October 31, 2023 — 5.00am
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Senior staff at Lane Cove Council deliberately concealed the council’s lack of proper swimming pool safety inspections from councillors in the months before an 18-month-old toddler drowned in Greenwich, a whistleblower has alleged.
The staff did not warn councillors that the council was in violation of NSW laws covering backyard pool inspections because the staff were worried about their own job security, according to a statement made by the council’s sole compliance officer.
A Greenwich property where the toddler drowned last November, having entered a backyard pool via a pool fence gate with a defective lock, would have been inspected three times if the council was complying with safety laws, the officer, Neil Lynch, told the Herald.
“For a long time afterwards, I felt very guilty,” Lynch said. “I could have pushed harder, I could have made my report louder … That property would potentially have been inspected three times if we had the policy in place.”
Lane Cove Council said it was investigating but would not comment on the allegations raised by Lynch.
Lynch’s statement said that since 2021 he and others had repeatedly warned his bosses that the council was not complying with an amendment to the Swimming Pools Act 1992.
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