big brother uk

[isle of innisfree]

just read a piece in another forum which i copied.

(Just back from fishing my local small water and I am surprised at what the owner told me, he had a visit from the E A bailiff who asked him if he could get as many post codes of all the people fishing there as possible and he would take them and put them through the computer to see if they had a valid licence. although I don't agree with people fishing without a licence this stinks a real intrusion of our human rights and data protection.
If they want to catch poachers and licence dodgers put more bodies on the bank and don't act like some iron curtain communist dictatorship.)

im glad we dont have post codes in the irish free state if this is whats going on

[mithrandir]

I think it would make more sense that anyone wanting to use the fishery should just produce their licence when they turn up for a ticket. If a few more fishery owners were to help then the licence dodgers would not get a free ride from us who pay our fees, and the money raised by licences could be put into fishery protection and renovation, not wasted in having enforcers on the bank.

Only the guilty have anything to fear from any form of licence check, I have no worries about being checked and the EA already have my details when I bought the licence so I see no problem with a fishery owner checking or collecting the information, as long as it is treated correctly under the data protection act and is not used for advertising purposes.