Meeting held on Thursday 17th September 2009 at Llyndir Hall Hotel, Llyndir Lane, Rossett, Chester, LL12 0AY at 10.00 a.m.

Present: 

  Lee Freeston – Chairman
  Tim Russell – Secretary
  John Graham
  John Dryden
  Richard Dicks
  Eric Begbie
  Dave Nichols
  Ken Ball
  Richard Playle
  Paul Evans
  Mike Sherman
  Graham Crompton-Howe
  Alan Jarrett
  Tom McGoldrick
  Phil Pugh
  Paul Williamson
  Mark Greenhough
  Matt Ellis
  Janette Lowrie

1. Apologies

Apologies were received from Ian Branford, Michael Rae, Graham Downing, Tom Wylie, John Harradine and Paul Culley.

Introduction to Matt Ellis, Research Officer

Matt Ellis introduced himself to the committee.

2. Declaration of interests

Lee Freeston and Alan Jarrett declared an interest as WHT Trustees in agenda item 8 WHT.

3. Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes were accepted as a true and accurate record.

The Secretary reviewed the action points from the last meeting as follows:

3.1 AP1 – Corporation tax and wildfowling clubs

Alan Jarrett will send a copy of his club auditors’ advice to Mark Greenhough.  Mark Greenhough, John Graham and Philippa Bursey will produce a statement to inform clubs of the current position.  The information will be transmitted to members via email, website and magazine.

3.2 AP2 – Job seekers allowance

The committees request that the job seekers allowance entitlement must be current at the date on which their club subscription renewal falls due or when their application for membership is made has been agreed and implemented.

3.3 AP3 – HLS

Guidance on Higher Level Stewardship has been circulated within NE and accepted and signed off by senior staff.  Relevant clubs have been issued a copy. 

3.4 AP4 - Consultations and advisory committee involvement

Various committees will be asked for comments on consultations.  

4. Matters arising not on the agenda

4.1  Julia Newth, WWT, made a presentation on ‘Illegal hunting of Bewick’s Swans and Whooper Swans wintering in the UK’ to the committee at the last meeting.  John Harradine is working on an article submitted to him by Julia. 
  
4.2 Russell Jones, RSPB requested that the Dyfi Wildfowlers be thanked for their efforts regarding Greenland white-fronted geese, especially their work over the last 2 years. 

4.3  Wildfowling consents in England

The committee agreed that a full and frank discussion should be had which will be summarised for the minutes.

The consents guidance procedure which was presented to the wildfowling conference in 2008, and again with slight revisions this year, has now been adopted by Natural England. The Committee were reminded, that this is a Natural England document that BASC were asked to comment on, and not something that has been produced jointly.

All the consents BASC have applied for relating to Crown leases have been granted but there are continuing difficulties on the Humber.

The Upper Humber Wildfowling Committee had their consent refused because numbers for key bird species within shooting areas had declined. The problem for Natural England is that in order to issue a consent on a European site, they have to be certain that there is no scientific doubt that the activity will not damage the conservation features of the site. With bird numbers declining it was not possible to be certain that shooting was not causing the problem and so the consent was refused. BASC have been working hard with Natural England and hope to get a consent by the end of next week.

The Committee recognised the importance of wildfowling clubs having a good working relationship with Natural England at the local level. 

4.4  HLS wet grassland

The HLS wet grassland options guidance note has also been circulated within NE and has proved its value already in Kent and Sussex, where clubs have been given consent to wildfowl on SSSI land that is also likely to be accepted into HLS. In Devon, a club lost its traditional wildfowling when the farmer went into HLS, that decision has now been reversed. BASC will continue to monitor how the guidance is applied.

The Committee were made aware of new maps being produced by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) to show where existing Environmental Stewardship agreement boundaries were. There appear to be some problems with mapping, as some boundaries differ from those supplied on maps with application forms. This problem will be highlighted in the next wildfowling newsletter.

On the rural section of the website there are useful guides on conservation grants and farming subsidies.  On this subject it was noted that there was a new digital mapping exercise being undertaken by the government which was subject to a tight time frame for returns. It was agreed that PW will do a press release on the digital mapping.  

5. Review from around the coast

The reviews were mixed with some clubs doing well and others struggling to replace lost members with new members.  An aging membership is a problem.
An article in S&C would be a good idea with ideas to increase membership of clubs.  

6. Wildfowling conference update

The conference hotel for next year is the same as this year.  The date booked is Saturday 20 March 2010.  All countries, regions and the WLC have been informed.

Possible agenda items include:

• A presentation from the South African Wing Shooters Association

• A presentation on marine conservation – what is it for and where does it cover       – possibly given by NE – it needs to be relevant to wildfowling

• A presentation comparing bird numbers with a few years ago and short stopping, showing where birds can be found now.

• Wetlands International presentation on fly way conservation projects

• A presentation on goose management in Scotland – Scottish government

• A presentation on the NI curlew project, possibly the RSPB

• Communications – political and media work by BASC

• A presentation about conservation in a wet environment

7.  Coastal access

The Committee were informed that BASC continue to work with Defra and politicians regarding the Marine Bill and coastal access. The government has confirmed that mudflats and saltmarsh, which are key areas for birds managed by wildfowling clubs, will normally be excluded from either the route or any spreading room.

The Committee were made aware of plans for a shoot summit in September to address concerns relating to shooting, right of appeal, and coastal access.

8. WHT

Suggestion for ways to celebrate the WHT 25th anniversary in 2011.

The Secretary gave an update on WHT applications during the last three years, this showed that since recruiting the Rural Land Development Manager the number of applications to the WHT had increased. Given the lack of support for the WHT stamp amongst wildfowlers, and the low interest being charged on loans at the moment, it is possible that the WHT could run out of funds in the future.  The Committee were asked for thoughts on how more funds could be brought into the WHT by wildfowlers who are the key audience for the WHT.

The Rural Land Development Manager had recently asked 41 clubs and individuals, who had been in contact with him regarding the WHT, for their views on why clubs don’t buy the WHT stamp and how support might be gained.  To avoid duplication and help with thoughts, a summary of comments was read out.

Suggestions from the committee were:

That the WHT should not just be for wildfowlers but also other sections of the organisation such as deer and game.   It was noted however that land purchase is not as relevant to deer and game shooting but more the wildfowling community.  The wildfowlers have the greatest threat to their land and RSPB and others are not buying land to stop game shoots and stalking.

BASC to replace the WHT, purchase land and lease the shooting rights to clubs. 

Complete relaunch and rebranding needed of the WHT with something else instead of the stamp.

Every member of BASC pay £1 towards WHT by adding this to the membership fee.

We are not going to raise substantial amounts of money through the stamp etc.  It is BASC’s responsibility to see the WHT has enough money.  This should be raised with Council to see what they are going to do about it, we need a big injection of cash every year. 

BASC Council makes a donation to WHT every year. We need to lobby council members, if not successful turn up at an AGM with a motion,

Believe we need to buy land but WHT is not the vehicle to do this.  The BASC habitat fund should be set up to replace the WHT’s and people would be more inclined to be supportive.  BASC more likely to be left money in wills, and obtain money from lottery funds.

Responsibility to raise money for land purchase rests with BASC. 

Look at the merchandising of the WHT material.

Recommendations to Council:

The Committee expressed concern that BASC representing the shooting community was not doing enough to prevent shooting land being lost to organisations such as the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts and others. The Committee recommends that buying land is the best way to secure land for shooting.

Notwithstanding the excellent work being done by the Wildlife Habitat Trust, the Committee believes that progress on securing land for shooting is moving too slowly.
The Committee believes a BASC Land Holding Trust and not the WHT should take responsibility for raising funds to acquire land to protect it for conservation purposes and for all forms of shooting. Once acquired, BASC would not manage the land directly but the land would be leased to clubs and organisations as well as individuals. The income derived from the land would be returned to the Land Holding Trust.

To this end it was agreed that a paper should be presented to Council by the Chairman of the Wildfowling Liaison Committee outlining the concept of the new land holding body within BASC.

That in order to fund the new structure BASC increases subscriptions by £1.00 per member in the first year with further increases to be considered thereafter alongside other BASC priorities.

9. Lead/non-lead update including Defra/WWT lead shot  regulations/ compliance study update

The Research Officer gave an update to the committee covering the following:

The WWT/Defra compliance study looking at the  prevalence of shot-in lead in bought wildfowl. The study is still on-going with one more seasons worth of data to collect. Therefore results are not yet publicly available.

The BASC/Defra/WWT lead compliance survey to be sent to 3000 English BASC members designed to discover the level of understanding of, and compliance with, the lead shot regulations in England. This survey is in its final proof and will hopefully be sent out in early September.

A parallel survey, as part of the above, to be sent to landowners in the UK through the CLA membership. This survey will be sent out a little after the members survey.

BASC's efforts to inform/educate the NI membership about the upcoming (1 September) lead regulations. These efforts included two non-lead workshops which the Director of Research attended, discussing alternatives to lead and patterning/ballistics of non-lead shot, as well as an information booklet and an article in S&C.

The availability of the US Peregrine Fund conference proceedings (now available online at http://www.peregrinefund.org/lead_conference), and the work being done by BASC, GWCT and other shooting/countryside organizations to manage the issue.

10. Update on wildfowling communications

The next electronic news letter is planned for the beginning of the season.

Joint Councils are flourishing.  West of Wales area need to agree a date and venue for a meeting and then they will be up and running.  The South West forum has not met for a while, and the Wildfowling Officer will write to clubs and agree a date during the season to get them together with a view to re-establishing this forum again.

The mapping of wildfowling land continues to make good progress, with 75 clubs completed to date.  The committee recognised Lis Burgess’s hard work and contribution.

The BASC stand at the CLA game fair was much smaller than in the past, meaning there was less room for exhibits by local wildfowling clubs. However, the new design proved very successful and the stand as a whole was very busy. There were lots of queries from members on how they can get into wildfowling.

The stand next year will have corporate design boards around the wall as all the other stands do, making it look even more professional. Gloucester Wildfowlers will be part of the stand at the CLA next year.

The proof for the wildfowling section of the S&C magazine was shown to the committee. No comments were received.

The committee suggested that in future S&C could include articles on seeds that ducks like to eat, how much fun wildfowling is, profile on smaller wildfowling clubs, female wildfowlers, a light hearted read on someone’s trip out.  

11. Review of the BASC website 

A moon predictor and sunrise and sunset calculator are now on the website.   

12. Mallard rearing and release

A Committee member asked if it was appropriate to promote increased rearing and release of mallard to help boost their numbers. The Secretary responded that mallard rearing and release is now thought to have a detrimental affect on the wild bird gene pool, and should therefore not be encouraged. The best way forward is to concentrate on habitat management with a focus on providing somewhere to nest, food for chicks and food over winter, ensuring predators are also controlled.  There was a request for more articles in S&C on habitat improvement.  The Wildfowling Officer can email out a diagram of how to build a next box if anyone is interested.    

13. Update on shooting on the Inner Solway

In October 2007 Council agreed that BASC would oppose any restrictions on wildfowling and staff should be reminded of this policy.

Date of the next meeting is Saturday 6 March 2010 at the Mill.