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Spineless EA again

Joe Winstanley said:
If you think the EA is bad now... then imagine how bad it will be in 20-25 years time when it's being run by people who were home-schooled by alcoholics..
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Schooled in how to take fish from lakes and not get prosecuted?
 
The EA are not fit for purpose. Maybe time for all anglers to boycott the EA fishing licence tax at their next renewal. Hit them in the pocket. They only seem to understand income streams.
 
I don't think it is a question of whether they are fit for purpose, but whether they actually have any money?
 
Damian Kimmins said:
I don't think it is a question of whether they are fit for purpose, but whether they actually have any money?
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They have more money at the moment due to the increase in anglers. In my opinion the only decent thing they do is Calverton fish farm and that is debatable at times.
 
They have pittance for what is demanded of them! When I spoke with them regarding their funding many years ago, they were subsidised by the taxpayer to a large tune!
 
They weren't fit for purpose before the coalition in 2010.

Since then they have had their budget cut by around 50% in real terms. And a lot of that remaining budget has been squandered on pointless end-of-pipe flood defence works at the behest of politicians who came out of the woodwork to reveal themselves as expert hydrologists during the winter floods a few years back.

What did anyone think was going to happen?
 
Back in the close season last year our Bailiffs found an unattended rod fishing from a house on the opposite bank to one of our waters. Video evidence was taken of everything. They managed to snag the line which had big lead bolt rig, very heavy line and boilies. The drag was loose and we suspect if a fish hooked itself it ran off to a snag and was then followed up when they arrived home with the Canoe that was next to the rod. The house was a rental the resident was a Roumanian with no license who admitted all Offenses when the EA attended. It was chased up a number of times by our Fishery manager but Nothing was done due to insufficient evidence. The EA are a joke
 
Damian Kimmins said:
They have pittance for what is demanded of them! When I spoke with them regarding their funding many years ago, they were subsidised by the taxpayer to a large tune!
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The EA have used the same old excuses for non-performance over the years, and it always, according to them, relates to 'under-funding'.

Many have experiences of their none performance on issues that matter to anglers. The list is very lengthy and mainly involves none-reaction to illegal netting /long lining by certain sections of the community. Many areas have had fish stocks decimated due to EA inaction. Another excuse is that 'enforcement' needs to be intelligence led. That means we as anglers have to report this to the police. The example at the top, unfortunately, typifies most anglers experiences of the EA.
 
Mark Swaby said:
Back in the close season last year our Bailiffs found an unattended rod fishing from a house on the opposite bank to one of our waters. Video evidence was taken of everything. They managed to snag the line which had big lead bolt rig, very heavy line and boilies. The drag was loose and we suspect if a fish hooked itself it ran off to a snag and was then followed up when they arrived home with the Canoe that was next to the rod. The house was a rental the resident was a Roumanian with no license who admitted all Offenses when the EA attended. It was chased up a number of times by our Fishery manager but Nothing was done due to insufficient evidence. The EA are a joke
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Then the EA will prosecute a native angler if the butts of his pike rods are wider than the permitted distance or some other similar trivial bylaw infringement. The EA for some reason doesn't want to be seen prosecuting foreign anglers totally disregarding our catch and release culture for some reason. Likely political.
 
Ady Brayshaw said:
The EA have used the same old excuses for non-performance over the years, and it always, according to them, relates to 'under-funding'.

Many have experiences of their none performance on issues that matter to anglers. The list is very lengthy and mainly involves none-reaction to illegal netting /long lining by certain sections of the community. Many areas have had fish stocks decimated due to EA inaction. Another excuse is that 'enforcement' needs to be intelligence led. That means we as anglers have to report this to the police. The example at the top, unfortunately, typifies most anglers experiences of the EA.
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I am not disputing anyone's experiences, after all, I had those disappointments myself. Ask from where they get their funding and you may get an idea as to how thin they have to spread themselves.
Contrary to what some may think, flood defence and fisheries funds are separate!
 
Just a thought but is it the EA that is to blame? Is it the EA that actually prosecutes or is it the CPS? We often hear similar complaints from the police.
 
IMHO its the DEFRA sub agencies as a whole e.g. Natural England and the Environment Agency with their true environmental work, which is very underfunded. Most of the Environment Agency's funding goes on flood defense. A couple of years back we had some group meetings with key stakeholders re the demise of the fishing on the River Dane. The Environment Agency attended every meeting, but as soon as we asked them to do simple things like an electro fish survey, the answer was always there is no funding available. They wanted us to do kick samples etc under the guise of citizen science and report back, which was nonsense, as they'd have done nothing with the findings anyway. We were expected to buy our own kick sampling kits too. There are some good people who work for the E.A in respect to fisheries and they are also very frustrated with their levels of DEFRA funding.

I also mentioned Natural England, this organisation is responsible for boosting our biodiversity, but they spend much of their funding on the wildlife licensing system e.g. licences to shoot fish eating birds, which although necessary is rather ironic. They are also struggling with funding as a large proportion of their funds are currently being spent on legal challenges, brought by Wild Justice, who I actually support.

In short its the whole of DEFRA's funding and how its spent, which is the problem. Also its only going to get worse, as at some point not only do we need deal with the existing national debt, we are also need to work out how to pay for the COVID fallout!
 
Damian Kimmins said:
I am not disputing anyone's experiences, after all, I had those disappointments myself. Ask from where they get their funding and you may get an idea as to how thin they have to spread themselves.
Contrary to what some may think, flood defence and fisheries funds are separate!
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I am not aware of the EA funding these days. I've sort of given up with them as a lost cause. I seem to remember years ago, that the licence tax raised was about £26 million per annum. A substantial sum. I would like to think that this should be 'ring fenced' for angling interests only. Not flood defence work, EA public relations propaganda or layers of non-productive management sat in a back office.

Incidently, I once reported a pollution incident on my local river. They had someone on the bank within 20 minutes. A cynic might assume that there rapid response was due to a financial incentive? There are some positives from the EA. Calverton and they do have some good knowledgeable people on the ground.
 
Up here in Carlisle, the council office workers made national headlines for being told that the workplace is for work, and not discussing the latest Coronation Street episode. Undoubtedly I can't see that just being the case isolated to here, but the impression I got in my dealings with the EA was that in spite of my being disappointed with them with what they were able to achieve, they worked pretty hard for their meagre salaries!
 
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