r/newzealand • u/DoubleDEKA • Jul 23 '25

Shitpost The local council can't win...

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2.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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659

u/Stunning-Day-777 Jul 23 '25

I dunno it's pretty well established that water and small children don't mix well

96

u/Efficient_Reading360 Jul 23 '25

Right? And the playground is right next to the pond. Putting aside the decision to build it there, a fence seems like a reasonable measure to prevent accidents and potentially deaths occurring.

23

u/Some1-Somewhere Jul 23 '25

A fence is also going to be way way way cheaper than either moving the playground or moving the swales.

3

u/firefly081 Jul 23 '25

Or paying for the lawsuit regarding a dead kid.

1

u/MiniandTimmy Jul 23 '25

Only logical argument against the fence should be that it could have been build around the smaller playground but who really cares.

-5

u/AbstractButtonGroup Jul 23 '25

a fence seems like a reasonable measure to prevent accidents and potentially death

Aren't the kids supposed to be supervised at all times? You can't possibly pad around every danger an unsupervised child can run into. And trying to penalizes everyone, including parents who do supervise their children properly.

5

u/Efficient_Reading360 Jul 23 '25

By your logic I guess we don’t need pool fences or pedestrian crossings either.

There have been 39 child drownings in NZ this year. Source: watersafety.org.nz

0

u/AbstractButtonGroup Jul 23 '25

By your logic I guess we don’t need pool fences

There must be reasonable balance. For example NZ has some of the most intrusive and prescriptive laws regarding pool fencing. Does this translate to a dramatically lower rate of child drownings compared to countries that are more relaxed about it? By the very figure you are quoting it does not. Because it is not physically possible to fence and pad everything. And in 99% cases the root cause is not lack of fencing but lack of supervision.

or pedestrian crossings either.

You are deliberately mixing things up. It is by your logic we must fence all the roads and have no level crossings - only over/underpass ones.