Salmon & Trout Association Hampshire Branch
What a water resources officer does, and why

Head office send the branch water resources officer information about any planning applications to extract from or discharge into the water systems in Hampshire. Mostly this means the officer reads them and files them away, occasionally writing a letter to object to a particular application. Typically the officer receives two or three applications a month and may write as many as three letters a year. So you will see this is a job requiring efficiency and judgement, and is NOT hard work, and that it can be done at a time of your choosing. It is also appropriate to attend a couple of branch committee meetings each year, to keep us in touch with what is happening.

Ten years ago, when we were discussing how long branch officers should keep their job, the then national water resources officer said “although it may be desirable for a chairman to step down after three years, the longer a water resources officer stays the better”. I don’t suppose we expected Malcolm to stay as long as ten years but we are grateful that he has. The point is that judgement does improve with experience and learning to recognise the danger signs helps you work smarter. Having said that, please don’t look upon it as a job for life, we do not expect any commitment to stay so long from our next water resources officer, but do feel that it is one of the core services a branch should provide. If you agree, please ask yourself if you would find it an interesting task?.

It is hard to describe and quantify the advantage we will all gain by having an active water resources officer. In joining the Salmon and Trout Association, most of us have decided that our sport needs protecting and improving and that we want to be part of it. It is probably not the big ticket items where a water resources officer is going to make a difference (although that could prove a dangerous assumption, anyone have a good story?) but is more likely to be a number of smaller benign looking requests where no-one has thought to ask the question “what are the risks to our water habitats from this decision?”.