Jane Nower - 13-Jul-2007
- Over 70 staff from the Environment Agency’s
Reading office grabbed brushes, secateurs
and spades on 10 July 2007 to do their bit
to ‘mend the world’.
Dave Booth, a parks development officer
from Reading Borough Council’s Parks &
Open Spaces Team, welcomed the volunteers
with open arms as they gave up an afternoon
in the office to trim, clean and daub.
The Parks & Open Spaces team encourages
business people to unshackle themselves
from their desks and computers and lend
a hand in one of Reading’s 100 green spaces
or playgrounds. Four groups of volunteers
from the Environment Agency were given time
off to tackle tasks such as building decking,
weeding, cutting back trees and painting
barriers, around the Kings Meadow and Caversham
Court areas.
Dave said: "It was amazing to work
with such a big group of volunteers – this
is definitely the largest number of people
I have coordinated at one time. Some staff
were trimming back willow trees at ‘The
Coal’ which were traditionally planted for
fencemaking, but have now just grown wild.
Others helped to rub down benches reading
for painting, and to apply wood preserve
to bridges so that they would last longer.
"They also made excellent progress
with laying down decking so that children
can ‘dip’ safely in the pond to collect
samples like bugs and tadpoles from the
water, without getting bogged down in the
mud."
Andy Poole, an external relations officer
said: "I was on brushing down duty
this afternoon, making sure that the barriers
surrounding the water at the Coal were clean
of cobwebs and bugs, ready to be varnished.
It was good fun to get out and do something
worthwhile in the open air."
The Environment Agency and Reading Borough
Council’s Parks & Open Spaces Team are
keen to encourage other local businesses
to allow staff to go green for the day.
If you’d like more information go to www.reading.gov.uk
or call 0800 626540.
New to angling? Then pick up a copy of
the Environment Agency’s ‘Where to go fishing’
guide, now available in tackle shops
Head Office Press Office - 12-Jul-2007
- New to angling? - Then pick up a copy
of the Environment Agency’s ‘Where to go
fishing’ guide, now available in tackle
shops
If you have just started fishing, or have
returned to the sport after a few years’
break, then you will want to know where
are the best places in your area to cast
a line, details of local fisheries, where
your local tackle shops are, and what licences
and permits you will need.
All of this information is available in
one easy-to-read guide, available from your
local tackle shop - the new ‘Where to go
fishing’ guide, published by the Environment
Agency.
The new pocket-size guides cost £1
and have been distributed to nearly 900
tackle shops and cover most of England.
They include a large detailed map showing
the location of fisheries and tackle shops
and contain information on:-
local fisheries
key fish species in your area
types of permits and rod licences available
regional byelaws and fishery rules
the River Call automated telephone service
that will give you daily river level information
local tackle shops.
"Our research shows that a lack of
information on local fisheries and tackle
shops is one of the main barriers to people
taking up angling or, having started, remaining
in the sport," explained Environment
Agency Fisheries Manager Guy Mawle.
"Last year, as an experiment, we sent
out local angling guides to rod licence
holders and tackle shops across half the
country. Follow-up research found that they
were popular with anglers and the tackle
trade. What’s more they stimulated angling
activity, encouraging anglers to fish new
waters and to fish more often. Licence sales
increased faster in those areas where we
sent the guides out."
The new guides do not cover Wales and the
South West of England as these regions already
have their own ‘Fishing Wales’ and ‘Get
Hooked’ guides to angling.
Looking to next year, if any tackle shop,
angling club or fishery would like to be
in the guide they should telephone 08708
506506 and ask for the FAST team. Copies
of previous regional guides, with slightly
older information, can be bought over the
telephone for £1.99. Again, call 08708
506506.
An interactive guide to fisheries has also
been set up by the Environment Agency and
British Waterways. Comprising around 4,000
angling sites on rivers, canals, lakes and
ponds across England, the guide on www.waterscape.com/fishing
is the first to provide anglers with a wealth
of information on nearby fisheries by simply
typing in a postcode or nearby town.
