It's alright for some

LIFE is full of coincidences! (Cue the ‘X-Files' theme music.) The end of August is the time that I sit down and sort out the business annual accounts plus review the major expenditures past, present and future, writes Orph Mable.

One of our recurring expenditures is boat licenses and making provision for the future inevitable increases must be accommodated. Additionally, I act as Treasurer to the local fishing club and carry out the same task for them.

One of life's anomalies

This exercise caused me to notice that the annual charge for the fishing rights leased from BW/CaRT, over the last few years or so, have remained fixed. This seemed out of character for the Trust who appears to find any excuse to turn the financial screw for boating at every opportunity.

This anomaly niggled at me for a few days and eventually got the better, causing me to exchange emails with Allan Richards who is very knowledgeable on matters financial where the Trust is concerned. He pointed out that, in the great scheme of Trust finances, income from fishing related business was quite small. In fact, so small it did not warrant a separate entry within the annual accounts. (It is believed to be sub-£500,000 per annum.)

Promoting angling

As I didn't have any other information to verify whether other fishing club agreement charges had remained static over the last few years and there was no relevant information in the BW/CaRT accounts over the period, I did not follow it up. Then, coincidently, CaRT began promoting angling in earnest on its website.

This prompted me to consider the whole aspect once more and made me realize that it is only boaters who seem to suffer annual price hikes on craft licenses and mooring fees without (seemingly) any consideration being given to boater's ability to meet these increases year on year. There has been a reduction in boat numbers over the last couple of years but CaRT total income from them has not gone down.

Anglers decreased

Anglers charges appear to have remained static for several years but CaRT admit that the number of anglers and clubs taking up ‘fishing rights' has decreased. This decrease may be down to costs but more likely the change in ‘fashion' where anglers prefer to fish stocked lakes rather than trudge the canal and river banks searching for fish that are not so plentiful and generally smaller. The Trust is now going forward and promoting angling on CaRT waters, spending more scarce funds on the activity, yet not drawing increased income from them—in the short term certainly.

I find it difficult to comprehend why CaRT can increase charges to one sector of ‘stakeholders' (boaters) but not another (anglers). Conversely facilities are reduced for the former, whilst being increased (apparently) for the latter! Other than property income, grants and donations, these are the only two ‘users' who pay into the waterways. Is this because the angling fraternity are so vocal nationally and well represented legally (Angling Trust and ‘Fish Legal'), striking fear in CaRT higher echelon, while boaters are considered a bunch of well-off individuals who can pay for their pleasure ‘willy-nilly' without any national representation (with teeth). Who knows?