31/10/2011 Inside Out East

This week, I'm in Saffron Walden in Essex, and this is what is coming

up on tonight's Inside Out. They say they are strapped for cash,

but tonight we reveal our councils are sitting on millions of pounds

that could be used for roads, schools and affordable housing.

Just affordable houses for local people. Somewhere to live in the

town you were brought up in. For farming sunshine in Norfolk.

The future could be bright but now this has been stopped in its tracks.

And we go up in the air over Cambridge to reveal our history

buried under the ground. These are our three surprising

Welcome to Saffron Walden. On Inside Out we have discovered that

our councils are sitting on millions of pounds in unspent

funding. Richard has been to meet a family from here in Saffron Walden

who want to know why money allocated for affordable housing

has not been spent. The new development. It is not

always popular. Not everybody fancies a new superstore on their

doorstep, and even much-needed housing is not always welcomed by

locals. So, one way councils can sweeten that pale of controversial

development is to demand community facilities in return. -- that pill.

Playgrounds, roads and schools can benefit from new development by

what is known as a Section 106 agreement. It is effectively a

contract which can mean that developers hand over thousands of

pounds to councils in return for securing planning permission. So

anything from cycle paths and affordable housing can get built.

Which makes you wonder why some of our councils are sitting on tens of

millions of pounds of unspent Saffron Walden in Essex. One of the

most beautiful, most picturesque towns in the East. It is also one

of the most expensive and affordable housing is tricky to

find. Meet the Trimnals. With a 7- month-old baby and another on the

way, it is not easy in their two- bed flat. One room is not big

enough for two children, is it? And we would like a little garden

and somewhere with more space. their chance of getting more space

seems unlikely. There's lots of competition for council house

places. A two-bed house with a garden. How many bid for that

house? 64. We are over 20, so we are obviously way at the bottom of

the list. And that list is currently around 1,000 people-long.

They pay it �700 a month for their flat and buying is out of the

question. We look into getting a mortgage and the most we could get

his �90,000. You cannot buy anywhere here for that. Maybe a

studio. But when you have a family... So a month, due art

Saffron Walden born and bred. How frustrating it is for you? -- Simon,

you are Saffron Walden born and bred. Very frustrating. The council

in Uttlesford received a cut -- received a bit of a windfall. The

report left the council with �2.2 million to be spent on much-needed

are affordable housing in the Uttlesford district. And housing

they could afford it would really help Simon and Lucy. What is the

cheapest you have found? This one. 139,000. We just cannot afford it.

It is one Bagram and we cannot even afford that. The cheapest two-

bedroom is 270,000. It is out of our price range completely.

Remember, though, there is all that Section 106 cash to help with

affordable housing. But that �2.2 million earmarked for affordable

housing still has not been spent. Eight years on, it is sitting in

the coffers at Uttlesford District Council. So what is going on? Why

has the council been sitting on this money for the past eight

years? Since 2005, we have delivered 370 homes for people in

housing need. But you have not spent the money? We have not needed

to because we have been able to access government money in order to

support that Delivery Program. you have over 1,000 people on your

waiting-list desperately-needed housing. Why have you not built

these affordable houses? You have the money! I have just said we have

been building those houses. The constrained has not been a lack of

money. It has been availability of sites on which development can take

place. But that does not wash with Simon and Lucy. Unbelievable!

Something needs to be done. It is not fair. People are crying out for

housing. Nothing is being done. It is terrible. But we discovered

Uttlesford is not alone. A Freedom of Information request has revealed

that over the past decade, more than �600 million has been

collected in Section 106 funding by councils in the East. But over �200

million remains unspent. So, despite our councils facing massive

cuts in funding, despite the recession and despite the need for

community facilities, one third of all money received from developers

in the past 10 years remains unspent. And one of the big

problems we uncovered was keeping an eye on the cash coming in. This

professor is a planning expert. Recent cuts mean that there are

probably fewer people to actually do this monitoring and project

management work, so ironically, we have got a large pot of money but

not the means to spend it. And poor monitoring brings more problems. We

discovered some councils have been handing back Section 106 cash to

developers. Over �2.5 million in the East. Essex County Council

recently handed back �726,000. But that's not all. They also had the

worst record of any council in the East of all sitting on Section 106

cash. �42 million of unspent money. Although they deny that this is a

problem. Actually, we have committed 28 million of that for

expenditure on a variety of different project. You have

committed it but you have not spend it? It is in the process of being

spent, as you would not want us to rush out and spend money

frivolously. It is being carefully spent on planned project in Essex.

But the fact is, you have handed back over three-quarters of �1

million to developers because deep -- you did not get around to

spending it. How can you defend that? In terms of our programme of

expenditure, we are careful about the planning we do and we make sure

we get value for money. If we find we had underspent as a result, but

we have still delivered the infrastructure we need, then, quite

frankly, and think we have done a good job for the citizen and for

everybody concerned. And it would be improper of us not to return

that money to a developer. Nice answer. But is it true? We were

later told the cash has been handed back because the deadline for

spending it had expired. The Local Government Association represents

local authorities across the UK. And it does not approve of handing

back Section 106 cash. I am not going to try to defend that. It is

not excusable, particularly at the present time, when we have a real

need for that kind of investment and for jobs. The important thing

is that they have a monitoring system in place which the council

knows how much is coming in, what it is supposed to be spent on and

when it needs to be spent, so they do not have to give it back. Some

councils in the East do have good monitoring and plenty of Section

106 money does get spend. But it is a very mixed picture across the

region. Meanwhile, back in Saffron Walden, the hunt for affordable

housing goes on. And the Stansted millions remain unspent.

Something needs to be done. Yes. They need to build houses for local

people. So we have got somewhere to live in the town we were brought

Append. But when that extra cash One member, it is always great to

hear from you if you have a story for us. -- remembered. You can send

us an email. Later on, how a bird's-eye view can

reveal hidden secrets from the past. You would walk over there and you

would not be a way you were walking over a 4,000-year-old burial site.

Harvesting energy from the sun is a great idea. More and more people

are putting solar panels on their houses. But what about the serious

crop of energy? Fields full of solar panels enough to power

thousands of homes. Up until February, it was a great business

The last government offered big subsidies for solar power and it

wasn't just householders who saw the attraction of having solar

panels on their roofs. Similar to the solar farms across Europe like

this one in FrancE. UK businesses also saw a chance to develop the

first ones in this country, Where they would supply electricity to

the National Grid. It seemed like the perfect business

plan - take over low grade farming land like this and instead of

planting crops fill the fields with solar panels, enough to power

thousands of homes. But farming sunshine is now in doubt, and this

project may not now even get off the ground.

It is June and I have come to this site at Snetterton in Norfolk to

meet PV Farms director Richard Atkin. This site is one of two his

company has planning and British investment for. But this project is

potentially in tatters. That's because in February the government

pulled the plug on commercial ventures of this kind by slashing

the subsidy known as the feed in tariff - from nearly 30p to 8.5

pence per KW hour. It announced that the new rate would start on

the first of August. So you got planning permission for

this in January so then what happened? Well then the fast track

review came along and put the car bosh in it and by that I mean the

review effectively froze it destroyed the confidence of the

investors it basically meant we had to start cutting corners we had we

have a situation now that effect lively this could go on one way or

the other if we don't get this done in six weeks we stand to loose over

�400,000. A significant part of me feels this may not happen and if

you think that in terms of having so much invested in it. And that is

from an emotional perspective as well, it is quite literally heart

breaking. Richard and fellow director Chris

Meacock have six weeks to get their business going in order to meet the

old rate or they say they will loose everything - all because a

change of government brought a change of mind.

8.5p is unworkable it is a minus. You have a viable solar industry

and lots of enthusiastic people like us who want to take advantage

and they just decided to kill it. To matters worse after the funding

was slashed their British investors pulled out because it was too risky.

In order to turn their field into a power station by August the company

has to get around two major obstacles new investors, and an

electricty connection in time. But all may not be lost, they have been

looking at ways to get their electricity off the field quickly

and may have found an answer. To get the site accredited and what

we have to do initially there isn't enough time to get the grid

connections installed we have to do something called a private wire and

for this particular site we have to get over to the pump house which is

just over there and what that will do is to bring over power.

So why did the government make these huge cuts? Before the

February announcement there were no PV solar farms in this country but

lots of companies were planning them. This the government says

would have sucked up the money intended for householders having

solar on their roofs. If I put it to you that this was

meant to be for domestic use it was mean to be a small time scheme to

try and interest people but it was taken over by big industry to make

a profit what do you say to that? What you mean this big company you

see before you a couple of developers. Not a domestic unit

though. It is not a major power company but PV Farms is still a

business. We asked renewable energy expert Dr

Keith Tovey from the University of East Anglia why the government has

ring-fenced the perks to stop this kind of business from thriving.

When we arrived Dr Tovey has just had some panels installed on his

own roof. We need to decide where our priorities are. It is more

cost-effective to go for wind farms the than solar. It would cost four

times as much to go for the big seller farms compared with the wind

farms. This scheme is aimed at homeowners? That's the way should

be. Chris and Richard have worked round the clock to become

operational. They managed to get investment from Holland and from a

company from the Czech Republic who also will supply the panels. Today

with just two weeks before the deadline the Czech company moves

onto the site at Snetteron. So this is really positive you have

got something in the ground you must be relieved? Yes hugely, six

weeks ago this is an absolute miracle in comparison to what we

had previously. Just days before the deadline the company manages to

get an initial connection. Their site at Snetterton is small with

2000 panels but their farm at Carlton is bigger much bigger.

I went back at the end of September to see it. Spanning over 25 acres

Carlton has almost 18,000 panels and the capacity to power 5,000

homes. It is one of the biggest in the country and could make

�1.2million a year. The solar industry believes that the

government has missed a trick by turning its back on large scale

developments. The government insists it was never meant for such

schemes. Chris and Richard believe it's a

missed opportunity for the UK. It has meant that instead of

British companies investing in their business it is now financed

by foreign investors, and part owned by them too which means much

of the profit will go abroad. We had a British fund, a British

installation company and it was going to be refinanced after five

years by a British bank but what we have instead is the feed in tariff

which is supporting the project which would have filtered through

into our investors and banks are being moved over to the

Czechoslovak Republic. We asked the Climate Change

Minister Greg Barker for an interview but he declined. But he

did provide us with this statement. I have acted to stop large scale

solar farms potentially soaking up all the funding. This would have

increased costs on bills and prevented householders from being

able to access exciting small scale technologies like solar in the

future. This week though the government is

to back-track again. It now says the subsidy paid for domestic

installation is unsustainable. It is announcing another review. But

these sites are ready for operation. This represents over a year of our

lives. We are very pleased, an amazing achievement. It is a viable

contribution to the economy. Only a few solar farms have been built, as

the fledgling commercial industry was stalled by the cuts in subsidy.

And now it seems likely that the domestic industry will also be

affected. When you think of archaeology, we

think of something crouching down low to the ground, brash in one

hand scraping away the dead. As I have been finding out, you don't

have to necessary get that close to the ground to find out what is

there. Sometimes the higher up you are, the better.

If the fields which cover most of East Anglia could talk what a story

they'd have to tell of the things they've witnessed through the ages

- Viking Raiders, Anglo Saxons, Romans, the English Civil War,

American Air Force bases. But these swathes of corn, barley and wheat

have begun to reveal secrets that have remained hidden for centuries.

To find out what they are, you cannot do it from down here, you

have to be up there. Ben Robinson has two loves

archaeology and flying. And as one of Britain's handful of Aerial

Archaeologists he combines them both. And he has discovered you can

see things from the air that you never even knew existed from down

on the ground. Word War One aviators were the first to spot the

potential that a bird's eye view of the world could have for

archaeology and following the war Britain began to see its history

and landscape in a whole new light. This is the sort of thing you could

stumble over on the ground. From the air you can see it. You can

pick over definite shades there. This is a civil war for us, dated

to 1644. It gets very interesting when you can see something that is

not then a show poor form. Does ring tos, -- those rings, that's a

burial ground. It is surviving Underground, the crop is reflecting

it. You would never see that from the ground? You would walkover it,

you would never be aware. From the air shines out. At some point

someone does a pit here. We are sitting in a prehistoric pit. It

started to fill with a very different kind of soil. It has

rotted vegetable matter in it. It is not like sterile sand. It is a

different colour. It is like a dot on a TV screen. It is responding to

what the roots are doing underground. Over sandy soils to

crops will be a little more stunted. That means that pits and ditches

will show up. Fortunately our ancestors have drawn a more of them.

That looks like a multi- phase settlement. One interesting thing

is this formal entrance going into it. You don't often see that.

do you think they would have created that? Status. It looks like

they put animals in there. They would have a fund all entrants. It

is easy to get their men. Maybe it was a form of thing. Trying to make

visitors feel small. discoveries made from the air can

be extraordinary. One survey carried out in Bedfordshire turned

up 300 archaeological sites. All of those red dots there were sites

which were discovered. Those are all sides! -- sites. That was just

in one day. There is loads more to discover? Yes a lot more, it will

keep me going for the next 50 years. New techniques in aerial surveying

are emerging all the time. The shots let people look through trees

to the ground below. When they are identified, they need to go back to

more traditional methods. We are getting flint tools from all

periods. This is a serrated blade. That is very sharp. These were

bronze pots there were found together, they are from the Bronze

Age. That has been imported from the Alps. We are finding deposits

of human skulls all along the riverside. At the far end of the

rage, where we died in 2007, we are finding the rest of the bodies on

top of the ridge. They were butchering the bodies. There are

great chop marks there. They bring them to the riverside, and toss the

heads in the water. Why would that happen? God only knows. It was a

way of disposing of them. People used to think they threw the whole

bodies into the water. It sounds pretty grim to me. You must be

pleased that thanks to your passion, your aerial photography, it led to

this site being excavated. What do these things mean? It shows the

wealth of material that comes out when you have a concerted campaign

of excavation. It is very far, very meticulous, it pays dividends.

don't think that investment would have been made if they had not been

for the Arab photographs. -- aerial photographs. It is not only new

photographs that can lead to discoveries. Different crops

respond in different ways. Pictures taken half-a-century ago can reveal

traces not visible under modern planting. This is the first

catalogue, the first photograph. Let's check the catalogue, we can

see it there. 27th July 1945. Cambridge University has one of the

largest collections of aerial photographs in the world, nearly

nor 0.5 million. Can they find any clues, that would not be spotted

today? We can always find something new. You can never extract

everything from a photograph. There are always knew things to find.

wonderful image, almost overhead. There is an open field system

surviving among us all the enclosure of farmland.

University's archive is available online. You can also use satellite

maps on the internet to make our own discoveries. What have you

found here? This is an area in the Fens, strange tree like patterns.

They are very clear. That is going back to brunch age -- Bronze Age.

There is loads of stuff that people can find just looking online.

and more is available online for people to look at, and to discover

new things about the past. Fairbairn, nothing will ever take

away the thrill of spotting something new from the air. -- for

Ben. That's it for tonight. If you

missed it you can catch it on the iPlayer. Thanks a lot.

Next week, a special report telling a their mother's fight to get her

abducted children back from France. In recent years the number of child