Neighbours' children and ponds

C_Mababejive

Have only read page one.

Your neighbour is responsible for the safety of his/her children and not you subject to reasonableness.

It is reasonable to have a landscape feature such as a pond in a back garden or similar.

If there are fences then those responsible for them must maintain them.

Parents must ,in the normal course of parenting, inform and educate their children as to the day to day challenges and dangers which they may face.

Has the neighbour been on to the local highways authority to have all the roads nearby fenced off?

Does he liaise with local environmental health to insist on good air quality around his house?

Jagraf

Parents should look after their children, but they don't, so I would put a fence up. In fact, I wouldn't have a pond as I wouldn't rest.

You can be damn sure you would get blamed if something happened., unfair I know.

I live in a respectable area, on the corner of two little roads. Kids and their parents cut through my drive on their way to school when there is no car there, thinking I'm out. It means they avoid about 5 metres. I could put a pond there .....

FBaby

I guess the days of- 'hi neighbour, I'm putting a pond in my garden, I have no problem with the kids wandering over occasionally, but you might want to keep an eye on them as kids can be curious and ponds abit dangerous. How was your weekend?' - are long gone.

See I believe in parents being responsible and more importantly, teaching their children to be responsible from an early age, but the reality is, however responsible and watchful you are, children do catch you by surprise. Most of the time, the overall safety of the environment and luck means that no harm comes of it and all is well, but it does help to keep obvious dangers away.

However, I know that I would never live with myself if a toddler managed to get into my property because I didn't secure it properly and died needlessly. So however much I consider that it is parent's responsibility to look after their kids, and that I am entitled to do what I want in my property, for my own sake, I would much prefer to make sure I've done what I could to avoid disaster.

Savvy_Sue

julie03 wrote: »

if your garden is entirely secure then it shouldn't be a problem, but as it never would be I certainly wouldn't take the risk, children do wander, it only takes a second for a parent to be distracted and it doesn't matter how much you point out the dangers they never fully comprehend them till much older, not worth it, if a child died in your pond, would you be able to live with it?

I do hope the OP plants any daffodils well away from the onions and chives, and doesn't plant anything which is the least bit poisonous, in case someone else's child wanders in and makes themselves unwell.

C_Mababejive

Jagraf wrote: »

Parents should look after their children, but they don't, so I would put a fence up. In fact, I wouldn't have a pond as I wouldn't rest.

You can be damn sure you would get blamed if something happened., unfair I know.

I live in a respectable area, on the corner of two little roads. Kids and their parents cut through my drive on their way to school when there is no car there, thinking I'm out. It means they avoid about 5 metres. I could put a pond there .....

Have you erected a no trespassing sign? I may send my child around to trip on your drive..:)

Hermoine

Hi, OP here, and thank you all for your replies. Its been very helpful. I would like to stress that I like my neighbour a lot - he and his wife are lovely and we all get on very well. And their child and the other neighbours children are generally pretty well behaved and well supervised. But the children are quite little, and their parents are all quite protective of their children as well - and I sympathise with that.

Having looked on line, you can apparently buy wire grids, with holes of about 10-15 sq cm (so large enough for plants to grow through), from builders' suppliers - which are used for supporting cement - and they are firm enough for smaller ponds. I'll buy one of these when I get the pond liner and make sure my neighbour knows I've got it. And it will remain in place until there's a fence between us, a gate or some other barrier at the front of the garden, and some plants shielding the pond from sight from the shared lane. After that I'll take a view about whether to keep it in place. And by the time that's all in place, all the children in my vicinity will probably have grown up!

seven-day-weekend

If you mount it on a frame so it's a couple of inches off the ground, then frogs and other amphibians will be able to get in and out and it will still be safe for the children.

System

Jagraf wrote: »

Parents should look after their children, but they don't, so I would put a fence up. In fact, I wouldn't have a pond as I wouldn't rest.

You can be damn sure you would get blamed if something happened., unfair I know.

Hear hear!

I suggest the following:

A sign: 4 foot high, in bright red ( with flood lights ofcourse incase it's dark ) - warning there is a pond in the property.

Also provide life jackets, a rescue ring, a helicopter landing pad should air rescue be required.

Ofcourse a 6 foot wall ( if razor wire is required add warning notice as above )

Perhaps a watchtower with 24/7 monitoring. ( the machine gun is optional as HSE may find there is risk of harm...)

Now that's just taking pee (but funny though).:D

supersaver2

Jagraf wrote: »

Parents should look after their children, but they don't, so I would put a fence up. In fact, I wouldn't have a pond as I wouldn't rest.

You can be damn sure you would get blamed if something happened., unfair I know.

I live in a respectable area, on the corner of two little roads. Kids and their parents cut through my drive on their way to school when there is no car there, thinking I'm out. It means they avoid about 5 metres. I could put a pond there .....

Must admit I do agree with this. In an ideal world all parents will watch their children 24/7 and children won't be curious and manage to wander off. But we don't live in an ideal world and I couldn't live with myself if a child drowned in my pond. Some folk are irresponsible and will let their young children wonder, doesn't mean these children shouldn't be protected.

My FIL has a pond in his back garden and yes it is lovely, my 3 year old is attracted to it like a moth to a flame. Of course she is watched and supervised, but it only takes a minute and I am very edgy in his garden in summer.

z.n

Hi OP
You are doing the right thing putting in a rigid type grid. Your neighbours will be able to sleep - and so can you! We removed a pond from our garden years ago as DS was caught the wrong side of the wooden fence supposedly meant to keep him out. He was only just walking so goodness knows how he managed it. We decided it just wasn't worth the risk.

A year later a friend of my Grandmother's lost a grandchild in her pond during a family gathering- there were adults all over the place including in the garden and no-one saw the little one go in. Just watch a small child with a bowl of water and plastic cup- they are fascinated.

Might also be worth looking into some sort of wildlife steps as well.