Life of a Chalkstream: Why the fishing licence is a tax on those who can afford it least

Greetings!

You are going to be paying more for your fishing licence this year as the Environment Agency (EA) have announced an increase of 10% for 2023/24 with further increases in the two following years of 8.4% and 2.2% respectively.

As I have often written here and elsewhere, I have a principled objection to the very existence of the fishing licence which is nothing more than a tax on angling. In Scotland they manage perfectly well without any licence but in England and Wales we have one that is a totally regressive tax, hitting those who can afford it least. I know the argument goes that the licence income is spent on rivers and fishery protection but let me put that in some kind of context both in terms of the amount of money, how it is spent and the wider societal implications.

Firstly, the licence income for England and Wales in 2020/21 was, in total £21m. I suppose it is not a bad lottery win but in the general scheme of annual government expenditure (£800bn+) it is a tiny fraction of a decimal point. Even in terms of the EA annual income of £1.6bn we are not exactly moving the needle. Now don’t be fooled by the general EA line that ‘we have no money’ – since 2016 annual expenditure has risen from £1.3bn, an increase of 26%. Yes, the EA have cut staff but that has been a conscious decision by management who have favoured capital works and other expenditure over staff.

As to the value of that £21m we probably need to cut it by 40% in real terms to take account of administering, collecting, policing, and prosecuting in the cause of the licence. The EA make a big play of their ‘revenue protection officers’ dressed up in paramilitary style garb but the statistics as to their ineffectiveness do not lie. Last year just 700 people were cautioned for fishing without a licence with only 350 ending up in court. If you want some sort of comparison, in the same year there were 50,000 TV licence prosecutions. One prosecution a day with over a million fishing licences sold? It is a hopeless waste of resources when the same people would be better employed patrolling our waterways to prosecute the true offenders, namely the polluters.

I often see some of that £21m (sic) in action, shovels in the bank if you like. Firstly, much of it is not the actual dirt moving – there is quite a growth industry of consultants and NGOs, ultimately paid for by the EA, who survey, measure and report on numerous projects many of which never see the light of day. This same industry is really the creation of the EA who have created a bureaucratic jungle so that you have to employ consultants to hack your way out of said jungle to bring any project to fruition. Similarly, I can promise that any grant-funded-EA-sanctioned project will be 2-3 times more expensive than it would have been if you did it left to your own devices.

Finally, there is the wider societal implications of a fishing licence that is a barrier entry to a pastime that is as blameless and cost free to society as cycling, wild swimming or canoeing to name but three, none of which require a licence that has the sanction of law. How is it you don’t need a licence to sea fish or swim in the sea both of which are under the purview of the EA? I don’t know the answer. Maybe someone out there does.

Chalkstreams in Denmark?!

For years it seems I may have been pedalling the myth that only France and England are in possession of precious chalkstreams but perhaps they might be part of the trend for Scandi cool.

I am indebted to Uffe Westerberg who recently wrote to me to tell me about four streams in his home of Denmark where he has been championing their preservation and improvement. It seems, the rivers of Denmark are suffering many of the ills familiar to us, but I digress.

River Binderup, Denmark

It is not uncommon to hear of claims of ‘chalkstreams’ – Russia, Pennsylvania USA, Slovenia and New Zealand all come to mind. However, the geological definition is exacting and the line between limestone and chalkstream blurry to all but an expert in the field. With that in mind I turned to the expert in all things chalkstream, Charles Rangely-Wilson, who, admittedly sight unseen, thinks the Danish streams may well be.

Uffe has kindly sent me a photo of his local river the Binderup which is on the east coast of Denmark in Northern Jutland; from that and the videos you will see something very familiar to you though the water does tend to have the look rather more of the Dorset Frome than the Hampshire Itchen.

I’ll have to dust down my passport to fish the most easterly chalkstream on the planet which, until recently, I quaintly assumed was in north Norfolk.

River Binderup restoration (l) and flyover (r)

Singing about the rain

The best way, for me at least, to see out 2022 was the relentless rain on New Year’s Eve followed by an almost equally wet 48 hours. In fact, I think we had more rain in the first two days of January this year than we had in the entire month of January 2022.

As I write I am still waiting on the rainfall data for December, but it is looking like, despite not a drop falling in the first two weeks of the month that included the prolonged cold snap, we made up for it in the second half.

Next time I’ll bring you the full data, which I think I have found a way of dividing into chalkstream and non-chalkstream regions plus the flow map for all English river catchments.

The River Frome downstream of Dorchester earlier in the week

Mind you I don’t necessarily need a weather gauge to tell me how we are doing; the gate that controls the mill race here at Nether Wallop Mill is my own personal indicator. This time last year, in contradiction to a normal winter, it was screwed down tight. This year it is wide, wide open as the winter rains pound through. All being well it will stay that way until spring when I’ll gradually close it little by little to be completely shut by early summer.