Had this emailed today
BASC attempted licence takeover [-]
Posted: 16/05/2011 19:59:44
A head's up to all the wildfowling clubs throughout the country, BASC are trying at all costs to take the wildfowling licence from under the nose of 8 humber clubs and dissolve the upper humber wildfowling commitee that has run the licences democratically and trouble free for many years.
Everything up to now has been dealt with in a very under handed manner and personally i am disgusted with the conduct of two of its senior staff.
I am quite sure that Stanley duncan who formed its predecessor "wagbi" on its birthplace the Humber, would be turning in his grave at the treatment of its members.
I sat in a meeting with two reps from basc who told us that ABP were terminating our licence and handing it to them, when asked why ? they replied they did not know who but someone had been troublemaking at associated british ports and it was not our concern as this committe was dissolved and basc would be running it from now on !
It turns out as we were informed later that BASC had been into ABP months earlier and told them a load of rubbish effectivly trying to steal the licences from us.
Luckily for us the upper Humber meeting was taped including the lies from the BASC reps which could be very embarassing for them when it gets out.
This makes chilling reading folks ! if Basc get away with it there will be no wildfowling licence or lease safe throughout the country.
Please read the following article that we have tried to get published through the sporting press, up to now no one will run with it suppose it is a political hot potato.
Questions need to be answered why BASC feel the need to want to dictate/control wildfowling/wildfowlers, particularly as it is outside their remit to hold licences or leases at this moment in time
Maybe all BASC members should be asking these questions of John Swift , Robert Irvine etc as no one's prepared to explain the logic of BASC's actions. All this has been done without any consideration or consultation with the 8 BASC affiliated clubs who shoot the humber at this time.
just have a look at the article below and make your own mind up.
The Battle for Wildfowling Continues - (The Second Front!)
Back in 2009 I wrote an article entitled; ‘The Battle for Wildfowling’. In it I used a number of analogies to a war to highlight the problems that the wildfowling clubs on the north bank of the Humber are facing in trying to maintain our decades old tradition of wildfowling - on the very estuary that was the birthplace of modern day wildfowling as we know it today.
At that time we were fighting with Natural England (NE) for our consents to wildfowl within the Humber Estuary. Specifically, for the areas that appertained to the two north bank clubs namely my own club, Hull & East Riding Wildfowlers’ Association (H&ERWA) and Holderness & Humber Wildfowlers’ Association, (H&HWA) with which we share our wildfowling and related activities.
The Humber was the stamping ground of the late Stanley Duncan, founder of the Wildfowlers Association of Great Britain and Ireland (WAGBI) which evolved into the current British Association for Shooting and Conservation, (BASC). I fear that Stanley Duncan would be turning in his grave if he new that we are now under attack from a new ‘enemy’ within our own ranks! - From this very same ‘shooting sports representative body’, the BASC! And the ‘battlefront’ has widened to include both the north and south banks of the Humber.
As a result of this ‘second front’, we now have some new allies. Six of eight south bank Humber clubs represented by the South Humber Area Joint Council, (SHAJC) have joined the ‘campaign’ to repel this latest attack.
BASC staff at both local and national levels has been underhandedly working to take control of the Humber clubs wildfowling licences on the upper Humber.
Since 1991, these licenses have been issued by Associated British Ports, (ABP) to the Upper Humber Wildfowling Committee, (UHWC) which administers a permit scheme allowing wildfowling to take place over the estuary mudflats below the mean high water (MHW) mark.
The UHWC is run under the auspices of the BASC and chaired by their Northern Regional Director, (Phil Pugh). It consists of wildfowling representatives from both sides of the Humber. The south bank clubs are represented through the SHAJC which is made up of 8 south Humber clubs. The north bank has representatives from H&ERWA and H&HWA. The other members of this committee include Natural England and the BASC also provide secretarial support.
Just found this on another forum
(For background information; the UHWC was formed as an off-shoot of the Humber Wildfowl Refuge Committee, (HWRC). The HWRC was formed in 1963 and tasked with looking after the interests of the Humber Wildfowl Refuge, (set up in 1963 by Government Order). The committee is made up of a 50:50 split representation of the wildfowling and nature conservation interests on the estuary. Representation includes H&HWA, H&ERWA, BASC, SHAJC, Lincolnshire Trust for Nature Conservation, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Yorkshire Naturalists Union and NE. The UHWC was formed to deal specifically with wildfowling matters, in particular licensing, permit schemes and wardening, allowing the HWRC to concentrate on the nature conservation interests of the refuge).
In March of this year, at a meeting of the UHWC, the chairman of the committee shocked the members present by announcing, completely out of the blue, that ABP was to withdraw the wildfowling licences from the UHWC and turn control over to the BASC. This ‘bombshell’ also included the chairman’s decision to dissolve the UHWC, a committee that has been in existence for over 20 years!
At the chairman’s invitation the meeting was attended by the BASC Director of Conservation and Land Management, (Tim Russell). He informed the committee how this, (supposedly unexpected) new arrangement was to be managed by him and his BASC staff from their headquarters at Marford Mill in Wales.
The changes by ABP were presented to the committee as being a complete surprise to the BASC staff. However, without any form of communication, consultation or discussion with the committee, alternative arrangements for the takeover of the licenses had been worked out with ABP, a new management committee proposed, consent transfers verified with NE and BASC staff assigned to take control. All things considered it was hard for the committee to accept that the BASC staff involved had no prior knowledge of this happening! A suspicion that was later confirmed as the wildfowling clubs attempted to get to the facts of the matter.
It is fair to say that these proposals met with significant resistance and some counter attack! It was clear to the committee that the chairman had overstepped his authority in his role as chairman and as a BASC representative. The committee was vociferous in its rejection of the proposal for the BASC to take control of the wildfowling licenses. What is more, the chairman had no right or mandate from the committee to proclaim dissolution of the UHWC. It is unacceptable that such changes to members sport can be made by our own representative body, in such a manner and without any form of consultation.
The wildfowlers have not been alone in voicing their concerns over these BASC proposals. The HWRC which, as explained, has direct linkages with, and reliance on the wildfowling representatives for its very existence, has expressed it’s concerns as to reasons for and implications of the BASC changes. To date, this committee is still awaiting a response from the UHWC chairman over these concerns.
The involvement of BASC staff at a local and national level to take control of affiliated clubs wildfowling licenses appears to indicate a change of policy. This raises a number of questions; Does this mean that these actions had the endorsement of senior BASC staff and/or the BASC council? Was the council or the BASC Wildfowling Liaison Committee, (WLC) even made aware of these intentions? It appears not! So If not, why not?
Despite numerous attempts to communicate with senior BASC staff on this matter, the Humber clubs, to date, have not had any of their questions and/or concerns answered.
We have been told however, that the BASC council was briefed, after the fact, and that two council members have since been instructed to support and help BASC staff, in the BASC chairman’s words; ‘to help move things along’. We have been unable to gain any insight into what this means so I will leave the readers to make their own interpretation!
So once again it appears that the banks of the Humber could be the first line of defence against yet another attack on our sport. The Humber clubs are now joining forces and are not prepared to accept these changes without a fight. What has happened here appears to have been badly thought through, very poorly handled, and gone against all reasonable procedural and democratic process.
Whether the BASC succeed in their takeover of the Humber licenses or not, only time will tell. What is less uncertain is the affect that these latest moves have had on the feelings of the wildfowlers of the Humber clubs towards their sports representative body. There is an extreme danger that this will alienate a considerable number of ‘grass-roots’ members, bringing into question the continued affiliation with an organisation that seems to have forgotten its own roots!
I can only reiterate my previous warnings (from the first article); wildfowlers beware, be prepared and expect the unexpected. This is a bold, underhand and audacious move by the BASC – sabotage from within! - Where will it stop? .
