Party political differences were put to one side last week with the visit of Conservative Shadow Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon and the Reading West MP and Labour’s angling spokesman, Martin Salter to the Benham Estate in Mr Benyon’s Newbury constituency.
The MPs, who are both members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Angling inspected important river habitat restoration schemes to the River Kennet at Benham Park which the Estate are carrying out in partnership with Natural England.
Mr Benyon tried his hand at coarse fishing under the guidance of Martin Salter MP and Dr Alan Butterworth, former fisheries manager for the Environment Agency and now a board member of the Angling Trust – the new governing body for angling. At the end of the day Dr Butterworth briefed the MPs on the current issues facing angling and fisheries.
In Benham Park, the course of the river was significantly altered when Capability Brown laid down the existing parkland and in addition to this, a number of tributaries have been dug, some by French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars, so as to drain the land. The scheme has reinstated previously abandoned tributaries, which once filled with water, become a haven for fish, mammals, invertebrates and birds.
The most significant scheme in Benham Park will be the reinstatement of what is believed to have been the former channel of the River Kennet. The bed of the former stretch of main river was identified by way of taking core samples so as to locate the gravel seam. Historic maps further assisted in identifying its location.
Benham Estate manager Jonathan Russell said:-
“We thoroughly enjoyed the visit of our local MPs Richard Benyon and Martin Salter, and showing them the work we are doing to improve the wildlife and aquatic habitat on our stretch of the Kennet. The projects in Benham Park will be completed by spring 2010 with the works upstream near Kintbury by September 2010. We are very grateful for the support and assistance of Natural England who administer the environmental schemes on the Estate. The projects have been extremely important to the Estate both for historic reasons and for the significant benefits that they will create in terms of wildlife habitat.”
Martin Salter said:-
“Although I’ve known and worked with Richard for nearly 15 years, this is the first time we’ve ever fished together and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. After a little tuition, Richard was sending his float down the swim like a seasoned coarse angler and was rewarded with some lovely chub and specimen perch that any fisherman would have been proud to catch. I suspect that in the future Richard may be doing a little less fly fishing and a bit more coarse fishing now he’s got the bug!”
Shadow Fisheries Minister and Newbury MP Richard Benyon added:-
“Issues relating to fishing go far above party political differences and Martin and I share a passion for the Kennet. I also learned a huge amount of the issues facing anglers on this river and across the country. It was also a master-class in how to fish from a real expert.”
