The Agriculture Bill provides a wonderful opportunity to provide protections and freedoms to millions of ordinary working class water users and end centuries of bullying by the landed gentry.
The Agriculture Bill has sailed through its first and second reading and now stands in the third reading stage. This bill seeks to dramatically change the way in which subsidies are paid for the way in which British land is used and will provide subsidies specifically to those who provide access to their lands for use by the public.
This is set to benefit many of us who enjoy the outdoors and is something to welcome. However, one particular group of outdoor adventurers have been entirely overlooked and that is all of us who want to enjoy Britain's great waterways.
Access battles have been fought through the courts (and on the riverbanks) for decades and there has never been an opportunity to clear up the law through a major piece of legislature until now. Believe it or not the landed gentry have frequently been known to use violence, threats and vandalism to enforce their own perverted laws out on the waterways in Britain. I've heard numerous stories of warning shots being fired (from shotguns)over kayakers heads including groups of children. Labours Gareth Thomas MP has proposed a simple amendment to the bill which will incentivise the opening of these waterways to the public along with all other land providing we get behind it and push it through.
The amendment simply reads;
“…make the grant of financial assistance under section 1 conditional upon the public having access to any lake or waterway on the land, as long as they use the right of access responsibly”
Now many of you thought it was over after the 2019 election but that isnt how it works. The late great Tony Benn once said; “There is no final victory, just as there is no final defeat. Just the same battle to be fought over and over again. So toughen up, bloody toughen up."
There truly is no final defeat. Things had to get worse to get better and comrades its time to toughen up and bloody get lobbying! We are in opposition. We are not dissolved.
The strategy is straight forward. W pay attention, identify legislation we are not happy with, lobby our MP's to propose amendments as we see fit and then support them when they take it up as our comrade Gareth Thomas MP has done. But support is not a few likes online. The support we must to give is practical and powerful.
Scrutiny committees are formed for legislation changes. By identifying the relevant committees and who the members are we can use our numbers to influence the decisions made.
Labour holds a number of positions on the Agriculture Bill Scrutiny Committee and so I have written to our shadow Environment and Rural Affairs Minister asking him to gain the support of all Labour MPs on this committee for this amendment as an easy first step. You could all do the same to further encourage Mr Pollard and I would love it if you did.
Other effective ways to Lobby a Labour MP are to have a motion on a policy passed through their own CLP. The British Canoe Union would no doubt be overjoyed to be invited to any of the above CLPS and can be contacted with the details at the foot of this page.
The next step is to write to every MP on the committee asking them to accept Gareth Thomas's amendment. Anyone can write to any MP but they will not necessarily read or respond as many have a policy of only accepting correspondence from their own constituents. This is where I'm calling for your help.
If we can find a constituent in each of these places to write on this matter we would catch the attention of these MPs and find we have an enormous influence.
So lets use this as a test of our strength in opposition. Can we change this law? and if we can they can we change others?
A well informed strong lobbying opposition can legislate. Lets start today with The Agriculture Bill!
For more information please visit: https://www.britishcanoeing.org.uk/news/2020/blog-view-from-the-riverbank-a-call-to-action
British Canoeing
0300 0119 500
Please let me know if you successfully get a response from any lobbying efforts on this issue.