Interesting information in this correspondence being sent to WAG.
It shows we are the poor relations in respect of grants and funding doled out during the last five years.
Note WUFs £40.000 from the splash fund - anyone ever seen how it was spent?
|
Mr. W.G. Davies: Chairman. 3 Blanche Street ,
E mail:W.GARY.DAVIES@sky.com Dowlais,
CF48
3PE.
01685
371981.
07974806032
17/1/2014
Mr John
Griffiths AC. AM
Minister for
Sport
Ref; ACCESS
Cc ; All Assembly Members
Dear Minister,
Following on from your reply to my letter of September
2013. I had hoped that you would have condescended to visit the Angling
presentation at the Sennedd last Wednesday Jan 15th, there I could
have presented you with this document which was on show during the
presentation. Unfortunately you did not visit the event. This document was
formulated to answer your non informative reply and to press home against the
argument for unfettered ACCESS to Inland Water.
Of course, since your letter there have been possible advantageous
events, such as the leaving of posts by certain people, who did not help the
case for VOLUNTARY ACCESS.
The following was part of the presentation.
Taken from the
report of the Sustainability Committee 2010
Evidence given by
Sports Council Wales
To : Sustainabilitv Committee________________ 3/12/2009
Notes of Part of Evidence ONLY
Q = Question from Sustainability Committee
A = Answer from
Sports council Chief Exec
\l
Q - In your opinion is there need for legislation.
A - An
emphatic NO
2 Q - How
many people partake in outdoor ACTIVITIES (Wales)
A - A large percentage of
Welsh people 49%. If you take out walkers you are left with a figure of 9%. Of
this figure 1.1% are anglers. A very
small % are canoes 0.02%.
These figures break
down to persons affiliated to governing bodies.
Angling 40,000. Canoes 5,500. Note:
There are 70,000 rod licences sold in Wales
3/ Q - We are told there is latent demand
for access to water related activities.
A - How do you substantiate latent
demand and from what base would you start.
4/ Q -
Seeing that flowing water is not owned, would any person be committing an offence by floating
on it.
A - I am not a legal person but I do know that
the RIPARIAN owner has the control
of what goes on over his land irrespective in air or on water.
5 Q - How do you see thing happening and
should all pay.
A - Through local agreements. The
problem with canoes is that they do not wish to pay. Other activities such as
golf, gym, football and other have to pay, some such as golf pay a substantial
amount £300pa to £1000 pa. A gym would more that likely charge £30 per month, so yes
payment must figure for all except walkers.
6 Q - Do you give financial support to the canoe governing
body and angling
A -
Yes.
Q - How much.
A -
Chair, I will send you a note detailing all financial support to all
governing bodies. This year we have not
funded an Access officer to Canoe Wales, (post occupied by Pam Bell)
Since the inquiry I have employed freedom
of information and found the following which answers question 6 above.
1/ Grants awards
to angling and canoeing,
a/ Angling
£396K per 5 yrs (2008 – 2013) (Figures derived
from
b/ Canoeing £1.8M “ “
“ “ freedom of Information)
c/ No Anglers
41,913 equates to
value of £9.43 / angler per 5 yrs d/ No
canoes 3,800 “
“ “ £473.13/
canoeist “
2/ Value of Rod
Licence sales (average figure) £1.31M per annum
“ “
permit “ (club licence) £2.51M “ “
Minimum accrued to Economy of Wales £3.82M
Paid
by Association/clubs per annum £2.14M Rentals
Total
to Economy of Wales £5.94M
3/ Value of fishings / land owned £17.31M
(Note these
figures are from information supplied by angling clubs/association across
Wales.
The total would be considerably higher if I had been
able to include every owner/association.)
Since, I have received from J Griffiths AM AC, a (NON) reply to a letter sent to him
Sept 18th 2013. Part of the letter follows:
With regard
to actions taken to promote voluntary access agreements, I, and my officials,
have taken every opportunity to promote local agreements in meetings and at
events with our
stakeholders. I have also made monies available through the Splash Fund to
facilitate local access agreements. Unfortunately very few groups have made use
of the fund for this purpose and conflict
has continued.
In our opinion this is not true.
SPLASH
FUNDING – from public purse
I have done a freedom of information and found the
following facts.
Funding
awarded from 2008 – 2011. Total £1.19M
a/ Funding group – water borne activity - Total £960K
In the above figure there is a substantial sum for the
purchase of
Road trailers AND BOATS!!!
b/ Wye & Usk foundation - Total £40K
c/ British Waterways - Total £64.5K
d/ Brecon Beacons National Park - Total £111K
e/ Angling Fed Welsh Anglers etc -
Total £14.25K
Also included in £960K above
f/ Neath canal improvements. £45K
g/ Torfaen boating lake. £74K
h/ Private company board walk. £10K
i/ Pembroke
coast NP nature reserve. £ 7.5K
I am still waiting information for years 2012 -13
I sent the following questions to Associations / clubs
Would you
please answer the following questions to which I could pass the answers to SACC
and be available for answers / arguments with Green paper
Name of
Association; (28 gave information)
I/ Have you applied for Splash Y / N
Majority stated NO. One
stated Yes – REFUSED
2/ If No
- Reason for non award Informed by
personnel employed by Brecon Beacons National Park or Environment Agency Wales.
Even though access could mean, providing or upgrading
footpaths or installation of styles.
The answer was in all cases “If not for canoe access,
then, NO funding”.
(This is apparently not correct when the items b/ d/
e/ f/ h/ & i/ above are taken into account)
3/ If you have not applied – Reason for NOT
applying
Informed - ONLY for Canoes.
Personal note
on the monies granted;.
The bodies with
the vastly larger membership and who tend to be self sustaining receive far
less PUBLIC FUNDING than other water users, who incidentally pay NOTHING.
Please note that there are discrepancies between 2009
and 2012. The reason I should imagine is the fall in the economy. It is
certainly noticeable in membership of Association. We the MTAA have seen a 300
membership reduction since 2008.
I can still not find what the criteria is for a
successful application, when examining the list of Successful applicants in the
paddling world I found the following; (Sample taken from a large list)
Application
No 2225364 - Purchase equipment £10.07K
“ “ 2168423 - Form Canoe club £
6.96K
“ “ 2439759 -
Develop site £11.17K
“ “ 2478841 - Buy
trailer £ 6.75K
“ “ 2300987 - Buy
BOATS £ 3.65K
“ “ 2514977 -
Members? £10.21K
“ “ 3036110 - Rhondda - London £15.72K
“ “ 2767707 -
Sprint racing £ 11.23K
“ “ 2661602 -
5 year plan £
11.84K
There follows the recommendations fro the
Sustainability committee.
Item 2 States – Minister targets PILOT PROJECTS; I suppose the purchase of road
trailers, boats and equipment could be construed as pilot projects!
Recommendation of Sustainability Committee June
2010 (Précis)
1/ That the minister for
environment promote setting up of VA agreements
2/ That
the minister targets splash funding for pilot projects.
3/ That agreements be sought under Glastir
scheme.
4/ All agreements be monitored and where covered
by an agreement at regular intervals, especially popular area where potential
conflicts could arise.
5/ Legislation introduced to identify a lead body to identify where
appropriate areas and help negotiate
agreements, include power to finance associated works.
6/ That legislation be placed on the lead body
if no agreements can be reached.
7/ In order to guarantee compliance with EU
convention on human rights there should be a right to object and be heard at an
enquiry. Provision for compensation for loss due to compulsory interference
with property - including fishing
rights.
8/ Recognise - NO power to legislate at present, but powers will be
sought.
9/ That organisations who
make a profit out of water related recreation should pay to be licensed and
craft clearly marked.
10/ That a licensing system for craft (unpowered)
should be introduced.
11/ The minister commence the
drafting and consultation process on a
National code of conduct for the areas where access is to be granted.
12/ That any code of conduct should make explicit
the rights and responsibilities of users and access owners and should be
promoted and advertised by all by all organisations involved such as WG, CCW,
EA Wales, Sports Council, Visit Wales.
Recommendations
- Sustainability Committee 16/6/2010 taken from embargoed copy
98 (précis) Will not apply to ALL inland waters.
99 (précis) We recognise
that not ALL stretches of inland water in Wales are suitable for water based
recreation
I Remain
Yours Faithfully
W G Davies (Gary)
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