Members of Fisheries and Angling Conservation Trust, FACT, were joined by representatives of other national angling and fishery organisations at the fourth Angling Summit with Ben Bradshaw, Fisheries Minister, and Martin Salter MP, on Wednesday 2nd February at Portcullis House. The one-day meeting was hosted by Martin Salter MP, the Government’s angling liaison officer, and it included almost one hour of face-to-face discussions with Ben Bradshaw, the Fisheries Minister.
The highlight of the meeting was the unprecedented invitation the Minister extended to the Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society (BASS) to meet separately with him and other sea angling representatives to discuss how best to protect and enhance the recreational fishery for bass. This followed an impressive presentation by John Leballeur, chairman of BASS, who provided the Minister with his group’s detailed bass management plan.
During the question and answer session, Ben Bradshaw was also able to provide firm assurances that his recent revised policy on cormorant control would not be amended or diluted as a consequence of external pressures. The controls he has now introduced would be carefully monitored to ensure both fish and bird populations remain healthy while allowing fisheries managers greater latitude to apply for licences to control birds at specific, problematic sites.
He also re-confirmed that the Government has no intention of including any measures into the forthcoming Animal Welfare Act that would have an impact on angling or its practices. This pledge was particularly gratifying to several FACT members, who have persistently and vigorously lobbied the Government on this very point since its proposals were released for public consultation in mid 2004.
During a pre-meeting with Martin Salter the angling and fisheries representatives were asked to contribute specific ideas for inclusion in the forthcoming Labour Party Charter for Angling, an update of the previous Charter issued in 1997. This represents a ground-breaking move that might well result in the sport setting the angling and fisheries agenda for the next Government, although the same offer has been extended to the other main political parties.
FACT called on the Government help to revise and greatly improve the funding angling receives in the future. Because FACT represents a single voice for the entire sport of angling and acts in the interests of some 3.9 million anglers, it will be working hard to develop plans to involve all anglers in the new organisation and to secure funding from within and without the sport to provide improved services to anglers and fishery owners. FACT will insist that there is substantial Government support this initiative, particularly as the past and current financial support for angling has been so unsatisfactory.
This was the first angling summit since the formation of FACT, which represents the main national fisheries and angling bodies. Among the other issues discussed with the Minister and Martin Salter were the Environment Agency’s consultation document ‘Angling in 2015’, marine fisheries enforcement and regulation, water resources and planning and the management of sea fisheries.
FACT members will be building on the huge success of the summit as the new organisation develops and refines its policies for a strong, unified and effective voice for angling in future.
