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Canoe open access in Wales

22K views 204 replies 80 participants last post by  paulanthony 
#1 ·
Please sign the petition to stop this happening:

SACC - Home
 
#3 ·
This does appear in other threads.
As you will see further on, there are 42000 anglers in Wales as opposed to 3800 paddlers. In other words this minister Griffiths is prepared to give away to a minority group the hard earned assets of Angling Associations / Clubs who own some £17.25 million of fishing assets He gives them support grats of £1.8million whilst angling gets £339K.
Spread the word and write to your AM.

Access to Inland Water & Land

There is at present a paper (green) being formulated in the corridors of the Sennedd. The purpose to possibly enact legislation for access to all Welsh rivers. Suggest also read the following.

SACC - input sacc

As I have said in the past write to your AM. At present Big dai is possibly correct "not many to disturb him". If they get unfetterred access they will certainly be on the Tywi and other rivers throughout the year. Go and look at the Wye, sometime impossible to wade let alone fish.
The meaning of Wuf - Wye & Usk Foundation

To : Angling Associations/Clubs across Wales

Ref: ACCESS - Summary.

All

May I thank all who gave the information which I have collated to present to the Welsh Government

Note: The details of grant aid was obtained through freedom of information. It also included information about swimming, rowing, life guards and others. I only used the relevant parts for angling and canoes.

You will find accompanying this note information on work that I have carried out because of the lack of response by Mr Griffiths. We also met with Mr Griffiths at Crickhowell House, at this meeting he stated that he was very pleased the way agreements were being made, which in fact puzzled us, knowing the problems on the ground.

The main reason for the work was that on the day Natural Resources Wales reported on their first six months of operations, there was also a Plennary meeting. I sat in the gallery and listened to Mr Griffiths, answering members questions, and he was remiss in his answer to the members present, stating, that all interested parties were invited to attend the initial workshops. The fact was that I was informed in the second week in August that the workshops were being held. I WAS THE ONLY person at this time who was aware of the proposed meeting. In fact, NO-ONE during the following week received an invite to attend. This only happened after numerous phone calls by myself, alerting people across Wales. I am sure this can be verified by looking at the original invitation list. As soon as I was informed I reserved two places, one for myself, the other for Tony Rees MBE.
I have carried out the following work after attending the workshop. As I feel it has a bearing on any Green Paper
Below is a brief summary of this work. I am also attaching the full worksheet for your perusal.

The following Salient Points are:

1/ Grants awards to angling and canoeing,
a/ Angling £396K per 5 yrs (2008 - 2013)
b/ Canoeing £1.8M " " "

c/ No Anglers 41,913 equates to value of £9.43 / angler per 5 yrs
d/ No canoes 3,800 " " £473.13/ canoeist "

2/ Value of Rod Licence sales (average figure) £1.31M per annum
Association prmits £2.51M " "
Minimum accrued to Economy of Wales £3.82M
Paid by Association/clubs per annum £2.14M Rentals
Total to Economy of Wales £5.94M

3/ Value of fishings / land owned £17.31M

4/ Also not taken into account are the thousands of pounds spent nation wide on the maintenance of river banks etc every year. This could be easily illustrated

Please Note - Some Association have large mortgages, which could be jeopardised.
In fact the value of the fisheries and to the economy could well be jeopardised.
The above in no way represent the whole of Wales. Only major clubs input data to myself. Available for scrutiny if required.

Approximately 26 Association / clubs gave information for ownership & rental values.

It is widely known that more voluntary access agreements could be in place. The stumbling block is entirely down to canoe Wales who will only accept access on unfettered terms 24/7.

Some serious questions need to be asked regarding the Minister as to why he has seen it necessary to look for legislation.

He has not given any reasonable time scale since the findings of the Sustainability Committee to justify moving away from their recommendations.

He has not produced any evidence of demand for access exceeding supply.

He has without any prior warning, seemed to reject any consultation through the Round Table Committee, set up by his predecessor, indeed some members of this committee were not even invited to the WORKSHOPS.

wgd

Reminder = Write to your AM
 
#13 ·
Anglers on both sides of Offas ****, must realise if Wales falls to the Access bill, then there would be a domino effect. So get signing.

Have notice that this thread (Canoe open Access to Welsh Rivers/lakes) seems to be getting over written and pushed out of the main focus. Is there any way it could be kept to the fore front for others to act upon?
wgd
 
#15 ·
Just recieved this notification

Angling Trust Members News

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Angling Trust, the voice of angling

Your Help Needed To Fight for Sustainable Canoe Access in Wales.

Conflict on the Riverbank/Sustainable Access Campaign Cymru
We have been very busy over the past few months working on the issue of canoe access in both England and Wales and we need your help (see how at the bottom of this message). It's important to state up front that the Angling Trust is not anti-canoeing, and we think that there should be more canoe access to rivers, but we simply believe that access should be controlled so that it doesn't damage fish and fishing. We live on a small island with 60 million other people and we need rules to avoid conflict between users of natural resources. Anglers have close seasons, bylaws and other restrictions on what they can do and where they can go (and we pay licences and permits). Why shouldn't paddlers?
This week, we have launched a dossier of evidence documenting the rise of unlawful canoeing, the role of the UK's Canoeing Governing Bodies in blocking the England and Wales Governments' policy of Voluntary Access Agreements and the impact on fisheries, anglers, angling clubs and riparian owners. Please CLICK HERE to read the press release and download the dossier.
Last week, the Angling Trust and other partners launched the Sustainable Access Campaign Cymru (SACC - Home) in response to proposals being mooted by the Welsh Government for universal access for canoes to all rivers in Wales. We heard yesterday that the green paper on this subject that was going to be launched this autumn has now been put back until late January at the earliest. We believe that this is a result of our campaign and the hundreds of letters that have been sent to Assembly Members by anglers, farmers and landowners, but we need to keep up the pressure.
How can I help?
To support this initiative, please visit the web site and sign up as a supporter, which takes less than 1 minute. There are also instructions about how to contact the politicians in Wales if you have time to do a bit more.
 
#18 ·
Gary, Welshspringer.

.....many thanks for your first post. Brilliantly put, and the financial breakdown should be a no-baller to Grifftiths and Co.
One piece of news.........the proposed Green Paper, I now hear has been put back till late January.
C'mon guys, get signed up to this issue.

George Barron
 
#19 ·
Come on chaps, every signature helps. As I've said in the past, we're fighting against a highly motivated, organsied and social media savvy group led by some pretty militant individuals. Although this may be Welsh specific issue there's a very real danger of English adoption, so we all need to speak with one voice.

Please add your signature. Many thanks to those who have already done so.
 
#21 ·
Done, a few days ago actually, but we need more, if just a fraction of those posting on here signed we'd have more than the total number of canoeists who stand to get free access to our rivers.
 
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