27/02/2012 Inside Out London

Hello. I'm Matthew Wright. You are watching Inside Out London. Coming

up... It is the country's biggest

infrastructure project of modern times, but is tearing up the

capital to make way for HS2 really the answer?

Taking the heart out of Euston, that is not sustainable. Of the

dangers of logbook loans. The unscrupulous car sellers are

shifting their debts to unwary buyers.

I am very angry and obviously I have lost �8,000.

The special sanctuary that is offering a lifeline to these

endangered species. This is what it is all about, to

produce something so rare is very, Since it was given the green light

last month, the high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham

that terminates here at Euston has dramatically polarised public

opinion and some of the fiercest opposition is coming from London

residents whose lives will be most affected by the line's construction.

How much does the capital stand to gain from this colossal project and

will be benefits outweigh the years of destruction and -- disruption?

We sent Pete Waterman, a railway People ask me why I am so

passionate about railways. In the late 1960s when British Rail cut

the service from Euston to Birmingham it -- it meant that

Coventry was only 55 minutes from London so that a lad from Coventry

could work in the book -- the music industry in London. Railway

innovation has always gone hand in hand with economic growth. In the

first half of the 20th century the Great Central route was built to a

European's -- standard. In the 1960s Richard Beeching closed it.

The motor car on the new motorways like the Preston bypass and the M1

dealt a hammer blow to Britain's railways in the early 1960s.

Although the InterCity one to fight and Eurostar moved things on, the

next thing on the timetable is really exciting. Eurostar and

dowking already ring from here, St Pancras international, but we are

about to change the face of Britain because we are joining the high

speed revolution and Britain will never be the same again.

The latest technology used in giving these trains speeds of 275

mph will mean that in 14 years we will be able to get between London

and Birmingham in 45 minutes. Then in 2032 Manchester will be reached

in just over an hour, half the time it takes now. For some, this will

make a drastic difference to their lives.

We could finish a meeting at the end of the day and be back home for

7 o'clock rather than nine o'clock. It will help businesses attract

more companies to base themselves up 0. Trains from the north and the

Midlands are said to to come through Old Oak Common in west

London, then divide, some terminating at Euston and some

travelling on to Europe. Euston station will be turned into a mega-

terminus FA have -- a high speed trains. Its third print will be

extended and the whole area will be developed.

Euston is probably the least attractive station in this country.

It is an 1960s piece of terrible vandalism. It blocks the whole area,

you can't walk through Euston. A new station is very much larger,

wider, it is a place where we have to take some property and much of

it we will replace as we we build. It is the potential effect on the

neighbourhood next to Euston that is causing a storm to brew up on

the Regent's Park estate. I don't want to move and I don't

intend to move. A lot of people have lived here a

long time. Some have been since these were built. They reckon that

if they have to move they will be dead within six months because they

will not stand the trauma. They are in their Eighties and Nineties, you

know. Maria and Cecilia are sisters with

adjacent flats. Six weeks ago they received a letter saying that they

are due to be given a compulsory purchase but at the moment they

have no idea how long the process will take.

The Secretary of Transport sent us a letter saying what they intend to

do with our flats. It is very easy for them to say, we are going to

take this place from you, but where are they going to put us? Where

will the support be? The Sisters are afraid that they may be

separated. We are looking out for each other. My sister's health is

not good. I look after her sometimes when she feels sick and

she looks after me. Some of the flats are privately owned and some

are owned by the council. Families on the estate feared they will have

to move out of Camden and they don't know where or when. I feel

very sad and sorry because maybe there is another way. I'm sorry, I

don't know why I'm so upset. Camden council have been struggling to

keep residents up-to-date with developments and have announced

their intention to fight the decision to expand use than in the

courts. They fear that the planning authority will be taken away from

the borough and placed in the hands of the railway. We are pos HS2 as

it stands completely. We feel let down by the government in the level

of engagement by have had with us. They have looked after Kenilworth

golf club but have made no guarantees to 500 residents here.

The residents of building up a campaign to stop this being the

terminus for HS2. They have cross- party sympathy for their plight.

view is that we should not accept that it is going to happen. Frank

Dobson, the local MP, told me of his concerns for the local

residents, that they feared that their resident -- their families

will be split up. The real losers are the people in these two blogs.

Certainly more than anybody in the Chilterns. They talk about, not in

my backyard. For these people, the government has not given a single

guarantee about whether they will be rehoused, where they will be

rehoused, and people are absolutely paid six. A few miles from Euston

is the main crossover plate -- point for HS2, the right by one

describes. -- right by words were - - by worms with Swatch -- Wormwood

Scrubs. This is to be the hub, this is

where HS2 meets Crossrail, meets the Central line, the Bakerloo Line,

and the whole area will be transformed, with thousands of new

houses and totally we generated. -- re-generated.

The new site is being designed by Sir Terry Farrell and in contrast

to the opposition to HS2 in Camden, here in Hammersmith and Fulham the

council are right behind it. Half the people of working age

population within half-a-mile of this spot will benefit from 20,000

new jobs and tens of thousands of new homes. Old Oak Common is where

many feel that HS2 should terminate, rather than going into Euston. I

met with the railway activists called the HS2 Alliance, who feel

that Euston is a dead end. This is a fantastic development

opportunity. Taking the heart out of Euston for 10 years is not

sustainable. We can achieve a new Euston in the fullness of time. We

can also have the railways running into Euston but it does not to --

it does not need to expand by 50 %. With a legal challenge brewing from

Camden, the designers may have to think again. As the plans Stan,

Euston station will inevitably grow by 50 %. -- as the plans stand.

They have to make a decision how they will satisfy these residents

because at the end of the day they have to satisfy everybody, not just

us northerners who want to come in to London but Londoners themselves

to feel it is a worthwhile experience.

Still to come on tonight's show, this will be the first time it has

been done if it goes ahead. They are stunning creatures and to lose

them would be an indescribable tragedy.

If you are thinking of buying a second-hand car, listen up, because

this could affect you. Unscrupulous drivers who finance their vehicles

on logbook loans are selling at the motors on because they have settled

their accounts. -- before they have. Unsuspected car buyers are finding

themselves saddled with mountain's of debts, as finance export --

expert Mike Thomas reports. More and more Londoners are being

sucked into a parallel world, a place where the in straight --

interest rate can be as high as 400 % and where you may end up paying

somebody else's debt. This may seem unfair but this is what a Greg -- a

growing number of businesses are banking on. Customers may feel

ripped off but the massive profits these companies make are absolutely

legal force. If the loan runs do if -- to full

term, from �3,000 it could be �16,000 or �20,000.

I don't like the way they are able to exploit people. I don't

understand how they can get away with what they get away with.

It is just like a house mortgage but it is personal goods rather

than real property and you use the car as security for money. You hand

over the logbook and the title of It is a quick and easy way to get

your hands on some cash. I am in contact with many distressed

borrowers on my forearm. One of them has been left virtually

bankrupt after taking out a logbook loans. Denis Richards is too

ashamed to appear on camera. Following the death of his father,

he desperately needed the money for the funeral so he went to an agency

offering a logbook loans. The deal was agreed in a car park. Dennis

said the agent have asked him to sign up. He did not read the

agreement but decided he had to take the deal -- harassed him.

Using the car as security, he borrowed �515. The interest rate on

his logbook loans was 350%. Logbook loans typically have a rate of 300-

400% APR and that perhaps isn't appreciated by consumers to take

out these loans and then rapidly find that they are falling behind

on their payments. Dennis now have to pay back nearly �2,000. He has

also been hit by what Allende describes as administration fees.

Every time the company make a call to him and send him a letter they

charge and �12 -- by what the lender describes. Every week we

received three or four inquiries regarding logbook loans. This civil

litigation consultant says increasing numbers of clients have

been mis-sold logbook loans. There are a number of different companies

that advance these loans and some of them are not very clear with

their documentation, they are not transparent in the way they

calculate their interest charges. Dennis says he is determined to pay

off his debt and keep his car but others are Emma -- are unable to

pay back the loans and less scrupulous. They are selling their

cars, DEC included, to you and unsuspecting owners. -- Dets.

wanted to get a new car so I sold my old car and then I was looking

at different cars for sale, and I found one that I particularly liked.

Carl travelled to Swindin to buy his car and decided to pay for so

repairs. I paid �6,500 for the car. I paid �1,500 for a respray. On top

of that, I had to pay for a mechanic to come and sit a part,

which was around �400. -- fitter part. So you paid �8,000 for the

car? Yes. Where has that money gone? You tell me! The previous

owner had not been paying the �3,000 loan secured on the vehicle

and Carl was now liable for that debt. A logbook loan company turned

up on his doorstep claiming ownership. They gave me a piece of

paper that said they are the legal owners and they were allowed to

take the car. I was very angry obviously because obviously I had

paid a lot of money and invested a lot of my time and money into the

car, for it to be then taken away from the. Carl confirmed online

that the car was not stolen before buying it but he failed to do a

particular checks. He believes the real problem is that those who take

out a logbook loans are not subject to a credit check. People like the

person who I bought the car from was able to get finance and

security against the vehicle, and if they had done that cheques, they

would have realised that the person I bought the car from had been done

for multiple credit card fraud. Most logbook loans are promoted as

available to anybody who would not normally qualify to receive credit.

Essentially, credit checks are not made in the normal sense. Logbook

loans are covered by the Bills of Sale Act, a piece of legislation

from 1878 that is designed to benefit lenders, offering virtually

no protection to consumers. Lenders in the Victorian age were finding

that they were being ripped off by borrowers, and then legislation

came out to regulate this business, only as trade protection. Last year

the government tried to crack down on the problems with logbook loans

by introducing a voluntary code of practice. My initial reaction was

one of disappointment at the voluntary code of practice. It was

very much drafted to sue the industry at the time and certainly

doesn't suit the consumer -- to suit. It is too early to say

whether the voluntary code of practice will be effective but the

voluntary code is a voluntary code. In fact less than half of the

industry has signed up to it. What we actually need is a change in the

law. I feel the law should be repealed and we should deal with a

better known form of finance, like hire purchase. I would like to see

the sort of protection is that most consumers take for granted in their

everyday dealings with other forms of finance. I would like to see

something happen to stop it happening to anybody else or the

law changed at least. Last year over 30,000 logbook loans were

taken out by motorists and as more of a struggle to bowlers some banks,

experts warn that logbook loans are set to rise -- struggle to borrow

from banks. Increasing numbers will be facing a hike in fees or paying

other people's debts. Showing off their animals to the

public is just a small part of the work done by London Zoo. It is part

of a global network of wildlife centres that help preserve

endangered species by taking part in international breeding

programmes. Kaddy Lee-Preston was given access to a special sanctuary

run by the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, which is working hard

to save some of the world's rarest This is de Wildlife Heritage

Foundation's big cat sanctuary. 36 big cats live here, from lions to

leopards to lynx, and most are critically endangered. But we are

going to concentrate on two species. Spots and stripes. For the stripes,

we have Nias, the Sumatran tiger. Nias is special. It is thought only

200 pure Sumatran tigers like him are left on his native island of

Sumatra. And representing the spots is Hogar, the Amur leopard. He is

on the Amur Valley in far eastern Russia. Experts believe only 30 of

them exist in the wild and so this situation is critical, and that

makes Hogar one of the rarest big cats in the world. Nias and Hogar

are part of an international mission to save the species from

extinction but with time running out and so few of them left in the

wild, how are they going to make any difference? Brian Badger is the

sanctuary manager and he works with zoos across the world, breeding

endangered big cats to release back into the wild.

The ease cats are so beautiful but they are in captivity. -- these

cats. How will they help an endangered species? What it is

important to do is that we keep what we would like to call a

genetic clock, so we are keeping the species alive and pure, so one

day, hopefully, the world will sort itself out and we will be in a

position where we can release them back into the wild. Preserving

endangered species is a worldwide operation and it is all controlled

using something called a stud book. It is like a giant dating agency

for endangered species and it deals with genetics, like a family tree.

So the idea is that you need to keep the members of the family as

far apart as possible, so therefore you don't get in-breeding and all

the problems related to that. Creating the purest bloodline is a

tricky task. Big cats are brought to the sanctuary from all over the

world. Nias the Sumatran tiger has hit it off with his partner, Puna,

and brain is convinced she is pregnant. -- Brian.

How can you tell she is pregnant? Puna becomes their regressive and

secretive. She is hiding a wave. How long before they are born?

was to hazard a guess, probably two weeks. And she is doing all of that

running around? Tigers are solitary animals so she cannot treat

pregnancy as a disability for star everything is prepared for the

revival of the clubs. There is no time for the staff to sit back and

relax. -- the arrival of the cubs. Hogar has travelled all the way

from a zoo in the Czech Republic to mate with Xizi but it is not

exactly love at first sight. There is a barrier between their

enclosures but there is a gap between the planks of wood so they

can slowly get themselves acquainted, and then slowly but

surely we will start to removed periodically some of the planks of

wood, so they will start appearing to each other and that will give us

a guide. Just because they are a man and a female, it doesn't make

them a couple! Today Hogar will be checked to see if he is suitable

for the breeding programme. He will have to be darted but he is in good

hands. John Lewis is a top international wildlife vet. A lot

of the samples would take a blood. We take samples of hair and various

other things. We can do test on the samples. But we also have to

examine them in detail from nose to tail. We have to be really

convinced that all parts of him are healthy. That he has no genetic

defects. That he is not carrying diseases that he is not suffering

from but maybe other cats are suffering from that he could pass

on. It is hoped that Hogar will get the all-clear to be able to mate

with Xizi. Any cubs they produce would be a huge leap forward in the

plan to reintroduced Amur and leopards in their latest -- native

land, Russia. We do not breed them and throw them in the wild. It

would not work. The only way it can be done is to breed Amur leopards

in captivity, make sure they are very healthy, takes some young

adults leopards on that programme and keep them in a captive facility

next to where you are going to release them, but it is not those

leopards that are released, it is their offspring. They have to breed

there. That means that cubs born there are born in Russian

conditions, they experience the Russian weather, they get exposed

to Russian diseases, they feed on live prey like wild leopards do.

They have a chance of surviving. If this scheme succeeds, it would be

the first time it has been done. They are stunning creatures and to

lose them would just be an indescribable tragedy. Luckily

Hogar got the all-clear but he has still not been introduced to Xizi.

In the wild leopards only ever come together to mate, so bright and has

to make sure that timing is exactly right. -- so Brian. Puna has to be

in season, otherwise she and Hogar could end up killing each other. It

will probably be a good few months before they are ready to mate so

for now, Brian Badger has just sit, watch and wait. But for the

Sumatran tigers, the waiting game is over. Puna is now the proud mum

of two male tiger cubs. They are five weeks old and I am back to

meet them. Brian invited me to do the health check with them. Not

many people have been to see that clubs like this. Not many people in

the world have seen tiger cubs this close. I am really excited!

Oh my gosh. How soon before they become too dangerous to handle?

They are fully weaned normally by the time they are between 12 and 15

weeks. Any time after that they are Even now, they have got a set of

teeth and they have got a full set of clause. How does it feel having

them here? It is fantastic. As a breeding centre, this is what it is

all about. To produce something so rare is very special. You do get

attached to them because you see them every day but we are are not

here for us, we are here for them. There are only 200 Sumatran tigers

in the world left in the world and here, we have two little cubs that

will help the programme. They have only just been born but what will

happen, over the next few months, we will take a look at the rankings

of the cubs and how they are related to the other ones available

and then we will look at which zoos have got this space. We are looking

at international transfers. It is possible that one of these tigers

could end up in Japan or Australia forced off let's hope that one day,

these guys will be the grand parents of a new, wild generation.

Kaddy Lee-Preston there. I was very jealous when she got to hold those

tiger cubs! Before we go though, here's a quick look at what is

coming up on next week's show. Over five years, we've been following

the ups and downs of the Eastenders' most affected by the

Olympics. Now, with the Games almost here, just how have their

lives been transformed? From the day the Olympics got announced, we

sat glumly in the office, everybody else was probably cheering for

London. We were so worried that what we were going to have to do.

We go on the trail of the criminal gangs stealing petrol to order.

identified 280 offences of thefts of fuel related to stone and number

plates over a six-month period of stock -- stolen number plates over

a six-month period. And we ask, would making forced

marriage a criminal offence really help girls at risk? Criminalising

something sends out a clear message to the population that this is

something that is wrong. That's all from tonight's Inside