23/01/2012 Inside Out East Midlands

Mansfield to look at the dark side of the night-time economy.

The town with a drastic drinking problem tries to shake off its

reputation. He went to Mansfield for a Friday night out and never

came home again. It wants something doing so it is safe.

Also tonight, a mother's story of sorrow and safety after a house

fire kills her four children. many children of mine are alive and

he shook his head and I knew anyway. And the Nottinghamshire marathon

man getting set for the sprint of his life at London 2012. By Marie

Ashby and this is Inside Out for the East Midlands. -- I Am Marie

Britain's night-time economy employs hundreds of thousands of

people and has a turnover of billions. But weekend binge-

drinking also creates massive problems in some of our town

centres. So just as clean beaches earn blue flags, a new purple flag

scheme will highlight the towns which boast a better and 'safer'

night out. So far, Nottingham is the only place in the East Midlands

to have one. Stuart Woodman takes up the story of a town that's now

For many, the weekend is about just one thing - a big night out. But

how safe are our pubs, clubs, towns and cities every Friday and

Saturday night? This story starts in a town which has had its

problems. Serious street assaults, brawls and even a night club death

at all ruined a reputation for night -- nightlife in Mansfield. A

recent report highlighted this town has a drinking problem. The highest

numbers of alcohol-related hospital admissions and the highest levels

of alcohol linked crime in Nottinghamshire.

So we're out with the boys - and girls - in blue, on one of the

busiest nights of the year. And we're in for a rough ride. What has

happened? I have told you once, I will not

tell you again. The cut walk around Mansfield like this, you do know

that? Before I spend an evening with the

police I want to discover for myself this town's darkest hour.

The mid-Noughties. A time when serious incidents were happening

most weekends. Some involved door staff as well as customers. They

went to Mansfield for a Friday night out and never came home again.

That was it. You have just got to be careful. It wants something

doing so it makes it safe for children, you know they can go out

and be safe. And not have the heartbreak we had.

Sandra from Langold in North Nottinghamshire lost her son Paul

Stephens in a Mansfield club that's They said he had no brain activity

and they had to turn the machine off. We had to make that decision

to turn the machine off? Yes. died as he was being evicted from

the club. His death on some stairs sparked a major police

investigation with the arrest of two bouncers. But the evidence was

inconclusive and no charges were ever brought. I got an open verdict

and I'll have tried for three years to get justice for Paul and I just

can't get enough evidence. People will not talk about it and somebody

must have seen something that night. All we want his answers. Answers,

that is all I do want. -- his answers. I have tried for three

years and I am still asking questions and I am hoping that one

day, I will get them. Whatever happened, it ended in

tragedy and Paul isn't the only person to lose his life on a night

out in Mansfield. Now the police and the authorities are fighting

back to try to make the town safer. Every weekend officers are briefed

about problem pubs and people, incident hotspots and likely

locations where trouble may flare. And no one place is busy on a

Saturday night so tonight will be busy. It's the Saturday before

Christmas and it's expected to be one of the busiest and most

boisterous nights of the year. I'm meeting the man in charge of

policing tonight. It is 830 at night at Mansfield Town Centre is

still not a particular pleasant place for families on a Saturday

night, is it? No, because there is not much for family. Most of the

premises argued that what we call vertical drinking which means that

it is aimed more at the 18-30, 35 age group. It is very much geared

as like a party venue. For us, this It doesn't take long for the party

to start. He sometimes get quite a few fights. Bouncers have already

kicked you and send you on. The first police incidents of the

night range from cannabis smoking openly in the street. You cannot

walk around Mansfield smoking cannabis, you don't know that?

Forged ID and an underage drinker. Stop being smart because you have

got into trouble. It has already not work. A fight between a couple

of women and another unrelated scuffle in the club which spells

out onto the street. If you don't listen to me, you will get a

direction-to-leave and then you'll get arrested.

What are you swearing at me for? Don't kick the van! She was being

pretty abusive, why didn't to arrest her? We could have arrested

her and taken her straight to the police station but we are looking

at ways of dispersal. It is all like to keep arresting people but

we might need the police cell later on. Will be back on the beat

shortly. A direction-to-leave simply means simply sending someone

home for the night to sleep it off. If they come back into the town,

they will be re-arrested. This is one of a number of techniques to

deal with problem drinkers more effectively. A more serious device

is a drink banning order. After a number of violent drunken incidents,

Luke Price was named and shamed when he received the town's first

DBO. He was barred from every licensed premise in Mansfield for

two years, except the one he lives in. Luke's agreed to meet me at his

dad's pub. It was embarrassing for me and the family. It was big news.

I live in a pub and I am banned from pubs so that is the worst

thing about it. 122 of them? Yeah. And off-licences. Do you think

these drink banning orders work? Yes, it is always in the back of

your mind. You do not want to be out causing trouble and if you get

caught, in my case in Mansfield, I get a �2,500 fine or even a prison

sentence. I do not want to go back down there and cause trouble. I

want to change, I have learned their lesson.

Back in town, it's well after midnight and the police have their

hands full. They are dealing with a possible assault on a bus. I need

to get a statement from me about the assault.

An incident involving a spilt kebab which has turned nasty.

And it was while they were dealing with another squabble that our own

cameraman took a random hit, and a There was a guy inside a pub who

was boasters, pushing into people, he came outside. He has hit this

other person -- was being We're out with the police until

dawn. Over the last few years, the crime stats claim to show things

have improved, but there's clearly some way to go. I want to find out

for myself if this town really does deserve its damaging reputation. So

I'm meeting a veteran of the Mansfield club scene and a licensee

who's involved in improving night- time safety. You have been running

this place for 10 years. How has things change? You have got far

more police presence in town. Things have got better. More

initiatives put into place. I have worked in the town for over 20

years and I can say that the town is no way near as bad as people

make out. You have got lots of good people doing good things to make

this place better. It really offends me badly when people say

that Mansfield has got a reputation because it is not true.

Some of these new initiatives include 'street pastors' to calm

and care for clubbers. We will be keeping an eye on her.

Pubs and clubs going glass-free after midnight to reduce incidents

and injuries from broken glass and the removal of slot machine punch

bags which the police say added fuel to the flames on Saturday

Before we end the night, I'm meeting Councillor Mick Barton who

fought hard to close one chaotic This place has a sad history, Paul

Stevens lost his life and then it opened again as a different name

club. The problems continued. What sort of things were going on?

was brought to our attention by the police that there were violent

behaviour, assaults, drugs. All sorts of problems. As a licensing

authority, they wanted to take action. To withdraw the licence.

Does this send a message, do you think was Mike yes, we will not

tolerate any misdoings with people's licences. It is safer than

it has ever been here. There was a year-on-year reduction regarding

the town centre and regarding drugs and alcohol. It is sending out a

good message. You can only get this place open if you are running a

place like this. Despite the crackdowns, initiatives

and goodwill, handling the weekend binge-drinking remains a challenge

in Mansfield. You are going to go or get arrested, do you hear me?

we enter the early hours, the police are left mopping up the mess.

The drunk and disruptive refuse to go home quietly. Stay in the back

of the van, because I am getting bored. And the most violent

incident of the night happens when You were in shock? I am, really, I

So that's Christmas Saturday night in Mansfield. Five arrests and

three directions-to-leave. All for alcohol-related behaviour. With no

CCTV and no witnesses willing to make a statement, the bus assault

claimant drops her charges. The man who randomly hit our cameraman and

then ran was caught and cautioned for common assault. And most

serious assault of the night led to three men being arrested and bailed

pending further investigation. But this town is serious about

fighting for its purple flag. An indication of a more family-

friendly night out, and somewhere which discourages binge-drinking.

The good news, police incidents have halved from the same Christmas

Saturday last year, and the man in charge, he's optimistic young

drinkers shouldn't be the only people making the most of

Mansfield's nightlife. The future for Mansfield is very positive, to

be fair. I think it will have its challenges but, with all the

agencies and partners working with the police and the council, before

too long, people and families will be able to come out into Mansfield.

It is exactly a year since four children were killed in a house

fire in Derbyshire. Somehow their mother survived and is now having

to cope without them. There were smoke alarms in the house, but they

weren't working. Derbyshire Fire Service wants people to have them

installed and checked. And as Kylie Pentelow's been finding out,

they're now pushing for a more extreme safety measure - sprinklers

Tommy was liner, Alicia, six, Appolonia, two, and Rocca was four.

If they all died in a house fire. Their mother survived.

The doctor said how many children at? He just shook his head, and I

knew anyway. Could this tragedy have been

avoided? You could stop almost all fire

deaths. Instead of killing 400 people a year, we could be down to

zero. You just need to decide how to do it. The we will be finding

out what it is like when your home fills with smoke, at a Derbyshire's

chief is fighting to save lives. -- and how Derbyshire's chiefs.

We can no longer have tragedies happening when there are solutions

It was a cold January evening. Four children went home, their mother,

Rachel, lit a fire, then the family went to bed.

The next thing, the house was full of thick, black smoke. I heard

Tommy say, mummy, the house is full of something, and that is when I

woke up, because he actually would be. I tried to get the window open,

but the smoke was just too thick. I got hold of Tommy and was trying to

work out what was going on. I managed to get the window open. I

was stood behind Tommy and I picked him up like this, and was trying to

push him out the window, but his arms were going like that and he

was frightened to go through the window. I was really confused and

didn't have enough about me to tell him he had to go out or he would

die. Rachel said at the inquest that the

next thing she was flying through the air. I do not believe I jumped,

she said, maybe I felt. The doctor said how many children

were alive? He just shook his head, and I knew anyway.

Her hair was burnt off, she had got bruises everywhere. A horrible

scratch down one side. It was where Tommy was holding on to her. And

she smelled of smoke. That is all you could smell. The it was a

horrible thing. Every time you get that smell, that is all I think

about. For the blaze was caused by a spark

from an open fire. There was no fire guard. There was smoke alarms

in the house, but they were not working. Two had not been fitted

and the other one had no batteries in it. The fire service said if

they were working, the family could have survived.

It is one of the worst fires we have had to attend for many years,

especially in terms of loss of life. But the general theme throughout

fires is the need to have working smoke detectors on every floor.

Over the past 18 months, 18 people have died in house fires in

Derbyshire. That is the third worst record in the country.

Does everybody agree that the smoke alarm is the most important thing

in the table? They are trying everything they can

to reduce that number, training them young.

Wherever you live, you should always have a smoke alarm.

Some people get free smoke alarms. I am just going to tested!

But now a new, ambitious campaign. The Derbyshire Fire Service wanted

to be mandatory for sprinklers to be fitted in every new home. In a

dramatic demonstration, they are setting fire to two children's

bedrooms. This room has no safety measures. This one has sprinklers.

By fitting sprinklers into the home, it is like having a firefighter in

every room in your house. Immediately available to respond

should there be a fire. The fire start. Then after just a

few minutes, the sprinklers activate. In the other room, it is

a different story. We are about 12 minutes in a. The

fire service has gone in, but there is no chance of survival if a child

was inside that room. After the fire, the devastation is

clear. But in the room with the sprinklers, there is hardly any

difference. The campaign has the backing of former Crimewatch

presenter Nick Ross. What a Derbyshire is doing is

fantastic. They need to get influence in Whitehall. They do not

see a political issue, because deaths have been coming down bit by

bit. So they think it is a price worth paying. Derbyshire say it is

not. Each one of those is a tragedy. Also watching his Caroline, who was

seriously injured in a fire when she was a child.

Her sister died. How did it feel watching those fires?

It brought it all back, the smell, the sound. It just shows how quick

and easy and fast it can happen. One minute everything is normal,

the next minute, your house is full of smoke and is on fire. The flames

can take over so quickly. What would you say to people who

have the power to put sprinklers in new homes?

Do it. It will cost some money, but what is more important, money or a

human life? It was the deaths of Rachel's four

children at that prompted the fire chief into action.

As soon as that fire happened, had what a tragedy it was, I took a pen

to paper and wrote to the fire minister and said that we can no

longer have tragedies like this happening when there is a solution

available to prevent it. Smoke detection is required to give it

that early-warning, but if you are going to do the job and do it

properly, we should have sprinklers installed, because a sprinkler will

not only allowed an individual but there is a problem, it actually

extinguishes the fire, there for the person has a longer time to

escape, and when my fire fighters turn up, they are not putting

themselves at so much risk to say somebody else's life.

But until there is a change, fire fighters need to be ready for the

big blazes. This is where they trained, and I am going inside to

see what it is like when your home These might is becoming quite a

thick. -- the smoke is becoming quite a thick.

We have been in here probably about two minutes. I can see the camera

in front of me because of the light, but I cannot see the lens or

anything. You really need a plan. If you were Cup in this situation,

even if it is your own home, you would not have a clear which way to

turn or which way to get out of bed, let alone find a way out a fire. --

woke up. Every day is very difficult. I

cannot say otherwise, because it is. But it is getting better, at the

morning's do not feel quite as harsh now. -- and the mornings.

These pictures were taken on Rachel's mobile phone. A

firefighter managed to save it from the house. Pictures of their

smiling faces, all Rego has left of her four children.

When I woke up in the morning, Rocco, he was always on my legs.

Alicia, I would always do the girly things with her. I miss Tommy's

support. 2012 is, of course, Olympic year.

And the Paralympics has been setting personal bests in

successive games in terms of profile, especially on these shores.

It's why the London Paralympics will be the biggest ever. Richard

Whitehead wants to be part of it so much he's switched from marathon

running to sprinting. Ross Fletcher's been to see him prepare.

He is a world champion and world- record holder. An elite athlete

with a training routine to match. And he is the face of TV ad

campaigns. Richard Whitehead is Britain's Blade Runner.

There's one from the swimming gala. Mum and dad's albums say it all.

And that's where he swam his first mile.

Right from the start, sport has been a driving force in Richard

Whitehead's life. The lad from Lowdham was born without legs and

spent a year of his childhood using wooden prosthetics. But despite the

obvious challenges, he was always pushing the boundaries. The power

of sport pushed a lot of boundaries in the late '70s, early '80s when

there wasn't an inclusion spectrum at all.

And that really helped me get by and understand what life is all

about. I was not given a silver spoon. I was not given everything

on a plate. I have had to earn the respect I have now.

It was hard at the beginning. But his approach to everything was "I

can do it." There were times when I was struggling in certain areas,

maybe mobility-wise because of the prosthetics, they're the memories

that you bank and put in those boxes, you store for the times that

are tough now. It has made me the tough person,

the motivated person that I am. Now his daily routine is that of a

prospective Paralympic champion. Richard is the current world record

holder in the 200 metres in his disability class. But it was

marathon running that really got him started. He only took it up in

2004. But since he has completed 25 races, running up African mountains

and setting a series of landmarks for disabled athletes.

My 2004 race was the hardest thing I have ever done in sport. At 26.2

miles, it is a long way for an able-bodied person to run, never

mind a double leg amputee that has never run a mile before in a race.

Richard uses his experience to motivate others, with his talks

taking him from schools to big business, and an association with

the American army charity Wounded Warriors.

Even when he goes to America to talk to the soldiers that have lost

arms and legs, not a lot of people could do that. There's got to be

that connection with him. Children just follow him like the Pied Piper.

Absolutely. "I want to be like Richard." But now his main focus is

the Paralympics. Lottery funding allows him access to first-rate

facilities. But in just his second season on the track, there is

plenty of adjusting to do. The ones with soles are for the

road, and these have the base for the track work I do. It is

important that I get my running technique right with those. There

is less contact with the ground You're on a 1.20 now.

This is tough. As an athlete that's used to running 90 miles a week, I

am not used to this kind of speed work and the effects it has on my

body. The challenge is now to put this

world record so far out of everybody's touch that ideally we

just want to be waiting at Heathrow for the opposition to land next

year, hand them a box of Kleenex, say, "You may as well cry now,

because there's not much point in I have to train hard today, so I

have to eat well in the morning to set me up for the day. You might be

wondering why Richard is not attempting the marathon at London

2012. The short answer is he can't. The

longest event that caters for his classification is the 200 metres.

In New Zealand last year he became world champion and he has since

broken the world record. But this summer will be the biggest race of

his life. It is not just for me when I race

the 200 metres for Great Britain, it is for my family and friends and

for everybody that has supported me over the 35 years that I have been

here. I will get into that start line in my best shape. If that

means I come eighth, that means I have done the best I can. But I