Rod licence price hike

Rod licences are set to go up from ?19 to ?20 next year. The EA says it needs the money to maintain services.

Junior licences are going to come down from ?10 to ?5, in a bid to draw more youngsters into the sport.

Do folk feel the service we get from the EA is worthwhile..?

I've had a rod licence on and off since the first water board ones came off in the 1970s. I have never, ever been asked to produce it.

In those days, 4million people bought water board licences. Nowadays, the figure is hovering at just below the million mark - suggesting the number of anglers on the bank has fallen by three-quarters in little over a generation.

"My own soution is a new national umbrella body funded by an additional levy on the license which would be extended to cover our sea angling bretheren the cost of the license would probably have to rise to assist with the additional enforcement that would be needed (the present license is too cheap anyway).
All anglers would be then automatically members of this body which would have the funding to be professionaly run and have access to good quality legal advice."
The above quote taken from a previous thread sets out my basic position of the subject of licences.
I have only ever had my licence checked on two occasions when fishing notably both of these occasions occured when I was on Salmon fisheries.
One way in which an impetus to enforcement could be given is that all licences had a box on them which had to be filled in by the checking officer and the licence would run for 12 months from the date that happened...That would shift a few bums out of office chairs!!
I have no objection to paying for my sport what I do object to is the fact that government has cut cash to the E.A. due to mad cows, pet passports,and an unsold office block!!Because that chaps is why the cuts have been made.....
Angling is being required to subsidise the half witted cock-ups of incompetent administrations that are quite frankly not fit to be put in charge of a plate of sandwiches let alone run a country!!!!!!!!!!
Chris your final point is wothy of a thread on its own the reduction in the popularity of angling is very real and the reasons for it are very complex and have far more to do with major socio- demographic changes that have occured within the last twenty years or so than with any problem specific to our pastime thiugh I would be the first to admit that as in every way of life ther may be improvements we could consider and implement.

Has the number of anglers always been over estimated? the reason i ask is that now we need one licence for two rods, years ago we needed two, also under the old river boards we had to buy different licences for different areas, did this inflate the true number of anglers?......as far as the price of licences is concerned i would be prepared to pay more IF the revenue was used for the benifit of angling.

The different areas thing probaly held true during the 70s. If you buy two licences because you use more than two rods, then same probably applies.

Chris

In part the increase in the licence fee is necessary because the Government has just withdrawn ?1.5 million in funding from the EA Fisheries budget for next year, claiming the cost of dealing with BSE is so great that they cannot afford to fund the EA. Ha!

Their "Anglers Charter" and commitment to the environment, stated only last week by TB has gone up in smoke.

Alan I agree with you a centrally funded organisation with the membership being put on the licence fee is the ideal way to raise money to represent all anglers properly. SACG made such a proposal to the Moran committee and thence to the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Review Group. Unfortunately I think this will be another review, published but not acted upon by HMG.

personally i think 20 quid is enough and there shouldnt be anymore price hikes(we are hit with enough taxes in every day life)
all angling sections should join together and club in and pay.
yes they do good work with the money raised but the hikes in all walks of life have to stop at some point.

Mark

The problem is that most anglers will not join up to any angling organisation. ACA has only about 16,000 members, SACG represents about 10,000 specialist anglers, who are members of single specie groups or clubs, NFA claims, through its clubs, to represent about 350,000 anglers so where are the other 604,000 anglers who buy a licence each year represented? What are they contributing to the sport through funding any body to represent them?

The reality is that they are not contributing at all and that has always been the case. We will lose fishing as a sport/pasttime if we do not stand our corner and we need all anglers to contribute to have the funds available to defend the sport, the environment we fish in and our rights.

Instead of complaining about the costs, in what is one of the cheapest sports to follow, how about suggesting another way of raising the money we need to defend ourselves and develop the sport of angling?