in it in an unsupervised park! I don't live in the UK, but this would be taken very seriously here as we have a lot of people who drown each year, including small children who have a habit of getting away while an adult's back is turned.

Maybe it’s the Australian in me as we have been drilled about pool safety in public campaigns & laws for a long time now - but this is dangerous, there is no fence & in public property.

I understand Lockdown life would make this an appealing option for fun, but it’s a hazard & sounds illegal, even if your pool laws are more lax than ours, you can’t just erect a swimming pool in a public area.

I would contact the council & or police here. Someone could drown & I wouldn’t want to approach the family directly in case they turned nasty

I’m also Australian. This seems beyond stupid to me, a small child can easily topple in (and I’ve seen the way that some British people let children young enough to wear nappies play unsupervised on the street) and on a very fundamental level some children do try to drown others intentionally. Children need constant supervision even around shallow water.

I also have a law background and know that if a child drowned the person that put it there would be liable regardless of what baby boomer posters think about the ‘ ‘elf and safety’.

Ridiculous thing to do! We're in OZ and thought very hard before putting up a similar pool despite our kids being older.

We probably should have fenced it too but we're rural and there are no houses here but ours...so no wandering toddlers. Plus our garden fence is very, very secure. And tall.

We had ours up for a couple of months with a filter on it and I watched every time my kids went in it and they were 11 and 15!

@Winebottle

3 people died in pools in the UK in 2019. That is very low.

That is 3 too many

@FortunesFave hello fellow Aussie - not rural, but would imagine having a pool on a rural property unfenced while technically may be illegal, would have a much more grey area due to dams being common in rural properties. Indeed it’s sadly all to common to hear of kids drowning in the property dam...but I can understand if you have older kids & live rurally you might be more lax about this kind of thing.

I would be more scared to find a spider or snake in the pool in that situation !

As for supervison, a small pool is not much of a drowning risk. Even very young children will remember too breathe, its instinctive. But in any case, that is a decision for parents to make. You wouldn't intervene if it was their garden so why intervene when its in the park

Because it isn't their garden. It's a public space intended for everyone, and they're trying to monopolise it. I wonder how happy they would be to see other families using it. Not very, I would imagine.

A child can drown in a few inches of water. 75cm is more than enough.

Leaving it out at night is beyond grim. It'll be full of insects, leaves and crap, and that's just the stuff you can see. Someone or something is bound to do something unpleasant in there. I think the parents want their heads tested.

It must be freezing cold as well, it’s hardly been warm lately.

My first thought is drowning.....what are they thinking??

“Even very young children will remember too breathe, its instinctive.”

Do you think people drown because they forget to breathe?

There's a very good chance they've not left it for the use of others, but rather they're lazy arseholes who assume someone else will dispose of it. It was probably only a cheap one they can't be bothered with.

I bet if you put a sticker on it saying "Property of 12 Acacia Avenue" it would get removed sharpish.

@JacobReesMogadishu

It must be freezing cold as well, it’s hardly been warm lately.

Hot here in the southsouth-east!

It's a public place! Of course, YANBU! i'd report them, tbh

That sounds a bit gross. Hope they are topping it up with chlorine. Some play parks aren't open yet here yet those kids will be jumping in and out and swallowing stagnant water that Unknowns have wee'd in.
That's disgusting

I think I have the pool you describe. It takes 2 hours to fill and the same to empty, if you use the hose attachment. Probably why they have left it.

It gets manky quickly if not using a filter or chlorine.

Even very young children will remember too breathe, its instinctive.

If you breathe in water, you drown. Have you got to adulthood and not realised that?

Hello Aussies - I'm in NZ, it seems those of us in this part of the world take this sort of thing seriously, as we should. I can't believe some of the responses on this thread!

Those who are quoting drowning statistics, you do realise they're so low precisely because we don't have unsupervised pools in our parks? What do you think would happen if every council decided to open a pool in their parks and not supervise it?

Pearl clutching, fun spoiling, interfering kill joys the lot of you.

I hope the OP has reported this. If something happened to a child, it would have a lasting impact had i known about it and did nothing.

I think it is fine (better if allowed people to sit on bench) except it is unsupervised. If parents were there watching, then ok.

There'll be a couple of rats doing backstroke in it by now

@StatementKnickers

Meh, everyone did stuff like this in the 1980s and we all survived. Unless there are very young (preschool) children in it unsupervised I would let them get on with it.

Technically you are correct, all of us who are alive did survive. Those who drowned didn't survive.

I remember being carefully watched around water as a child. There were also public health announcements warning people how easy it is for children to drown.

Aside from the risk of drowning, it won’t be chlorinated to a sufficient level to prevent it being an infection source for COVID transmission. Grim as well as stupid.