Alness Angling Club to hold extraordinary general meeting amid cash flow concerns
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AN angling club risks insolvency “in a few years” if action is not taken to reverse “ever greater losses”.
Alness Angling Club made the warning ahead of an extraordinary general meeting next week to discuss ways of arresting the decline – with rising fees and cuts in its number of beats among the possibilities.
Setting out its position in a financial statement released ahead of the meeting, it cited a fall in income from £13,718 in 2013/14 to £8969.50 in 2017/18 – falls which contributed to annual losses increasing from £1800.91 to £4197.32 over the same period.
It said that losses had been offset in part by one-off payments from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for a plant on land the club owns, and Diageo for a pipe wayleave.
But it warned that despite these it had also had to “draw down from our reserves”.
It warned: “The club cannot continue to draw from its reserve funds if it is to maintain a sustainable future in the long term.
“Membership and visitor fees are diminishing resulting in ever greater losses.
“While some loss of membership and visitors for the 2018 season may have been due to the designation of the river as grade three, with catch and release only, the numbers have continued to decline this year.
“The funds from Diageo and SEPA, as well as fundraising and reserves have kept the club functioning. If the current trend continues it is likely that the club will become insolvent in a few years. It is essential that the finances are put on a safe footing.”
Recommending that it end some of its existing leases, it said that if it retained all of its beats it would need to increase membership fees by £80 per person.
To combat this the club is proposing a range of options. Its preferred choice is to increase visitor tickets from £25 to £35 per day, exit the Loch Bad a Bhathaich lease from Kildermorie estate, leave the lease for Kildermorie Beat One and increase membership for seniors and OAPs by £30.
Alternative options it has up for discussion include leaving the Loch Bad a Bhathaich lease and the one for Novar Beat Two, while increasing membership for seniors and OAPs by around £45; or leaving Novar Beat Two, keeping Loch Bad a Bhathaich and increasing membership by £55.
The issues will be discussed at the extraordinary general meeting in the Perrins Centre, Alness on Monday at 7.30pm.
