Frequency of water tests during a let

For anything to do with the garden and pool
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

Annew wrote:Hi there

I have just had major conversations with my DC in Devon who have, eventually, agreed with me that my pool is NOT a public pool and does not need to be monitored by them. (personally I think they are trying to hit quota at the moment and to do this have just googled holiday cottages with pools.....)
Whatever Devon DC says, you're still going to have to produce a risk assessment and in it you're going to have justify a less frequent testing arrangement. The only problem is that if a guest complains that the pool has made them ill, how are you going to be able to defend yourself from claims? The guest will have the pool experts on their side saying that it's a public pool, you are running a commercial business etc and your qualified expert will be ...?
Annew
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Post by Annew »

newtimber wrote:
Annew wrote:Hi there

I have just had major conversations with my DC in Devon who have, eventually, agreed with me that my pool is NOT a public pool and does not need to be monitored by them. (personally I think they are trying to hit quota at the moment and to do this have just googled holiday cottages with pools.....)
Whatever Devon DC says, you're still going to have to produce a risk assessment and in it you're going to have justify a less frequent testing arrangement. The only problem is that if a guest complains that the pool has made them ill, how are you going to be able to defend yourself from claims? The guest will have the pool experts on their side saying that it's a public pool, you are running a commercial business etc and your qualified expert will be ...?
I have a comprehensive risk assessment for our indoor manually dosed pool and already comply with pool safety and testing as required by my insurers - daily testing, detailed record keeping, restricted opening hours etc - which I think is in accordance with current HSE requirements. I would hope that any of us with pools that our guests use do the same, I would expect daily pool testing as a minimum requirement.

This kind of thing comes around every few years or so, the last time the DC had a bee in their bonnet it was about unaccompanied swimming!

However, I am waiting for the knock about showers; hopefully I will have sold up by then!
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teapot
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Post by teapot »

Annew,
Did the insurer's state a maximum number of swimmers? If so can I ask the size of the pool please?
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Annew
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Post by Annew »

teapot wrote:Annew,
Did the insurer's state a maximum number of swimmers? If so can I ask the size of the pool please?
No TP ... but I have to restrict the opening hours to 12 or less per day and provide signage showing the deep and shallow end. There is a clause in my insurance about the age at which children can swim unaccompanied, but it's very vague. They also added a 'no unaccompanied bathing' clause (which is strange considering that was the last issue our DC were worried about) but they have conceded that I am unable to enforce this.

I am required to post a copy of the rules in the pool building and give a copy to our guests.

I've never heard of maximum numbers being imposed, but we are only ever going to have a maximum of 22 plus 4 babies on site. However, only guests resident in our cottages are permitted to use the pool under our rules, hence it not being deemed a public pool.

Incidentally, during our negotiations, I did ask the girl from the Council how would we know if guests had diarrhoea - she couldn't answer! :roll:
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teapot
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Post by teapot »

Thanks Annew,
Well you managed to avoid the commercial pool classification so well done. 12 hours max, maybe to allow the filter and sanitation to catch-up. Max 22 in what sized pool?

A certain size pool and filtration system with automatic dosing should have a limit to the number of bathers based on what the system can reasonably be expected to cope with. PWTAG and the HSE are part of the wise after the event mob who will happily procecute but fail to set any kind of UK regulations.
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susanj
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Post by susanj »

Do pools require more or less maintenance/dosing than hot tubs?
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teapot
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Post by teapot »

Due to the small amount of water and more bathers hot tub/spa's require more dosing, partly because of the increased temperature. Generally the filter setups are tiny. On the commercial ones there are larger external filters.
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