Triumphs of the past year – and what lies ahead
IT HAS been a terrific year for the Countryside Alliance, with many campaign wins and opportunities for celebrating success from both the Wales and London teams.
The year in Wales kicked off with the celebrations of the annual Countryside Alliance Awards, which have made their home at the National Assembly and are warmly supported by politicians of all parties.
Economy and Infrastructure Minister Ken Skates presented our Rural Oscars to a packed-out celebratory evening in the heart of Cardiff Bay.
Assembly elections came and went, we said a fond farewell to some great supporters and one or two left without a “sorry you are leaving card”.
Brexit. Now there’s a word you haven’t read for possibly all of five minutes. It happened, and now we sit and wait for negotiations to take place and deals are hopefully struck to ensure that our country fares well in the process. We have already taken part in stakeholder workshops, making sure our member’s voices are heard.
In June we took the countryside to the Senedd, filling the building with our campaigns and spilling out on to the Bay, where we featured birds of prey, gundogs, hounds, a few sheep and a pony. We launched the brochure Shooting in Wales – For Countryside & Community to promote the economic and conservation value shooting brings to Wales, the only document of its kind. We did of course, have the help of the great Sir Gareth Edwards, a passionate angler and keen shot.
My colleagues in London have been working hard and firmly put to bed a campaign to end grouse shooting, with a parliamentary debate which was much in favour of the Glorious 12th, thanks to the concise and honest briefings put forward by the Alliance.
In March the Alliance called for three amendments to the Firearms Act that will reduce the administrative burden and provide improved clarification for both certificate holders and the police, and after nine months of intensive campaigning by the team and our partners on the British Shooting Sports Council, these amendments have been moved by the UK Government.
Some of you may recall our campaign regarding face coverings and sensible amendments have been put forward and subsequently passed with regards to the removal of face coverings. This means that a senior police officer will be able to give immediate oral authorisation for a constable to require the removal of face coverings where it is impracticable for that authorisation to be given in writing.
Back to Wales, and the League Against Cruel Sports made a mockery of the Assembly process for a short while until our intervention saw their disingenuous campaign to end the use of fox snares get caught up in a their failed number-crunching drama, whereby they publicly claimed that more mammals are snared in Wales annually than actually exist. Environment and Rural Affairs Minister Leslie Griffiths has announced her intention to work with industry rather than to ban.
As 2016 comes to a close, we have much to campaign on in 2017 – defending recreational shooting with NRW, access to land and water, more of the fabulous Alliance Awards and codes of practice for dogs, equines and other farm livestock.
While we have had this “great year”, we are not complacent and are very much looking forward to the year ahead, and once again being the leading voice of the countryside.