Your letters 

Please get the boozers off our ponds

Dear fellow members,

 I am sure that most of you will agree we are seeing more and more rubbish left on the banks of our ponds. In fact it seems not only is rubbish being left but it is being strewn all over the place. It seems so wrong to me that just a handful of people can make life a misery for so many simply because they refuse to take their rubbish home with them. I know that this subject comes up time after time but I feel that with the A G.M. coming up in May perhaps the time is right for a rule change. A lot of the litter being left is linked to alcohol, not just the bottles and cans that get left lying around but the offenders also leave anything else that they no longer want or need e.g. ground-bait bags, tins, and food wrappers etc, etc. whenever I ask anyone on the banks to please make sure they take their rubbish home I get much the same response. “No worries pal I always do, I even clear away the rubbish left by others”. I do not, for one minute, think that all the rubbish left is by people, who are drinking alcohol, but we have to start somewhere and I believe that if we ban the consumption of alcohol on our ponds it will make a huge difference. If people are not allowed to bring bottles and cans, or any other receptacle, of alcohol onto the ponds in the first place then they can’t be left behind. Anyone found drinking alcohol on our ponds can be asked to pack-up their gear and leave, and possibly be asked to stand before the committee for judgement as to whether or not they should be expelled from the club. Its time the more responsible among us stood up to be counted.

Yours truly,

Ian Mead

(Membership secretary)

Dear fellow anglers,
                   Having been a club member for some years now I have found the state of the ponds is becoming far from ideal. With over-grown banks, poor paths, crumbling pegs, lots of litter and a general decline overall. There doesn’t seem to be the same attention paid as years gone by. The number of work parties seems few and the attendances even fewer.
 Other clubs have work party commitment as part of their membership. They also have pre-dated work party dates. This enables the members to call and book themselves on a specific work party. Is it time for us to adopt this line? Special allowances could be made for junior, pensioner and disabled members. I imagine this would account for around half the membership. That would give the club about 200 members who would be eligible, if any junior, pensioner or disabled person did wish to attend I am sure they would not be turned away. MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK!!
 I don’t think that doing 3 or 4 hours work, once a year, is too much to ask to keep the ponds up to scratch. If any angler can carry his/her tackle on and off ponds then it would be a logical assumption that they can help at a work party.
 I realise that the annual membership fee has a levy added for outside contractors to do major work on the ponds but with so many banks un-attended has the time come to call in third party maintenance? You then have to think of the extra cost of outside contractors doing the maintenance work. Will the club swallow the cost or will the fee rise again? For any member young or old who are just managing to afford the fee now, what will they gain? Great, tidy ponds that they can not afford to fish!!!
 I think it is time for all the members to recall why it is they enjoy fishing. Nice waters, clear banks, easily accessible rubbish free well built pegs, overhead snag free casting, tranquillity in tidy surroundings. NOT battling low branches, fighting bramble and brier, sitting in a sea of tin cans, plastic bags and disused tubs.
 I have to admit that there is one member of society gaining from our inaction . He is the common RAT
and his many offspring. He is slowly gaining a much sort after rat utopia.
 This problem needs addressing now before it goes too far beyond the clubs ability and/or purse strings.
 
Yours Worried 

A Member

     A nice four and a half pounder from Padfield                                 and a five pound bream from the same swim