E.A. Angling Event – Leeds, 5 September 2009

FREE FOOD and E.A. Angling Event – Leeds, 5 September 2009

The EA is holding an Angling Event that gives you the opportunity to comment on the proposed fisheries byelaw changes.

To be held Leeds City Hilton, Saturday 5 September, 9:30 am - 1pm

The event has been cancelled, a grand total of just 18 from Yorkshire, Humberside and Northumbria thought it of much importance

Possibly there wasn't much interest in it because very few people had been informed about the meeting.

I'm a keen angler, I get the A Times every week, I've logged on to the EA site and given my views on the new regulations for the removal of coarse fish - yet I've never seen the meeting advertised.

Same here except that I don't log on to the EA site, but I do know a lot of 'interested parties' and I've heard nowt.

Do you think it was deliberate?

I've had three e-mails from the EA today, two being from Steve Chambers, Strategic Specialist (Fisheries) who seems genuinly disappointed at the poor response from local anglers. Apparently the few who did are the ones who have already reponded to the on-line consultation.

"Despite widespread advertising and promotion including flyers in tackle shops and threads on Fisheries Chat rooms as well as the usual media routes, we only attracted 18 responses - the majority of which were already people we are engaged with and many who had already completed the on-line consultation."

Just how one does engage with anglers is the $64,000 question and not just an AT problem.

I'd suggest a regional contact who's media savvy and who will post on all the relevant fishing sites. Local contacts in the Barbel Catchers, the CSG, Carp groups, PAC, etc wouldn't go amiss as well.

I'm sure AT and AM would publish a small article (Greg would have to put his money where his moth is!). You can't change these things overnight and you've probably got to offer something more than just a 'boring' meeting. Maybe combine it with a talk of local relevance?

I don't recall seeing anything posted here before this post John, I wonder which sites did get notified?

Why cancel though? To me that just tells the 18 who were interested, 'thanks but no thanks, and don't bother in future'.

keith2 said:

possibly there wasn't much interest in it because very few people had been informed about the meeting. I'm a keen angler, i get the a times every week, i've logged on to the ea site and given my views on the new regulations for the removal of coarse fish - yet i've never seen the meeting advertised

Click to expand...

..............snap!

Double snap!!

I and a colleague from the Tyne Anglers Alliance (TAA) had a meeting with some EA Strategy people, Dan Bean and Graeme Warren, less than a month ago where EA 'publicity' was mentioned and promises were made about 'better communications'

I have offered several times to put EA info on the DCAC & CSG web sites as has the TAA.
Way back in February at the Northumbria Area Fisheries Forum the Chair of the NE RFERAC promised 'better communications' but alas nothing has changed. The same promise was also made at the June Forum! I don't blame the guys in the fisheries departments but believe the problem lies at the next level, the bureaucrats who select the committees and set agendas. Although it has been left to the already overworked fisheries guys to contact people advising the event had been cancelled, it was the Publicity dept at the Leeds Regional Office that organised the event.

As I said somewhere else, we in Northumbria only received news of the event last week. The EA has all our contact details so why so late in the day?

On the bright side with the cancellation the Fisheries dept has another £2000 to spend on stocking rivers etc.

Not being funny but why was just held in leeds why didn't they go round the country.

Specihunter ( the Korum Kid) said:

Not being funny but why was just held in leeds why didn't they go round the country.

Click to expand...

Perhaps they were/are, but we just haven't heard about it.

Below is a copy of the e-mail I received after I'd complained about anglers in Northumbria only being informed about the event as late as last week end.
It also explains why it wasn't a nation-wide event

Hello John

I am replying to your e-mail as Dan is on leave until next week.

I would like to explain the background to the event in Leeds if I may. After discussions with RFERAC and both North East and Yorkshire we identified an issue relating to the breadth of our engagement with anglers.

We have established mechanisms through Forums to engage with those who provide the infrastructure for angling (clubs and their officers etc.) but we have no mechanism for direct engagement with the “ordinary” angler other than through press releases etc.

We wanted to assess whether or not these anglers wished to engage with the Agency and so the option of an open forum was decided upon. In determining how we proceeded with this we considered:-

Subject matter – must be relevant
Location – needed to be in an area with a high density of anglers with easy transport links
Format – needed to be engaging and should involve some guest speakers to avoid it becoming purely Agency orientated.
Taking these factors into account we selected a workshop in Leeds to coincide with the national consultation on proposed bye-laws.

As this is a pilot we only secured funding for 1 such workshop. In terms of the legislative consultation, this is the only such session being held nationally and is targeted primarily at those anglers who we do not normally engage with. Other mechanisms are in place through the national consultation process which we anticipate would elicit the responses from our more regular contacts that we need. These have been widely publicised through the media and other routes.

I am sorry we did not explain this to you before, however once we have evaluated the success of this approach we will be coming back to the Forums with our findings and if it is deemed a success we will look to host other such events around the Region in future as a means of broadening our engagement with the angling public.

I would anticipate that Dan will reply to you when he returns.


Steve Chambers
Strategic Specialist (Fisheries)