If Government ran commercial fisheries.

This topic has 14 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 11 months ago by yorkiboy.

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- 26/04/2010 at 9:40 am #38975
  TF_JohnH
  I have just renewed my NRA license and what a farce.
  Last year i did not take the letter they sent to me and the lady at the PO had to retype in all the details by hand. This year I took the letter, bar code and all and was given a receipt and was told the license would be posted. I got it a couple of weeks later and now have received a copy of a mag I didnt want warning me about not having a new license.
  As one who can remember the days of walking into a tackle shop to buy a license, hand written with carbon paper for a copy, I wonder what price progress?
  In total 3 letters posted plus 20 minutes at a PO counter, and to think the Govt moved it away from the trade as shops complained about the level of commission, it must cost 10 times more now in admin. Made worse, as I renewed my sons at the same time and he has received exactly the same as me by separate mail of course.
  And there lies the warning, beware Govt control and think carefully before you vote, big state or little state is your only option.
  If commercials were run like this heaven help us all, fisho would never happen and W/A festivals run once every 5 years, cost double to join with payouts cut by half, in the spirit of protecting jobs, in vital public services, of course.
- 26/04/2010 at 10:00 am #103169
  TF_Coxy
  I have recieved a letter and a nice magazine but no licence yet~think
- 26/04/2010 at 10:34 am #103171
  TF_daveroberts
  I renewed me EA licence online after recieving a reminder letter and recieved new licence within a week.
  
  No complaints here but if you’re dealing with the NRA you may well run into problems! lol
- 26/04/2010 at 11:44 am #103176
  TF_pr@ngler
  Did mine online too. Took minutes, whilst I had a drink, in my own home.
- 26/04/2010 at 12:29 pm #103182
  TF_Gary
  …but surely if the government did not meddle in all walks of life, they would be “abdicating their responsibilities” to the elctorate? This farcical allegation was made on Question Time a couple of weeks ago.
  
  I, for one, would be delighted to see the current government abdicate all of their responsibilities, as of 6 May.
  
  There was a superb note published in one of the freebie commuter papers this morning. It succinctly read:
  “If we end up with a hung parliament…. which MP should we start with?”
- 26/04/2010 at 1:10 pm #103184
  porky
  Tackle shops used to make a whole 50p per license you know.
- 26/04/2010 at 1:14 pm #103186
  TF_JohnH
  You on liners are missing my point, you will still have 3 letters sent to you, how many of you have not been in a tackle shop this year where you could have renewed your license in person? None I suspect.
  Is the new way cheaper to administer?
  I suspect not.
  
  Dont want to get too political but the quote of the campaign so far, to Yvette Cooper, wife of Browns probable sucessor,when she accused the Tories of taking Â£6b out of spending by refusing to agree to the next installment of tax increase, sorry NI, from a man in the audience who pointed out the Â£6b was our money being taken out of our pockets,and before we gave it to government we should just burn it because they will, brilliant.
- 26/04/2010 at 1:28 pm #103187
  TF_wightangler
  what a load of bollox, most govt. is staffed by fortunetly non-politicians who want things to work for all – not a ‘select’ few.
  Getting a licence online or via PO is pretty easy – if you’ve had a proplem that’s unfortunate but it does’nt mean that over a million other licence byers have also all had proplems.
  as to the EA(ex NRA) given the amount of responsibillity they now have and life and integrating 60 million people is’nt easy!
  would i want my country run or the EA run by some commercial fishery owners even if they wanted to?
- 26/04/2010 at 1:42 pm #103188
  TF_JohnH
  But is it cheaper and more efficient than the old way?
  I suspect not as the old way could be run by one man and a dog, I shudder to think how many are involved now and how much thay cost.
- 26/04/2010 at 1:46 pm #103189
  TF_Waveney One
  @Gary wrote:
  
  …but surely if the government did not meddle in all walks of life, they would be “abdicating their responsibilities” to the elctorate? This farcical allegation was made on Question Time a couple of weeks ago.
  
  I, for one, would be delighted to see the current government abdicate all of their responsibilities, as of 6 May.
  
  There was a superb note published in one of the freebie commuter papers this morning. It succinctly read:
  “If we end up with a hung parliament…. which MP should we start with?”
  
  I couldn’t agree more, especially the latter statement. Start at the top is what I say.
  
  I really would not wish to see Gordon Brown serve two terms as Prime Minister without ever having been elected!! Mind you I don’t want to see him elected either.
  
  John H I believe that you are missing a fundamental point as well. With tackle dealers going out of business all over the country, and they have been for years now, do you think that they ring fenced the licence money and handed that over to the NRA or the EA? Of course not, they used it to pay themselves and their staff salaries.
  
  The EA suffered thousands of pounds worth of bad debts when the tackle shops were collecting money. We have had similar problems in our club with tackle shops going bust.
  
  The best way to purchase you licence is by direct debit. It cuts down admin costs for the EA, guarantees that you won’t forget to buy one, if you have the money in your bank account then the EA will get it and last but not least it saves wasting 1/4 of an hour at the Post Office.
- 26/04/2010 at 2:24 pm #103191
  TF_Gary
  Waveney One, I think that you have a point with regard to bad debts when tackle shops collected license fees. I would be intrigued to know how the cost of administering the license fee has changed over the past few years and how this is made up. Given this government’s track record, one would be very surprised if the current process has actually taken any cost out of the system (even after allowing for bad debts from tackle shops). Perhaps someone could prepare a ‘Freedom of Information’ request to settle this?
  
  Direct debit is probably part of the answer, although I know that there were significant ‘teething’ problems with this system when it was first introduced, so I have always steered clear.
  
  wightangler, I have deliberately not replied to your point. This is not because I do not have a view on it; rather, it is because I do have a view, but it would be taking us somewhat off topic and would not endear me to the recession-proofed public sector workers on the forum!
- 26/04/2010 at 2:49 pm #103195
  TF_Gary
  I have just submitted this FoI request by email.
  
  To whom it may concern,
  
  I would like to request the following information, which I could not find on your website.
  
  1) What is the cost of administering the Environment Agency rod licence scheme?
  2) How is this cost made up?
  3) How has this changed (total cost and composition thereof) since 1997?
  
  Kind regards,
  
  Gary
- 26/04/2010 at 2:52 pm #103196
  TF_Gary
  Just received an acknowledgment:
  
  Thank you for contacting the Environment Agency. Please see below regarding our response times and environmental incident reporting
  
  You can expect to receive a reply from us within 10 working days for any general enquiry. Please note that bank holiday days and weekends are not classed as a working day.
  
  Watch this space!
- 26/04/2010 at 3:01 pm #103199
  TF_JohnH
  Please do not think I am attacking anyone in the public sector many of whom do a fantastic job. I am mearely using the method of license fee collection to illustrate a point from an efficiency perspective and comparing it to how things run in the real world. Hence the link to commercial fisheries.
  The real world is where wealth is created and most of the real wealth creators do not have gold plated pensions or jobs for life.
  This is called the private sector whos taxes pay for the public sector.
  What none of the politicians is telling the public sector, which obviously includes themselves, is that we have just spent 160odd Billion more than we earned last year and we cant afford you anymore.
  Add this to all the other excessive spending in the past and the debt is in trillions. It will take a liftime to pay off.
  The party is over lets do some real work that will help to pay off the bills.
- 26/04/2010 at 6:18 pm #103224
  yorkiboy
  Remember it was Easter when licences were issued and also the Computers were also down, last year went to PO and got mine after 4 days this year got mine after 2 weeks.
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