Those attending Rutland in the near future may want to get there a little earlier to avoid the inevitable queue ( particularly as there are a number of major competitions and practice sessions cioming up shortly) as the number of staff has reduced somewhat - I believe that David Phipps and Paul Shaw departed last week. I do not know the details but I believe there had been a cloud hanging over shop staff for the some time as AWS attempted to shed labour and push the permanent staff into roles previously performed by temporary and seasonal labour. No doubt there will be some repercussions in terms of the quality of service provided, amazingly the remaining staff are still being pursued to reduce their hours/ vary their contract.

More importantly as anglers we may need to monitor the implications of this cost cutting regime when it comes to next years stocking and pricing of fishing.

Since the new head of AW has taken over Jake Williams the whole place has become a shambles...

That's my verdict from the outside looking in.....and also that of those who were on the inside looking out..

David Phipps and Paul Shaw have resigned.....they are no longer employed by AW...FACT

however i must be carefull here....IT IS ALLEGED/RUMOURED THAT :-

Justin Boothroyd (boss of David and Paul) is off work with stress

Susan noble has been off with stress regarding this incident....

Jake Williams has just caused a whole load of trouble.....

First step was to change the car parking charges for the day trippers ...to a £5 charge..but with no hourly rate.not really a fishing problem but still causing trouble for locals wishing to use the reservoir (walk their dog, ride their bike etc...especially in the winter months)

Then he's decided that the number of staff in the shop needs to be recalculated.....(although his calculations are way out) with staff being deployed to the watersports centre etc when not at the shop.

He also has difficulty in understanding the figures that were put to him by the retail staff (David) and by his accountants

Staff were being asked to re-apply for jobs, without knowing where the position was, where it was based, or what their job description was to be etc...

His handling of the whole situation is a lesson in "how not to manage" in my opinion.

As a result only Robbie Winram and Susan Noble remain.(at present ! !)...a young chap has taken over in the shop with 10mins training on the till..

His knowledge of fly-fishing an introductory beginners course.

I think the long queues are just the start of the troubles....when a match day comes it'll be a madhouse...

As a result..Paul Shaw has started a business in Tree Surgery and David has simply decided to retire early.

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Mick Brooksby was in the shop on Saturday and doing a sterling job under the circumstances, it was very busy and the queue was out the door. I went upstairs for breakfast and waited a while for the queues to die down.

It's the 4 man loch style competition this weekend, when I entered on Saturday I could see there are a good number of teams entered as well as a lot of bookings for pleasure anglers so we will get to see soon enough if they will be able to cope or not.

I mentioned to the chap helping Mick that when I called to book boats last Monday the phone was either engaged or just rang and took me a good couple of hours to get an answer. I was told that this would not happen again as there were lots of changes and a new system of bookings was being implemented.

---------- Post added at 02:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:05 PM ----------

Also, Rutland is fishing it's head off around the boils at the minute.

I think it is incredible the management can be so short-sighted. That shop is a prime retail opportunity with a captive market and the best location in England.

With knowledgeable staff like Paul and Robbie in there and enough time to attend to customers properly it would more than pay their salaries. Without that it will rapidly become an expensive way of selling day tickets.

They should move boat bookings and ticketing to the web.

Charlie

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Wish I could have time off with stress.....

If Anglian water are not interested in revenue from the tackle shop or manning it with the correct levels of staff, they should perhaps consider off loading the retail side to a third party. A tackle shop at that location in the hands of someone with a head for business would be a licence to print money. You only have to look at Rutland Water Cycling who have shops at Normanton, Whitwell and Grafham to see the potential.

The boat side of the business could then be handled by the wardens, who would probably disagree as they already have long hours, busy schedules etc. A central booking system for prebooking boats, which could handle bookings for all the AW fisheries, might help.

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I don't think that a lot of the ageing fishing customer base is web literate enough to make e-ticketing for boats a flier at the moment. It is a very seasonal business and to get good staff you need to offer a full time contract which costs - after the 2/3 busy hours in the morning It can be pretty quiet so its very difficult to man the shop efficiently through the day / season.

I've rang Rutland Lodge, 3 times in the last 2 days, and the 'new lad', was great, letting me know how many boats were availble for this weekend, and didn't seem troubled by it all. It did sound really busy in the background mind.

The phone was answered, everytime, within 2-3 rings.

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