OAP
ROD LICENCE FEES
We have
Had a lot of our Senior Citizens complaining about the increase in
their rod licences from half price to two thirds the cost of a
standard rod licence. So on behalf of our members I have written to
the EA with my own personal comments (see below) and their reply
was as follows (see below).
-----Original
Message-----
From: Malcolm Milford-Scott [malcolmmilfordscott@hotmail.com]
Sent: 26 April 2008 13:14
To: Enquiries, Unit
Cc: Malcolm Milford-Scott
Subject: OAP rod Licence
Please send this email to the department responsible.
Thank you.
To whom it may concern, my club members and associate members are
up
in arms as to the 25% increase in the OAP rod licence. Where as the
normal Rod Licence has been raised from £24.50 to £25 an increase
of
approx 2% where is the comparison?
This is scandalous and shows how government agency's such as yours
flitch money from the vulnerable and elderly, just because the
government gave the pensioners a miniscule rise does not allow YOU
to
take it away from them.
Due to this rise we are losing our OAP members hand over fist and
we
HAVE NOT increased their membership fees this year!
Angling is getting expensive enough as it is with the increase in
transport costs getting to fishing venues is an expensive
business.
The above will be sent to HM Government as well as all the MPs who
are
in the district covered by our members.
As several of our members have commented the EA are only making a
rod
for their own back as there will be more licence breakers on the
bankside and with your reduction in staffing levels the EA will be
losing more money than the increase will bring in.
I personally can see this spiraling out of control with no one
buying
a licence because the EA are adopting the RIP OFF stance of HM
Government.
M. Milford-Scott
(General Secretary CALPAC)
Central Association of London and Provincial Angling Clubs.
Established 1879.
Their
Reply
Our
ref 3333.HO
Date 28.04.2008
Dear Mr. Milford,
Increase in Concessionary Rod Licence
Thank you for your recent email about the increase in price for the
rod licence concessions.
Ministers from Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) and the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have
recently approved our rod licence duties for 2008 through to 2010.
These duties include a change in the level of concession for
senior and disabled anglers to 33% from the current 50%. [This will
result in the standard annual licence increasing by £4.50 to £16.75
with effect from 1 April 2008.]
The changes result from a review of our concessions in relation to
those offered by other organisations. Other recreation providers
offer concessions typically in the range of 5% to 30%. Our
research also demonstrated that the average number of days fished
by concessionary licence holders was greater than anglers who took
out a full cost licence. Before making these changes we
consulted widely on our proposals. This consultation included
our eight Regional Fisheries, Ecology & Recreation
Advisory Committees. The proposed changes were also
advertised in the angling and selected national press as required
by legislation. Our Committees advised us to reduce the rate to
33%.
We currently spend around £300,000 on accessibility projects in
England and Wales. Allowing for collaborative funding from
partners, this amounts to over £1 million. These projects are
especially beneficial to our concessionary licence holders.
The income we receive as a result of this change will allow
us to sustain this level of investment into improving access to
fisheries for anglers of all abilities and other areas of
work.
I realise that any increase may be viewed as undesirable but I hope
I have explained why we made the changes we have.
I have attached a copy of our leaflet 'we want to hear from you'.
Yours sincerely
Nicky Lawton
Team Leader
Rod Licensing
-----Original Message-----
From: Enquiries, Unit
Sent: 28 April 2008 12:05
To: HO-Complaints
Subject: 080428/SP03 - HO CP 28.04.2008
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