GOVERNMENT plans to axe a fishing organisation which has represented west Dorset boatman for more than 100 years have caused a storm.

Fishermen at West Bay and Lyme Regis have joined colleagues in condemning moves to scuttle the Southern Sea Fisheries District Committee.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs wants to cut the number of regions from 12 to six.

The scheme is designed to keep a closer eye on depleted fish stocks and boost income for enforcement authorities.

But Dorset fishing representatives have slammed the move and fear the county's voice could be lost if the changes go ahead.

In an official response to the plan the committee points out that it was set up in 1893 by the Board of Trade with powers to make bylaws for fisheries and environmental management purposes. It also enforces some EU technical conservation measures such as minimum landing sizes.

The report continues: "The potential savings to be made by the proposed changes are at best simplistic and at worse dangerously misleading.

"The Defra review has not sufficiently or comprehensively addressed the main issues to enhance inshore fisheries management. The qualities of the SFC model are recognised by English Nature, the Wildlife trusts, RSPB and WWF in various reports.

"It is therefore unhelpful that the request for 'modest' modifications to the SFCs' powers, through changes to legislation, has lead to the possibility of wholesale dismantling of a system that strives to meet the stated aim of the review for local communities.

"The committee acknowledges that closer collaboration between SFCs and the Sea Fisheries Inspectorate could lead to increased efficiency of enforcement activities. However, this can be achieved anyway without change simply by closer cooperation.

"Southern SFC already has an excellent working relationship with the local Defra fisheries team."

Dorset county councillor Malcolm Shakesby, who sits on the Southern SFC, said centralisation would hit local individually tailored conservation schemes.

He said the county council was backing moves to save the committee, with chief executive David Jenkins writing to DEFRA expressing concern at the proposals.