Water hazards review after tragic drowning
AREVIEW into water safety across Widnes and Runcorn after a schoolgirl drowned in 2018 is ‘ongoing’.
Halton Borough Council told the Weekly News that work has taken place including assessments of potential risk sites and some signs featuring location grid references have been installed.
An inventory of the borough’s 79 bodies of water has also been completed.
The review was triggered by the death of 14-year-old Teya Davies, who drowned at Sniggy Pond in Clincton Wood, Widnes, on August 4, 2018 while trying to save a friend.
An inquest into the tragedy heard that life rings had been removed from the side of the body of water in the 1990s because of vandalism.
Concerns were also raised over the lack of signs by the pond. The nearest water hazard signage was in the car park.
The Weekly News contacted Halton Council about the issue following a close call for Widnes mum Lifei Wang and her baby daughter who fell into the Sankey Canal after being chased by swans on December 7.
Although the review and work is ongoing, the local authority said there is no specific report covering the scheme.
A council spokesman said: “So far we have made a full inventory of all of our water bodies – there are 79 – and digitally mapped them.
“We are working through them in order to develop a specific risk assessment for each.
“We did Clincton Woods LNR (local nature reserve) first.
“At present we are in the final stages of completing risk assessments for a further 16 of what could be said to be the more high risk areas: tidal waterways, canal etc. In some cases additional signage has/will be installed.
“New innovations such as grid reference point information has been, or will be, provided at the more remote locations.
“This is so that a person making a call to the emergency services can give an accurate location to them.
“There is no report to read about this.
“It’s simply something that we are doing as part of our ongoing management of these sites.”