Neighbours' children and ponds

Hermoine

I live in a small terrace with a shared lane at the back which separates the terrace from everyone's back gardens, which are also used as parking spaces. Because its a private lane children play out a lot, usually supervised by parents if they are very young. My back garden currently has no fence between it and the neighbours', and is mainly trellis at the front, with no gate. Their garden is mainly a very large shed, but also a terrace with a washing line. They don't use their space very much, as their main garden is in the front, but I am a mad keen vegetable gardener, so have just turned most of mine into a (potential at this time of year) vegetable patch. When this work was being done, I asked for a smallish wildlife pond at the back. This is currently a hole in the earth, and my neighbour has pointed out that he hopes the pond is covered in some way -presumably to make it safe for his small son and the other children. Whilst I appreciate that it could be dangerous when there isn't a fence between my garden and his garden, and am happy to get something in place until the fence is built, I don't think I should have to have anything like that afterwards. Even though the garden won't be entirely secure, as there won't be any gate at the front, the pond is right at the back, so a child would have to come the whole way down the garden. It would be quite hard to put in a gate, for all sorts of reasons.

Parents of smallish (under 6 ?) children - is this reasonable? I don't have children, so I am not entirely sure what's reasonable. They are lovely neighbours, and because of the way the houses and gardens are, we all have to rub along, and I don't want to upset them at all
by saying this. It also goes without saying that I don't want to be responsible for the death of a small child...

Mojisola

Hermoine wrote: »

Parents of smallish (under 6 ?) children - is this reasonable?

Mine are well past 6 but I was responsible for their safety, not my neighbours.

If there was something dangerous in a neighbour's garden, it would have been down to me to keep my child away.

marleyboy

Once you have a fence in place, it shouldn't be a problem.

robotrobo

Mojisola wrote: »

Mine are well past 6 but I was responsible for their safety, not my neighbours.

If there was something dangerous in a neighbour's garden, it would have been down to me to keep my child away.

may be so ! , but get a fence around it & also put a net over it!, good chance that if a wandering child who falls in does not drown.
Especially as you already know that children live & play in that area.
It shows to me that you have no children!.

sooty&sweep

Hi

I totally agree that parents are responsible for supervising their children but saying that children also have a tendancy to sneak off if / when they get the opportunity to investigate things that intrigue them eg ponds.
We are convinced that my son had stealth technology when he was younger because although we watched him carefully on occasion he'd get past us.
So if the pond is somewhere that children could easily get at then I think you should consider if you could make it safer.
I've seen too many newspaper stories of children drowning in ponds.
Jen

Scottie_dog

Ponds can be curious places for children. I would suggest you wait to fill your pond until your garden is completely secure. It's not worth the risk in my opinion. But I am a big fan of ponds :-)

Wirenth

Whatever you do, please don't put a net over the pond, as previously suggested. There have been many cases in the US of children drowning in backyard pools with covers on. The kids fall in, the cover/net wraps around them, drags them to the bottom, as they can't flail their way to the surface and they die.

Something else to discourage a wandering kiddie would be better - perhaps thorny bush covering a small fence?

sulkisu

Hermoine wrote: »

I live in a small terrace with a shared lane at the back which separates the terrace from everyone's back gardens, which are also used as parking spaces. Because its a private lane children play out a lot, usually supervised by parents if they are very young. My back garden currently has no fence between it and the neighbours', and is mainly trellis at the front, with no gate. Their garden is mainly a very large shed, but also a terrace with a washing line. They don't use their space very much, as their main garden is in the front, but I am a mad keen vegetable gardener, so have just turned most of mine into a (potential at this time of year) vegetable patch. When this work was being done, I asked for a smallish wildlife pond at the back. This is currently a hole in the earth, and my neighbour has pointed out that he hopes the pond is covered in some way -presumably to make it safe for his small son and the other children. Whilst I appreciate that it could be dangerous when there isn't a fence between my garden and his garden, and am happy to get something in place until the fence is built, I don't think I should have to have anything like that afterwards. Even though the garden won't be entirely secure, as there won't be any gate at the front, the pond is right at the back, so a child would have to come the whole way down the garden. It would be quite hard to put in a gate, for all sorts of reasons.

Parents of smallish (under 6 ?) children - is this reasonable? I don't have children, so I am not entirely sure what's reasonable. They are lovely neighbours, and because of the way the houses and gardens are, we all have to rub along, and I don't want to upset them at all
by saying this. It also goes without saying that I don't want to be responsible for the death of a small child...

Reasonable doesn't come into it. Legally, it if is your property, it is your responsibility and you do have a duty of care. Google the Occupiers Liability Acts of 1957 and 1984, or have a word with your home insurers. That duty even extends to trespassers but even more so for young children.

fabforty

Mojisola wrote: »

Mine are well past 6 but I was responsible for their safety, not my neighbours.

If there was something dangerous in a neighbour's garden, it would have been down to me to keep my child away.

If your neighbour's garden was accessible to your children (if there was no fence for example), then your neighbour would be legally liable. As another poster has already mentioned, this is covered by the Occupiers Liability Acts. Of course we have a responsibility to safeguard our own children (before anyone jumps in to say that), but it is worth OP knowing the legal position.

Hermoine

I wouldn't put a net over it as I quite understand that could be dangerous to children, or indeed animals. In the short term, I think you can get metal meshes which sit on or just over the surface of the pond. Of course that will mean that some of the wildlife that I had hoped would use the pond can't.

Once the fence between me and my neighbour is up I will also ensure through planting that the pond isn't visible from the shared lane, so that children can't get curious about it.

Thank you for all your feedback so far!

Andypandyboy

I think that being so close to young children I would not be able to think about a pond without being sure it was safe.

A mesh over the pond would be the way forward for me, but then, I know of a family here in my own street whose 3 year old died in their pond.......it must 30 plus years ago, and they have never got over it.