Action will be taken by public bodies to respond to an independent report about safety along the River Avon by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) published on Thursday.
The report was jointly commissioned by Avon and Somerset Police and Bath & North East Somerset Council to understand the risks along the River Avon between Windsor Bridge and Churchill Bridge, Bath. This stretch was identified by Avon Fire & Rescue Service as a location of a high number of water related incidences where the fatalities of Kharunigan Jayanatham, Caspar Flagg and James Bubear occurred.
Because of the wide range of landowners along this stretch, there was no clear lead public organisation to progress work on improving safety. Therefore, the Police and Council decided to jointly commission the RoSPA report.
A number of recommendations are made including highlighting risks along the route with signage, ensuring maintenance of the bank infrastructure, the on-going promotions of awareness raising campaigns, and providing feedback to the Bath Riverside developers on how river safety can be improved.
Councillor David Dixon (Lib-Dem, Oldfield), Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said, “On behalf of Bath & North East Somerset Council and Avon and Somerset Police, I would like to thank RoSPA for a thorough and detailed report. All of the public and private authorities must take all of the report’s conclusions and recommendations seriously if we are to help prevent tragedy on this stretch of the River Avon.
“There are some straightforward steps that the Council will be taking almost immediately and officers are working to achieve these with our partners. Further work is required address some of the recommendations which require a longer term commitment and we will be reporting back to the public regularly on how these are being achieved.”
Bath City Centre Neighbourhood Inspector Steve Mildren said: “We support the findings of the RoSPA report and hope they will go a long way towards helping prevent any future tragedies. We are working constantly with our partners to raise awareness of the dangers of the river and we repeatedly issue advice, particularly to young people, about taking sensible and simple measures to keep safe on a night out in the city.”
Denis McCann, Avon Fire & Rescue Unitary Manager for B&NES, said, “We fully support the findings of the RoSPA report which offers some practical solutions on how safety could be improved along the River Avon in Bath.
“Since we first raised our concerns over the number of rescues firefighters had been involved with along the river, we have been committed to working with all agencies to reduce the number of tragic accidents. Already we are seeing signs that awareness and education work is having positive results, with a 50% reduction in the number of water related incidents we have attended this year, however there is still room for improvement.We would welcome the early implementation of all the measures suggested by RoSPA, ensuring Bath is an even safer city for people to live, work, and visit.”
In the November edition of RoSPA publication ‘Staying Alive’ Peter Cornall, their Head of Leisure Safety, said, “This is an approach which needs to be adopted elsewhere, attempts to break the chain in more than one place at the same time is likely to have more success than just trying a single isolated initiative.”
Immediate actions to be undertaken:
- Visibility of the ladder cut-outs will be improved that they can be seen by people who fall into the river – responsibility of the Environment Agency once the Council completes this task once;
- Signage will be made even clearer to ensure the dangers of the river are fully recognised;
- Ensure that hedges, grass edges and any weeds that are growing close to the water’s edge are regularly cut back to ensure the width path is as clear as possible;
- Repair all grab lines and ladders to ensure that anyone that falls into the river is able to stay afloat and exit the water – responsibility of British Waterways who have committed to doing this work in 2012/13;
- Continue the approach to improving awareness of the dangers of the river to local people, particularly the student population – Avon Fire & rescue Service and Student Community Partnership have led on this.
Many options were considered by RoSPA as ways of improving safety. In respect of CCTV the report commented:
“We conclude that CCTV is not beneficial at this location, as the likely cost of fitting the system; including lighting in terms of financial, environmental and energy usage is significant in terms of the benefit of possibly identifying persons in the water.”
The possibility of life rings or other public rescue equipment was also investigated. The report commented:
“Life Rings or other Public Rescue Equipment such as throw lines would likely be stolen or vandalised on a fairly regular basis along this stretch of the river… The provision of life rings can actually increase the incidence of swimming and diving into water as life rings can indicate that swimming is expected or condoned and that the life ring offers significant protection, which may not actually be true. Therefore we do not consider that providing life rings is the most appropriate solution at this location.”
The Council will provide regular updates on progress towards implementing the recommendations at forthcoming Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel meetings.
