Episode 8 Inside Out

Now on BBC News, it's time for Inside Out.

Hi, I'm Elaine Dunkley and welcome to Inside Out.

We will be bringing you in-depth reports on some of the best stories

Coming up: Chasing hares with dogs is illegal,

but now the police are hunting the hunters.

Football is for everyone, but how many clubs provide

And how our love affair with the steam train is reviving

Dogs are trained to chase hares by sight and kill them,

with spectators gambling on the outcome.

12 years ago, as part of the hunting ban, it was made illegal,

but since the start of the season in September, the number of hare

courses from Lincolnshire been prosecuted is at a record high,

Farmers say they live in fear of intimidation by people

who are often involved in other crime.

Inside Out has been out on patrol in a Lincolnshire

fenlands to find out how the police are responding.

The hare coursing gangs seem to be getting more organised.

People involved in hare coursing tend to be linked to other

The hare coursers are becoming wilder and more determined to get

They are happy to threaten your life, livelihood, family.

Some of the people can be very nasty.

The days of a Lincolnshire poacher getting one for the pot,

Good morning, everybody, thank you, welcome to the Operation Galileo

There are already hare coursers entering the county this morning.

We've had some hare coursers reported in Rugby and in Legbourne.

One to watch out for today, I haven't seen it yet,

but it has come out in so many incidents this past week,

What I am passing round here is the map of the hotspot farms

And you can all see there is a vehicle hot list.

I'm putting him with PCSO Parrott, Kilo Lima Papa 38.

They take bets on the agility of the dog, they gamble on A,

how many times the dog can turn the hare, also, if it actually

There is people in rural communities challenging these people.

Yeah, reference those vehicles that made off from here...

A lot of the times, there are two or three carloads of them.

Some days, we'll have probably reports, they will be coming in,

They say that they are just interested in keeping

the tradition going, some of them are.

But the bulk of those people have other criminality,

or are involved in other criminality.

Whether it is betting, or to pass on information

It can be a real game of cat and mouse.

Can you just do a vehicle check, please, mate?

As a farmer, I'm so scared of intimidation and retribution.

We've been threatened a lot as a family.

My house has been threatened to be burnt down, my sheds have been

threatened to be burnt down, my truck has been rammed,

my father has had his nose broken on two occasions.

A farmer we know was brave enough to film these hare coursers

And it showed the next generation, a boy, getting back

We are talking of a lot of people involved in this, and they travel

from as far as County Durham, Bishop Auckland, Lancashire,

Greater Manchester, West and South Yorkshire,

down to Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Anglesey and Wales,

you know, they will travel all over to come to Lincolnshire.

I keep a video camera with me and I filmed them leaving the farm,

Often, the police will turn up too late, the cars are very elusive,

they seem to know the area better than the police do, actually.

Those farmers that think we've forgotten about you and we're not

interested, I can categorically assure you that we are interested

and we certainly do take it seriously.

But we can't please everybody all the time.

We've just had a call from Chief Inspector Tyner and PC

Leyburn, who have got one detained.

I looked up here and I saw a car doing an about turn, I spotted him,

somewhere in the middle of that field.

The people who he was with have made off in a vehicle,

have left matey, I don't know his exact excuse

for being in the middle of this field with this sight hound.

People would have us think that they are just walking the dog.

They just don't care, they come with one thing in mind,

and that is too trespassed over your land in

To see people in hoodies and masks can be really intimidating.

He's got what we call a slip lead on it.

As you see, it slips straight through that collar,

so, as soon as that dog can see a cross that field now,

so, as soon as that dog can see across that field now,

look, it's actually ready to go, if a hare came up now,

he would just release that and it would just pull it straight

They will video it, and then probably go back somewhere else,

some place, some venue and put, you know, money on it.

One particular person said he had made nearly ?30,000 in one season.

Not just on betting, because he'd got a really good dog,

but also on using that dog to mate with other dogs.

I've put a blockade in the way, with telegraph poles and bales.

And then, all they did was drive around that, across the crop,

and damaged the crops, so, then I dug a trench

with an excavator to keep them from going round it, and then,

they went round the other side of it!

And we've seen what has to be the worst season of hare coursing

incidents on this farm, and in the area.

Looks like there is a dog running loose on the A15,

Going to be straight across there now.

Right, we are currently at Crowland, just off the A16.

Chasing a blooming dog that looks like it's been abandoned.

We have reports, we had one down at Sleaford that we kept getting

reports about for three or four days.

Before we finally managed to catch it.

Because of the scale of the problem and the area,

that the police have to cover, it makes us very vulnerable.

I know some farmers, given the economic climate,

plus the stress of dealing with these hare coursers,

actually leaving, thinking that they can't continue farming.

Hopefully, the police have realised the scale of this problem

and the fact they got to do something more

We will look at other things, other ways to effectively police it.

A survey for BBC Inside Out reveals less than a third of Football League

clubs in England and Wales meet official guidelines on providing

space for football fans using wheelchairs.

Joshua Gardner reports from Yorkshire.

But there's something that sets me apart from most other fans.

And whether I'm going to an old ground or a new stadium

I've been using a wheelchair since I was nine, and,

for as long as I can remember, I've been watching sport.

Fans like me get just as involved as anyone else -

whether it's a pitch invasion or a protest

And we've something else to campaign about -

the lack of facilities for disabled fans.

Time is running out for excuses, but I genuinely think disabled

I'm sure if changes are made, people will just get fed up

with the fact they can't enjoy the game in the same way

At a time when Premier League clubs have never been richer,

many disabled fans are getting a poor deal.

There's been strong public pressure on the Premier League,

which now says all its grounds will meet wheelchair space

But the Football League, where clubs have less money,

The quantity of money around in the Premier League,

particularly, and which can be made available at lower levels,

is at levels far, far higher than ever before.

We've done a survey of Football League clubs

and the results make disturbing reading.

Nationally, of the clubs who replied, less than a third

matched the guidelines for wheelchair spectator provision.

10 clubs replied, and only two - Rotherham and Huddersfield -

But all the other clubs provide less, and one,

Scunthorpe, provides just 20% of the wheelchair spaces

I'll get to Scunthorpe later, but first another club,

Take a look at this ground - Bootham Crescent -

It's got an old-fashioned stadium, surrounded by buildings

This isn't the richest club in the world.

At the moment, it's near the wrong end of League Two.

They've just over half the recommended number of wheelchair

spaces, and there's no disabled parking at all.

But they hope to move to a new stadium.

We are in a dilapidated facility, that's unfortunately been

in a scenario where we've been due to move for a prolonged period.

So the club admit they've got serious problems.

And they've allowed me to put them to the test -

by going to a home game at Bootham Crescent -

it'll be my first-ever trip there as a spectator.

I'm going through York, it's full of small streets

and lots of signs, saying no parking.

We thought we'd part in a good spot but it turns out I've got

We have parked in a permit holders only bay.

But, as soon as I set off, I'm in luck.

There's another space just down the road.

I've parked on the double yellow lines with the blue badge,

Hopefully, enough time to watch the game.

I'm in a crowd here, but I've no problems getting

Next stop, York City's only disabled toilet.

Let's just say it's not the best I've ever been to.

I'm going to take my seat and get ready for the game.

York are playing Northampton, and I'm enjoying myself.

So what do the other disabled fans think?

They do the best with what they've got.

But how things are now, it should be better, really.

I think this is absolutely appalling here.

The disabled section is not good for me.

I find the toilets is difficult to use.

It is good being close to the pitch because you feel you are actually

How much do you enjoy coming to watch your team?

Looking at it on paper, as a League Two team said,

I didn't think access would be good but here we have shelter,

The only bad thing is the parking and the toilets.

Now I'm at Glanford Park, home of Scunthorpe United.

Among local clubs, it had the worst figures in our survey -

offering just 20 per cent of the wheelchair spaces recommended

I would love to show you inside the ground.

Scunthorpe have refused permission for filming.

They said they accept Glanford Park is outdated for modern football,

but it complies with all health and safety regulations.

And they're planning to build a new stadium.

They said their planned state of the art ground will provide some

of the best facilities for football spectators in the country,

and vastly improve the experience for all supporters,

Here I am on a wet day at Huddersfield Town,

It's a modern ground, and the club's one of the best

The big challenge for disabled football fans.

And this isn't easy - a sharp bend at the bottom

We have had to park over there and we have gone

Even for an experienced wheelchair user like myself,

In the club shop, there's not much room for wheelchair users.

Would you like me to move that for you?

Inside the stadium, I've got a great pitchside view,

but there's a snag - I've no shelter from the rain.

Everyone underneath here in the wheelchair area will get wet.

But now there's another problem - I've got to get back up that hill.

That's a good thing about using a wheelchair -

Just a heads up, we were filming that!

Someone has helped me up a ramp, now that is a struggle.

So, even in a good, modern stadium, I had a few issues, and I relied

The wheelchair guidelines don't solve every problem.

How can the journey from the card to the seat to be made easier?

Generally, people who use that area are parked in a closer

Campaigners for disabled rights say it's time for action.

It comes down to the individual club.

If changes are not made, people need to bring claims

to court because that is what the law is there for.

The Football League does not want to be interviewed,

but they say wheelchair spaces in their grounds are usually only

So it's clear there's a long way to go -

But I'll tell you one thing, I'm still loving my football.

For the first time in over 50 years, three of London's most famous luxury

The Flying Scotsman has made a triumphant

return and the Orient Express has been saved from the scrap yard.

The Brighton Belle will be back pon track this summer.

Mark Jordan has been to find out what it takes to get a 90-year-old

There was unease in the Great Hall at the National Railway Museum.

Three of the land's most famous trains were missing.

And one of them was creating quite a stir at King's Cross.

Back in 1963, British Rail wanted rid of the Flying Scotsman,

53 years later she is back at King's Cross,

It's taken ten years and over ?4 million to restore the 93-year-old.

She bankrupted two previous owners and has been making comebacks

It's kind of outdone Dr Who, David Bowie and Madonna

It's got this hold on the imagination and I guarantee

there won't be a footbridge that wont be full of people waving We've

got the Brighton Belle, Flying Scotsman and Orient Express -

all running at the same time for the first time in decades.

A national passion that created 400 miles of heritage railway and more

steam trains than anywhere else in the world.

Across Britain preservation lines keep a golden age alive - but to get

one of these legends back on the main line -

Over the past months, I've been following the challenge

of getting the Scotsman back on the mainline Noel

The engine has had to have every nut and bolt removed.

Over the years things have become a lot more stringent for safety

So have to install things like train protection warning systems.

In a bungalow in Leigh on Sea I've come to meet one of Scotsman's last

How does it feel - you must want to get back in that cab?

Is there anything more exciting than a steam engine tearing

It's man and beast working together and they conquered the track.

Somebody who'd be on the train might come up and tell you about

the timings and say - you was doing 105 there - no, not

If I get a chance to get up there I'm going to see I'll tell

you, I'd love to be on it - see her once again.

And when the Scotsman's big day came, of course there was room

I'm not counting how many people have spoken to me - or recordings,

Sitting at home I'd have been doing nothing.

Here at these sheds in Battersea, snuggled up to the Gatwick Express

is one of the most glamorous trains on earth.

Its Art Deco carriages already a regular at Victoria,

thanks to businessman James Sherwood bringing back the Orient Express.

He had this dream and bought up all these British Pullman cars -

Brighton Belle, Golden Arrow cars, found at the bottom of gardens

and he pulled a team together to restore carriages

Part of its history - it had the roof blown off by the Luftwaffe

It's got the lovliest panels on the whole train.

Next week you could take the two-day one-night London-Venice trip

Some of the carriages had been used as sheds,

This one still awaiting that return to glory.

Ioni is a 1928 car, steel construction.

The challenge is technology and skills.

Finding people with those skills to look after them