Fishing in park lakes

[gibby]

Ive always been a fan of fishing those undiscovered places where either no one else goes or popular wisdom says there are not any fish. Often these places that are not managed or stocked produce nothing more than a few tiddlers, but sometimes you can strike lucky. This year Ive nee checking our park lakes and ponds close to home and theres a park in Hayes, near Bromley called the Knoll which contains three ponds, one of which looked big enough to hold fish. There are no No Fishing signs which are good enough for me.

Went down there last Sunday morning and had a few. But after couple of hours a council warden/park ranger of whatever they call themselves these days, turned up and said that fishing was not allowed and I had to leave. I referred to the absence of any notices to that effect and he came back with reference to some council by law. Under normal circumstances I would have argued the toss, i.e. I pay my council tax, wheres the notices? What public consultation as there before the by law was implemented? but on a pleasant morning and due back home shortly, I couldnt be bothered. .

This brings me to my point. Whats the legal position here? The park is a public open space managed and maintained out of council tax payers money so why should the public not be allowed to fish it? If there were No Fishing notices, well, OK, but in their absence do council jobsworths have a right to tell you to stop? And what is the exact status of a by law? Is it enforceable by the police?

Anyone got any thoughts?

 

[crumpercatcher]

Eeee bloody hell the last thread on this subjects got the MD righteous brothers out in force. I would fish there if there are no signs, or pretend to be foreign. Or fish after 5.30 when the busybody wardens have finished work. [:T]

 

[monster800]

post this to the angling trust?

The legal guys there should give you an answer? They might choose to take up the case??

 

[bobalong]

The local Bromley Byelaws can be found here and do indicate that the park warden was correct.

http://www.bromley.gov.uk/leisure/parksandoutdoor/Byelaws.htm

 

[statusfish]

Never understood why councils ban fishing but while they may be described as public spaces they are actually owned and managed by the council who has the legal right to allow or ban any activity they want - hence you get parks with no ball games, no dogs etc. etc.

I think its daft and they could even generate income from it - I like the idea of the Angling Trust getting involved - maybe there should be some sort of a review of council waters across the country and then look at a way to tackle those where fishing is prohibited.

 

[dylan]

my local park lake doesn't allow fishing during the closed season.

 

[nutmeg]

at least you have a local park lake, the powers that be here in the borough of Crewe and Nantwich, in south cheshire approx five or six years ago obtained a lottery grant of 3 million pounds l believe for the redevelopment of the Queens Park which in its heyday was a beautiful and peaceful place to take a stroll or go boating. but they wasted the money dragging things out and its only this past few months that things have started to happen again with some new funding, the original company went bust l think.
anyhow fishing up until about twenty years ago was not allowed, then they decided that unemployed people could fish the lake which at that time was really stuffed with lots of fish whic had never properly been fished for. then the working population complained and the lake was made available for everybody to fish if they wanted to. but the lake was drained and the fish removed t various other fisheries local clubs and a couple of commercials had some of the bigger carp.
six years on and the lake is still empty apart from the forest that was growing the last time l looked. hopefully sometime in the near future this venue will re open for fishing but we will have to wait and see.
moan over

 

[davebike]

All of Bromley's Park lakes have been No Fishing with a few exceptions for a very long time I remember getting thrown off as a brat ) in the late 60's !
Keston ponds is the only exeption I can think of but that has the closed season as it is an SSI

 

[Uncle Festa]

All the parks in Liverpool were free to fish(except Arrow park(Wirral))when I was living in Liverpool,Not to sure if this has changed now as I no longer live in the area.
Where I now live we have a town park lake (4 acres) that was on a day ticket up until last yr when Warrington anglers gained the lease, now no day tickets and it is not fished very often.

Col

 

[B1gdaddy]

Originally posted by worker1

All the parks in Liverpool were free to fish(except Arrow park(Wirral))when I was living in Liverpool,Not to sure if this has changed now as I no longer live in the area.
Where I now live we have a town park lake (4 acres) that was on a day ticket up until last yr when Warrington anglers gained the lease, now no day tickets and it is not fished very often.

Col

Still free although Greenbank park has a fishing ban until the new cygnets are matured & wildfowl breeding has finished.