Oh if only that were the case some days!!!
Of course, in order to hear a lot of stuff you do have to be a part of it and by not joining or taking an active part you are bound to be excluded to some degree. However, they do release plenty
(oh so many 'plenty') of press releases on either their achievements or on cases they are fighting or events they are holding.
For me it's an even greater number of 'plenty' since I get them still because I was once an editor of this site, I get them duplicated because I am secretary of the TVAA which also acts as an Angling Trust Consultative, and they are also sent out to the Secretary of the Angling Trust Thames Region Forum who also sends them, yet again, to me because I also sit on that body. How I sometime wished we did never hear from them, three or four emails per day, not counting duplicates and triplicates! (And there's even more when emails fly around to the EA Hydro Sub-committee, because daft old me is on that also - representing the ATr)
But fear not, even with your Crucifix on, for many of those same press releases are published on Fishingmagic, just read the front page! A lot of those stories originate from the Angling Trust.
Of course not everything they are doing is broadcasted immediately and most won't be updated to the general membership until such time as there is a conclusion, successfully, we hope. There are a great body of people scattered across the country who are fighting for anglers' rights and the protection of fish and it's all coordinated by the Angling Trust. There's also the work carried out by Fish Legal pursuing the polluters of our rivers, which some of your membership goes towards, of would if you joined.
In fact, as I've been writing this the ATr's Chairman, Mike Heylin, has just sent yet another email to our ATTRF groups wondering/questioning why the EA granted permissions and licences for the building of the Romney Hydro scheme that should have been working last November and still sits there motionless since someone forgot to connect it to Windsor Castle and asks if this is gross incompetence. That same email is also sent to the head management at the EA Thames regional HQ to drive the point home. It's subtle, it's background, the public never usually hear of it, but it goes on continuously and often works.
OK, so I am a member of Angling Trust, proud of it, and I will tell you what they are there NOT to do. They do NOT get involved telling clubs and individuals what they can and can't do re where to fish or what waters they can acquire or how much they can charge. They are NOT there to come along and 'improve' your waters or pick up litter, that's down to you, your club and your regional EA fisheries team (get involved!) Furthermore, because of anglers like yourself who do/will not join for whatever lame reason you can find, they do NOT have the funds to buy up precious waters like the RSPB do to protect them for all anglers, sadly.
What they have achieved though in the three+ years since they were established as one national group has been nothing short of remarkable. But why should you believe that when to castigate them for not making you read of their successes is a much easier option. And it saves you £25 a year. :wh
---------- Post added at 21:17 ---------- Previous post was at 21:09 ----------
Lets say every angler bought a double license , i.e. a license for four rods , wouldnt that do more good for our fishing than spending the money joining the AT ?
Benny, I wrote an article a while back statign why we need both the EA (fisheries) and the Angling Trust.
I WOULD POINT YOU TO IT WITH A LINK BUT SOMETIME AGO
'SOMEONE' AT FM CHANGED MY STATUS AND I CAN NO LONGER VIEW ARTICLES.
I simply get the message
"Restricted access.
You don't have sufficient privileges to view this page."
That's what you get for being a previous editor of FM!!! Thanks a bundle and one reason I don't post much on here any longer.
