SC(3) - AIW188

Sustainability Committee

Inquiry into access to inland water in Wales

Questions for the access to inland waterways inquiry

What is your interest in the issue of access to inland waterways

l am a recreational user who is looking to purchase land in the future, my recreation is varied and includes canoing, kayaking, coastering, and gorge scrambling etc.

Are you a member of an organisation related to your use of water?

l work as an individual and for organisations in a work capacity in / on the water envirmonment, these are ususally small private companies with small staff teams. I also use the waterways as a recreational user and am a member of the BCU.

Which stretch/es of water do you own/use/manage?

Legal right

I'm completely confused by the whole access situation. No l dont think that access is clearly defined on / near inland water, so l wouldnt like to try and outline the rights clearly.
l would like to see a review of the current arrangements and would suggest that the current access situation that is in use in Scotland could be a potential model for this, as it is clear, respectful of all users and from my experiences there appears to be working on the ground.

Voluntary agreement

Yes, these work to a point, But, if too restrictive or pedantic, then people just ignore them, it's not particually helpfull to only paddle access from x-y on the second weekend in the month and at no point between April and September -what happens is crowding that exaberates the issues with parking hassles and loads of people in a short time span that is not how it would usually occur, this then make loacl people get fed up and fuels any fires that are ongoing with access in the area, as this is how it would be if we let you here all the time?

Please can you briefly outline what you think are the key issues for recreational access to inland water in Wales and how you would like to see them addressed.

Old attitudes to access and landownership that do not reflect current and contempary land useage, monetary issues and actual impact of users on land. This could change but is a long term issue that needs a complete turnaround and support through the initial stages as the parties are at odds with each other, certainly it feels like the landowner and fishing parties are not keen on giving anything, although it will only be solved by movement.

Deb Barnes