No Fishing!

[Red Admiral]

LCAG recognise that fishing is not allowed in the pond on the Lofthouse Colliery site although we have numerous people who come to fish. What are peoples thoughts on this? Should no fishing be enforced and if so how could it be stopped?

[Jollygreen]

The fishing has begun,and whilst as you say it is not lawful to fish there, at this moment we are struggling. There are no signs to tell people not to fish! I have noticed that we have had several 'nocturnal' fishermen from out of the area. They do insist on keeping warm by making fires in the night. Sometimes with wood that isnt obtained legally either! I do believe.
I do think that we should try and discourage these people from coming down here, as it does nothing for the pond, except leave it covered in litter!

[Hound]

The problem is jollygreen that not enough reidents report these incidents, when i called about that incident I was told no one had reported it....local residents need to be informed about who to report to and how, and that action will be taken by the police.....mailshot all the residents bordering the site give them this information and get more to report incidents

[Hound]

Another idea for the pond would be to invite a club to be based at the pond this would make them responsible for the upkeep of the area around the pond.They would then police the pond ie clearing litter, stopping illegal fishing and maintaining the banks by employing a baliff, just a thought

[Jollygreen]

Hound, I agree with what you are saying. It is true that not enough people bother to report these incidents, I suppose for there are many reasons why people don't bother. The Group have decided to produce some weatherproof flyers which we will put in various places around the site, informing people of the telephone numbers of the authorities that they can be contacted on. We'll see how they work and how long they last!
Regards the fishing club. We did look into this, and ruled it out. For many reasons, one of them being the parking of the fishermen's vehicles. We didn't think it would be fair to the residents on the street as there is already a problem with the parking from the fishermen who shouldn't be there!

[Wolf]

Has anyone approached WMDC regarding using the fishing facilities on organised days for people with special needs? Places with good access like this are hard to find, all users would be supervised and it would help put a stop to unauthorised fishing. Parking wouldn't be an issue as it would be one small minibus which could be parked up out of the way and it would be run in a professional way by the council or one of the day centres??

[Jollygreen]

Wolf,
whilst on the face of it, it is a good idea. Unfortunately the WMDC are the people who deem that there shall be 'No Fishing' at the pond.
There have been numerous attempts by them to inform the illegal fishermen of this fact, however, every time a new sign is put up, some 'law abiding' fisherman takes it down, and the illegal fishing continues.
I have asked several of the more 'law abiding' fishermen if they would be willing to start a fishing club. But, alas, everyone wants to use and no one wants to take on the responsibilty!
In the autumn we are looking at getting the pond restructured and the pathways adequately surfaced, in order that people with special needs will have better access to all of the site. However, we are in the hands of the council with that one and so it will be sometime I believe before this does happen. However, please feel free to voice your concerns to Mr Andrew Nichol at WMDC about any matter relating to the park.

[Wolf]

I see, I didn't understand where the 'no fishing' bit came into it!