Bonfire of the quangos begins in Wales. Fisheries management to be buried even further in departmental stratification no doubt.




Welsh Assembly Government Announcement

The Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Housing of the Welsh Assembly Government Jane Davidson AM and Minister for Rural Affairs Elin Jones AM have announced that there will be a feasibility study to look at merging a number of bodies to provide a separate environment organisation for Wales only. We know that this study will include Environment Agency Wales (EAW), the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) and the Forestry Commission for Wales.

The study will look at the costs and benefits of restructuring and will report in the autumn. Any change would need political agreement from Defra and legislation in the Public Reform Bill (expected in 2011) for it to go ahead. We will be working closely with WAG to assist their feasibility study. Defra are undertaking their own review of their Arms Length Bodies and we are supporting them in that work.

We will continue to work closely with CCW, the Forestry Commission and our other environmental partners in England and Wales to investigate fully the feasibility of any proposed changes. Our role is to support both governments, provide the information they need to help with the feasibility study and to continue delivering outcomes for people and the environment on the ground.

We already have extremely close working relationships with WAG who are our Sponsor body in Wales. We will continue to build on this whilst also recognising that currently the wider Environment Agency provides important technical and business services and support to EA Wales.

The Environment Agency in England and Wales is well regarded by WAG and by Defra. We are known as an organisation that delivers important outcomes for people and the environment to time and budget. As we move through times of potential change we must ensure that we still focus on what we are here to do and the important role we play so that we continue to deliver and live up to the high expectations we and others have of us.

Effective consultation with our staff will be a priority for us as we work on this. There are no predetermined outcomes and we will work positively with all involved to achieve the best way forward. We are committed to working with you and with our external stakeholders to make sure that everyone has ample opportunity to engage with the feasibility process.

We will include communications on this important topic with our existing change communications channels including on the Easinet. We will let you know more when we know more.







Lord Chris Smith Dr Paul Leinster CBE
Chairman Chief Executive

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Musha rig um du rum da

What's the source of this announcement?

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

DEFRA A Dog WAG For The CCW! EA, to be placed where? Sustainability Ministers spending again on a feasibility study, at what cost?

SB, the source is the Welsh Assembly Panicking about their cuts in budget; and trying to save money by amalgamating several countryside organisations in to one!

SB, I received the same announcement as DB through various channels. The source appears to be the EA and, specifically, Lord Chris Smith and Dr Paul Leinster CBE.

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Web: Gareth Lewis Fly Fishing
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It is an excerpt from internal communication to EA employees about change (restructuring) programmes in Wales. I don't think it was marked confidential, but it is perhaps not something that should have gone onto the open forum.

In any case this is a feasibility study only, so it is far too early to be speculating about what might happen.

And further to that, we shouldn't forget that what is flippantly referred to in the press as a 'bonfire' could severely burn a lot of hard-working people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/wal...s/10555286.stm

<M

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http://wanderingangler.blogspot.com/

Mike, I had that info. from a couple of sources and have no qualms posting it on a forum where many members will be affected by the planned changes - if they take place.

I don’t like the sound of it at all, there are aspects of each of the three organisations that won’t marry well. The EA doesn’t protect the environment adequately now, how it would operate during and after a merger with two other large organisations is hard to imagine.

Welsh Secretary Ron Davies coined the phrase “bonfire of the quangos” in 1997; he used the term to describe budget cuts which he planned as a way of funding a Welsh Assembly. The term resonates down the years and still works well as a metaphor, particularly in Wales.

We all realise that such cuts mean fewer jobs - job cuts in a service where bailiffs from Cardiff are supposedly able to respond to incidents in Newtown, Powys - and the staff have my sympathy but my interest with these developments is what such a merger would mean for me as an angler.

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Musha rig um du rum da

This particular information would almost certainly granted under an A2I (access to information) or FOI (freedom of information) request. It follows that the public are allowed to know this sort of thing and there is little liability for the original poster.

The only question is whether the public sector should use the FOI legislation as an administrative stumbling block to the public by witholding such stuff unless asked and then do so only when forced to legislatively... or whether we provide information to interested parties openly and fairly, regardless of side.

I prefer openess and am glad to see such information on a public forum all that it can do is allow those interested to present a point of view, and decisions like this are best made under public scrutiny. It's not as if national security is at stake and the public are best left ignorant in this case is it?

I've come back and edited this reply several times. I was gonna just let it lie, but well...no.

Wrongfoot your arguments are misdirected. Details about the feasibility study are public knowledge and always have been. There's no 'stumbling block' here. My post was about the material that DW used to make his point. Not the subject of the material itself.

Colin's original post is based on an excerpt from an email to all EAW staff (and later all EA) on the potential human resource impacts of restructuring in Wales. It had absolutely nothing to say about the bureaucratic/ environmental concerns that he raises. Hence my query about whether he should have posted it.

He may have legitimate concerns about the environmental impacts of EA restructuring. However, the email he cut and pasted onto the forum does not really support his concerns in a constructive way. The post just reads like sarcastic, political point-scoring - using material which is only tangentially related to his point, and intended only for people facing the frightening prospect of unemployment. And of course those people are also very concerned about what happens to the important work they do if they lose their jobs.

Colin is my friend and I support him and the work he has done (is doing) to improve the Taff in particular. But sometimes friends disagree...and this is one of those times.

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http://wanderingangler.blogspot.com/

Fair point. I thought you were picking up on whether the email itself should have been considered "private" rather than whether the contents meaningfully supported the posters suggestions.

Seems we're not at odds.