05/11/2012 Inside Out South East

The Police Community Support Officers of Brighton. 10 years on,

are they seen as plastic policemen or has the idea actually worked?

am talking to street drinkers and it does not involve the police. He

is out arresting someone in dealing with Streak -- serious crime.

Tracing the ancestors of Eastbourne. I am pleased. I think it is a

shoulder blade. But I found it. is interesting. You do not know

what you are walking over. battle for fishing quotas in Kent.

It is pretty critical. There are people going out of business purely

because the opportunity to do what they have done for generations,

they cannot do it any more. I am Natalie Graham with untold stories,

closer to home. From all around Tonight, I am in the Sussex seaside

town of Eastbourne. I will be back here later but first here is Sean

Killick. In the last 10 years, I must have walked 10,000 miles doing

this job. Sharon Birt was a pioneer, one of the first Police Community

Support Officers in Sussex. Into Desmond four, I filmed Sharon out

on patrol to learn what they did. - - in 2004. Calm down. PCSOs are

full-time police staff but unlike Constables they cannot a rest and

am less. They were introduced to deal with minor crime, freeing

Constables to catch serious criminals. They have had many

critics, coming in from much abuse from the public. Do not rise to it.

There is no point. That was nearly a decade ago. Sharon was not put

off by the abuse. She is still pounding the Brighton beat. I will

join her to find out how the role of a PCS au has joined -- has

changed. This is the regular beat in Brighton. They are popular with

the locals. Sometimes too popular. DE12 go on a date? -- do you want

to go on a date. She is a bit busy. Much of the time, they deal with

minor misdemeanours. No cycling on the payment. But carries a �30 fine.

You will never do it again. Mostly, they chat with the public. A I

cannot walk past a dog and not stroke it. Suddenly, a store

detective radios for help with a suspected shoplifter. I have taken

nothing. You need to stay with us for a few minutes. The man is

questioned for 10 minutes inside the store. Sharon cannot arrest him

but could call a constable to do so. This time, he is allowed to go.

is saying, I have got nothing. Then something fell out of his trousers.

I said, we need to get you served. He said he would strip an ISA do

not. He then took his clothes off. -- and I said do not. He had no

clothes on. The things we have to put up with! While Sharon got to

the bottom of that one, how effective are they at catching shop

left us? It is a major problem, much of a drink or drug-related.

It's a manager has called them to see if they can identified a man

suspected of stealing alcohol. walks away with the cider in his

arms. We will then bad the product up a missile. -- Enrique this isle.

He made no attempt to pay. They share intelligence with us and we

share intelligence that. They know what is going on. Surprisingly, a

short time later, I was approached by a man who said he was a former

criminal and wanted to give a different perspective. From your

experience, criminals are not bothered about PCSOs? What can they

do? Can you please wait here are some of no. A criminal is going to

run. A waste of money. All that money could be spent on real police

officers. For every two of them you could get one real police officer.

If the criminals are not afraid of the PCSOs, does that mean they are

not effective? Rather than making arrests, much of their day is spent

intelligence gathering. Each PCSOs is permanently assigned a small

neighbourhood, attending meetings, building up a detailed knowledge of

their area. That is information passed on to officers that can make

arrests. We get to know our communities. That is the big

difference I find. It speaks volumes to go out and know who

you're talking to. It encourages the community war. They know their

faces. They are more inclined to report things. We get intelligent

and can deal with issues, then. We can deal with stuff before it

happens. You have more powers than when you started? We were given new

powers this year. We can issue fixed penalty notices for drunk and

disorderly behaviour. We can search for alcohol and tobacco. Weekend

detained for 30 minutes if an offence has taken place. -- we can

detain. With their role evolving and new powers, I have come to

Sussex Police headquarters to see what has changed. What is the

problem here? A one decade ago, the new PCSOs had just two weeks'

training. Now it is seven with fitness checks and role play.

going to seize the vehicle. Everything is OK. Remain calm.

These PCSOs will enter a different working environment to a decade ago

when many police officers were critical. Over the years, the

organisation which represents Constables has called them a con,

ill-equipped and policing on the cheap. These days, they say PCSOs

perform a useful role but once funding rules change next April, it

wants more Constable refuted and pure PCSOs. Is that a

contradiction? -- it once more Constables recruited. Police

officers can be used for many things. That has been shown with

the riots in London and policing the Olympics. The duties that a

PCSO can perform are restricted. I would like to see a slow

progression, not remove that PCSOs straight away but as they move on,

that money is redirected into officers so the numbers increase.

Sussex Police is standing by PCSOs as they and economical way of

community policing. What are you asking people to do? If you are

asking people to have a power of arrest, of course you need police

Constable's. What we are offering with PCSOs is valuable -- is value

for money. It is 10am. Sharon is that a special briefing at Brighton

police station. This is an ongoing operation to tackle anti-social

behaviour. Sharon can you ring CCTV? We will split into groups. We

will concentrate on that area. London Road is Sharon's patch.

PCSOs and Constables from across the city working on this operation

will rely on her local knowledge. Sharon is paired with a constable,

Rachel Piggott. They soon get a call to reports of drinking and

abusive behaviour. Do you have any alcohol? So arm of the drinkers are

given notices banning them from the area for the rest of the day. If

they come back, they will be arrested. Next, they check a haunt

of drug takers, recently Sharon found an addict blue in the face,

minutes from death. She called an ambulance which saved the woman's

life. All-clear here today. Sharon learns why and informs traders.

two diesels -- users are in a hospital. Their only so many times

they will get away with doing that. You have my mobile. If you have any

problems, we have police officers. PCSOs such as sarin spend far

longer on the beat than Constables. -- such as Sharon. Rachel will be

tied up with paperwork for three hours. Sharon, not able to arrest,

is hardly ever off the street. Many people seem frustrated with PCSOs

limited powers. A police officer is better because if you see someone

stealing something and running out, they can arrest them or take them

away. In an ideal world, there would be more police Constables.

They are doing the best they can do. Their presence in the community,

the local community, is very good. They keep a sense of order. It is

good to see them around. The PCSOs note they will always be under the

cosh from some people. But it seems the plastic police have become a

real part of 21st century polluting -- policing. Does Sharon feel

useful? We are out dealing with all the low level things that happen.

Why do you need a police officer to say, I need to take that off you.

When they do not play ball, we call the police. But we can deal with a

whole multitude of things without taking things away from them. They

support us when we needed. You do not want to be a real copper?

like to be out there. I want to support by police colleagues. After

10 years, I still love it. That was Sean Killick. Coming up on Inside

Out: Just how tough is it to be a fisherman. Every year, it is

getting worse and worse. fishermen say that every year.

does get harder every year because of the quota restrictions and all

that. It is a hard job. Very hard. We do not know anything else so

Now, finding out about your family's ancestry is easier than

it's ever been, thanks mainly to the internet, but how about tracing

the ancestry of an entire town? Well, that's just a little bit more

But that's exactly what this gang of enthusiastic volunteers are

hoping to do here on the Sussex coast. They're trying to find out

as much as they can about the This is a man's shoulder blade.

is interesting. You don't know what you while walking over. When you

find something nous, you don't want a cup of tea, you don't want

anything. This is year one of a unique two year project called

Eastbourne Ancestors, an ambitious combination of archaeological digs,

scientific research and historical investigation which it's hoped will

make connections between the people who live here today, and the people

who lived here long ago. Archaeologist Jo Seaman is the man

behind it all. It's about building up a picture of the people and the

place and beyond even. Whether it is the Romans or prehistoric people.

Jo thinks more people would be interested in the history on their

doorstep if only they knew what was there. Ann and Simon Eyre had no

idea what was under their back doorstep until they decided to

build a bigger garage. This gave Jo's team the perfect opportunity

to explore the garden which happens to be close to an ancient burial

ground. We have lived here 25 years and had no idea there was anything

sitting underneath our garden. thought that there were people

living here for years and years and years, and be known to s, and

testers on our back lawn. Or and erect.

-- or under it. Most towns in the south east are

dotted with evidence of human activity going back thousands of

years. A lot of it displayed in museums. But wartime bombing raids

destroyed Eastbourne's main museum, so much of its history has had to

be boxed up. This town literally has skeletons in its closet.

have many in the town hall. They haven't really been analysed

properly. No one has looked at them in depth and found out more about

the people, what disease is based the Fed, how they lived their lives.

We have a male individual. He has a really bad tooth decay here.

Osteo Archaeologist, Hayley Forsyth has been examining the skeletons of

about 200 Eastbourne Saxons, and she says it's amazing what you can

tell just from a few bones and teeth. All the NMR has been worn

away, probably from grit in the diet. It has exposed all of the

nerves. I think it's safe to say this is the first time these Saxons

have ever seen a toothbrush. There's a substantial team of

volunteers, from near and far, working to learn more about the

history of Eastbourne. Tori Zeeger has come all the way from Michigan

USA to examine Eastbourne's incredible collection of clavicles.

These clavicles show how active our Every time he pulled on the muscle,

the bones react. The more you move it, the more you will be able to

see. These weren't puny, short Saxons. Some of them were over six

feet tall, and very strong. This clavicle is unusual. I have never

seen one and this developed a peer. He might have used an arrow

extensively. You can tell he is right handers. You can tell all of

that. His left is much less developed. It is an awesome bone.

Just down the hill from the Anglo Saxon burial m ground is a strip of

land that Jo believes was once the location of a large house dating

back to the 14th century. What's more he thinks he's got the photos

to prove it. And hesitant to say it was a manor-house but it was that

sort of feel to it. Very wealthy farm or land owner I would think.

You can see the stone and the flint work, it is quite detailed. This is

all indicative of a high-status building.

The building was demolished back in the 60s to make way for a new

housing estate. But the Eastbourne Ancestors team has discovered that

the medieval foundations are still here. And it looks like Jo's plan

to do high vis history is working. Eastbourne resident Ken Larkin saw

the work going on here, and brought along some photos of his own.

was my home. This was my area. The fields, the marsh, everything was

here. My playground was from the road to the railway line. From here

to the park. I had all of that to run about in. The odd thing is,

today, I find it quite emotional. Just talking about the people, I

didn't realise that was going to happen. Seeing it all dug up as an

archaeological thing, we are not that old. That is true.

The volunteers have found pottery, bricks, belt buckles and all kind

of items from the Bronze Age, 3000 years ago, right up to modern times.

They've also found a cellar wall. And by dating the material embedded

above it and below it Jo has worked when the house was built. I would

doubt it was earlier than 1300. That fits in with our medieval war.

The Eastbourne Ancestors jigsaw puzzle is slowly coming together,

piece by piece. But this is just the beginning. Over the next 12

months, there will be more digs and much more detailed analysis of the

skeletons in the town hall. Including carbon 14 dating and even

reconstructing the faces of some of the Saxons so we can see what they

looked like. So, Jo is on the lookout for even more people to

roll their sleeves up and get involved. Because he believes it's

important for all of us to get to know something of the people who

once lived where we live. Quite often people say, what is the point

with digging up the past. It can tell us so much about the future

and the way to do things or not to do things. If it gives you a

respect for the every you are living in or would like to visit,

that is part of our job done. people say there are plenty more

fish in the sea but these days, that is not true. They are a

precious commodity but how but should they be managed for future

The East of England has a long heritage of fishing. All along the

coast, towns had their own boat builders, fishermen and fishmongers

selling the local fish. They were an important part of the seaside

community. But most of the fish we eat is caught by big boats on an

industrial scale. The small boats say they are being put out of

business because they aren't allowed to catch enough fish and

that matters for us, the fish and the environment. Fishing in the

Greater Thames estuary is a way of life for father and son Andrew and

Johnny French. This is what we do, don't know anything else, don't

want to know anything else. Their boat is classified as under 10

metres long. The under 10 fleet includes the most environmentally

friendly fishing boats in the Studies have shown their nets do

less damage to the sea and fish. The legal requirement is 90mm but

ours are all 95mm. You've made a conscious decision, why? Because we

don't want to catch the smaller fish, it's better for everyone.

When they are dead, it is daft. fishermen say that it gets harder??

It does get harder every year with the quota, so that's what we do.

These smaller boats are not given an annual quota by the Government,

instead they are given a monthly allocation of fish they're allowed

to catch known as the pool. And it makes it difficult for fishermen

like the French's'. You don't know what they're going to give you one

month to the next.. Bluey Wallpole says he's struggling with the quota

system too. He has fished in these waters off the Kent coast for half

a century. It's pretty critical I mean there's people going out of

business purely because the opportunity to do what they have

done for generations they can't do anymore.

Small scale fishermen make up more than three quarters of the fishing

industry in the UK yet they are allowed to catch just 4% of the

entire national quota. Quotas are designed to protect fish stocks and

stop over fishing. They were introduced in 1983 but the little

boats say they missed out on the big deals back then and that most

of the quota is currently held by just 24 fish producers'

organisations. The smaller boats have formed an association to try

and push for a bigger share of the fish. John Nicholls is from

Ramsgate and helped set it up. quota doesn't work and never will

work. It was never set up for multi-species fishery, it was set

up for a single species fishery like in Fraserburgh in the top of

Scotland where large vessels can They only target one species.

That's what quota was set up for. Because of the way the system works,

bigger boats in producer organisations can sell quota they

don't use to other fishermen. But this means some is sold abroad, to

other countries and locally it can be expensive for smaller fishermen

to buy. The larger vessels, the producer organisation have surplus

fish, fish they can't catch. The hard-up vessels, the smallest

vessels in the fleet, we've got fish we've quota and what we're

prepared to do is rent it from us for the year, so in other words,

they expect us to give them money for paper fish which we can then go

out and catch. But those quotas are handed out by the government for

free. So some people think it isn't fair to charge to rent out quota.

Richard Benyon is the fisheries minister it's his job to sort out

the quota system. One of the things we're trying to do is to find out

who quota in this country seems amazing that we are having to do

this but we are and it's a determination by this government

that we know who owns the quota and therefore when it's traded we will

be told and we can manage it a lot better and fairer and more people

who aren't benefiting can and they can run their businesses more

The under tens say a more local approach to managing fish stocks is

needed because conditions and fish vary from one stretch of water to

another. Bluey Wallpole has quotas for fish that aren't even found in

his area. Yes, lemon soles, we've got five tonnes of them, well we

don't catch them either, ling, we don't catch them or we've only got

a hundred kilos of them and we probably wouldn't catch that in a

lifetime, what else have we got, oh we've got scampi, prawns, we've got

twenty tonnes of them, well we don't catch them either, some rays,

we've got plenty of them, but we've The government says it is trying to

reallocate the quota between smaller boats and the larger

producer organisations. We are dealing with a system that's broken

and this has to sit in a context of what we are trying to achieve

nationally, about trying to reform the common fisheries policy and get

management back to local level. The opportunity is there, if we can

just get through the muddle of a failed system in Brussels and a

rather opaque system of quota management that we have inherited

Government plans to redistribute unused quota to the under tens are

being contested by the UK fish producers association which says

the current rules have been developed over time and are fair.

It wants ministers to stick to the status quo. A high court battle

could take place sometime next year. We asked the United Kingdom fish

producers association for an interview, but they declined.

Although Bluey Wallpole can't change the quota system. Like many

he's had to adapt to it. He's introduced his own supply of

oysters in Oare, they aren't subject to quotas and he says

diversifying has saved his business. Well it's important because its

ours and we have control over what we are doing and you know we are

building a market in and around London, people are now interested

It's clear that rules need to be in place to prevent over fishing but

the dispute is what these rules should be. And with livelihoods at

risk any decision is bound to have a lasting impact on the shape our

If you want any more information about tonight's show, you can visit

our Kent or Sussex website. You can also watch the show again. Coming

up next week: The woman who helped create a law against stalking.

looked at him. His face, I knew he was going to kill me. How the

vineyards of Kent dealt with the wettest try-out we have ever known.

It is the first time it has been this late and it will leave us

picking a crop close to the mark in terms of being able to produce

quality. And a Brighton campaign to ban that reptiles been kept as pets.