Water firm’s ‘deeds proof’ in row over fishing rights (From Bournemouth Echo)

Water firm’s ‘deeds proof’ in row over fishing rights

7:00pm Tuesday 30th June 2009

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A WATER company has hit back at claims that it does not own the fishing rights for waters around Christchurch.

Bournemouth and West Hants Water (BWHW), which recently announced it was taking over the management of waters in the lower Stour and Christchurch Harbour, says it owns both the river bed and fishing rights to the waters.

BWHW has registered title of two thirds of the harbour, together with the tidal reaches of both rivers Avon and Stour

Mike Rhodes, BWHW’s property and recreation services manager

But according to local fisherman Dave Mansfield, due to the waters downstream from Iford Bridge, where the mean high water mark is, being tidal, the right to fish there will be owned by the Crown Commission.

Mr Mansfield said that since the right to fish in tidal waters was protected in the Magna Carta in 1215, a company or private owner needs to have been granted the rights and documentation from the Crown in order to charge people to fish there.

Mike Rhodes, BWHW’s property and recreation services manager said: “BWHW has registered title of two thirds of the harbour, together with the tidal reaches of both rivers Avon and Stour.

“The bed of the lower third of the harbour is owned by the Crown Commission and the public’s rights to fish extend here but not beyond.

“The then West Hampshire Water Company purchased the fishing rights from a Miss Mills in the early part of the last century and we have administered them since February 1, 1929. The conveyance document makes specific reference to the purchase covering ‘the fishery together with the bed and soil of the said rivers and harbour’.

“The fishery was in private hands before the Magna Carta in 1215 and we can trace the history back to 939AD. We are entirely satisfied that the harbour and rivers owned by BWHW, and the fishing rights that accompany this ownership, have resulted from legitimate legal transactions.”

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