Securing Land
by Alan Jarrett

Providing somewhere to shoot is a perennial problem throughout the shooting world. For the wildfowler the problem is perhaps magnified by there being a finite shooting resource in the first place: the coast and its immediate hinterland tends to shrink rather than grow, with competition for this land becoming more intense it seems with each passing year.

The key measure really is how the wildfowling community have and are responding to the challenge. The level and success of this response continues to shape the modern wildfowling world in which we all live.

KWCA
The Kent Wildfowling & Conservation Association (KWCA) was long been in the vain of clubs who have successfully secured shooting rights. This activity continues to the present day, and perhaps much of this work forms an effective model for others.

In 1983 when I became Chairman of the KWCA. It was difficult time: the club had experienced a split, had lost some prime shooting areas and – in common with so many other wildfowling clubs - was beset from all sides.

Nationwide those opposed to our sport set about their task against an a largely ill-prepared wildfowling community with relish. Shooting rights were being lost at an alarming rate, and many clubs faced potential oblivion. The security of shooting rights became perhaps the most pressing issue confronting wildfowlers, with the acquisition of freehold the ultimate long-term aspiration of many. So for the KWCA the relentless response to the most pressing of threats began in earnest as the club set about raising finance, identifying suitable land and bringing it under club control.

Land purchase
In 1983 the KWCA was one a tiny number of clubs who owned land, albeit mostly small areas as befitting the modest sums available.

The KWCA was no different to other clubs in that the first priority was to secure the land over which it shot. The nightmare scenario for any club committee was the spectre of tenuous annual agreements – some held on no more than a shake of a hand from a kindly local landowner – timing out with no renewal available. Even longer agreements would eventually time out, and thus clubs were faced with extinction unless things changed.

In 1985 the KWCA was able two purchases which secured 900 acres in the Medway Estuary. Some of this land had been among land lost during the split, whilst some was new land over which the club had never previously held the shooting rights.
This set the stage for what was to follow over the next 17 years as the club set about developing a variety of fund-raising strategies to support a wide-ranging land-buying programme. The approach was a mixture of securing existing rights
and real growth via new acquisitions, via a variety of mechanisms.

In 1985 the acquisition approach was set:
1) identify suitable land;
2) locate the owners;
3) make an offer
4) do not take no for an answer!

It is an approach which has changed but little over the intervening years
Land acquisition has followed a cyclical trend. The KWCA has tended to buy land, recoup finances for a few years, buy more land………….! With money always in short supply, and a coast range in excess of 40 miles within which to operate no other approach is viable.

The demonstration of this cycle is as follows: 1985 (£165,000); 1989 (£143,200); 1991 (£161,500); 1996 (£13,000); 1997 (£115,000), and 2002 (£76,000). This is represented by 11 individual purchases, with the club initiating the negotiations leading to sale on no less than 8 occasions.

Buying Mechanisms
Private Treaty. With a buyer initiated sale it is always likely that the main route to successful completion will be by private treaty – basically two men sitting down and thrashing out a deal (if only it were quite that simple!). Again the emphasis is on identifying suitable land, tracking down the owner (sometimes an incredible difficult task in itself), and making initial overtures.

The initial enquiry may be rebuffed; alternatively the door may be left open; whilst on other occasions there will be a blunt "how much?". The next move will be governed by the initial response: if it is a rebuttal file the information against the day when it seems right to try again; if the door is left ajar go back and push gently to see what happens; if the response is "how much?" then will be the time to start talking (I shall return to this in a moment).

Tender
Twice the KWCA has bought land via tender – or ‘best offer’ – and on one of these occasions it was again a club-initiated sale. Buying by tender can be a horrible ordeal if the land is considered a key purchase, for there is no room for negotiation – it has to be right first time.

Auction
Twice land has been bought at auction, which can be by any measure an exciting way of doing business. On one occasion the buying price was slightly less than expected, whilst on the other occasion it was great deal less than the club was prepared to pay!

Fund-raising aside – which is a topic for another day – land value is perhaps the key consideration in all of this. It really is a case of supply and demand – they don’t make saltmarsh anymore!
It becomes a matter not of what the market value of a piece of land may be, but what it is worth to the club. Land values can be escalated by a variety of factors – with scarcity and competition the two prime interlinked elements, whilst the actual size of the area is a key consideration. In the final analysis what the land is worth to the buyer is the final arbiter. Looking at the price per acre is interesting, if misleading in some respects. Thus in 1985 the KWCA paid £183, by 1997 the price for one plot had moved to £1,714, and by 2002 – admittedly for a small site of only a few acres – it had reached £6,667.

But out of all this there is not a whimper of complaint from the membership – quite the reverse in fact. Shooting is secure and growth continues unabated, with only a shortage of money and the availability of suitable land holding the club back.

But money can be raised, and to some extent land can be made suitable.

The work goes on.