River Ure Access Agreement

[steve t]

Hi

Can anyone point me to where I could find the definitive "Agreement" for the Ure above the camp site at Sleningford? The link on this site is broken.

This weekend we ran a club trip from Hackfall down, as we have done in previous years without incident. It was the last Saturday in the month and our understanding is that this means it is acceptable to do this run. We had met two anglers, behaved politely and passed them where they asked us to, when we were approached somehwere betwen Hackfall and Mickley by someone claiming to be a water bailiff, I've no reason to doubt that he was. I'm guessing one of the anglers had got on the 'phone after we had passed. The level was on the low side and I expected some criticism for running it in this condition, but that wasn't his issue at all.

He was perfectly polite, friendly and reasonable and volunteered his name without us asking. His issue was that the access agreement alows us to access only at Mickley - we are not supposed to get in above Hackfall, nor are we supposed to stop and "play" (we were practising/demonstrating rolls when he approached us). Bizarrely, he said that were were allowed to get in at Masham, and indeed that he had done that run himself in an open boat, commenting on how much fun Hackfall was. We listened to his point, politely said that we would continue down the river but did not apologise or accept that he was right. He had a concern that the agreement was not well publicised (and if it's a BCU agreement he's right - I can't find it on their site or anywhere else). He also pointed out that the anglers had paid "thousands of pounds" for their fishing and didn't like to be disturbed, and given the friendly nature of the encounter I just said that we didn't want to get into that argument. He appeared sympathetic (obviously just doing his job and had better things to do on a sunny Saturday afternoon), and didn't accuse us of doing any harm or of scaring off fish. We finished the trip without further incident and passed just one other angler below Mickley.

I don't want to get into the legitimacy of agreements in this thread, I have my own views on that. My point here is that I'd like to know what my position is with respect to the agreement if we are to have it quoted back at us by the landowner's representative. It didn't spoil the club's day out but I was biting my tongue and it spoilt the next ten minutes for me, so I was wondering if anyone can point me at anything that might look "official".

Cheers
Steve

[Jim Pullen]

There doesn't seem to be any copies of it floating around on the BCU website (but who knows with their search functions!)

Looking at the list of LRAs, then Ken Harrap would seem to be the person to ask. His contact details are on the link.

That agreement does look quite complicated! I find it hard to understand how if they're happy to let you access further upstream and paddle past, how accessing a bit nearer via a public footpath would make any difference to them whatsoever. Standard access agreement nonsense I guess - I think my views have been well publicised. I'll take that link out of the guide if its bust.

[steve t]

Thanks Jim

I've sent a message to Ken Harrap via that link.


Cheers

[das bump]

Thanks for the input,

Ken is actually my dad so I will make sure he clarifys the situation for you.

Cheers

George

[jazzman1975]

There is actually a section on the access agrement in the activities section of the website where it details the access agreement.

http://www.sleningfordwatermill.co.uk/activities.html#c

[Jim Pullen]

There is actually a section on the access agrement in the activities section of the website where it details the access agreement.

http://www.sleningfordwatermill.co.uk/activities.html#c

Well that seems to suggest you can access from either Hack falls or Mickley Weir, but does say only in spate after 1st April, which I doubt it was this weekend! The joys of access agreements!

[steve t]

I've seen that one, and it says that access is OK on the fourth Saturday. While the campsite should know the rules, what I want is something "official" to know where we stand (before we do the run again anyway next year!)

I'll post Ken's reply here when I get that.

Thanks all,
Steve

[Jim Pullen]

Oh yes, I misread it and assumed it was those dates and in spate not or.