A RESTOCKING ban looks set to be imposed on Salisbury Angling Club leaving club members bewildered and angry.

The Environment Agency has told the club it cannot restock its lakes at Steeple Langford with crucian carp, tench and bream because they are not native fish and might escape into the nearby River Wylye.

This is despite carp, bream and tench having lived in the lake for around 50 years with no escapes into the river as far as club members are aware.

The agency is worried that the lakes - together with the nearby Langford Lakes now a nature reserve run by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust - are on a floodplain and are liable to flood during periods of high water levels.

Langford Lakes, which lie on the opposite side of the river Wylye to the club's lakes, used to be a commercial coarse fishery carrying a huge stock of big carp, tench, bream, roach and rudd.

This week club spokesman Paul Barnard said three years ago they re-stocked their lakes at Petersfinger and two years ago at Steeple Langford.

No restocking had been done since then because of the foot-and-mouth epidemic which closed off fisheries and surrounding land.

He said the club had to restock to combat predation by cormorants and to compete with commercial fisheries.

As to the risk of flooding, Mr Barnard said in cases of bad flooding it was the river that flooded into the lake not the other way around.

Some anglers believe that pressure against restocking comes from English Nature.

Mr Barnard said English Nature wanted to return rivers and the countryside to what they used to be years ago.

He said this simply could not be done as so many things have changed, including river levels and habitat brought about by many changes in the countryside.

The Wylye, which runs through an area designated as a site of special scientific interest, flows into the Hampshire Avon.

Virtually the entire length of the Avon has identical designations.

The Wylye is a famous Wiltshire chalkstream renowned for brown trout, lamprey and bullhead.

A spokesman for the agency said they are not keen on non-native species appearing in the Avon, although they accept they are already there in certain parts of the river.