www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
Editor’sLetter JUN 2011 SPN
5551
spn incorporating Pool & Spa Industry is the official trade magazine for the UK wet leisure markets and is the only trade publication that invests in the industry it serves.
letter
Editor and Co Publisher: Alan Lewis T: +44 (0)1823 431767
E:
alan.lewis@gopublishing.co.uk
Feature Writer: Karen Witney T: +44 (0)1865 422089
E:
karen.witney@gopublishing.co.uk
Co Publisher and Sales: Tony Weston T: +44 (0)1474 813433
E:
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Operations Director: Jon Wadeson T: +44 (0)20 8306 8150
E:
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Subeditor: Andrea Hartshorne E:
thewordsmiths@hotmail.co.uk
Production: Cathy Varley T: +44 (0)1823 432416
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gopublishing.co.uk
Accounts: Sam Bartholomew T: +44 (0)1823 430639
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Annual subscription rates (6 issues): UK £30, Europe £50 and ROW £60 To subscribe, please visit our website.
spn is published by F gopublishing
Go Publishing Ltd, PO Box 874, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 9HB, UK n
www.gopublishing.co.uk
Printed in the UK by The Manson Group Ltd
Go Publishing Ltd accepts no liability for any insert, display or classified advertisement included in Swimming Pool News. While every reasonable care is taken to ensure that all advertisers are reliable and reputable, Swimming Pool News can give no assurance they will fulfil their obligations under all circumstances. The views expressed in the articles in Swimming Pool News are the contributors’ own. All rights reserved. Copyright for all materials published in spn remains with the publishers. Material contained in this publication is not to be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior permission of Go Publishing Ltd.
ew things unite the international swimming pool market more than the statistics released every year which show the number of people who die from drowning. The statistics are sobering.
They rarely show any signs of improvement – often just the opposite.
Of course not everyone who drowns is involved in a swimming pool incident. Far from it. But the vast majority die because they can’t swim or have never had the opportunity to learn to swim well.
There’s a theme of pool safety and the continual efforts to do something about these statistics in and around the pool, running through SPN this issue. In the UK we have, for the time being at least, escaped the tighter controls legally imposed on private and commercial swimming pool owners, particularly in Europe but also the United States and Australia, which makes pool fencing, pool alarms and lockable access to pools mandatory. France has some of the strictest laws when it comes to pool fencing and alarms as many UK owners of French properties continue to discover. There is no sign as yet that any such controls are likely in Britain.
Which in turn puts added pressure on making
sure enough is being done to make sure every generation gets the maximum chance to learn how to swim.
SPATA, the trade association, works closely with the influential Swimming Teachers’ Association to link the trade in with what STA is doing as it re- enforces its demands for better water safety education. The more who learn to swim and to love swimming are, down the line, more likely after all to be motivated one day to have their own pool. STA makes the point well that struggling to swim 25 metres in a warm pool in a swimming costume, the current Key Stage 2 requirement, does not make a child safe falling into cold water and a current. There are initiatives. We report in this issue that the month of April saw a record number of local authorities returning to their policy of offering free swimming to children. There’s also a fantastic joint initiative between British Swimming and the BBC, called the Big Splash, which now aims to encourage thousands of people to visit their local swimming pool, where they will learn to swim and improve their techniques in a supervised environment. They will also be taught the basics of water safety. David Sparkes, Chief Executive of swimming governing body the ASA, made the point well when he said: “Being able to swim and swim well is so important because ultimately swimming is the only sport that can save your life.” Pool builders face the safety issue with every new project they undertake. Pool covers in particular offer some sort of comfort and re- assurance to owners.
It’s right to take preventative measures and the trade can offer customers some great products but the sad figures which reflect water related accidents every year means it will always be a important theme within the specialist industry to help to get more people to learn to swim.
Alan Lewis – Editor
Go Publishing also publishes: What Pool & Hot Tub magazine – our sister publication – is the only consumer magazine in the UK that provides the complete and crucial information that potential buyers are looking for! For more information visit the What Pool & Hot Tub website at
www.whatpoolandhottubmag.co.uk
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