Disabled Anglers Blocked from Prime Pool

Fish Legal has lodged a formal complaint to North Yorkshire Council for replacing a kissing gate at Hutton Rudby with a new one that obstructs access to one of Middlesborough Angling Club’s prime pools.

The new gate, which the council has installed after complaints regarding livestock security, is so narrow that anglers with wheelchairs or limited mobility can no longer access Hutton Rudby Pools.

The club reports that 31% of its members have limited mobility, restricting them getting to the pool and greatly impacting the club’s weekly fishing meets, of which numbers have plummeted since the gate was installed.

Formal complaint

The formal complaint comes after internal documents revealed that the council, who paid outright for the gate themselves, did not conduct an Equalities Act Impact Assessment before fitting the new gate.

Dale Conway from the Middlesborough Fishing Club explains, “This might seem a small issue to most people but over 30% of our club members are disabled or have limited mobility, so this is of great significance to us. Every Monday afternoon we hold fishing matches at this prime club water, and they were exceptionally popular, offering camaraderie and welfare for our members. They were sellouts. Now with the new gate, we are lucky to see 3 or 4 people taking part.” Following the lodging of a formal complaint with them, Fish Legal is waiting for a response from North Yorkshire Council.

Geoff Hardy, Fish Legal Solicitor representing the Angling Club, said: “This seems crazy, the council confirmed to us that they spent £440 on a tiny kissing gate and have taken the full sized one away. Only after pushing them did they confirm to me that they haven’t conducted an equalities impact assessment on what they were doing. Had they have done so, they would have realised that they were reducing access to the path, which is in very frequent use by wheelchair-bound anglers and others with mobility issues. I have written them asking that the old gate be put back, it is as simple as that.”