NE Derbyshire District Council (NEDDC) has set a date for a public meeting to reconsider reinstating angling at a popular pond after public backlash and a campaign by local anglers and the Countryside Alliance. 

At a meeting last month attended by local anglers and representatives of the Alliance, the Labour controlled-council agreed for its withdrawn tenancy at the Wingerworth Lido for tenants Clay Cross Angling Association to be reconsidered at a scrutiny committee at a later date. 

Clay Cross Angling Association, which opposes its terminated tenancy, welcomed the council’s latest decision and the authority has now confirmed its public Environment Scrutiny Committee meeting will be held from 3.30pm, on November 17, at the council’s headquarters on Mill Lane, in Chesterfield.

The Alliance has been lobbying local councillors to help overturn the ban and urged the local Labour MP, Louise Sandher-Jones, to intervene. In a recent letter to the council's leader, Niger Barker, the Alliance demanded for full transparency of the decision making process, going forward. 

The council had previously been accused of trying to remove the fish from the lido after an email sent from a council employee on the same day as the council met last month to discuss overturning the ban was unearthed, requesting that the fish be removed as soon as possible.

In an earlier public statement, NEDDC claimed it had received ‘a number of complaints’ regarding the Wingerworth Lido over recent years, some of which were directly related to fishing activities carried out by the angling club. However, the council was forced to confirm to the Countryside Alliance via Freedom of Information Act requests that of the three ‘formal complaints’ made to it over a period spanning two and a half years, none resulted in any sanctions or warnings to the club.

Local angler James ‘Big Duffs’ Duffy has organised an online petition calling for the reinstatement of fishing rights at the Wingerworth Lido which has so far attracted over 5,200 signatures. The petition remains live.

Mo Metcalf-Fisher, Director of External Affairs at the Countryside Alliance said:

"The council made a huge error banning angling at the Wingerworth Lido. It was totally unjustified and the unfortunate sequence of events that have followed represent a major PR and political crisis for the council. Since we were informed of the ban, the Countryside Alliance has worked alongside local anglers to mount a very powerful vocal campaign which has attracted national attention. We shall be following the upcoming process closely and will not back down until angling is rightly restored at the Wingerworth Lido".