SC(3) - AIW38

Sustainability Committee

Inquiry into access to inland water in Wales

I am the president of a university canoe club as well as a keen walker. Access to waterways in Scotland has afforded me the ability to kayak where there is enough water, preventing me from damaging spawning beds in shallow water. While kayaking in Wales I have been forced to use a tiny percentage of the rivers and am therefore forced onto shallow water. Voluntary agreements do not work. Only around 4% of English and Welsh rivers have working access agreements. This simply is not enough waterway to cater for the number of kayakers. If kayakers stuck only to those rivers with access agreements then it would be very quickly clear that this notion of voluntary agreements is just the politicians avoiding taking sides and passing the buck. This results in increasing the problem and confounding it.

If I am to be frank, I do not see any reason why the Welsh cannot have access to their rivers in the same way that the Scots do. Kayaking causes significantly less damage to the environment than say fishing, a fact that anglers are aware of, and the opposition to open access to waterways is nothing more than greedy fishermen not being willing to share.

Yours,

Rory Fyffe