Fishing At St Benet's Abbey.

[JennyMorgan]

Tom, you are undoubtedly one of the good guys! 

[MauriceMynah]

1 hour ago, chameleon said:

not a fisherman myself but as far as i'm aware fishing is closed 15 mar to 16 june, I'm sure someone will correct me, but the following is copied from their website;-

Not necessarily Mike. Enclosed waters are not all subject to the traditional "closed season". Also, the trout fishing season opens on April 1st, which is why the rod licence is 12 months and not just the coarse season. 

[Speleologist]

As the NDAA website clearly states that boats have priority from 16th June to 16th October, there doesn't seem to be any suggestion that the moorings are being lost to angling.  (Click on the relevant blue bit on the interactive map and the details come up.)The only change would appear to be that angling is now restricted to NDAA members. With the addition of the closed season, when there is no fishing, boats effectively have priority for the entire summer season. Also, as there are only 12 pegs, I suspect there will be plenty of space for the odd diehard winter boater.

The interesting question is the status of people fishing from a boat moored there? I don't know, but I suspect that being on a boat they are free to fish. Any experts with an answer to that one?

[marshman]

I am sure Tom will come and tell us all about it soon, but elsewhere it states boats will have priority between 16/6 and 31/10.

I am sure someone in the BA knows what is going on as the NDAA must have negotiated, or not, these rights over this area which is leased to the BA

That will make for some interesting confrontations I guess, not what you want on one of the more prominent of BA moorings. The anglers seem to wish to take over the Broads!!

[marshman]

Speliologist beat me to it by 2 mins!!!

[JennyMorgan]

19 minutes ago, marshman said:

The anglers seem to wish to take over the Broads!!

Not us anglers, more like the birders.

Anyway, us anglers have always played second fiddle to the boaters. In reality anglers have very little of the Broads, at least to themselves. Not to say that I appreciate the prospect of lost moorings.

[JennyMorgan]

25 minutes ago, marshman said:

I am sure someone in the BA knows what is going on as the NDAA must have negotiated, or not, these rights over this area which is leased to the BA

But has the NDAA taken over the lease, or at least part of it? Come on, Tom, some of us are gagging for information.

[JennyMorgan]

Have clicked on the NDAA map as suggested by Robin. It does appear that the St Benets mooring is split roughly into thirds, one third being where boats have priority mooring rights during the summer whilst on two thirds the anglers will have priority. Guess work on my part but that is how I interpret the relatively clear NDAA information/map.

[BroadsAuthority]

Hi all, thank you all for the questions regarding the St Benet’s Abbey 24-hour moorings.

I have spoken to Rob our Director of Operations and despite the updates to the NDAA website I have been assured that there haven’t been any changes to the usage of the moorings. It is still a 24-hour mooring and boats still have priority over anglers.

If you click on the blue line over the stretch on the NDAA website it does say that ‘12 pegs available on this section.  Boats take priority 16th June - 31st October’ which is an accurate description.

In December 2020 a paper went to The Broads Local Access Forum about the site, however it was about opening up access to Environment Agency owned banks for anglers and doesn't affect the Broads Authority mooring.

Hope that re-assures you,

All the best!

Tom

[PaulN]

Thank you Tom, that's great to know, as a boat owner and angler.

Paul

[JennyMorgan]

Thank you, Tom, reassuring. I hope that that is the end of it. Is the BA still going ahead with its planned repairs to the moorings? 

[webntweb]

We often had 10 or 11 days around the school holidays in October during the 80s and early 90s and always had at least one evening fishing on the St Olaves morning.

On one holiday we were there on the night of the 31st October (just us an one other boat) and when we woke up the next morning there were anglers front and back of us and all along the moorings.

In retrospect, seeing Tom's reply, I presume it could have been the club's annual 'end of boating season' fishing match.

With regard to fishing from a boat moored to a bank where the fishing rights have been let to a club, you usually still have to have the required permit from that club as well as your national rod fishing licence. 

If it has been a day ticket water and is now an annual ticket only water, would it be that if a bailiff came along you would have to pay £20 or stop fishing until you can arrange to be a member of the club. 

[marshman]

If I recall PW, all the repairs were done a couple of years ago or more! Perhaps it just shows how long ago you came "north" ???

[JennyMorgan]

21 minutes ago, marshman said:

If I recall PW, all the repairs were done a couple of years ago or more! Perhaps it just shows how long ago you came "north" ???

 I tend to turn right at Thurne, thus avoiding the joys of Wroxham. 'Tis two summers since I last went North. Hickling or Wroxham, that's a hard one to answer!!

My question re repairs was based on off my understanding of officer reports in BA agenda papers. 

[BroadsAuthority]

Hi all,

The repairs at St Benet's are currently being assessed by our maintenance team, we hope to be able to issue updated communications as early as next week.

All the best,

Tom

[JennyMorgan]

This was St Benet's this morning. Has anyone seen any relevant notices to mariners or whatever?

[JennyMorgan]

Apparently there is a BA member's meeting tomorrow, hopefully all will be revealed in the Officer's reports. 

To worry or not to worry, that is the question!

[BroadsAuthority]

Hi Peter and all,

I've had an update this afternoon from Rob our Director of Ops. regarding the SBA moorings. I've just published it on our website:

https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/boating/navigating-the-broads/boating-news/update-on-st-benets-abbey-24-hour-mooring

Tom

[JennyMorgan]

Thank you, once again, Tom. 

I note the worrying sentence:

"It is also not possible to start work until the Authority’s lease of the site is renewed"

That statement infers that the lease might not be renewed. Indeed reading the full statement it becomes clear that the present shuttering is redundant other than for mooring thus the EA might indeed remove the timber quay heading. 

[NeilB]

This does'nt sound good, has'nt something like this hapened before resulting in the loss of moorings?

[JennyMorgan]

1 minute ago, NeilB said:

This does'nt sound good, has'nt something like this hapened before resulting in the loss of moorings?

It has indeed, regretfully.

This situation can not have just come out of the blue so why the obvious reluctance to release the information? For the barrier to be erected this morning suggests that management at Yare House was well aware of what was developing so why withhold that information from Tom when he first questioned it? What was there to hide? All in all a worrying development.

[ranworthbreeze]

Good evening all, please find below an update on the current situation at our St Benet’s Abbey 24 hour moorings.

The Broads Authority has today (18 March) barriered off approximately half of the 300m length of St Benet’s moorings due to potentially dangerous defects with the capping and walling (timbers on the front and top of the piles).

Repairs cannot proceed until agreement is reached between the Environment Agency and the owner of the site regarding the future responsibilities for the piling. It is also not possible to start work until the Authority’s lease of the site is renewed.

The remaining mooring spaces will still be open for use by the public, for the time being, when the majority of boating activity can commence again on 12 April (subject to Government guidelines). Double along-side mooring is permitted at this location.

These measures have been taken to safeguard people and vessels using the site as a mooring and is unrelated to the Norwich District Angler’s Association (NDAA).

The Authority has been in discussion with the landowner for some time, attempting to renew their lease for this iconic mooring location. In anticipation of the lease renewal a major refurbishment of the timbering was planned by the Authority (via a tender advertised on our website) to make the site ready for the 2021/22 season.

Please read the full notice on the boating section of our website: https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/boating/navigating-the-broads/boating-news/update-on-st-benets-abbey-24-hour-mooring

Kind regards,

Tom

Tom Waterfall

Senior Communications Officer

Direct dial 01603 756034

Broads Authority 

Yare House, 62-64 Thorpe Road, Norwich NR1 1RY

Please note that my normal working hours are 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday.

[Bytheriver]

1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

Apparently there is a BA member's meeting tomorrow, hopefully all will be revealed in the Officer's reports. 

To worry or not to worry, that is the question!

Here is the link https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/about-us/committees/broads-authority/broads-authority-19-march-2021

The papers are available & the meeting link will be available tomorrow - they are often a bit late starting so just keep refreshing page Start  time 10am & there are usually around 20 people looking on.

[JennyMorgan]

21 minutes ago, Bytheriver said:

Here is the link https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/about-us/committees/broads-authority/broads-authority-19-march-2021

The papers are available & the meeting link will be available tomorrow - they are often a bit late starting so just keep refreshing page Start  time 10am & there are usually around 20 people looking on.

Undoubtedly Dr Teflon will once again talk himself out of yet another pulk hole! 

[marshman]

Lets not all jump to possibly the wrong conclusion.

Its not at all unusual for people not to discuss whats going on in the middle of negotiations so we will just have to wait and see. What they should not do is overpay avaricious landowners who may be tempted to see the BA as a public honey pot!!!!

Problems with lease renewal and where  renewal costs are to be attributed, are nothing new sadly but rather than blame JP always, perhaps we should attribute some blame to the existing landowner - there are plenty of cases around where landowners have acted in an inappropriate manner, some even using the threat of non renewal as a bargaining issue in other issues, such as planning!!!!!