David Peart is not happy with the new pool fencing laws that took effect from January 1.

'The new laws are imposing on our personal space and the enjoyment of our own home, and are totally unnecessary in certain circumstances,” says David.

David and his wife Heather live in a three-storey home at Mount Maunganui.

While the swimming pool is on the second floor, it's actually at ground level on the hillside property. There is a sliding roof over half of the pool.

The Government has repealed the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act 1987, and from January 1 the rules became part of the Building Act 2004.

David received a letter that includes a checklist which identifies how his pool doesn't comply in two areas.

Doors from the inside of a building opening into a pool area must either self-close or have an alarm to comply with the new rules.

The main double sliding door that provides direct access to David's pool must be fitted with a locking device at least 1.5m from the floor level and is either self-closing and latching, or be fitted with an audible warning device to indicate when the door is opened and not immediately closed again.

'The old act made sure we had the ability to close the pool off.

'Because it's part of the house we had to have a lock that is 1.5m above ground level, which we've done. But a door like this is required to be self-closing, or have an audio alarm.

'I've designed the pool for living, so I can sit in it and watch the television through the doorway in the next room.

'There is no way that I would want to have an alarm sounding while I was listening to cricket or to music. To me it really is the law of unintended consequences.”

The second door into the pool area also doesn't comply.

'The old law was difficult enough because one of the doors is required to have deadbolt attached to it,” says David. His wife Heather is unable to reach the deadbolt.

'She has to climb onto a stool, and is more likely to fall off that than anyone else falling into the pool.”

David, a Justice of the Peace, has also served 21 years in local government on Hamilton City Council, the Waikato Valley Authority and Waikato Regional Council.

He has been the Wintec Council Chairman, past president of the Mount Lions Club, past President of Waikato Federated Farmers, National Vice President of Arthritis NZ, founding Trustee and later Chairman of the Hamilton Nightshelter Trust, and founder and Chairman of the Hamilton Hydrotherapy Pool Charitable Trust.

He has served on three animal ethics committees and was appointed to the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee from 2004-2010. In 2009 he was awarded a MNZM for services to local body affairs and the community.

With that track record, he's clearly a sensible, reasonable and constructive-thinking individual. He's not simply having a rant, he understands legislation.

'My concern is that we create silly laws,” says David.

'When I was on the Waikato Regional Council, we introduced legislation requiring boaties to wear life jackets.

"We wanted to capture everything. Someone read the rules and came back to us and said ‘you do realise people on surf boards and boogie boards would need to wear life jackets?' We said ‘that's dopey we didn't mean that'. So we changed the rules.”

'This is another classic example of that,” David continues.

'I would question who would want to get into our pool. There are two gates outside that are locked and the doors around the pool that are closed. So anyone who gets in to our pool would have to be a criminal who has broken through two gates as we have a security gate and a locked pool gate.

Deputy Mayor Kelvin Clout installed his swimming pool about a year ago.

'The legislation has been changed from the central government's perspective.

'Everyone is now so concerned about health and safety, but I think in the case of swimming pools it can go too far and be impractical.

'As a council, we're required to enforce the current rules but I would encourage anyone who comes across something that just doesn't make sense to talk to us.

'From my own experience, because I have a swimming pool, I found the council staff were quite practical and accommodating of an individual situation of where the pool is in relation to the house.

'I have found them to be quite flexible but still keeping to the spirit of the law. Certainly as elected members if we find there is a consistent message coming through, that something is just not being interpreted right as per the law, then we as elected members have got the ability to address that, both within our own council with how we enforce them, but also getting back to central government.”

Kelvin believes a lot of pools and fences were put in years ago and retro-fitting them to fit current legislation exactly may not always work.

'It's a very relevant issue. We have to do these inspections every three years, so as a council we will be having to go through this continuously. '

For more information on the new pool safety legislation visit the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website.