19/07/2011 Look East - East

Good evening. What next for Stansted Airport? BAA

is ordered to sell it. The world has changed and the remedy should

also. Another casualty of the cuts,

Waterbeach Barracks is do close. have been taken aback by this news.

The barracks is an important part of the community which has been

here since the Second World War. Bombs away! A huge wartime mine is

blown up on the sea bed. And there is not just one of panel,

there is 20,000 at the country's biggest solar farm, right here in

First tonight, BAA, the owners of Stansted Airport, have been ordered

to sell it. The Spanish owned company runs six

UK airports. Over two years ago, the regulator ordered it to sell

Stansted and two others to boost competition. Later that year, the

company sold Gatwick, but the fate of Stansted was subject to legal

challenges. It is Britain's third largest

airport, handling over 18 million passengers per year. It contributes

�400 million a year to the local Earlier, I spoke to Colin Matthews,

the chief executive of BAA. I asked him for a reaction to this

announcement. We are dismayed. We think it is an

unreasonable and draconian measure, the company has invested �5 billion

in UK jobs and growth and improving passenger service since new owners

took over. But it is about your monopoly. Those issues were argued

through and the final report, in 2009, when the Competition

Commission required us to sell three airports. Heathrow and

Stansted serve different markets, no airlines fly to both markets, as

those who fly from Heathrow do not wish to fly from Stansted and Weiss

versa. Your critics say that you should just accept this decision,

the delay has gone on long enough, and it is just going to worsen

relations with the community around Stansted if you delayed further.

Look at it this way. Imagine buying a house in 2006. Since that time,

you have spent a huge amount of money in rebuilding it and

improving it. And then, a previous owner comes along and says it was a

mistake to sell it to you, you should not be allowed to own it.

You must sell it, now. In a difficult market. Are you just

delaying in order to get a better price for it? We make clear in our

submission to the Competition Commission that we do not think we

should be required to sell. If we are, we should have a reasonable

periods of time in which to do so. We should have had some flexibility

in the order in which we sell the airport. The world has changed. BAA

has changed, and the remedies should also have changed. Thank you.

There has been sadness and disappointment today at the news

that Waterbeach Barracks, near Cambridge, will close. It is home

to 39 Engineer Regiment and about 1,000 troops. The news came as part

of yesterday's defence cuts. For many, it command of the blue.

-- came out of the blue. This village is in shock that a

long-standing relationship between civilians and the military looks

set to end. The army came here in the 1960s.

The village has a population of little more than 5,000. It has had

a significant impact. When these barracks go, the impact will be

felt on both sides of the barriers. Of the 1,000 personnel stationed

here, 39 Engineer Regiment of the majority. They currently have over

40 saw tears in Afghanistan, working on clearing the ever-

present threat of IED is. -- 40 salt tears. -- serving military

personnel. We have not done as well. It is very disappointing.

barracks are a good bunch of lads who bring prosperity to the area.

After 70 years, the lack of the base will leave a vacuum. The

prospect of it being filled by up to 10,000 new homes at still local

anxieties. We have fought off the threat of

houses before, several times, for the reason that we do not want

10,000 houses being dropped on to the community. The A10 is already

overcapacity and I do not see how the local infrastructure could cope.

Elsewhere in the region, better news for Bassingbourn. Their future

has been secured as has an expansion. The Ministry of defence

say that the units from Waterbeach will be supported elsewhere after

closure. This afternoon, the closure was

raised at a council meeting in Cambridge chair. You had no idea

this was coming? Absolutely not. As a reprieve article in yesterday's

Guardian and dreaded online today. -- I saw an article. -- read it on

line. Nobody tipped you off? until after it was announced. I was

hustled out of a meeting to be told but that was the first indication I

had it was definite. You will understand, I am sure, but as part

of the cuts, summer has to close? Yes, that is the case. I suppose

the Government think they can get a lot of money by selling Waterbeach

of for housing. It is one of those things, you think this is done to

sell the base and they say it is part of the defence cuts. Which do

you think is true? They say clearly in the defence statement that the

purpose is to raise money. It stays -- says in Hansard that by selling

Waterbeach Barracks they will help to balance the books. Good you have

done anything, had you been given the information six months ago?

has been on the cards for a long time. There was an attempt to build

an Eco town about five years ago. It has been on and off but is

consistently rejected, mostly because the army did not want to

sell. Now, we discover the army do want to sell. It will not close for

another three or four years, there is plenty of time for us to

campaign and hopefully change minds. We heard in the report that the

infrastructure of the town could not support the housing. Do you

agree with that? The A10 is a nightmare, as those who live North

of Cambridge won a. Traffic was queuing between Waterbeach and the

A14 this morning. -- Cambridge will know. I dread to think what the

roads will be like. Unless they improve the A10, there is really no

way we can tolerate the possibility of developing these serious amounts

of housing. So the campaign starts here? Absolutely. Thank you.

Still to come. Isobel, on her trek to find mid-.

We Jenny to Ecuador after a rare butterfly.

Over this fence, they harvested wheat. Here, they are harvesting

light. This is the biggest solar farm in the country and it is right

A second world war minor dredged up from the seabed has been safely

detonated off the coast of Essex. - - mind. The explosion happened

eight us out to sea. -- eight miles. This marina is where the bomb

disposal team have been based. The weather has been beautiful today

but conditions of the coast of the last few days have been hostile.

That has meant the team have not been able to get that and that made

the device. Today, they finally got down to business.

This was the bomb disposal team making final preparations this

afternoon. This was the ground mind which sparked the drama. It was

dredged up on Friday. It became wedged in the dredging arm of the

car. It is very large, an old German World War to mind. One of

the largest you will come across. - - WWII mine. It was very difficult.

The bomb disposal team managed to secure the mind and lowered back

into the water. After a rough weekend's weather, today finally

provided a break to get divers down. It is very difficult to understand

how difficult it is to work in the marine environment. To do this

under water, with no visibility at all. When the fat lady sings, it is

all over. Up to that point, we try to conduct everything safety and --

safely. Today, with an exclusion zone still

in place, the minor finally went bang. This footage was shot by the

disposal team eight miles out to sea. The explosion was 88 ft

underwater, marking the demise of their wartime relic which tested

their skills more than most. -- a wartime relic.

When this thing came out of the water, it was in pristine condition.

It is six feet across, containing four pounds of explosives. These

men are now packing up a mountain of equipment, heading back to their

base until the next phone call calls -- comes through.

An Irish National has been jailed for 23 years for murdering a man

from Essex in Spain. Daniel Smith, from Billericay, was shot by Eric

Wilson outside a bar on the Costa del Sol. Mr Smith was wanted by the

police in Essex in connection with the attempted murder of another man

near Chelmsford in 2007. Plans to build a quarry in the village of

Marlingford have been dropped. Many tons of gravel would have been

extracted from the site. The campaign against the plan has been

Alastair Cook has signed a new contract with Essex which will run

until 2013. He has played six games this summer. He has said he is

delighted. The final stage of the digital

switch-over is to take place for Essex and parts of Suffolk. The

Sudbury transmitter will transmit only digital signals from tomorrow.

Our reporter is there. No matter how big you think this

mast is, it is actually quite a lot bigger. There are eight bankers

holding this up. After today, it will stop transmitting analogue

signals. -- anchors. It is very much state-of- the-art electronic

engineering going on in there now. This transmitter has been

transmitting for more than 40 years. Bringing you the regional news and

views from the BBC regional television studios here in

Norwich... Just after tonight, analogue

signals will be switched off for good here.

You get a lot more or channels in the same signal space. And a lot of

the blocking problems with analogue, they will disappear as well.

Tonight will be the last ever transmission of BBC Look East in

analogue for around one million of our viewers across Essex and parts

of Suffolk. The end of one here, and the beginning of another. --

one era. The Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart was recognised

today for his contribution to cinema and theatre at the

University of East Anglia. When most of us think of balls, we

think of players of a certain age. -- bowls. This club is trying to

change that. This quintessential British sport,

enjoyed an up-and-down day country for centuries, but here that

Clenchwarton, the players are getting younger.

We are all getting older and it would be nice if we had some

youngsters in the game. They are few and far between.

There are nearly half-a-million a bowler's in the England, and it is

so often seen as a pastime for older people. The seniors here are

doing their best to encourage a younger generation. The club has

received a grant to buy new equipment.

Brilliant. It is good to see so many youngsters out here enjoying

themselves. It is a start towards the future. What is it about balls

that you enjoy? It is quite fun, because just meeting new people on

a sport that you can play without being too competitive is good.

There are a dead friend to this role models, most notably Sir

Francis Drake who insisted on finishing his game before leaving

to defeat the Spanish Armada. This club is hoping to ensure that the

sport survives for centuries to You are watching Look East. Coming

up, one woman's mission to Ecuador to find a butterfly named after her.

Ecuador looks nice tonight. Wind farms have been part of the

landscape for many years. Now there is something else. Solar farms.

I knew site at Wilburton near Cambridge is one of the largest in

the country able to power nearly 1,200 homes. It has just been

connected to the National Grid. Amongst the elite, a purple haze.

Not lilac, not lavender, but light is harvested here. A field of

photovoltaic solar panels. The rest of Europe is into solar

energy and it is something that the UK will need to look at to meet our

targets. We want to be here long term, and there has been an

incentive, for 25 years, index- linked and government-backed.

25,000 panels, enough to produce energy for 1,200 homes. This is the

most powerful solar farm in the country.

The important part of these cells are these white lines, which is

still come, which collects the light, and sent electricity to the

National Grid. There are two big solar sites in

their East. Are we better off with solar power or wind?

The subsidy for Solar is about seven times that of the wind

turbines. It is a dilemma. Do you want wind turbines or more costly

renewable energy from solar? You can see these things are almost

two metres high, not moving, not making noise. Nobody can really see

it. Across Germany and other parts of the Continent, solar farms like

this are common. It is likely that more will appear in East Anglia but

are we prepared to pay for them? Here is something you might not

know. Hidden underground is a secret world of. Thousands of

bunkers. They were built when Britain feared a nuclear

catastrophe. One man has decided to rediscover them.

This house is part of Britain's secret past. This man has been

fascinated by that past. I started photographing Cold War

bunkers towards the end of the 1990s. I have worked my way around

the country. I think I probably have visited around 95% of them.

He reckons there are about four to 5,000 hidden bunkers and Britain.

There are different kinds. Observers are posts, which are

sometimes just small protective basement under a town hall, or

massive seat of government. This is where government would have gone if

Whitehall was taken out of action. Since the end of the Cold War the

bar, many of these sides have been locked up. -- Cold War era.

Many of these places have become derelict and what is called a

health and safety nightmare. It is difficult to persuade local a

authorities to let UN. We have had a number of doors on welded, so we

know we are the first in there. -- unwelded. It is a sense of

adventure. This dedication means there is now

a record of our secret past. What is important is that they are

recorded. I consider that as my job, to record them photographically and

make that record available to the general public.

His next project could be even more exciting. He is planning a book on

the Communist Cold War bunkers. More than ten years ago on Look

East, we featured a young girl called Isobel Talks.

She has always dreamed of seeing a butterfly that we named after her.

She travelled 6,000 miles to Ecuador to find it.

Isobel Talks is mad about butterflies. Having won named after

her is a trait she never dreamed of. 13 years ago, I won a competition

to have a butterfly named after me. Now I finally have the chance to

see it for myself. My butterfly is only seen in the cloud forest of

Ecuador in South America. I have this picture, which shows my

butterfly, the picture I was given when I won the competition. You can

see the colours so well. How nice it would be to see it. I have seven

days to find my butterfly. I know roughly where to look but they are

incredibly rare. I have seen dozens of butterflies,

going off into the canopy, out of reach, and being a butterfly hunter

his heart. Four days later I still had not found my butterfly. I had

walked for miles in their heat every day.

I just saw what I thought might be my butterfly again. A similar

pattern, but as we got closer, it flew off into the canopy. I am

sitting here now wondering if it will come back. I do not know.

was running out and my tattooed dream was fading fast.

Day 6 of the butterfly hunt. -- childhood dream. I do not even know

what the female looks like. Who knows, I might have seen the female

hundreds of times! I thought my trip would be wasted, but on the

last day, my butterfly appeared. After all this time. Day seven of

my butterfly hunt, and here I am holding my butterfly. That is

pretty amazing. I cannot believe it. I read somewhere that they like

salt, so I have put some on my hand. He seems to be enjoying it. Really

amazing. Isn't that fantastic? Great story. We heard about that

because she wrote to us. If you have a story you want to tell us,

A few weeks ago, we told you about a team in Thetford in Norfolk who

were fitting satellite tags to cuckoos to see how far they travel.

It was all part of a project to find out why the cuckoo population

has dropped in this region over the past 25 years. Five birds were tags

and two have made it to Africa a, which meant crossing the Sahara

desert. One is in Senegal, one is in Niger and one has not gone very

far, it is still in Norfolk. I am playing golf tomorrow. Will I

We have had some sunshine. With low-pressure near by, just off the

East coast of Scotland, there are some showery conditions. Quite a

lot of cloud. There were gaps alia, and the North and west of the

region got the worst showers. Those bright greens and blues show the

heaviest showers. There are still some showers around this evening

but they will gradually clear. Much of the evening should be dry.

Overnight, clearer intervals developing, and temperatures in

those areas down to ten degrees Celsius. The wind is light, mainly

coming from a westerly direction. Into tomorrow, it will be a mainly

dry day with sunny intervals. There is the chance of some isolated

showers. They are not expected to be as heavy as the today. As the

temperature rises, cloud bubbles up. Showers will affect mainly the West

and south of the region. We have a bit of sunshine so temperatures

could climb to 20 degrees Celsius. The wind will mainly be light and

westerly. There is an onshore breeze and the North, so there

could be cooler temperatures there. There is still the chance of

further showers in the West. Some rain will present itself in the

South of the region by the end of the day. Tomorrow, here is the

pressure charge. We are between two areas of low pressure and heading

towards the weekend, the nearby it low-pressure gives us some

uncertainty as to what will happen. Here is the next five days. Heavy

showers for Thursday, mainly dry for Friday with the chance of an