Over last weekend, 26
and 27 June 2010, Environment Agency officers
were out and about checking rod licences
in targeted fisheries in the Midlands
region which are known to have a higher-than-average
evasion rate.
Officers expectations
turned out to be well founded. They visited
lakes and pools in Shropshire, Staffordshire,
Warwickshire and Leicestershire where they
found a whopping 11% of anglers were not
able to produce a licence and there was
no record of them having made a purchase.
Environmental Crime
Team Leader for fisheries Al Watson said
"This is a worrying result and one
that we hope will not turn into a trend.
We realise that the recession and the World
Cup could dent licence sales and even reverse
some of the strong sales last year"
He went on to explain
"Every licence evasion means less money
to spend on protecting and improving the
nation's fisheries. It is wrong that most
pay and some choose not to. The weekend's
results show that its not worth trying to
cheat your fellow anglers. At just £27
a licence is still great value."
+ More
Environment Agency cleans-up
river Lark
The Environment Agency
is to undertake desilting work at Eastgate
weir on the River Lark in Bury St Edmunds.
The work will start on Monday 5 July and
will last for about a month.
It will reduce the risk
of unpleasant smells that can occur during
periods of warm weather.
The weir has acted as
a silt trap during periods of low flows.
During prolonged warm spells the organic
matter caught up in the silt has begun to
rot with the public then reporting unpleasant
smells.
For several months Environment
Agency staff have been monitoring the River
Lark to identify a way to overcome the odour
problem. The Environment Agency has decided
that desilting the Eastgate weir is the
best solution and has engaged Breheny Civil
Engineering to do the work on its behalf.
Geoff Brighty, the Environment
Agency’s Area Manager, said: “I am very
pleased to announce the start of this desilting
work at Eastgate Weir. The build-up of stagnating
silt at the weir created these unpleasant
smells and by removing this silt and by
improving the efficiency of the weir the
odour problems should now be a thing of
the past.”
Geoff added: “We have
worked hard to identify and eliminate possible
causes of these unpleasant smells, and we
are doing everything possible for the local
community to make certain there is no repeat
of the odour problem. We are also eager
to ensure there is no undesirable run-off
from industry or agriculture into the River
Lark.”
At the same time as
the desilting the Environment Agency is
carrying out maintenance on the weir’s bypass
chamber and its penstock sluice mechanism
which will help the overall drainage of
this stretch of the River Lark.
The Environment Agency
is trying to minimise inconvenience while
this work is being carried out although
some odour may occur as the silt is disturbed.
