Meeting held on Saturday 30 August 2008 at BASC Head Office, Marford Mill, Rossett, Wrexham at 10.00 a.m.

Present:

Lee Freeston – Chairman
Graham Crompton-Howe
Graham Downing
John Graham 
Tom McGoldrick
Michael Rae
Eric Begbie
Michael Sherman
Ken Ball
Richard Dicks
Richard Playle
John Dryden
Paul Evans
Phil Pugh
Tim Russell
Mark Greenhough
Janette Lowrie

1. Apologies

Apologies were received from John Harradine, Alan Jarrett, Paul Culley, Nick Millman, Tom Wylie Dave Nichols and Steve Copeland. 

2. Declaration of interests     

Graham Downing declared an interest in item 11 as he is editing Wildfowling magazine.

3. Minutes of the last meeting

3.1 Change to minutes

The Secretary advised the Committee of the following change to the previously circulated minutes:

15.1     CIP Regulations Board
John Harradine is now on the CIP Regulations Board.  He may be contacting WLC members about 10 gauge steel cartridges.

To
15.1     CIP’s Lead-free Working Group
John Harradine is now on the CIP’s Lead-free Working Group, which advises its Technical Committee on non-lead shot cartridges.  He may be contacting WLC members about 10 gauge steel cartridges.

3.2 The accuracy of the minutes was questioned because there was no record of the discussion at the last meeting, regarding the email communication received by many wildfowlers, from Simon Breasley, alleging that members of Council and staff had suggested he should resign during the January Council meeting. The Chairman had been asked at the last meeting if this allegation was true.

The Committee were then advised that a certified transcript of the Council meeting had been presented to, and accepted by Council, which showed that Simon’s allegations were not substantiated.

4. Matters arising not on the agenda

These will be added to the AOB at the end of the meeting.   

5. Review from around the coast

Committee noted that the spring and summer had been very wet and that breeding success had been variable.  Water levels remained high in some parts of the country, and some tides have been lower than predicted. Concerns were raised about relations between a wildfowling club and the RSPB, the Secretary acknowledged he was aware of the situation and was trying to arrange a meeting with RSPB head office staff, reserve staff who had wildfowling on their sites, and wildfowling club representatives.

Thanks were given to the Wildfowling department for their great work with the mapping programme.

A Broads Joint Council has recently been formed and this is proving beneficial to clubs already. Clubs in the Broads area are still nervous about HLS.

The police are becoming more involved in controlling the behaviour of anti wildfowling groups in East Anglia.

6. Natural England updates on progress with – consents for wildfowling - HLS

6.1 Consents

Following the last WLC meeting, David Harrison presented Natural England’s (NE) paper on the decision making framework for consenting wildfowling, at the Wildfowling Conference. David’s paper which takes into account comments from the extended WLC of Dec 1st 2007 and the wildfowling conference is now being circulated within NE.

David Harrison has now changed jobs within NE and has been replaced by Tim Frayling. Tim came from English Nature and has considerable experience dealing with protected sites.

Since David Harrison’s move, Tony Laws has been made BASC Account Manager within NE. It is Tony who is circulating David’s paper within Natural England. In addition, as part of the circulation process Tony is hoping to find out which Conservation Advisors have wildfowling in their areas, so that in future BASC can get them together to run a workshop on consenting and appropriate assessment, similar to an event BASC ran a couple of years ago.

In the mean time the Wildfowling team have been finalising management plans and consents for Crown leases in England and Wales. In England the clubs have been providing maximum visit numbers as outlined by David Harrison at the wildfowling conference.

Once David Harrison’s paper has been circulated within NE further discussions are expected.

The committee expressed its concern over the time it is taking for this to progress, the Secretary acknowledged this, and said it was being pushed as hard as possible.

6.2 HLS

As stated in the minutes of the previous meeting, the decision making framework for consenting wildfowling will help resolve this issue.

Concern was raised about HLS and clubs in the Broads area, BASC is to make contact with the clubs and discuss the matter. 

7. Draft Marine Bill – an update     

The article published in Wildfowling was read out to the committee and no further developments have been made since the article was published.

8. Wildfowling conference update

The 2009 Wildfowling Conference will take place at the Ramada Hotel, Sutton Coldfield on Saturday 14 March 2009.  

The wrong date of Saturday 7th March was published in Wildfowling and the Committee were asked to make as many people as possible aware of the correct date.

The hotel has been booked and sponsorship agreed, so that the cost will remain at £10 for a day delegate.

The presentations being considered at present are:

Wildfowling consents decision making framework – Natural England
Effects of climate change on migratory birds – BTO
Bird alerts and the way they are assessed – BTO
The Water Framework Directive – BASC
Something from Europe – possibly AEWA – Angus Middleton FACE
Lead ingestion – BASC
The consultation process and new legislation – BASC Media team

The following suggestions were made by the Committee:

Coastal Access – Marine Bill – someone from outside BASC
Avian Influenza
Shooting experiences in other countries – light hearted speaker

9. Lead update        

The following brief was read out to the Committee:

Lead shot/ammunition brief

1. Defra is seeking tenders for a two-season regulations-compliance study starting this September. It will include buying birds from game dealers plus other measures yet to be decided.

2. WWT is expected to begin a study this season of lead contamination of shot game in terms of potential transfer of lead to human consumers. This follows the recent US conference where human health risks were identified from consumption of lead-shot birds and animals (including rifle-shot large game). BASC, together with the GWCT, is taking the subject seriously, but carefully, as the evidence is persuasive, and have begun quietly talking to other shooting/countryside organisations to work out how to manage the issues, not least as and when the issues reach public awareness and the media.

3. RSPB is looking into lead-contamination of venison from deer culled on its reserves, and secondary poisoning of birds of prey through consumption of lead-contaminated bird/animal prey. A new review will soon be published.

4. Both organisations are trying to get Defra and the Minister for Health to take an interest in these issues, and, thereby impose further restrictions on the use of lead in ammunition.

5. The cartridge/gun industry is waking up to the EU directive which requires all chemical/substances used in Europe which carry risks to the environment and people, to be approved through the REACH programme (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances). Approval begins in 2010. If risks from lead ammunition manufacture and use cannot be adequately controlled it will be restricted to a greater or lesser extent.

6. John Harradine will be at the CIP Plenary meeting in September, as a member of the British delegation led by the Proof Authorities, trying through the Technical Committee’s Lead-free Working Group to minimise further restrictions being placed on the performance of tungsten-based and other lead substitutes and on 12 and 10 bore 3 ½” chambered guns.

10. Suggested draft rule on carrying cartridges with lead

The Wildfowling Officer circulated draft rules to the committee.  Clubs can use these draft rules as a starting point and amend to suit their situation.  These two draft rules will be placed on the website and made available to clubs as required, through either written letter or email communication.

11. Wildfowling communications - Wildfowling

Thanks were given to Graham Downing for stepping in and editing the magazine.  He was congratulated on producing a very good edition.  Graham will be editing the next edition and he asked for case studies of clubs who have taken their local MPs out wildfowling.

The merits of including Wildfowling in Shooting and Conservation were discussed. There was general agreement that if the same amount of editorial could be included in Shooting and Conservation this would be seen as a benefit to wildfowlers, as they would be receiving six editions a year. In addition, it was felt that articles on wildfowling would be read by non-wildfowlers, who might then like to take up the sport.

12. Electronic communications

The Wildfowling Officer is in the process of organising a wildfowling news letter to be sent to clubs by email. There was general agreement that this would be a very good thing.

13. Joint Councils

The Wildfowling Officer reported on the successful creation of the Broads joint council (this having been commented on earlier under the review from around the coast).  Setting up joint councils in South West Wales and South West England will be areas to focus attention next.  

14. Corporation tax and wildfowling clubs     

An outline of how corporation tax has affected one club was given to warn others of possible implications. The Committee suggested that BASC should draft a briefing paper for clubs, this should include guidance from HMRC.

15. CLA game fair – plans for next year

The 2009 fair will be held at Belvoir Castle, near Grantham. The Wildfowling Officer will contact local clubs to get their involvement.

16. Mapping programme – an update

The Wildfowling Officer gave an update on the mapping programme.  BASC have had excellent feedback from clubs that have had their land areas mapped. This programme is gathering momentum and becoming very popular.

The Wildfowling Officer confirmed that all information received from clubs will not be shared with other bodies without the clubs agreement.

17. AI – an update

Currently in the UK there are no suspected or confirmed outbreaks of Avian Influenza. Over the past 12 months shooting has been affected by four outbreaks of avian influenza, obviously outbreaks at different times of the year effect different aspects of shooting and require different responses. It is also important to recognise that outbreaks in commercial poultry and outbreaks in wild birds are covered by different legislation and thus impact shooting activities differently.

The surveillance work carried out by BASC wildfowlers has allowed BASC to create very strong links with Defra at the very highest levels. Defra have taken the decision to end a number of the surveillance programmes including the shot bird surveillance by BASC wildfowlers. The programme has run for a number of years and has recently been evaluated in terms of its cost and benefit to Defra’s continuing surveillance strategy for AI and it is felt that other surveillance methods have greater value than the shot bird programme. Defra recognise the value of wildfowlers to the surveillance of AI and will shortly be providing guidance on what constitutes a mass die off, how fowlers should report it and what actions to take.

The value of the wildfowlers work can really be measured in Defra’s recent request for BASC to join the government’s Ornithological Experts Panel as the sole representative organisation for shooting, something we have been trying to achieve since BASC first became involved with AI. Other members of this group include WWT, JNCC and NE. BASC’s inclusion shows the high regard with which BASC is held. The group gives expert opinion to decision makers when they formulate their risk assessments which are the basis of many of Defra’s policies during outbreaks. This process is carried out in London and decisions made there are implemented by local Defra officials in local offices. 

In terms of BASC’s internal response to AI, the frequency and complexity of outbreaks made it clear that we needed to develop a clear guidance document for dealing with an AI outbreak. Key staff developed a crisis management plan which sets out the protocol which BASC staff must follow when dealing with an outbreak of any notifiable disease. This document was developed with input from Defra and has their approval. It will allow us to ensure that BASC delivers a professional well structured response to outbreaks for members.

Recent outbreaks have taught us lessons too.  We know that there is always going to be an ongoing debate surrounding the perception that shooting causes massive dispersal of birds and as such should have restrictions placed upon it, during certain types of outbreak and in certain situations. To ensure these restriction are proportionate BASC research team are assessing the viability of recording the actual noise associated with different types of shooting and then provide evidence of everyday noises at the same level as shooting to give a greater understanding to decision makers that shooting is no more disruptive than other everyday noises.

BASC is well positioned and well respected when dealing with outbreaks of AI. That’s not to say that we will always get the results we want during an outbreak but we will consistently aim to ensure where possible shooters are not disproportionally affected during outbreaks of AI. Whilst every outbreak brings new challenges and problems all types of shooting have a voice through the work of BASC.

The Committee asked that BASC continue to be involved on behalf of shooters in the management of AI outbreaks.

18. Proposal for a national wildfowling day

The committee were circulated before the meeting with a proposal for a national wildfowling day. Following discussion, the Committee decided against the proposal because clubs have their own individual programmes which are complemented by the BASC wildfowling permit scheme.

Figures for wildfowling membership over the last 10 years would be interesting to see.

19. Any Other Business

19.1 Semi automatic and pump action shot guns

A question was raised regarding the use of automatic, semi-automatic and pump action shotguns and their ability to hold more than two rounds and how this related to Section 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which prohibits the use of “any automatic or semi-automatic weapon” for the killing or taking of wildfowl.

Section 27 of the Act defines ‘automatic’ and ‘semi automatic’ in the following manner - “automatic weapon” and “semi-automatic weapon” do not include any weapon the magazine of which is incapable of holding more than two rounds”.

Guidance was requested from the firearms team and subsequently circulated to the committee. This made it clear that use of such weapons was not a legal loophole.

19.2 Wildfowling Video

The subject of Chris Green’s recent video was raised. The Secretary stated that complaints had been received about the video and the fact it is sold with the BASC logo on the cover.  Chris Green is a good friend to BASC and he made the video in good faith. BASC have discussed with Chris the complaints and he was sorry to have caused any problem. Chris has been encouraged to use the BASC media team for help and advice in editing any future videos.

The committee suggested that Chris should be asked to edit his master copy with BASC assistance before making any further copies.

19.3 Details of wildfowling clubs

BASC is often approached by members asking for chairman/secretary contact details of wildfowling clubs they would like to join. BASC will not give out this contact information, and instead ask for the contact details of the enquiring member, and then pass these on to the relevant club official. In some cases club officials do not get in touch with the enquiring member, leading to frustration with BASC.  When BASC sends details to a club of a potential new member would the club please ensure they contact the member. 

19.4 East Coast conference coming up

The committee were informed of the up and coming East Coast conference.

Date of Next meeting Saturday 28 February 2009.  

Secretary’s note: This date was changed after the meeting with the WLC Chairman’s agreement.