Rocco Wright inquest: David Lloyd Leisure director denies lifeguard budget cut

Rocco Wright's father has said his death "should have been prevented"

A director of a leisure centre group has denied there had been cuts to the lifeguard budget at a pool where a three-year-old boy drowned.

Rocco Wright died after being found in the pool at the David Lloyd Leisure club in Moortown, Leeds, in April 2018.

A jury inquest at Wakefield Coroners' Court heard there was only one 17-year-old lifeguard on duty at the time.

Rocco's father, Steven Wright, has previously said his son's death "should have been prevented".

Giving evidence, David Lloyd Leisure's operations director Stephen Brown said he was surprised to hear claims about the lifeguard budget being cut at the pool.

He told the inquest it actually went "significantly up" between 2017 and 2018.

Mr Brown said staffing decisions were usually made at each pool, with the benefit of local knowledge.

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He was also asked whether the company had a policy of employing young lifeguards because they were cheaper.

"Absolutely not," he told the court. "We pride ourselves on being an above minimum wage employer.

"The right person for the job is the right person for the job."

Mr Wright pulled Rocco out of the pool in Tongue Lane on 21 April but his son was declared dead in hospital the next day.

The inquest jury has been told Rocco had been in the water for at least two minutes.

Police said there were no witnesses or CCTV to help determine how Rocco got into the pool

Mr Wright previously criticised the visibility lifeguards had at the poolside and the levels of health and safety at the pool on the day Rocco died.

He told the jury: "We don't want this to happen to anyone else."

Mr Brown confirmed the company's policy was that a maximum of 50 people in a pool could be supervised by a single lifeguard.

He stressed this was a "ceiling" figure, and believed it was based on the maximum capacity of a large David Lloyd pool of 100.

Mr Brown agreed the figure had been set 18 to 20 years ago and had not been reviewed since.

He added: "It's never been the source of any challenge by any external authorities.

"We have not had any complaints around that number of 50 before, and so it remains."

The inquest continues.