The local fishery manager in Cornwall (the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Association) develops new byelaws in private, excluding the public from Byelaw Working Group meetings and refusing to disclose Byelaw Working Group agendas or meeting papers to the public.  This is despite the UK being a signatory to the Aarhus Convention, which is aimed at transparency in environmental law-making.

Additionally, it allows the Chairman to serve for more than 10 years.  This is contrary to the Government’s Code on  Public Appointments.  A Cornish Councillor said in 2020 “most of the major democratic nations in the world have limitations on the amount of time that a person can remain as president as two terms. And the only people who go longer are the tyrannical states like Russia and some of the other places. I think it is a backward move, something we need not do. I would suggest that we don’t do it.”

If you know any Cornish sea anglers, please pass this message on to them and suggest they kick up a fuss by contacting their MP, Councillors and members of the Cornwall IFCA Committee.