22/10/2012 Inside Out East


22/10/2012

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Are we doing enough to protect the nation's treasures? Why are our

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news teams being targeted and what is being done to protect them?

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had information from the police that some of the objects in our

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museum will under direct threat from a criminal gang. The Dale Farm

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addiction cost �7.2 million and started a riot and made worldwide

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headlines, so why are there still the same number of travellers

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there? I am prepared to spend what it takes for people to comply with

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the law. I do not think there can be a price on that.

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And we look back 50 years to the week that our region when it was at

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the forefront of what was almost World War Three. Those are the

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stories that matter here in the Tonight, Inside Out is in

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Harrington in Northamptonshire. During the Second World War, this

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Airbase was used by the Americans and now, it's a museum. Of course,

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our museums look after our priceless treasures, things that if

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lost, can never be replaced. Some high profile thefts have occurred

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in the past few years but museums are now so concerned that they have

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set up a special task force to try to protect them. So on the night of

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the theft the perpetrator, the thief, broke in through this door.

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They climbed over the metal fence that surrounds the site, smashed

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through this door with what we think was a grate cover or a drain

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cover from somewhere in the park. We haven't found that yet. And then

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they would have headed straight over to the case and using this

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very heavy metal object they smashed through the front of the

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glass, having tried the top as well, took the jug and left straight away.

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And what was so interesting was at no point did they look around to

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see that it's in a shop and there were other things they could have

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taken. So I think they were deliberately targeting the jug and

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going for a quick escape. The Wenlock Jug, which was stolen

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in May this year, was the pride of the collection at the Stockwood

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Discovery Centre on the outskirts of Luton. What we think the thief

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was aiming to do was target this jug. Possibly for the reward from

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the insurance company, or possibly stolen to order. We don't really

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know. What I think is unlikely is that it was stolen for its value as

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metal, as a lump of metal to be melted down. Because although it's

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a bronze jug, it's not pure bronze. It's made of base metals and lead

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and if you melt it down, you'll get about �20 for it. Its real value is

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that it is a rare, medieval bronze jug. There's only three in the

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world. It's worth �750,000, but only if it's kept as a medieval jug.

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The museum, which was refurbished four years ago, gets over 200,000

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visitors a year. The impact of the theft on the museum has been

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devastating, I have to say, not only to our regular visitors, but

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also to staff who take a great pride in this site and what they've

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achieved in the last four years. But the museum in Luton isn't an

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isolated case. There have been a number of high-profile thefts from

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our museums over the past 12 months. In Ipswich thieves broke into the

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town's museum and snatched a rhino horn. In Cambridge Chinese art

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worth millions of pounds was stolen from the Fitzwilliam Museum. But

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these are just some of the thefts which have made the news. Inside

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Out can now reveal that there have been far more thefts that have

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received little if any publicity. We've discovered that over the past

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six years at least 111 objects have been stolen from museums, right

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across the region. So are museums being complacent

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about protecting their treasures? Here in Norwich, thieves were

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tackled trying to steal a rhino horn from the Castle Museum and in

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another incident thieves did actually get away with items

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George Nobbs is Vice Chair of the Norfolk's Museums Board and is

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currently producing a report looking at the way museums are run

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in the county. He's scathing of the way Norwich Castle Museum runs its

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security. The thing that perplexes me is that that when we had the

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theft of the rhino horn which was thwarted and museum staff stopped

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it being stolen, the story was emblazoned in the press. You were

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told about it, there were press releases and so on. But when some

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valuable Nelson artefacts were stolen, it took days, possibly

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weeks, before anybody knew about it. One wonders whether we would ever

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have found out about it at all. The initial statement when it did come

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out was that they said that staff at the museum had discovered the

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theft and alerted the police. The truth of the matter is that an off-

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duty policeman discovered the theft and he alerted the staff.

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Well, these are serious allegations, so what does the councillor in

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charge of museums have to say? Why did theft of Nelson memorabilia

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go unnoticed for so long? Does it show how lax security is at the

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museum? No, not at all. Security isn't lax and never has been. It

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was just a case of we don't have constant patrols going around

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looking for things that are untoward. In fact, I believe it was

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a member of the public that actually alerted a member of staff.

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So it was a member of the public? Surely members of staff should be

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going round checking what's there and what isn't? Shouldn't they do a

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regular audit? They would have picked it up as soon as somebody

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went past, obviously. But it's a relatively short period of time,

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it's not something that was serious. Museums across the country have

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been shaken by the number of high profile thefts and are taking the

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problem of theft very seriously. A Museum Security Group has been

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set up by the Victoria and Albert Museum here in London. It has more

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than 350 members. Among other things it gives advice to museums

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about how best to protect their collections.

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In charge of the security group is Vernon Rapley, former head of

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Scotland Yard's Art and Antiques Unit. Just a few weeks ago we had

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information from the police that some objects in our museum were

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under direct threat from a criminal gang. We looked at the information,

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we assessed it. There was really nothing else we could do at that

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time to protect those objects but to remove them temporarily from

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display. Whilst I can't... I don't want to say what the objects are,

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because that would possibly endanger them and restrict us

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putting them back, sometimes that has to be... Well, it IS the only

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With so many thefts from museums in our region, I wanted to find out if

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our museums could be doing more to Do you think museums are guilty of

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being complacent about security? I think absolutely the opposite,

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actually. I think that recent events have highlighted the need

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for museum security. But obviously it can be quite expensive to put in

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and so it has to be prioritised. Sometimes it can take a number of

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years to put in. There's a number of measures they can take now that

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are cost effective and cheap. Just by working together, sharing

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resources and making the best use of intelligence and resources they

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have. I think criminals have become more aware over the last 15-20

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years, certainly, of the value of art and antiques, and the sort of

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materials, cultural heritage that museums are displaying and also

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become aware that it's not the most difficult thing to pass through the

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art market and achieve a reasonable return for their criminal

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A review of security was made following the thefts at Norwich

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Castle Museum. It said security should be beefed up with more CCTV

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cameras. It was also suggested that improved locking systems and the

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addition of trembler alarms should be considered on certain display

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cabinets. But George Nobbs doesn't think the recommendations go far

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enough. He says recent staff cut- backs have made the museum more at

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risk from thieves. Last year the administration here replaced a 20-

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strong team of people, you may as well call them museum guides. Those

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who were on the front line, who met the public, were in the galleries

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all the time. Some of them lost their jobs, some of them deployed

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to other duties. But to my mind, unless you have real people walking

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around the museum, interacting with the public and seeing what's going

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Has the cutback in staff led to more things being stolen from the

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museum? No, not at all and again we haven't actually cut back staff,

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we've re-deployed staff but we actually have the same number. But

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there are the same number of staff in the castle, but they're just

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doing different jobs at this stage. Don't you think they should be

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looking out for things that maybe have been taken or potentially

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could be stolen? The thing is, we want to achieve a balance. We don't

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want to make it like a fortress. We want to make it welcoming and

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friendly for the visitors, so you can't lock it down so that there's

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total security. We could close the doors and it would be perfectly

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safe, so you've always got that Back at the Stockwood Discovery

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Centre in Luton, they're carrying out a security review to try to

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make sure the museum isn't targeted by thieves again. Have you seen

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what's in this case? Come and see these medals. Karen Perkins says

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whatever precautions are taken it's impossible to make a museum totally

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secure. Reviewing the security is very important though, we're moving

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ahead with that right now. But what we don't want to do is go down the

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avenue of locking everything away. Of course, some of the stuff, we

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have to but we have a lot of stuff on open display. These collections

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belong to the people of Luton. We're about authentic objects and

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we want to make sure people have as much access to those collections as

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possible. If we just locked them away in a store, we're not really

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And some good news - since we last filmed in Luton, the Wenlock Jug

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has been recovered. If there's something you think we should be

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investigating here on Inside Out, you can email me:

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[email protected]. You're watching Inside Out East. Later in

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the programme, Northamptonshire's part in the Cuban Missile Crisis

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when the world was really close to nuclear war. This was a line of

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first defence for America. Indeed, one of the only ways at that stage

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that they could target missile at Soviet Russia. It made us here very

:10:32.:10:40.

This time last year, you couldn't turn on the TV or listen to the

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radio without hearing about Dale Farm. The illegal travellers' site

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in Essex was all over the news as the eviction was covered by the

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media from across the world. BBC East's Alex Dunlop was there to

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report on the eviction and the violence. Now a year later, Alex

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has come back to Dale Farm to see if the millions of pounds it cost

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to evict the travellers was money Contaminated and deserted. Huge

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effort carved out this wasteland. Bulldozers, bailiffs and more than

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:11:20.:11:24.

�7 million of taxpayers' money. And Turn back a year, and the moment

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riot police break the siege at Europe's largest illegal traveller

:11:26.:11:36.
:11:36.:11:56.

The police had just deployed hazes and in return -- Tasers. 80 Irish

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Traveller families own this land, but they're not allowed to develop

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it. 45 activists are arrested. It was supposed to be the end of 10

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years of costly legal wrangling and delaying tactics. This is the first

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time I've been back to Dale Farm since the siege 12 months ago and I

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have I say I'm pretty blown away by what a mess it is. It's almost

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unrecognisable. This used to be a main road that would lead to

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various plots and bungalows. The bungalow that used to be here has

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long since disappeared. Only this wall remains. The council

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contractors have dug up the hard core to prevent caravans and

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trailers coming on to the site and There used to be a mobile home here.

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It's been dug out since then and replaced with some still, stagnant

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water. Clearly a health hazard. The question is where have the caravans

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gone? Well, you don't have to look too far to find out. On a lane just

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outside the former entrance to the illegal part of Dale Farm. 20 of

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them still breaking the law. And some familiar faces. Kathleen

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McCarthy and her sisters had been the public voice of the travellers

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during the High Court legal fight and the face of their defiance.

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They promised us bailiffs and police to come to each yard and let

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us leave peacefully. I am totally disgusted. Riot police to come to

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women and children what do they think we are? On the eve of

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eviction, I'd spent the last night around the travellers' camp fire.

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will not lie, it is a sad day. Years ago we knew we could go to a

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different camp. Not now. A year on, the sisters are split up. One has

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moved to Smithy Fen, a camp in Cambridgeshire. But Kathleen

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McCarthy remains. These days she prefers playing with her

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grandchildren to courting the media. Life has changed big time. In what

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way? I think in some cases is it for the worst for some people.

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Because they have lost absolutely everything. Families have been

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separated, the state of the place is terrible. 12 months down the

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line, it is still in a terrible state. We are still breathing the

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germs. From the mess they have left behind. It is affecting the small

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children. Diarrhea and sickness. It is terrifying. Are you staying here

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out of stubbornness or necessity? don't think it is out of

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stubbornness because being stubborn isn't going to help anything. The

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reason we are here, we're still living in the hope there might be a

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site built. After spending �7 million they might think to

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:14:57.:15:07.

themselves, after �7 million, we And just as many travellers still

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live at Dale Farm, most of them illegally. Time though is running

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out again. This is the man who'll decide whether to send the bailiffs

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back in. It's the first time the leader of Basildon Council has seen

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the camp from the hill where officers broke the barricades.

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I'm frustrated that the travellers have decided to continue to live

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outside the law, that's what frustrates me. I am satisfied that

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actually Dale Farm is clear of illegal development, that was our

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objective. But look behind you - It is an absolute mess. It's hardly

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green belt. Not at the moment, but remember that's exactly what it was

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mean to be. It was illegally developed and the land is still in

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the travellers' ownership. To a certain extent there's an onus on

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them to clear it up at the moment, but these things take time. But I'm

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clear at the end of the day that Dale Farm is something people will

:15:55.:16:00.

recognise as green-belt site. So, it's stalemate. It's fallen to

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Ben Stickley from the British Red Cross to intervene. He's not here

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to hand food parcels or give first aid. All he can do is act as

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mediator. I'm going to go and talk to the residents, just to see if

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there's any concerns they've got that they want to highlight with us

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at the moment. Before eviction, many of the

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travellers led independent lives and some shunned outside help. But

:16:23.:16:32.

conditions now for those camped illegally are deteriorating.

:16:33.:16:37.

there electric blankets at your place? I will ask and find out. I

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don't know if they often get electric blankets in. You have to

:16:41.:16:46.

look where you step. There's faeces all over the place. There are real

:16:46.:16:48.

concerns around faeces. Waste. We're getting a lot of people

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saying to us there's stomach bugs going round and kids playing out in

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what's a very dangerous environment. Something that we would really like

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to work towards resolving. I've spoken to a few people who

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live around here. None of them wanted to go on camera. They told

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me that far from being disadvantaged, the travellers down

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there at Dale Farm are in fact taking advantage of the system and

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milking the legal process. Previous offers of temporary housing in

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bricks and mortar were turned down. Everything could be solved if a

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site were made. We are willing to go wherever they want us to go.

:17:27.:17:31.

Really? We put in for two sites before, we did it the legal way and

:17:31.:17:37.

we were turned down. We're still hoping. Do you see yourself here in

:17:37.:17:45.

a year's time? Yeah. You're that sure? Cos I truly believe even if I

:17:45.:17:48.

got chucked on the road and they keep spending all that money being

:17:48.:17:57.

silly again, some of my friends would have me in. I will always be

:17:57.:18:01.

in Oak Lane. There were 90 caravans and 400

:18:02.:18:05.

people living on Dale Farm at one time. The overwhelming majority of

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those have moved away. But they have moved back, a lot of them.

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Some have. Not all of them, that is the point. All of them said they

:18:15.:18:25.

had nowhere else to go. Some have, and some people, my information is

:18:25.:18:28.

some people we haven't seen on Dale Farm before. I have always

:18:28.:18:30.

recognised there are some vulnerable people, who we've been

:18:30.:18:33.

trying to get to, who genuinely have nowhere else to go. More than

:18:33.:18:36.

�7 million spent - nothing has been achieved, has it, realistically?

:18:36.:18:39.

There is no doubt I would have much rather not spent the money, or

:18:39.:18:43.

spent it on something else, but I am absolutely clear that if we

:18:43.:18:46.

turned a blind eye to law-breaking I would be here talking to you

:18:46.:18:49.

about why we'd done that as opposed to doing the right thing and

:18:49.:18:52.

upholding the law. And even though you are a cash-strapped council,

:18:52.:18:55.

you're prepared to spend millions more trying to sort this out?

:18:55.:19:00.

prepared to spend what it takes for people to comply with the law. I

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don't think there can be a price on that. Really? It is an open

:19:04.:19:07.

chequebook for you? I wouldn't say it is an open chequebook, but what

:19:07.:19:11.

I am saying is what is more important is that the law is upheld

:19:11.:19:15.

and complied with. It's up to local authorities to apply that law.

:19:15.:19:18.

If the aim of the forced eviction was to clear illegal travellers

:19:18.:19:22.

from the camp, well, as you can seeit that hasn't worked. Around

:19:22.:19:25.

100 travellers or so are camped illegally on this lane, many more

:19:25.:19:29.

have moved on to legal pitches next door. The conditions are getting

:19:29.:19:33.

bleaker by the day. So after �7 million and counting, there's still

:19:33.:19:43.
:19:43.:19:45.

a standoff here at Dale Farm. 50 years ago, the world held its

:19:45.:19:48.

breath as two superpowers were on the brink of nuclear war. The Cuban

:19:48.:19:51.

Missile Crisis has gone down in history as a battle of nerves

:19:51.:19:54.

between the Soviet Union and the United States. But this quiet part

:19:54.:19:57.

of Northamptonshire, scarily, would have been where some of the

:19:57.:20:00.

missiles were launched from. We look back on the war that almost

:20:00.:20:10.

was. It's a summer's day at RAF

:20:10.:20:13.

Waddington, and the crowds are out for the station's annual aviation

:20:13.:20:17.

showcase. In October 1962 it was home to the Vulcan bombers of the

:20:17.:20:27.

RAF's V Force. Today it's hosting the Waddington Air Show.

:20:27.:20:30.

But we'd have none of this if events 50 years ago this month had

:20:30.:20:40.
:20:40.:20:42.

Within the past week, unmistakeable evidence has established the fact

:20:42.:20:45.

that s eries of offensive missile sites is now in preparation

:20:45.:20:48.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the nearest we ever got to starting

:20:48.:20:56.

World War Three. Russia had placed nuclear weapons in Cuba, and aimed

:20:56.:21:00.

them at America. And they weren't scared off by the Americans setting

:21:00.:21:07.

up a blockade. There seemed only one conclusion.

:21:07.:21:10.

We were potentially minutes away from nuclear war. And the first

:21:10.:21:13.

bomb of this terrible conflict could have been launched, not from

:21:13.:21:18.

Cuba, but from here. In 1962, if we'd launched a nuclear bomb

:21:18.:21:21.

towards Russia, the weapon would have begun its journey in the East

:21:21.:21:26.

of England. Lincolnshire was very important for

:21:27.:21:30.

deterrent purposes in the Cold War and of course the V bombers carried

:21:30.:21:34.

the nuclear weapon. And you also had the four missile complexes,

:21:34.:21:42.

that were deployed from about 1958 onwards. -- Thor. Of course, by the

:21:42.:21:47.

time of the Cuban Missile Crisis it was getting very hot.

:21:47.:21:50.

A group of aviation historians in Lincolnshire collecting first-hand

:21:50.:21:53.

accounts of the Cuba crisis, are finding that some of them don't

:21:53.:21:58.

quite match the version on file. We found out in the official record

:21:58.:22:02.

that bomber command were put up to alert condition three at 1pm on the

:22:02.:22:07.

Saturday afternoon. But talking to people, they say they can remember

:22:07.:22:10.

that on the Thursday prior things were already happening on the

:22:10.:22:14.

station. Attention, attention. All personnel

:22:15.:22:19.

take posts for countdown. The UK official account says

:22:19.:22:22.

Saturday, but American records show that two days earlier American

:22:22.:22:25.

ballistic missiles were being made ready on RAF bases in the East of

:22:25.:22:34.

England. This was once RAF Harrington, in

:22:34.:22:36.

Northamptonshire. Here and Caistor in Lincolnshire are the only places

:22:36.:22:39.

in the UK where there are visible remains of the Thor nuclear

:22:39.:22:44.

missiles. There were three launch pads here,

:22:44.:22:47.

this was one of them. These huge blast walls protected the equipment

:22:47.:22:55.

and personnel from the actual launch. And down here, on this

:22:55.:23:00.

concrete pad, there was a hangar which ran on rails. And when the

:23:00.:23:10.
:23:10.:23:10.

missile was at rest, it lay in that hangar.

:23:10.:23:13.

It's an American product manned and maintained in this country by the

:23:13.:23:16.

Royal Air Force. The RAF controls the firing, but Thor cannot be

:23:16.:23:19.

blasted off without the agreement of the British and the United

:23:19.:23:24.

States' governments. This was a line of first defence

:23:24.:23:27.

for America. Indeed, one of the only ways it could target missiles

:23:27.:23:35.

at Soviet Russia. It made us here very vulnerable.

:23:35.:23:38.

Because Thor was jointly controlled by Britain and America, when

:23:38.:23:46.

America went on alert, so did we. Kennedy ordered the strategic air

:23:46.:23:49.

command to what was called DEFCON 3, which was two stages below war, and

:23:49.:23:57.

this was without knowledge of the British public.

:23:57.:24:02.

The Prime Minister called his cabinet. Britain was not consulted

:24:02.:24:05.

by President Kennedy. But neither the ministers not the Premier would

:24:05.:24:08.

let that stand in the way of a statesmanlike assessment of the

:24:08.:24:11.

crisis. They quickly endorsed the President's actions. By the

:24:11.:24:14.

Saturday, two days on, it was deadlock between the Americans and

:24:14.:24:16.

Russians ,and we officially went on alert. Unbeknown to the general

:24:16.:24:19.

public, throughout the east of England, Thor Missiles and V Bomber

:24:19.:24:22.

crews were waiting, weapons loaded, ready to launch at 5 minutes'

:24:22.:24:30.

notice. We've come to another old air field, Newark, looking for air

:24:30.:24:36.

crew who were on duty that week in 1962. We're at a reunion of the V

:24:36.:24:39.

Force, the men who crewed the Vulcans, Victors and Valiants that

:24:39.:24:43.

carried the bomb. We were watching television. A

:24:43.:24:46.

shadow across the window, knock on the door and it was a British

:24:46.:24:50.

policeman. And he was sent by Waddington to hoist me out and tell

:24:50.:24:56.

me to go to work, and I said, "What for, Constable?" And he said - and

:24:56.:24:59.

I'm afraid I can't emulate the Lincolnshire accent - he said,

:24:59.:25:04.

"Well, if you don't know, sir, I can't tell you." Every time the

:25:04.:25:07.

station Tannoy went you'd twitch a bit, because the Tannoy would click.

:25:07.:25:15.

"Attention, attention, this is the bomber controller."

:25:15.:25:19.

We'd studied our targets, we knew what we had to do. We knew that if

:25:19.:25:22.

we did have to scramble, if we did have to go to war, the politicians

:25:23.:25:28.

would have lost control of the situation. I had joined the Air

:25:28.:25:32.

Force to fly and I wanted to be in the Red Arrows and all that sort of

:25:32.:25:36.

thing, and there I was in the wind and rain actually arming a nuclear

:25:36.:25:40.

weapon, which is slightly different. We were sitting there quietly

:25:41.:25:43.

chatting and my dear friend Paul suddenly got up and ambled over

:25:44.:25:47.

toward the aircraft, pulled a pencil out of his pocket and did a

:25:47.:25:57.
:25:57.:26:00.

CND badge on the side of the bomb. And when he came back I said, "For

:26:00.:26:05.

God's sake, what did you do that for?" Or words to that effect. And

:26:05.:26:15.

he said, "If we have to drop that, then they were right." The CND

:26:15.:26:17.

members were declaring that nothing short of abolishing nuclear arms

:26:17.:26:24.

could prevent another World War. British people were worried about

:26:24.:26:27.

the crisis in Cuba, but still had been told nothing of how war

:26:28.:26:29.

preparations were being made nearer home.

:26:29.:26:31.

This was a deliberate ploy by the Prime Minister.

:26:31.:26:34.

Macmillan was concerned that any overt mobilisation might in itself

:26:34.:26:37.

lead to war. He was very concerned that the British public didn't

:26:37.:26:41.

panic. And therefore, although the UK was demonstrably very, very

:26:41.:26:44.

vulnerable at this point, I think Macmillan felt that he wanted to

:26:44.:26:47.

try and keep the country on the sidelines, where as, in fact, many

:26:47.:26:57.
:26:57.:26:58.

people would have thought that it really was in the frontline. And do

:26:58.:27:01.

you think Macmillan got it right? Well, I suppose in the event he

:27:01.:27:04.

could argue that he did. But had things gone desperately wrong, I'm

:27:04.:27:07.

not sure that those people who remained alive of the British

:27:07.:27:10.

public would have thanked him for In the event, Macmillan's gamble

:27:10.:27:13.

worked. The Russian ships were turned back, and normal Cold War

:27:14.:27:20.

relations were resumed between the two superpowers.

:27:20.:27:23.

When we heard that the Soviet ships had stopped and turned back there

:27:23.:27:27.

was a great sigh of relief. Because the tension had built to a peak,

:27:27.:27:32.

and we really didn't know what was going to happen. Netiher did the

:27:32.:27:42.
:27:42.:27:43.

rest of the world, really. After the Cuba crisis, we re-wrote

:27:43.:27:47.

the Uk war books. The Thor sites were already earmarked for closure

:27:47.:27:50.

and the V Force carried a nuclear deterrent for a few more years, but

:27:50.:27:57.

never again were they brought back to the same level of alert. But

:27:57.:28:00.

it's the first-hand accounts of these men that will remind us just

:28:00.:28:06.

how close we came to war. Look at that - isn't that

:28:06.:28:14.

fantastic? It's hard to believe that here was

:28:14.:28:17.

the first line of defence in a nuclear war. That's it from

:28:17.:28:20.

Harrington in Northamptonshire. If there's something you think we

:28:20.:28:23.

should be looking into send me an e-mail, or you can reach me on

:28:23.:28:26.

Twitter. Join me next week when I'll have these stories from the

:28:26.:28:35.

East. Next week: Margaret relies on her guide dog Molly, so when Molly

:28:35.:28:38.

was attacked in Norwich, Margaret felt it was an attack on her

:28:38.:28:43.

freedom. He deliberately unleashed the dog onto my dog. I felt like I

:28:43.:28:47.

was being attacked, really, because she's my eyes.

:28:47.:28:51.

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