Require safety fencing around open water near playgrounds and new housing estates

Following the heartbreaking death of 3-year-old Noah in  Suffolk, we are calling on the Government to change planning and safety rules for open water.

Currently, many artificial lakes, balancing ponds, and decoy ponds near playgrounds and new-build estates have no secure fencing, despite being only a few hundred metres from where children play.

We ask the Government to:

1. Make it a legal requirement for all bodies of open water deeper than 0.5m within 500m of a playground, school, nursery or public footpath to have secure, child-proof fencing and locked access gates.

2. Require housing developers to risk-assess and fence all water features on new estates before families move in, as part of planning permission.

3. Create a national audit of existing high-risk ponds and lakes near play areas and fund councils to retrofit fencing.

Noah was non-verbal and could not respond when called. Many toddlers cannot recognise water danger. A simple fence could save a life.

This is not about blame. It's about prevention, so no other family has to go through this heartbreak.