Sea Angling Licences - a petition

[Flatfish]

Hi all I have just been sent this which a lot of you will want to read and maybe Action


You may have already seen that Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor of the Daily Telegraph, covered sea angling in today’s front page story “Sea anglers may be forced to buy a licence” - here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...10/nfish10.xml - this story includes the opportunity to have your say.

Related to this is an ongoing petition on the 10 Downing Street Website which says: “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to withdraw the proposal of a recreational sea anglers rod licence fee from the white paper marine bill published on 15 March 2007.” This runs until October and can be signed up to here: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/anglers/

The Countryside Alliance is concerned that sea angling licences would be all but impossible to enforce and would provide sea anglers with no discernible benefits – see our press release on this issue here http://www.countryside-alliance.org....reaucratic%94/

With regards,

Jill

Jill Grieve

Head of Communications

Countryside Alliance

0207 840 9223

07903 860227

www.countryside-alliance.org



Justin

[dogmax]

All done dude

[PlanktonBoy]

Wouldnt really bother me if we had to get a sea licence to be honest.
If it helped in the slightest to maintain our coast and fish stocks i wouldnt hesitate to buy one.
No one seems to mind paying to fish a lake or river and having to have a valid licence.
Just my opinion.

[baitmaster]

totally agree with you planktonboy i have never had a problem with buying a licence (unless you go buy it on line then theres a problem)



tightlines
kevin

[tonybolton]

Agree with PlanktonBoy . . . christ did i just say that.

[tonybolton]

And as for the Countryside Alliance, don't start me on those monkeys.

[John Marshall]

Thanks for the "heads-up" Flatfish, I'm still against it juust another bloody tax.

[Greenheart]

This is the full version of what the Countryside alliance have to say on the matter. Personally I agree with them.

You may have read on the front page of the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that the Alliance has taken a strong stand against yet another Government stealth tax in the form of a proposed sea angling licence that has been tacked on to the forthcoming Marine Bill. The proposal is that anyone over 12 years of age who participates in sea angling - whether from beach, pier or vessel - must have a sea angling licence. In terms of enforcement and administration across the tens of thousands of miles of UK coastline, this proposal is a bureaucratic nightmare and we fail to see how it can be of any benefit to the recreational sea angler.

The revenue raised by the licences has been earmarked for a range of initiatives such as protecting shore access and improving parking, which seems laudable. However, where inland rod licence revenues are ploughed straight back into conservation and the benefits are tangible, this proposes that sea anglers underwrite facilities for all coastal users - which seems at best unfair. Everyone using the coast should play a financial role in improving and protecting it, not just sea anglers, who appear to be a soft target.

It is unclear how much licences are going to cost or how much the implementation of this scheme is going to run to, but sea anglers know full well that it is commercial rather than recreational angling that is the biggest threat to marine conservation. Penalising sea anglers whilst not addressing the wider issue of commercial fishing's impact on fish stocks and conservation would not lead to any meaningful improvements, and a buoyant sport would find itself under threat from bureaucracy.

The sea angling industry is worth £538m to the economy, and we should be looking to increase participation and welcome people to the sport, especially coastal tourists, rather than scare them off with a layer of bureaucracy that simply cannot deliver benefits. The Government is currently consulting on the proposals, and a petition has been launched on the Number 10 Downing Street website, aiming to strike the sea angling licence proposal from the Bill - you can add your support to this petition here.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/anglers/

[kingyfisher]

Sea angling licence were started in n s w sydney 5yrs ago all the money is used for rec angler fishery promotion they have worked quite well

[tonybolton]

I have a major problem with the Countryside Alliance "championing" the interests of anglers, to me this is merely a way of trying to bolster their own support by trying to draw allegiance with members of the largest participation sport in the country and thus attempting to claim substantial support for their own agenda (Killing things for fun). I can remember the way they presented their twisted figures claiming that 55% of the population was in support of fox hunting - what they forgot to mentioned was that they only polled about 10 people, most of whom were called either Alasdair, Henderson or Rupert.

Is £30 or thereabouts such a big price to pay, It's certainly a lot easier to lobby for change once your paying somebody cash for the privilege of your sport, believe me the government would not want to lose the annual cash wind-fall from this licence once a couple of million people are paying it. Then would be a sensible time to start pushing for change. After all the government might listen a bit harder to two million licence payers, rather than an unco-ordinated group of hobbyists complaining about gill netting and trawling.

I think it would be very short sighted not to pay the licence, as it gives anglers a genuine and much louder voice.