Industry fights NSW “anti-infinity” law
Recently, SPLASH! reported concerns about NSW changes to the Building Code of Australia (BCA) that could, in effect, act as a de-facto ban on infinity pools.
The change stunned industry designers and builders, as it stated that builders constructing pools partially out of the ground can no longer consider a 1.2m non-scalable pool wall as an effective barrier. This is despite the fact that these types of pool walls have been treated as barriers in NSW for a very long time.
Additionally, it went against an understanding with others states not to “tinker” with the BCA.
Concerned landscape architect and pool designer Peter Glass garnered a great deal of support and lobbied the NSW government.
On September 19, a group representing industry, design and construction bodies met with government.
Representatives came from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, the Australian Institute of Architects, the Swimming Pool and Spa Alliance, the Institute of Engineers of Australia, the Australian Institute of Landscape Designers and Managers, the Landscape Contractors Association, the MBA and the HIA.
“It was a great representation,” says Glass. “I was really pleased with the support, and the involvement from the industry shows the level of concern about this issue. Following the article in SPLASH! and on the SPLASH! website, a lot of people contacted me to express support for our cause.
“All sorts of people called. Someone from SPASA Australia called to support us. One guy from down on the Murray River called saying how stupid it was that he’d have one law on one side of the river, and a different law on the other.”
The industry representatives met with three policy planners from the NSW Division of Local Government (DLG) who came up from Nowra for the meeting, together with the senior policy adviser to the Minister of Local Government.
“Basically at the meeting it was agreed that there is a problem,” says Glass. “At the moment they’re not going to change the law, because that would take a long time and they would have to put it to parliament. Instead, they’re going to assist people to work around it.
“It’s as if there was a great big elephant in the middle of the road. They acknowledge it’s a major problem and it’s blocking traffic but it’s too hard for them to move the elephant so they’re going to help people get around it.”
The DLG is commencing work on the wording of a “work-around” and will provide feedback to representatives via Glass. The DLG says they are currently snowed under with the impending pool fencing regulations but say they will prioritise it.
“They all accept it has created major problems and a huge lack of logic in what is required. For example, one Sydney council on the northern beaches was making an owner install a 1.2m high fence around a pool that is already 6m high out of the ground!
“In another instance, a council is trying to make us put a pool fence on the cliff side of one pool in case someone abseils up the cliff to then gain access to the pool.”
This story has been updated in the printed SPLASH! magazine (SPLASH! 91).
