Two incidents of staff/contractors locking up and leaving council-owned facilities while customers were still inside, have managers now implementing new procedures.

Two girls were left inside the Molyneux Aquatic Centre and a customer at the Ranfurly Transfer Station, a health and safety report to the Audit and Risk Committee last week revealed.

The two girls, aged 11 and 13, found an emergency exit to leave the pool in Alexandra after a staff member locked up earlier than usual at the end of the day.

The report by health, safety and wellbeing advisor Hannes Strydom said checks were made by lifeguards to make sure that everyone had left the premises, but the changing rooms were not thoroughly checked. 

The girls managed to phone one of their parents and the team leader for the centre was eventually contacted who went to unlock the pool – by that time the girls had already managed to get out.

The parents of both girls were contacted and offered an apology. 

The shift manager agreed a thorough check of all areas was not carried out, and team members were reminded of the closing procedures.

In Ranfurly, a customer was locked inside for 15 minutes after the transfer station had closed for the day in a similar situation. The customer contacted the council’s customer service centre who were unable to unlock the gate, but the problem was eventually resolved.

Enviro NZ investigated the incident and instructed their staff at all transfer stations to walk around the sites at the end of each day to ensure there were no customers on the premises before they locked up.

 Staff have also been reminded of this at their regular monthly meetings.

Hannes told the meeting staff now followed through a checklist to sign off everything before they left the building, and this was a good example of the processes coming into play.