Safety guidelines covering the way trampoline parks are built and run will move a step closer with the hope that rules will be adopted by industry.
A consultation on draft guidelines to reduce the risks of injury at trampoline parks will close tomorrow (30 November 2016).
A group of 13 organisations, including British Gymnastics, International Association of Trampoline Parks, Luna Trampolines, Gravity UK, Health and Safety Executive and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) launched a draft Publicly Accessible Specification (PAS) at the beginning of November.
A PAS is a document that standardises a product, service or process. It helps organisations and businesses to work with regulators, setting out an agreed level of good practice or quality.
Trampoline parks have to meet health and safety regulations but there are no rules on how they are built and run.
Trampolining is a growing leisure activity in the UK, with almost 100 parks.
However, according to Dave Walker, leisure safety manager at RoSPA, there has been a rise in visits to A&E as a result of accidents at parks.
Some of the rules in the draft include padding has to be secured to the trampoline framework or beds, foam pits and air bag pits for falling onto rather than dismounting shall be a minimum of 864mm deep, the types of landing allowed shall be clearly signed, and basketball rings shall be secured to a solid steel structure and not a backboard.
Walker said: “The guidelines seek to help park managers identify the key risks at both the design and operational stages, with the aim of establishing an effective approach to managing – but not entirely removing – the risk of injury to customers and staff.
“In developing this draft PAS the group focused on creating a set of guidelines that seek to balance the removal of significant risks to injury, while keeping an environment that is attractive and encourages lots of activity, based upon visitors making a fully informed choice.”
The next step will be to review the consultation responses, make amendments and then for guidelines to be implemented as standard.
The RoSPA said it hopes that final guidelines will be adopted by industry, and that customers will be able to see what standards parks work to.
