Browse content similar to 03/02/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In the next half an hour, speaking out, the man who led Cumbria Police | :00:00. | :00:10. | |
tells us of the day his 30 year career came tumbling down. I felt as | :00:11. | :00:15. | |
if the world had dropped out of my life. I was absolutely devastated. | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
My life was taken away. Ten years on from the Tebay rail | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
disaster, we ask why workers lives are still being put at risk. | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
He said, I think he's been in an accident, I think he's been killed. | :00:30. | :00:37. | |
I was in a daze, numb. And the 21st century triffid. Is it | :00:38. | :00:44. | |
under your house? We were told we would have to have | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
our house torn down. Stories from the heart of the North | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
East and Cumbria, this is Inside Out. | :00:52. | :01:06. | |
He was Cumbria's top cop, but out of the blue, Stuart Hyde was suspended | :01:07. | :01:12. | |
as Chief Constable. For ten months, investigators trawled through his | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
e`mails, his diary and questioned his colleagues. The enquiry cost | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds and cleared Stuart Hyde. | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
Throughout, he has stayed silent, until now. | :01:26. | :01:32. | |
It doesn't feel like a fair process at all. What it feels like is a | :01:33. | :01:38. | |
one`sided view. I don't think that's what justice is about. You're always | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
told you're part of the police, they're your family. Then the day he | :01:43. | :01:49. | |
was suspended, suddenly, that went. I never thought I'd understand why | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
people take their own lives, but I think I understand it now. | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
The 13th of September 2012. Cumbria's chief Constable, Stuart | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
Hyde, was travelling back from a meeting in London. At six o'clock in | :01:59. | :02:05. | |
the evening, I received a phone call to say could I go immediately to | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
committee room two and see the chair of the authority. I couldn't | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
understand why no one would actually talk to me. I was phoning home | :02:13. | :02:21. | |
numbers, mobile numbers. It was almost as if I was in some sort of | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
seclusion zone. And you also thought, presumably, everyone else | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
knows what is going on, they are not answering your calls. Yes, and I | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
knew it was about me then. Just before midnight at police | :02:33. | :02:34. | |
headquarters in Penrith, he was handed a letter. I was absolutely | :02:35. | :02:38. | |
devastated. Basically, it suspended me. I just got woken up when he | :02:39. | :02:46. | |
phoned me up at about one o'clock in the morning. And he was absolutely | :02:47. | :02:49. | |
devastated. Both of us did not really know what was going on. I | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
felt as if the world had just dropped out of my life, basically. | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
In just a few hours, a 30 year police career was facing ruin. | :02:58. | :03:00. | |
Stuart Hyde joined the police in 1983. I've been involved in fights, | :03:01. | :03:03. | |
been punched, involved in riot disorder and things like that. But | :03:04. | :03:10. | |
I've loved every minute of it. It looks like there may have been early | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
signs that you would have been in the police force, going by your | :03:15. | :03:17. | |
photograph album. It just sounded right, it seemed to fit right. It | :03:18. | :03:20. | |
had the right sort of discipline that I probably needed at the time, | :03:21. | :03:24. | |
it also meant the chance to give something back. Mr Hyde took the | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
number two job here in Cumbria in 2009. The Queen's police medal | :03:30. | :03:36. | |
followed, an officer heading for the very top. | :03:37. | :03:45. | |
The day terror came to Cumbria. At least 12 killed and 25 injured as a | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
gunman goes on the rampage. We're not able at this stage to | :03:49. | :03:51. | |
understand the real motivation behind it or understand whether this | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
was a premeditated or random attack. His handling of the Derrick Bird | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
shootings put him in the spotlight. Three years later, he was promoted | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
to Chief Constable. But he served just nine months before he was | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
suspended. For almost a year, the man who loved policing could only | :04:07. | :04:13. | |
walk the Fells. Stuart Hyde says he was given no information about the | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
allegations being made against him. South Wales Police were brought in | :04:20. | :04:22. | |
to investigate, but he says he was still in the dark. It's only now | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
that he feels he is starting to piece together the whole case | :04:27. | :04:29. | |
against him. The South Wales report investigated claims that Stuart Hyde | :04:30. | :04:33. | |
spent more than a fifth of his time away from the county. Quite frankly, | :04:34. | :04:41. | |
the numbers that were given in the report are wrong. I've been able to | :04:42. | :04:56. | |
go through my diary completely and they have not taken any account of | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
weekend working and any account of the work that I used to do during | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
the evenings so I don't accept those figures. The investigators also took | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
an interest in a holiday flight to Tunisia. Mr Hyde was taking part in | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
a charity swimming event. He used air miles gathered on work business | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
to pay for the flight. They were my air miles, they did not belong to | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
Cumbria Constabulary, they did not belong to anyone else, that's what | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
was proven in the end. I felt it was an appropriate use. With hindsight, | :05:23. | :05:25. | |
I should have been very clear about what I was using them for and what I | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
was doing and in recognition of that, last March, I made a personal | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
contribution of the cost of the flights to the Blue Lamp Foundation. | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
And the trip raised eyebrows in another way. Cumbria's Police and | :05:37. | :05:38. | |
Crime Commissioner criticised this photo of Stuart Hyde taken at the | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
event. I'm somewhat surprised, particularly that people might think | :05:45. | :05:47. | |
I was on duty there. I really don't see that I did anything wrong in | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
having a photograph of me. You said yourself, you don't take the Chief | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
Constable label off even when you're off duty. You never take it off. But | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
there you are with your clothes off, so didn't you think that might lead | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
to someone thinking it wasn't right? I think if I was engaged in a | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
swimming event, people would expectme to be wearing swimming | :06:06. | :06:08. | |
trunks. Had I been stood there in uniform, it would have looked a bit | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
daft to say the least. The investigation also probed | :06:13. | :06:15. | |
business meetings Stuart Hyde held with private companies. Critics said | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
there were grave concerns within the force about the impression these | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
meetings gave. We have a contract for the provision of our radios, for | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
example, and it's a very large contract. My objective in | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
communicating with them was to try and get our services a bit cheaper. | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
We have to make cuts and the objective here, I think, is | :06:39. | :06:48. | |
perfectly laudable. We did that with many suppliers. I think they believe | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
somehow that I was some sort of very corrupt officer, doing dodgy deals | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
here there and everywhere. That was clearly not the case. Are you | :06:56. | :06:58. | |
perhaps guilty of not thinking how it might look? Possibly, possibly. | :06:59. | :07:01. | |
But that's very different from being a corrupt officer. Investigators | :07:02. | :07:11. | |
asked if Mr Hyde had been favouring his local pub in Great Salkeld, | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
holding business meetings there in return for favours. I've had no | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
benefit in kind from the landlord. The only reason for using it is it's | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
very convenient to here, it means I do not have to get drivers out to | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
take me all over the county. Yes, it was to suit me, but that means I'm | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
maximising my time. Mr Hyde attended the Conservative Party conference | :07:31. | :07:32. | |
representing the Association of Chief Police Officers. He was | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
speaking about wildlife crime. I've never been paid a fee for speaking, | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
I think that's part of my responsibility. I've spoken at many | :07:39. | :07:41. | |
conferences. Yes, I take the point that it could be taken as supporting | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
a political side, but I was equally talking to the other two | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
organisations as well. So I was being impartial. | :07:49. | :07:50. | |
The final allegation levelled at Stuart Hyde was that he was tweeting | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
inappropriately and misusing his police credit card. One tweet that | :07:54. | :08:05. | |
may have caused offence was a picture of a pie. I'm still not sure | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
where this has come from. Nobody has come to me and said to me, we don't | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
like the fact that you have posted a picture of a pie. If they did, I | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
would probably have done something about it. If it was causing offence, | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
I would have removed it. I can't understand how this has anything to | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
do with somebody's ability to do his job as a senior police officer and | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
how it could be in any way included in a misconduct enquiry. Will I stop | :08:30. | :08:32. | |
eating them? Absolutely not, I thoroughly enjoy them. They're | :08:33. | :08:35. | |
delicious. Mr Hyde was found to have used his credit card twice for | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
personal use. The meal I had at the cinema, that was a private meal, I | :08:41. | :08:43. | |
paid for that immediately afterwards, as I have normally done. | :08:44. | :08:46. | |
The second in relation to Sports Relief, some cash had been handed | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
in, I thought that was actually the best way to demonstrate that the | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
cash had got through to where it should be. I wasn't pocketing it and | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
spending it on anything else. But in hindsight, yes, I could have done it | :08:58. | :09:00. | |
differently. The South Wales Police report in | :09:01. | :09:03. | |
July last year concluded that there was no evidence of misconduct in any | :09:04. | :09:06. | |
of the allegations. It made recommendations for Cumbria Police | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
and Stuart Hyde to follow. In essence, the net result of this | :09:11. | :09:13. | |
investigation was, Stuart, get your paperwork right, tell people what | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
you're doing, talk to them a bit more and move on. | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
So, in the clear, Mr Hyde thought he could get back to work, but there | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
was another twist in this tale. Cumbria's Police and Crime | :09:28. | :09:29. | |
Commissioner disagreed with some of the report's findings and thought | :09:30. | :09:37. | |
there was a case to answer. He resuspended him. The Commissioner | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
wanted me to either retire or resign. At that point. Which | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
basically would have been a week later. What signal do you think that | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
would have sent out? An appalling signal. I think it would have said | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
to everyone, basically, that I... That they looked, the searched, | :09:58. | :10:00. | |
didn't find everything, but you were guilty of something and you ran | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
away. Mr Hyde returned to work as Deputy | :10:05. | :10:07. | |
Chief Constable in September and retired at the end of last year. | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
It's an outcome I could've expected but it isn't an outcome that I was | :10:12. | :10:18. | |
happy with. The process took nearly a year. The | :10:19. | :10:40. | |
suspension was reviewed every month but Mr Hyde was left in limbo, he | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
couldn't work. The investigation costs are estimated at more than | :10:45. | :10:47. | |
half a million pounds, met by the taxpayer. And it was only last week | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
that he was given a copy of some of the statements made against him. | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
Does this process feel like a fair, just system? Absolutely not. It | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
doesn't feel like a fair process at all. What it feels like is a | :10:59. | :11:01. | |
one`sided view. People that made allegations, their information and | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
their allegations have been treated as correct without any opportunity | :11:05. | :11:07. | |
for me to address them and I don't think that's what justice is about. | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
Is there less justice in this kind of situation than if you had been in | :11:12. | :11:14. | |
a courtroom accused of something? You would know what the allegations | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
were in detail. If it was a courtroom, or if it was a tribunal, | :11:19. | :11:21. | |
a discipline tribunal, I would have been given all of the statements, | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
all of the information. I'm now still fighting to get hold of those | :11:26. | :11:28. | |
and I will get them eventually, I hope. And we'll be able to make some | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
judgement. It could be legal action, it could be going back to other | :11:33. | :11:35. | |
agencies, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, it could be | :11:36. | :11:38. | |
going back to the Police and Crime Commissioner. But I think I'll wait | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
until I've read those statements. What price has your family paid for | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
this? It's been an extremely stressful | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
time for all of us. Obviously, you want to protect your children. | :11:50. | :12:00. | |
Stuart has suffered immensely. 30 years of public service in a job he | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
loved has been tainted at the end. Cumbria's Police and Crime | :12:06. | :12:08. | |
Commissioner Richard Rhodes told us he'd given detailed interviews about | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
Stuart Hyde back in August and he did not want to be interviewed | :12:12. | :12:13. | |
again. In a statement he told us... I've learned a lot about the support | :12:14. | :12:47. | |
from my family. I've learned a lot about the support from my friends. I | :12:48. | :12:56. | |
now know who my friends are. I've also found out, unfortunately, that | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
you can't always trust and rely on people you work with. I'm proud to | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
have done something for Cumbria and I want to continue doing that. It's | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
a special place and it will always be a special place for me. | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
I have written about the time I spent with Stuart Hyde on my blog on | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
the BBC website. Ten years ago, former railway | :13:16. | :13:32. | |
workers were killed here when a truck crashed into them as they | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
prepared the track. After the death of another northern worker, Paul | :13:37. | :13:39. | |
Murphy has been investigating whether the culture of long hours | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
and corner cutting is still putting lives on the line. Not once did | :13:44. | :13:52. | |
Scott ever give to me that his job was a dangerous job. I thought they | :13:53. | :13:59. | |
were protected. It's December 2012, early in the afternoon on a railway | :14:00. | :14:02. | |
line near Saxilby, Lincolnshire, and a gang of workers are repairing the | :14:03. | :14:09. | |
track. One of the workers steps back, just as a train is passing. He | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
doesn't survive. A report into his death reveals a string of broken and | :14:16. | :14:29. | |
ignored safety procedures. Network Rail called the death of Scott | :14:30. | :14:32. | |
Dobson a watershed moment, and promised new safety rules. But Scott | :14:33. | :14:35. | |
wasn't a Network Rail employee. Like the majority of workers maintaining | :14:36. | :14:38. | |
and rebuilding our rail network, he was employed by an agency. Scott was | :14:39. | :14:48. | |
always the gang leader, a reliable one, the office used to bring him. | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
Scott Dobson was in charge of site safety for a work gang repairing a | :14:54. | :14:57. | |
fault in the track that day. Scott and his gang were working on the | :14:58. | :15:00. | |
down line, which was closed to trains. But the other side of the | :15:01. | :15:09. | |
track was still in use. For some reason, somebody somewhere along the | :15:10. | :15:12. | |
line has asked them to do the voiding. They were filling in gaps | :15:13. | :15:15. | |
under the track, a job which required working in the "6 foot", | :15:16. | :15:23. | |
the gap between the two rail lines. It's a job for which both rail lines | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
should have been closed. Scott would not then have been able to step back | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
into the path of an oncoming train. As I walked into the kitchen, Thomas | :15:32. | :15:35. | |
said, "Mum, you need to speak to Hayesy, he's on the other end of the | :15:36. | :15:50. | |
phone in tears." He says, "I think Scott's been in an accident, I think | :15:51. | :15:57. | |
he's been killed." At that, I was actually in a daze, numb. A report | :15:58. | :16:05. | |
into Scott's death lists many safety failings. The report shows that he | :16:06. | :16:18. | |
should not have been working in that safety critical position that day. | :16:19. | :16:21. | |
He'd been involved in two other safety breaches, in the preceding | :16:22. | :16:24. | |
two months, and according to Network Rail rules, he should have been | :16:25. | :16:35. | |
moved to a less senior role. On the day, no`one had asked for the second | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
line to be closed, and no one challenged the lack of any risk | :16:40. | :16:42. | |
assessment or safety briefing to perform the job. So the question is, | :16:43. | :16:45. | |
why were they there when they knew, all that gang knew, that somebody | :16:46. | :16:49. | |
would have been in danger working in the six foot as there was trains | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
still running on the up side of the track. Scott had been hired that day | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
by a recruitment company called sky`blue, a subsidiary of the | :16:57. | :17:05. | |
engineering giant Carillion. Carillion express their condolences, | :17:06. | :17:08. | |
but tell us they are unable to comment on specific questions or | :17:09. | :17:11. | |
issues related to Scott's death until after an inquest and further | :17:12. | :17:21. | |
inquiry. They do however say that they go to great lengths to ensure | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
their workforce know they can raise safety concerns, and that these will | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
be acted upon. They say their Don't Walk By programme encourages staff | :17:29. | :17:31. | |
to raise safety issues, and though they recognise some fear they'll be | :17:32. | :17:34. | |
penalised if they speak up, the company makes every effort to | :17:35. | :17:37. | |
highlight this is not the case. Since the incident, they say they | :17:38. | :17:40. | |
have gone beyond industry standards to put in place new safety | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
procedures, and have developed a new barrier to be used in co`ordination | :17:45. | :17:47. | |
with a physical look`out when people are working on a rail line which is | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
closed but adjacent to a line on which trains continue to run. | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
Saxilby is a sad reminder of how dangerous the railway is. It's an | :17:58. | :18:03. | |
accident that could have been avoided, and the root cause is | :18:04. | :18:06. | |
Network Rail's usage, high usage of contractors and agency workers. | :18:07. | :18:09. | |
We've talked to trackworkers who've done casual shifts for renewals | :18:10. | :18:12. | |
companies across the north of England. They tell us bad safety | :18:13. | :18:21. | |
practices are widespread. I've turned up on the site, driven two | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
hours to get to a work site, I don't hold the competencies that they're | :18:27. | :18:29. | |
asking me for to run that site safely. I've turned round, phoned my | :18:30. | :18:32. | |
agency up, and said, "Look, I can't do this, what do you want me to do, | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
break the rules?" Is it commonly accepted that if there's a safety | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
problem you keep quiet? Some people do because they are that scared of | :18:43. | :18:45. | |
losing work, because you speak up, because you speak out, that agency | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
can't put you out, and if you're part of a gang, the whole gang loses | :18:50. | :18:57. | |
work. 81,000 people are registered to work on the railway, only a | :18:58. | :19:28. | |
quarter of them Network Rail staff. Those who survived have been | :19:29. | :20:10. | |
campaigning ever since. They want workers to have access to a simple | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
warning mechanism. To say I'm disappointed with the | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
understatement. I'm so upset. So upset with Network Rail who say | :20:22. | :20:29. | |
safety is first and here we are, going into the 10th anniversary, and | :20:30. | :20:39. | |
yet there is no protection. Have any lessons at all be learnt? It | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
frustrates me all the time when I hear there has been an accident. But | :20:46. | :20:54. | |
his campaign may be about to succeed. There is an additional | :20:55. | :21:02. | |
level of protection required. We will rule the out nationally. The | :21:03. | :21:18. | |
main contractor involved at Tebay, like at Saxilby, was Carillion ` one | :21:19. | :21:21. | |
of the biggest companies tendering for major railway engineering works. | :21:22. | :21:24. | |
We've had long conversations with Carillion because of the incident | :21:25. | :21:27. | |
that took place at Saxilby. I've personally been to Carillion's board | :21:28. | :21:30. | |
to make it clear our expectations and to understand what plans they | :21:31. | :21:33. | |
have in place to improve safety. We are comfortable Carillion are very | :21:34. | :21:36. | |
committed to improving their safety record. Carillion say "health and | :21:37. | :21:39. | |
safety is central to all their operations, and they create a | :21:40. | :21:42. | |
culture of openness and continuous improvement in their workforce." | :21:43. | :21:44. | |
When accidents do occur, they tell us, they "leave no stone unturned to | :21:45. | :21:48. | |
ensure that the causes are thoroughly investigated, any | :21:49. | :21:50. | |
learnings are adopted, and actions taken." Meanwhile, Scott Dobson's | :21:51. | :21:53. | |
family must wait for a coroners' inquest to resolve questions about | :21:54. | :21:59. | |
his death. There was a duty of care towards Scott and his team on that | :22:00. | :22:06. | |
day. Who failed? I don't think anyone wants to claim that | :22:07. | :22:09. | |
liability, whether or not it's protecting Scott, protecting | :22:10. | :22:11. | |
themselves, I really don't know. The gangs that are working on the rail, | :22:12. | :22:14. | |
and the managerial staff, they really need to be as one. Any | :22:15. | :22:22. | |
fatality is horrific, devastating to families, and it's and never, ever | :22:23. | :22:24. | |
the same. It may look like a harmless enough | :22:25. | :22:42. | |
garden plant, but Japanese knotweed is striking fear into the region's | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
homeowners. With roots capable of ripping through concrete and | :22:49. | :22:50. | |
brickwork, it's cutting some property values in half, with many | :22:51. | :22:56. | |
unaware there's a problem. And getting rid of this alien invader | :22:57. | :23:00. | |
can be a costly struggle too, as Mark Jordan discovered. Somewhere in | :23:01. | :23:12. | |
the south, an invasion is under way. We were told we'd have to have our | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
house torn down. You don't expect that when you just bought a brand | :23:17. | :23:22. | |
new home! A destructive force deep below your home. I was in floods of | :23:23. | :23:33. | |
tears. That's our money gone. Be very afraid if Japanese knotweed is | :23:34. | :23:36. | |
growing in your garden. It can push into foundations and block drainage. | :23:37. | :23:42. | |
How strong? It can push through tarmac and concrete. How deep? Three | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
metres. How dormant? There are reports of of it being longer than | :23:47. | :23:53. | |
20 years if it's buried deep enough and resurges. This plant is strong | :23:54. | :24:04. | |
enough to undermine foundations. Matt and Suzie had no idea their | :24:05. | :24:06. | |
?300,000 house was built on top of knotweed. I wanted a brand new build | :24:07. | :24:08. | |
and no problems. We first spotted it coming up through the garden ` it | :24:09. | :24:11. | |
looked like asparagus. We had to get some advice. The worst moment was | :24:12. | :24:21. | |
finding it growing in the house. That was shocking. Forcing its way | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
up through the floor. But their home survey hadn't even spotted it | :24:26. | :24:28. | |
outside, and insurers now refused to pay out. The house cost in excess of | :24:29. | :24:32. | |
300,000. Without treatment it was now worth ?150`160,000. The first | :24:33. | :24:41. | |
contractor said we had to knock the house down and rebuild. It was | :24:42. | :24:44. | |
cheaper to do that than actually remove the knotweed from what they | :24:45. | :24:51. | |
were saying. I'm on patrol with a knotweed exterminator. So how did it | :24:52. | :24:58. | |
get here into your garden? There is a wall there ` it's in a terraced | :24:59. | :25:06. | |
road. How did it get there? I have no idea! Claire's one of thousands | :25:07. | :25:09. | |
now having to call in the professionals There is no instant | :25:10. | :25:12. | |
fix. Anyone telling you they can kill it instantly is lying. This | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
firm offers five`year guaranteed eradication plans. Plants are | :25:19. | :25:21. | |
regularly injected with poison. Treatments can cost up to ?25,000. | :25:22. | :25:28. | |
You would ignore knotweed at your peril. Certainly it will flag up if | :25:29. | :25:39. | |
you try and sell it. If it grows from yours to an adjacent property ` | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
and it can grow up to seven metres a season ` you could be sued for | :25:44. | :25:47. | |
damages under private nuisance. So a southern problem right? Wrong! | :25:48. | :25:50. | |
Japanese knotweed is right up to our doorstep here in the North East and | :25:51. | :25:54. | |
Cumbria. It seems to be unstoppable ` from Whitehaven to Wallsend there | :25:55. | :25:57. | |
are reports of the rampant weed springing up. Including in this | :25:58. | :26:05. | |
street in Newcastle. You don't need to walk far before you spot the | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
dreaded knotweed. There's quite a lot scattered all over Heaton if you | :26:09. | :26:12. | |
walk the streets. There's quite a lot in these two gardens, and | :26:13. | :26:15. | |
they're just growing right up into the drains as well, up close to the | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
house. The roots have probably got underneath the drainage and the | :26:21. | :26:23. | |
concrete to the plinths of the side. It's beginning to take over. If it's | :26:24. | :26:26. | |
not controlled, it'll keep growing and growing and become more and more | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
of a problem. Is it poisonous? No, it's not poisonous. In Japan, they | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
eat it. Some residents are completely unaware of what lies | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
beneath. My neighbour's son`in`law's a gardener and he did say something | :26:39. | :26:40. | |
about Japanese something but I wasn't paying attention because the | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
whole garden is just a state anyway, but he did say about it spreading. I | :26:45. | :26:57. | |
don't know anything about plants. Right, well, other things aren't | :26:58. | :27:00. | |
going to cause you problems, but that one could do. Right. The street | :27:01. | :27:07. | |
here has over 100 houses in it, we've seen it in at least 20 | :27:08. | :27:10. | |
gardens, and that's just where we've seen it. I think it's quite a | :27:11. | :27:13. | |
significant problem down here, and this is not an isolated street. The | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
good news is all is not lost. Science is fighting back. There's | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
186 species feeding on it in Japan. Our job was to try and find the | :27:22. | :27:24. | |
things that only attack Japanese knotweed and don't pose a threat to | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
the rest of the environment. We ended up with a thing called the | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
psyllid. It sucks the sap out of the plant. The bioscientists at Cabi had | :27:33. | :27:35. | |
found a bug that only eats knotweed. So these are the critters in action. | :27:36. | :27:40. | |
This is healthy knotweed. This is two months later, with real damage | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
showing. Wow! So they're really suffering. Yes, these won't grow | :27:46. | :27:49. | |
from this point. The psyllids have been released in eight secret UK | :27:50. | :27:53. | |
test sites. How long will it be before knotweed is falling like | :27:54. | :27:56. | |
this? We normally say five`ten years before you know. We are nowhere near | :27:57. | :28:02. | |
that yet. But we're still hopeful. A few good summers and we could have a | :28:03. | :28:12. | |
really good run at it. As those psyllids muster for battle, Suzie | :28:13. | :28:14. | |
and Matt fired the cowboys that wanted to bulldoze their home. Four | :28:15. | :28:17. | |
years and ?30,000 worse off, they now have an eradication plan that's | :28:18. | :28:22. | |
working. The battle goes on, but I think we'll win the war. So now you | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
know what knotweed looks like. The leaves will die back for winter, but | :28:29. | :28:36. | |
they will be back. I bet that will have you checking for the dreaded | :28:37. | :28:39. | |
knotweed in your garden. That's it for tonight. Next week, it survived | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
neglect and arson, but what does the future hold for an iconic piece of | :28:44. | :28:49. | |
our industrial past. I'll see you next Monday. Till then, from | :28:50. | :28:50. | |
Appleby, good night. A longer day, more exams and tougher | :28:51. | :29:11. | |
discipline. That is what the A longer day, more exams and tougher | :29:12. | :29:17. | |
government wants for pupils in England's state schools. Ministers | :29:18. | :29:21. | |
believe it would bring standards closer to those in private schools. | :29:22. | :29:25. | |
There is a warning over a social network raise after it was linked to | :29:26. | :29:30. | |
guess in Ireland. It involves drinking and filming a stun. The | :29:31. | :29:33. | |
body of the young man was found in the River. Tributes have poured in | :29:34. | :29:38. | |
for the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is thought he died from | :29:39. | :29:44. | |
a heroin overdose. More of us are undergoing plastic | :29:45. | :29:45. | |
surgery. The number of operations surgery. The number of operations | :29:46. | :29:48. | |
jumped 17% last year. Most were for surgery. The number of operations | :29:49. | :29:50. | |
breast implants, but the biggest surgery. The number of operations | :29:51. | :29:55. | |
rise was for liposuction. Imagine parking your car outside | :29:56. | :29:57. | |
your house and waking up to this dash a | :29:58. | :30:03. | |
Hello. I'm Amy Lea. Two soldiers killed when their car | :30:04. | :30:07. | |
hit a tree in Catterick Garrison have been named. 23`year`old Trooper | :30:08. | :30:10. | |
Mark McKeen and 20`year`old Private Codie Richardson died on Saturday | :30:11. | :30:12. | |
night. Berwick MP | :30:13. | :30:13. |