Fisherys and a duty of care ?

[alsur]

The fishery where I had my Incident on

never replaced the pegged platforms and inside a year, the then owner sold it,

the new owners then spent better part of another year rebuilding the fishery and re-moddeling the lakes, with bigger gravel board and infill type pegs covered by bark chippings

it is now more of a specimen type water and does not hold many matches on it anymore

Ive fished there once since it was sold on and it is far nicer now than it ever was as a match oriented fishery

when we booked gigs on it, there was rarely less than 20 fishing at peg fees of £7 a go, so each gig produced an income of £140 a match, there was 4 dedicated match lakes and 3 other ponds for specimen angling, most lakes were full each sat and sun with quite a few midweek gigs on them as well, so there was a good income from the waters, yet nothing really spent on maintenance apart from the thunderbox site type toilets being emptied around once a week, there were no other facilities apart from the most manky burger van used to turn up occasionaly, and just the one baliff on site, who was part time and really an employee of the farm complex that the lakes were on

Think I know the water you are talking about fished a match there after platforms were taken out, I used to like the venue but it did go down hill and there was a rumour that a lot of fish had been taken out. As you say it was popular we fished it once or twice a year and booked 3 lakes they must have been taking a reasonable amount of money. Also fished a popular lake in Essex which has suffered from lack of maintenance no platforms bare banks and islands eroded so much lake half depth it was once.

 

[chris1967]

I look forward to seeing this on

 

[160642fishing]

I came off the committee of my local club after carp anglers dug out a match peg so they could put up a bivvy,the problem being it created a three foot drop from what was a public footpath around the lake,the peg actually took up part of the footpath,I couldn't make the other committe members understand that our public liability insurance would not pay out as the club had sanctioned the danger and as such the committee would be liable to pay out any damages if someone had injured themselves by falling down it.

 

[Cobweb]

its not about wether you like platforms or suchlike

its about if they are provided they should at all times be fit for purpose

Totally agree. I fished off one a couple of weeks back using a day ticket on a club water. I was a member of this club last year, and I refused to listen to a moan about poorly maintained swims on this club's top natural venue. He was right to complain and I was disgusted, The platform was dangerous. The only reason I used it was that the disabled swims were out of action being covered by a construction contractor's admin and tool storage containers

 

[sunleychops]

Some poor bugger put a foot through a board at Clattercote recently and dislocated his kneecap and now they’ve shut a raft of pegs whilst they repair or replace them

 

[Silverfisher]

Yeah heard about the other day. Tbf the platforms are bit of a necessity there! They used to be kept in pretty good nick when I used to fish it but guess they’ve gone downhill since. From what I’ve heard it’s been a bit of a circus down there recently which is a shame as is a nice looking place.

 

[rudd]

This place is a 'mare' at the moment for the very things mentioned above and plenty more........They are in self destruct mode. Many disgruntled customers with the owners reneging on previous arrangements (bookings) etc etc etc

Oddly I had a conversation about that place last Friday - not a good one either, a few Essex fisheries also mentioned that are in a state.

 

[mickthechippy]

Off this goodly morn, to spend the day, strimming, clearing weeds, dragging swims etc on a club work party on the military canal

match on the stretch coming up this sunday

sweat shall pour

 

[OldTaff]

I‘ve drawn swims on fisheries where I have refused to set foot on the platforms there because they were in such poor condition - not taking the chance all my match kit could have ended up underwater along with me.


When I was a member of a club with its own lake the committee agonised over what pegs to build for months due to the need to maximise disabled access and the fact the water was rented. We had members who worked in H&S, law and engineering and the consensus was that the club had an overriding duty of care to its members and visiting anglers and most of all the public who frequented the site.

Eventually it was decided that of the 50 available pegs, 40 would be of the concrete backfilled sleeper type and the remaining 10 had to be platforms because of where they were. These platforms were fabricated from pile-driven RSJ sections and heavy steel section topped with double layer scaffolding boards and wire anti-slip overlays.

20 years on and after being resurfaced for only the second time last summer they are as good as when they went in.

 

[bigdavewsf]

we used to have pegs made from pallets etc...rubbish lasted a year if that so upgraded to scaffold tubes and boards...better but still after 2 years they still looked a bit dodgy so we ripped them all out and replaced all the boards with paving slabs, much much better for safety, they will never rot, you have to put something between them and the scaffold bars or they rock slightly on the clasps are noisy but apart from that perfect

 

[pies]

Off this goodly morn, to spend the day, strimming, clearing weeds, dragging swims etc on a club work party on the military canal

match on the stretch coming up this sunday

sweat shall pour

Thankless task there. Ive cleared god knows how many swims there but the lillies grow at phenomenal rate ?

 

[mickthechippy]

27 swims cleared of the lillies, 39 pegs strimmed of big grass and reeds, half a dozen recut to accomodate todays big oil rig boxes

been bloody hot, really hot, bloody knackered now and aching

4 blokes turned up from a membership over over 500, all of em old boys over 60 and just the baliff

 

[All-The-Gear-No-Idea]

A useful link. HSE are a helpful bunch. The whole 'Health and Safety Gone Mad' thing really gets on their t*ts too. usually, the things claimed as being a health and safety necessity are more that the owners can't be arsed so we are blaming it on H&S.

As a business owner, every time I've had to speak to them with a query about something. They've been happy to help and mailed me the guidance I was looking for. I'm sure they would be the same with any Angling Club (or angler) that wanted to call them and ask.

Here's their Sports Club guidance. It's very general, by necessity, but I'm sure the logical amongst you can put together the relevance for us.

Amateur Sports Clubs – Guidance on running a safe sports club: Leisure activities

This page provides guidance and tools to help those running sports clubs to understand what they may need to do to comply with workplace health and safety law.

www.hse.gov.uk

Best

Smiffy