Time is running out for our fishermen
On Thursday last week I had meetings with the Rye Fishermen's Association and the Hastings Fishermen's Protection Society.
I had arranged for Sharon Bowles MEP and Catherine Bearder to come for an update on the situation for our under-10 metre fleet.
Both in Rye and in Hastings there is an incredible amount of anger and frustration at how the UK Government has failed to deliver a fair settlement for local fishermen - how it is preventing an equitable division of the quota that is allocated to the UK by the European Union.
It was important for us to hear from the experts on what is a complicated subject.
What I was horrified to learn, was the extent to which the Government's actions are driving our fishermen out of business.
In March of this year there was a re-jigging of the fisheries areas in the South East, and there has been the opportunity, as a result, to renegotiate the fishing quota percentages.
There had been a glimmer of hope for local fishermen as the Fisheries Minister had met with them, appeared to acknowledge the discrimination with which the under-10 metre sector was being treated, and a better allocation of quota was ordered.
But in the last few weeks, pressure from the producer organisations - organisations with enormously powerful commercial interests - has resulted in an about-turn from the Government, and the possibility of legal action from the fishermen.
As long-serving councillor Richard Stevens has noted, it is bizarre that on the one hand there is a willingness from Government to invest in Hastings in respect of the regeneration of its built environment, and in culture and the arts, and on the other, a complete denial of the damage that is being done to a valued industry, which is a treasured part of local heritage.
Whilst, over the years, there has been much talk about the need for joined-up government in this country, we have seen far less of it than we need to.
This is due in no small part to the linear and feudal command structures of government departments in Whitehall. Labour and Conservative governments have failed to tackle this systemic problem, and it has led to myriad others.
At this time in the electoral cycle, with European elections coming up, there is a routine opportunity for the European Union to become the whipping boy for problems not always of its creation.
That does not discount that there is much action needed to make the EU better value for money and more democratically accountable.
The Liberal Democrat view, rightly or wrongly, is that we need supra-national, mutualist organisations in order to solve some of the problems of an increasingly global village, which the credit crunch has brought more keenly into focus.
As part of this, we must have informed debates about the problems facing our communities, and where culpability properly lies.
As a result of Thursday's meeting, Sharon Bowles will be asking the EU Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, to investigate whether it has been fair that the under-10 metre sector has been prevented from setting up its own producer organisations. And she is writing to the UK Fisheries Minister to object to the U-turn on the new quota percentages.
Liberal Democrats will continue to do all that we can to support our local fishermen.
We must all be aware, and ready to act quickly, because time is running out.
(To read more about what Nick has been up to, check out his blog – 'Nick Perry for Hastings & Rye' at www.nickperrylibdem.wordpress.com]
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Weather for Hastings
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
