Guernsey's Sea Donkey, Adrian Sarchet, has taken to social media after hearing about States plans to remove the diving board at La Vallette Bathing Pools.

The States Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has ordered the removal of the diving platform at the Ladies’ Pool, due to 'concerns about the increased likelihood of serious injury' after reports of 'near misses'.

The HSE says the water underneath the board goes between 2 and 2.75 metres, which is below the 3.2-metre minimum depth required by the World Aquatics and British Standards for a platform of this height.

The States says increasing the depth of the pool would cost around £1M, plus the costs of a round-the-clock lifeguard and segregating the diving area, which are also required.

Robin Gonard, Chief Officer of the Health and Safety Executive and Trading Standards Service, says they have to abide by international safety standards.

“As with any other organisation, the States of Guernsey has a responsibility to ensure that its buildings and facilities are safe and do not pose an undue risk to members of the public.

“We reviewed the risk assessment carried out by Agriculture, Countryside and Land Management Services and benchmarked the control measures against national and international standards.

“While we recognise it has been a feature of the Ladies’ Pool for decades, international safety standards have naturally developed in that time as risk management has become more prevalent in modern times.

”From a Health and Safety Executive perspective, there is a legal responsibility to ensure compliance with such evolving standards.

“In light of the assessment we carried out, our decision was that immediate action needs to be taken to ensure compliance with modern safety standards to protect members of our community by avoiding the risk of serious injury or worse.”

Avid sea swimmer Adrian Sarchet is inviting the Guernsey public to join him in a standing protest around the pool from 9am until 10am on Sunday (9 February).

He is angry about the lack of public consultation.

He says the users of La Vallette Bathing Pools deserved better notice:

"I think anyone that has sat there on a nice summer afternoon, you’re treated to the sound of constant laughter from children leaping off the board and I think it would be a terrible terrible shame for future generations to be robbed of that experience.

”I thought the removal of a much-beloved icon would have expected there to have been more public consultation.

”So I thought it would be a good idea to get the community together in order to just slow down the idea of it being removed and actually open a dialogue with both the Health and Safety Executive and the States to see if there was somewhere saving it."

There used to a much taller, tiered diving board at Guernsey's Bathing Pools - Image from My Guernsey Facebook Page