Doing bombs has been banned at all Waikato District Council-owned swimming pools.
General Manager Service Delivery, Tim Harty says the decision was made in the interests of public safety and based on the fact that the Council’s pools have maximum depths of 1.5 metres.
“Other facilities in New Zealand can have depths ranging from 1.8m to 2m and this allows activities such as bombing to occur safely, unfortunately we do not,” he says.
“We have had the ban in place all through the Christmas and New Year period. It has not had an impact on user numbers and there has been no negative feedback from patrons. At this stage it is planned to continue the ban long term.”
The Council’s aquatic facilities operator Belgravia Health & Leisure Group’s Regional Manager – Waikato, Kris Edwards confirmed the blanket ban on bombing was introduced to improve the safety of all pool users.
“We didn’t want to get to a point where a serious injury occurred before taking action,” he says.
“It is not uncommon for bombing to be banned at community pools with similar depths to Waikato’s so we are aligning with other facilities in the country.”
The ban has been in place since 22 December 2016 following an incident where a child was injured from bombing into the Ngaruawahia Swimming Pool.
Mr Edwards says the ban on bombing has been received in a positive light by both patrons and staff since it was introduced.
“There’s been no negativity at all and people are respecting the ban,” says Mr Edwards.
Belgravia Health & Leisure Group operates the three Waikato District Council community swimming pools – Ngaruawahia Swimming Pool, Genesis Energy Huntly Aquatic Centre and Tuakau’s Centennial Pool.
For more information please contact:
John Brown
Communications Advisor
Waikato District Council
07 824 8633
027 889 3084
communications@waidc.govt.nz
