Welcome Guest! The IOSH forums are a free resource to both members and non-members. Login or register to use them

Postings made by forum users are personal opinions. IOSH is not responsible for the content or accuracy of any of the information contained in forum postings. Please carefully consider any advice you receive.

Notification

Icon
Error

Options
Go to last post Go to first unread
JontiFree  
#1 Posted : 19 April 2024 15:06:10(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
JontiFree

One of the caravan parks I look after is going to open up a lake to watersports (paddle boarding, canoeing, swimming) and I need to do a risk assessment for it but am struggling to find much in the way of guidance for unsupervised watersports.

Has anyone out there got anything that can help?

peter gotch  
#2 Posted : 19 April 2024 15:57:38(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
peter gotch

Jonti

There is guidance out there, but we would need to know where this caravan park is situated before being able to work out what might be appropriate.

....and, at risk of offending you, I for one would want some confidence that this is a genuine question before spending time answering it.

Whilst I appreciate that people newly registering on these Forums can choose whatever user name they wish, there have been a lot of spam postings recently and I wonder whether yours fails what has become known as the "Kate test".

Your user name is suggestive of the surname "Free" which might well have been a name adopted by slaves when manumitted but it is very uncommon in modern times.

At a very quick glance on Google, 0.004% of people in the US have the surname "Free", Half that percentage in the UK where, in contrast, "Freeman" is quite common - a result of release from serfdom in an age long before European countries went empire building.

That the proportion in the US is double that in the UK is hardly surprising given the history of slavery in some Southern States.

So, if you want answers from the usually very helpful contributors to these Forums, I suggest you give us some more information to give us some confidence as to who you are.

thanks 1 user thanked peter gotch for this useful post.
A Kurdziel on 22/04/2024(UTC)
JontiFree  
#3 Posted : 19 April 2024 17:00:20(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
JontiFree

Hi Peter Thanks for the reply & for the research into my surname. I am not a number I am a Freeman (hopefully someone gets that reference). JontiFree has been my go to forum name for 30 odd years but absolutely no harm in confirming that I’m legit. The caravan park in question is in England, just, don’t really want to go into more specifics on where exactly. I imagine the guidance is out there, so even some guidance on finding the guidance would be appreciated. I’ve got HSE179 which is some help & there are plenty of examples of RA’s for water sports but they are generally for organised activities whereas in this case the park will supply the lake but all equipment etc will be provided by the participants themselves. Thanks in advance.
peter gotch  
#4 Posted : 20 April 2024 16:00:17(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
peter gotch

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.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

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.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________

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)  | Reason: Formatting

thanks 3 users thanked peter gotch for this useful post.
Viking-andy on 20/04/2024(UTC), JontiFree on 21/04/2024(UTC), A Kurdziel on 22/04/2024(UTC)
A Kurdziel  
#5 Posted : 22 April 2024 09:27:17(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
A Kurdziel

I agree with Peter the question you should be asking is: should the activities be supervised?  The guidance out there will focus on HOW to supervise water activities not IF you should supervise activities. The Congelton case is clear: if you tell people not to use an  of water for activities and put up a few signs then you have discharged your duty of care. In this case though, the park owner is encouraging( treating?) to use the water, and this point you need to start managing. For example are all water sports permitted or do you say yes to paddle boards and no to jet skis? Once you do that then you need to supervise people and take steps to enforce your rules.

thanks 1 user thanked A Kurdziel for this useful post.
JontiFree on 22/04/2024(UTC)
firesafety101  
#6 Posted : 22 April 2024 10:08:09(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
firesafety101

There are hotels who don't have physical supervision for their swimming pools and use CCTV instead.  They allow 'Lone' swimming.  I don't know if they have underwater cameras though ?

JontiFree  
#7 Posted : 22 April 2024 10:09:35(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
JontiFree

Thank you both for your help. The ROSPA site had some very useful info. The level of supervision was where I was struggling, so I was going down the route of a non-lifeguarded swimming pool. The ROSPA advice & case law examples suggest that we only need to make people aware of unusual hazards. I’m not 100% comfortable with that so a combination of the two weighted more towards the non-lifeguarded swimming pool is probably the way to go. The lake is fenced off with gated access which is locked out of hours. It is solely for the use of people on the Park, so info on any hazards can be given in welcome packs & backed up with signage (lake depth, no diving etc). PRE is already in place. I’m suggesting CCTV to cover the whole of the lake. Regular checks for debris & excess weed etc. Rules on age limits & parental supervision. Closing of the lake under certain weather conditions (lightning, ice). Recommend that people shower/wash hands after contact with water. I understand it’s difficult to give advice on something you’ve not seen but your help is very much appreciated.
grim72  
#8 Posted : 22 April 2024 10:37:43(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
grim72

Are you planning to include life buoys/rings/throw bags etc in addition to the signage by the waterside? If someone did get in trouble on the lake - having something available to help them keep afloat might be advisable - relatively low maintenance in terms of checks and don't cost the earth (usually). I'd also consider an AED unit if viable.

JontiFree  
#9 Posted : 22 April 2024 11:04:33(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
JontiFree

Yes, there are already life rings in place all around the lake. There is an AED on park
grim72  
#10 Posted : 22 April 2024 13:17:26(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
grim72

Good to hear - I know you are England based but there is some good info/advice at https://www.lochlomond-trossachs.org/plan-your-visit/respect-park-stay-safe/fun-stay-safe-water/ which I am sure you can adapt and tailor to your own requirements in terms of supplying info packs etc that you had suggested.

There is also a council risk assessment that might have some relevance based on the fact much of their waterways are unsupervised so should be some crossi=over you can use in the appendix etc. https://www.north-ayrshire.gov.uk/Documents/CorporateServices/ChiefExecutive/water-safety-policy.pdf

thanks 1 user thanked grim72 for this useful post.
peter gotch on 23/04/2024(UTC)
Users browsing this topic
Guest
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.