Calls for more safety measures at Black Country trampoline parks

A total of 13 organisations including the British Gymnastics and the International Association of Trampoline Parks have backed the new series of rules to make the parks safer.

The rules that have been suggested by the group include better lighting for clearer visibility and padding on walls or obstacles which is within 1.5m of an area where trampolines may be dismounted.

Figures obtained from a Freedom of Information request showed that the ambulance service were called three trampoline parks in the Black Country 34 times between 2015 and 2016.

The service were called to Flip Out on Opal Way in Stone the most, totalling to 17 times in the space of a year for a range of different incidents.

Incidents included a 33-year-old man requiring emergency services because of lower back pain and 14 more incidents involving customers aged 15 to 40 that were seen to due to trauma.

Peter Brown, chairman of the UK committee of the international association of trampoline parks, said: "As an industry we've been working very hard to increase safety across the board as this new industry started in 2014 with only four or five parks but now there are 120 parks open.

"There are no current regulations or best standards out there - enforcing agents like the local authorities and Health and Safety England don't know what they're looking at when they're going to the parks."

Air Space trampoline park in Wolverhampton, the biggest of its kind in the Midlands, was visited by the emergency services 12 times between 2015 and 2016 whilst Jump Nation on Bentley Mill Way in Walsall had the ambulance service visit five times.

Michelle Ball, managing director of Jump Nation and a committee member of the International Association of Trampoline Parks, is one of the eight people in the UK who has heavily been involved in putting the series of rules together.

She said: "Safety is Jump Nation's absolute number one priority and we operate to the highest possible safety standards.

"Due to the nature of the sport, similar to a wide range of leisure pursuits of this nature, pose an inherent risk of injury no matter how many precautions are in place – our staff have comprehensive training and in case the worst should happen, are trained extensively in first aid.