Question: Where can we find the legislation around safety compliance for playgrounds?
How concerned do we have to be about whether the playground equipment at our body corporate is compliant? I think our issue will be the fall areas.
Where can we find the legislation around safety compliance for playgrounds?
Answer: The owner of the playground, in this instance the body corporate holds a duty of care towards all residents, visitors and even trespassers onsite.
Within Australia, all playgrounds are expected to meet the standards of AS 4685 and then the relevant standards within i.e. swings, slides, cableways etc.
The owner of the playground, in this instance the body corporate holds a duty of care towards all residents, visitors and even trespassers onsite. Therefore the playground of which is common property is too the responsibility and also the liability of the Body Corporate.
As well as following all requirements of AS 4685 and subsequent testings, safety measures etc, the BC should also implement a number of checks to meet their duty of care.
The playground should be routinely checked for safety hazards that may cause a slip, trip fall or impact injury.
The playground should be completely fenced off to avoid the danger of roads/ moving vehicles.
Signage should be installed promoting hours of use, supervision required, emergency contact numbers and stranger danger safety information.
Cleaning should be frequent and particularly more so during the current pandemic climate.
If of an elevated nature a severe fall is possible, a safety mechanism should be implemented to ensure children cannot fall from any elevated heights.
Should an injury occur relating to the playground on common property, similar to any other common property, the questions raised would be ‘was it up to standards and maintained?’ ‘What was done that was reasonably practical to minimise and mitigate a hazard?’
If you are particularly concerned about fall areas this would be an example of a risk that needs a reasonably practical means of minimising or mitigating. This may include installing netting, barriers or crash mats.
The inherent nature of outdoor play presents risks, the important thing is that the body corporate do everything that is reasonably practicable to minimise and mitigate safety hazards.
For any more information relating to common property safety, please feel free to contact myself or the team as we complete thousands of safety reports and audits.
This post appears in the August 2021 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Dakota Panetta Solutions in Engineering E: dakotap@solutionsinengineering.com P: 1300 136 036