Legal threat to club that broke lockdown

MATCH anglers who held a competition during the current lockdown period have been warned they will lose their fishing rights if they do it again.

HanKat Angling Society flouted the rules on organised sporting events by staging a nine-peg event on the Dudley Canal on November 7.

The club advertised a follow-upmatch, before the Canal & Rivers Trust (CRT) warned them that the matches breach Covid restrictions. The CRT told the club

“Should you go ahead and organise further events we will escalate the matter to our legal team to see what the Trust would need to do in order to ensure compliance with law, including the termination of your club’s angling agreement.

This is something we hope we can avoid, as it would not put angling in a good light at this time and undo the work the fisheries team have been doing behind the scenes in fighting the case for angling to be allowed to continue.”

Jamie Cook, the CEO of the Angling Trust, said:

“It is vital that anglers continue to fish safely, locally and responsibly throughout this pandemic. The last thing we need to see is irresponsible actions like this that brings angling into disrepute and endangers the hard-won concessions we have achieved for us to keep fishing through the lockdown.”

HanKat Angling Society flouted the rules on organised sporting events by staging a nine-peg event on the Dudley Canal