Hi Jonti who denies being a number.
On the basis that the caravan park is in England it is not in Portmeirion (being in Wales) UNLESS "the lake" is indoors.
So, you have two issues which overlap.
The two Occupier's Liability Acts that apply AND the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (+ of course, everything that goes with HSWA) and in any case consideration of any civil legal obligations that with go with either or both.
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The key case law on Occupier's Liabity is discussed at Guide to public safety on flood and coastal risk management sites - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) which also provides examples of how engineers have approached making decisions as to what to do and what, perhaps, NOT to do in terms of doing things to stop people drowning in bodies of water. [I would note that the first author contributed only a small fraction of this publication].
Sometimes doing too much can be counterproductive. Whilst not directly relevant to your scenario this is explained in the Culvert, screen and outfall manual (C786F) published by CIRIA.
So, as example, it has been common practice over the years for the design of a culvert under e.g. a road to include a "trash screen" on the upstream side of the culvert. The problem is that as soon as the first tree falls down and breaks up it gets caught on the trash screen and prevents it working as intended. So, that in turn means that when there is a surge in water, instead of passing through the screen and through the culvert, you have a flood. Result - whoever is responsible for the culvert gives themselves an added headache in terms of frequently inspecting the trash screen to check that it is clear of debris and removing the debris if found.
The overarching principle in the case law is that there is NO duty on an Occupier to protect against OBVIOUS natural hazards, nor from the hazards of artificial structures, such as a reservoir that are similar to natural hazards.
EXCEPT when there is some unusual feature that exacerbates the risks or makes them less obvious.
BUT (there is always a but!) with the proviso that modern custom and practice is to adopt a risk based approach and e.g. provide railings in heavily populated areas, or where there is a localised increase in the risk.
As example, on one side of the bridge that carries the A82 across the River Kelvin, there is a pub. alongside the walkway/cycle path. It has railings at the edge from which it is sheer fall into the river.
On the other side of the bridge the path does two sharp turns one immediately after the other. Again the hazard is a sheer drop and railings were added about 20 years ago as a part of some flood defence works - which themselves increased the risk of falling from the path.
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However, all this guidance is about places that are usually not subject to ongoing day to day management by people close to the hazard.
Which is where the requirements of HSWA then add to the considerations to be taken.
My first point of guidance would NOT be HSE, but rather RoSPA which has a sizeable water safety team.
Advice and information - RoSPA
You commented:
in this case the park will supply the lake but all equipment etc will be provided by the participants themselves.
That implies that enabling access to the lake is part of the business of the caravan park, and that the park has to some extent control of access to the lake and what activities are done there.
Then it is about working out what is needed to demonstrate compliance with Sections 3 and/or 4 of HSWA.
Section 4 will apply if any of the people organising the water activities in and near the lake are "at work".
But Section 3 will apply whatever the circumstances, so it is about working out what is "reasonably practicable" for the caravan park to do to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable" the safety of persons other than the park's employees.
Perhaps the most recent case of relevance is that of Worksafe New Zealand v Whakaari Management Ltd and others. WorkSafe-v-WHAKAARI-Management-Limited-trial-jud-20231031.pdf (districtcourts.govt.nz)
You will need to do some translation! The occupational health and safety law in Australia in New Zealand is largely very similar to that in the UK except that duty holders such as the "employer" in HSWA are replaced by a "PCBU" - Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking.
OK, you are not dealing with a volcano that might erupt at some point but exactly the same principles apply.
The caravan park has a degree of control over who uses the lake and what they do there.
So the caravan park SHOULD make some rules, and POSSIBLY put in place some precautions. Some fencing? Some life lines, rescue equipment etc? Some signage? Some emergency plan? etc etc.
What would be appropriate will depend on variables including the nature of the lake, any unusual hazards that are less obvious and the nature of the population using the lake and what they are doing there, and what precautions the users themselves will introduce.
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A couple of examples of actual locations:
About 10 miles North of Glasgow are two above ground linked 19th Century reservoirs that used to supply the water to most of the City, but which these days are largely redundant following the construction of a mega underground reservoir, but still with working apparatus should the old reservoirs be needed in a contingency.
People (and their dogs) have walked around these reservoirs probably since soon after their construction was completed but someone decided that this was too risky and decided to fence all these edges and block access across the place where the two reservoirs link together. There was public outrage and Scottish Water backed down.
Go a bit further North West and you come to Loch Lomond, with Balloch Country Park on its Southern tip. People walk thought the Park along the East bank and then beyond and, of course, some of them decide to brave the water.
Loch Lomond is very typical of many similar water bodies in Scotland. It has "shelves". The water gets deeper very slowly until someone reaches the shelf at which point they plunge down the sheer edge and find that the water is suddenly MUCH deeper and MUCH colder.
So, to mitigate this, there has been signage explaining the unusual additional issue which the shelves present + intermittent life rings and other rescue equipment.
Nevertheless, each Summer one or more people drown and each Summer there is a clamour for MORE of every precaution. Each Summer lots of people object strongly to what is being suggested. Each Summer the precautions in place are reviewed and left unchanged.
Edited by user 20 April 2024 16:03:51(UTC)
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