Slide a casualty of health and safety

A much-loved piece of North Otago playground equipment is about to slide into history  because of health and safety regulations.

The slide at Papakaio School has been in place for 41 years, during which time bottoms have slid down it more  than 615,000 times, according to the school.

But now, after a year of trying to find  a way to save it, the school’s board has decided to sell the slide  as it no longer complies with health and safety legislation. The  members of the 140-pupil school just north of Oamaru are sad.

Sophia Lastimosa (9) said she had fond memories of the slide.

"I feel a little sad because before, when I was a young one, I was really scared of going down it and then I went down and kept going and it was really fun. I don’t play on it much any more."

Quinn Gonzales (9) said he was going to miss it and Lachlan Wright (9) said he loved the fireman’s pole on the side of the slide, which made  a good  fort, and it was great to hold on to during  games of tag.

The school’s principal, Gary Shirley, said selling the slide was a difficult decision.

"It’s been a real hard thing to do.

"There’s been a change to health and safety regulations and culpability around accidents. The legislation is just getting so precise and tight."

Problems with the slide included its height, steepness, lack of sides and sharp  change of angle  at the bottom.

No builder would work on the slide without an engineer’s report and someone to sign the work off as safe.

"In the end, it was too hard to make it comply. There would just be too many changes to make it cut [it]."

If  a child was to seriously injure themselves on the slide, under new health and safety rules the school could find itself in serious trouble.

It was his personal belief  the new  rules went too far, Mr Shirley said.

"It is having a significant impact, but the last thing I want to do is ring a parent and tell them their child has been significantly damaged because we haven’t done something."

The school was selling the slide in an online auction. The slide would potentially be replaced by a flying fox.

It was expected to  be removed from the school grounds by mid-January.

shannon.gillies@odt.co.nz