September News

SSW had told us and you that they would be responding to all proposals by the end of September.

That came and went, and the response to our enquiry was that they would now be reporting to their executive committee (assumed to be executive board members) by the end of October.

You will see from our latest Newsletter e mail to you all that they appear not to understand the urgency, or the problems being created by their delays.

We are receiving lots of enquiries about "What is happening?" and the frustrations are clear.

We managed to talk to one of the people leading the SSW team and they assured us that this is not a ploy to create so much delay and damage that the fishery cannot reopen in 2027.

Our request to meet with SSW to discuss how best to manage the problems being created has been met with silence.

It was mentioned in that discussion that our 'negative comments' about SSW on this website might be prejudicial to us being selected as the operator. That made us think.......

Clearly, SSW like their staff not to criticise them. But we are customers. Our comments are fair and accurate. We have not abused them. We can only wait and see what happens. Spesaking truth to power is difficult and might be described as dangerous. Or, it is received with an open mind and judged accordingly. Time will tell.

If you are as concerned as we are about the delay, poor fishing, cancelled events, difficult access, lack of communication, lack of reports on anything, please write to them at the address given in the Newsletter (environment@south-staffs-water.co.uk ) and include a plea for the issues raised in that Newsletter to be addressed with BASG.

To our knowledge, we are the only group with the expertise and business acumen to run a successful fishery based on fly fishing. We are not sure who our competitors are (we have asked SSW to link us up so that we can collaborate). SSW refuse to help us contact them - just as they refused to tell us who the people on their customer lists were so that we could ask them to help us keep Blithfield going. GDPR stops you doing some things but it doesnt stop you asking people or organisations if they would like to contact you or have their details passed on.

We have now been told (06 October) that SSW will inform us next week of whom they have selcted for 'discussions'. BASG has asked for the SSW agenda and the broad content content of those discussions so that we can prepare.

TIME IS SHORT. If SSW do not select us because we ask too many questions, or point out shortcomings, then it could be too late for any campaign to alter things. So, please write to SSW NOW and ask them to select BASG as their preferred bidder and let us get on with keeping fly fishing alive at Blithfield.

BASG represents the existing members and operators of the fly fishing. We know how it works and can hit the ground running.