Hi All,

The petition for change in legislation has now been forwarded to Number 10.  As you may already know Mark Tammi, the MP for Alyn and Deeside, has been giving his support for the campaign and on the 10^th May won a debate in Parliament.  The debate centred on the death of Matthew and the need for better legislation and guidelines for small bodies of water, especially those with the title ‘water attraction’ in a public place.

            The argument from the Government through Anne McGuire was that legislation was not the answer.  On the positive side she did say there was room for improvement.  The difficulty with legislation around this area is where should it start and what should it cover?  The broad spectrum of the issue lies between an Ocean to a bucket of water in someone’s garden.  I myself think the problem is from the Ocean side down; once you have determined the scale of water that will have legislative guidelines, and is reasonable to enforce the guidelines, then everything below should fall under the same legislation.  After all, would you like it if your neighbour left his garden gate open for your toddler to find his way to a bucket full of rainwater or a fish pond? 

            If you would like to see the resulting answer from the government about the petition then you can view it at Number 10’s website.  The Hansard for the debate on the 10^th May 2006 can be viewed by clicking here!

 

I would like to thank everyone on behalf of my family and myself for your support and love.

We will make a change!

 

Phil Marsden