:00:05. > :00:11.On-the-spot fines, for trivial offences. Have some councils gone
:00:11. > :00:15.too far in their drive to raise cash? I got a tap on my shoulder.
:00:15. > :00:19.There were two men and they started talking to me about a cigarette
:00:19. > :00:28.Butt. I panicked and thought I started a fire. It didn't occur to
:00:28. > :00:33.me dropping it was the crime. big freeze of 1963 By the end of
:00:33. > :00:37.January, the frozen waters stretched two-and-a-half miles out
:00:37. > :00:46.to sea. Margate pier and Herne Bay were actually surrounded by pancake
:00:47. > :00:53.ice. And the story of Sherman's shirts. Invented in Brighton.
:00:53. > :00:57.bare wear didn't sell but the button down shirt went like crazy.
:00:57. > :01:07.I am Natalie Graham with untold stories closer to home. From all
:01:07. > :01:18.
:01:18. > :01:25.round the south-east, this is Inside Out. Hello, I am in Herne
:01:25. > :01:28.Bay on a blustery winter's day. I am back here later, but first up,
:01:28. > :01:38.Wendy Hurrell asks whether some councils are being too aggressive
:01:38. > :01:39.
:01:39. > :01:43.in the way their officers hand out fines. All councils have litter
:01:43. > :01:49.patrols, it is a constant battle for locals, businesses and the
:01:49. > :01:53.council's wardens to keep the streets litter free. We got back at
:01:53. > :01:57.Christmas, this is what we came back to. Rubbish everywhere. Even
:01:57. > :02:00.on the other side of the building. It's a brand-new nursery and coffee
:02:00. > :02:04.shop. We have children in the building, all the time. The rubbish
:02:04. > :02:08.gets added to every day. We did pay to have it all removed but it is
:02:08. > :02:12.back again. Once the perpetrators have been traced, first they will
:02:12. > :02:18.get a warning, then if they do it again, they will be looking at a
:02:18. > :02:23.fine. We talk to people and we educate them and we want compliance.
:02:23. > :02:27.We are not out to fine people to increase the coffer, we want people
:02:27. > :02:31.to comply. Keep it as clean as we would wish. In this borough,
:02:31. > :02:38.enforcement is a mixture of investigations and education. It is
:02:38. > :02:41.not a cash cow nor the council. Elsewhere, it is a different story.
:02:41. > :02:47.Here in Bromley, they are concentrating on a different kind
:02:47. > :02:51.of rubbish enforszment. Daily patrols are off pedestrians
:02:51. > :02:55.dropping cigarette Butts. Outside Bromley south station, smokers
:02:55. > :03:01.gather before catching train, unaware that by the flower stall,
:03:01. > :03:06.wardens are waiting to pounce. A traveller discards his used
:03:06. > :03:11.cigarette, watches by warned ch inside he is handed an �80 fine
:03:11. > :03:14.which he must pay within enday, or he could be -- ten diers he could
:03:14. > :03:18.be summoned to court and given a criminal record. Shortly after a
:03:18. > :03:23.student is stopped at the main shopping centre for dropping a roll
:03:23. > :03:27.up. I got a top on the shoulder, and I turned round and two men were
:03:27. > :03:32.there and they just started talking to me and I panic and thought I
:03:32. > :03:34.started a fire. It didn't occur to me that dropping the cigarette was
:03:34. > :03:39.the crime. I thought it must be something I had done by accident
:03:39. > :03:43.and I panicked. At the end of August last year, Bromley council
:03:43. > :03:50.switched from using their own wardens and employed a private
:03:50. > :03:55.company for their litter patrols. In their first month they issued
:03:55. > :04:00.618 fines, bringing in a potential revenue of almost �50,000. Compare
:04:00. > :04:07.that to the previous month, when Bromley's staff issued just four
:04:07. > :04:12.tickets. They told news a statement: We understand the
:04:12. > :04:15.concerns raised with regard to the alleged incentivising forces. The
:04:15. > :04:19.only people affected by our presence are those individuals that
:04:19. > :04:23.decide to dispose of waste incorrectly and leave their litter
:04:23. > :04:27.and dog waste on the streets. Freedom of Information requests
:04:27. > :04:31.have revealed fines have been issued for the strangest things.
:04:31. > :04:36.Here is Tony Blackburn with our top of the drops. It is final for top
:04:36. > :04:39.of the drops. Number five. The warden's slapped an �80 penalty for
:04:39. > :04:44.dropping a pen. Four, they protected the environment by
:04:44. > :04:49.charging a member of the public with dropping an ice-cream. A main
:04:49. > :04:53.nous offence. Discarding peanut shells. At two, a bank card. Number
:04:53. > :04:58.one in our top of the drop, charging a member of the public
:04:58. > :05:04.with dropping a piece of cotton thread. Unbelievable! But by far
:05:04. > :05:08.the largest number of fines, 95% are for dropping cigarette Butts.
:05:08. > :05:13.put my cigarette out in the gutter. They said that is illegal. We have
:05:13. > :05:17.to issue you with a fine. They started reading my rights, saying
:05:17. > :05:21.you have the right to remain silent. I thought it was a prang. They gave
:05:21. > :05:25.me a ticket and I paid that within ten days. Do you feel like they
:05:25. > :05:31.have made money out of this? There is no signs up round here, I feel
:05:31. > :05:34.hard done by it. With councils across London strapped for cash,
:05:34. > :05:39.critics say on-the-spot fines are becoming a new way of making up the
:05:39. > :05:44.deficit. They are looking at our residents as a cash cow, they have
:05:44. > :05:49.raised over I think about �17,000 alone in litter fine, in a year.
:05:49. > :05:53.They keep telling us they are on the side of our residents, but this
:05:53. > :05:56.proves the only thing that is they seem to be interested in is
:05:56. > :06:00.screwing as much month out of the residents as possible. The council
:06:00. > :06:04.maintain they are doing a public service by handing out fines for
:06:04. > :06:09.littering. We don't make any money. It costs us more to enforce the
:06:09. > :06:15.fines. We are trying to make sure people don't litter. If they don't
:06:15. > :06:20.we don't have to spend �7.million to pick up the tonnes of waste we
:06:20. > :06:26.get from people dropping stuff on the ground. As issuing fines for
:06:26. > :06:31.small scale littering is a money spinner, the concern is an
:06:31. > :06:35.enticement to private companies to hand them out in greater number and
:06:35. > :06:39.generate vast apts of profit. think whenever you have wardens who
:06:39. > :06:45.have a personal interest, directly or indirectly to issue as many
:06:45. > :06:48.fines as pob, you, they don't ib issue fines for the right thing,
:06:48. > :06:51.they issue fine Forbes minor offences so you get a punishment
:06:51. > :06:56.not in the public interest. Jane, who we can't identify because of
:06:56. > :07:00.the nature of her work, believes the wardens who approaches her were
:07:00. > :07:05.not following proper law enforcement procedure. He just came
:07:05. > :07:11.up to me, did not tell me who he was, what company he works for, or
:07:11. > :07:15.whom he represent, I was left in shock, thinking what? He literally
:07:15. > :07:19.was standing right next to me, as if to block my movements. Jane
:07:19. > :07:24.insists that the warden could and should have issued her with a
:07:24. > :07:28.warning, if they had been following Bromley council's own guidelines P
:07:28. > :07:33.The verbal warning is there. Why was I not made a beneficiary of
:07:34. > :07:38.that particular warning? I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that
:07:38. > :07:41.this is a cash, money making enforcement scheme. Bromley council
:07:41. > :07:46.responded to criticism of their new policy. We have taken a decision
:07:46. > :07:50.with this contract, that it will be a policy that penalises people for
:07:50. > :07:54.littering because it adds to the cost other ratepayers have to bear
:07:54. > :07:58.on their council tax to keep the streets clean. You can challenge a
:07:58. > :08:03.litter fine but you have to go to a magistrates the court do so. Most
:08:03. > :08:08.people though are reluctant to do that. They gave me a piece of paper
:08:08. > :08:12.with the stuff on it, �80 and they were if you take it to court it
:08:12. > :08:15.could be �2,000 my. Immediate thing was I don't have �806789 I don't
:08:16. > :08:18.want to o have to go to court Dropping litter is a criminal
:08:18. > :08:24.offence, and one that the magistrates association feels
:08:24. > :08:27.should be dealt with in court. private company there's is no kind
:08:27. > :08:31.of transparency, they don't report to anybody. The media doesn't see
:08:31. > :08:38.it. The general public can't see it. There is no opportunity to question
:08:38. > :08:42.it or very limited appeal provisions. In my view the
:08:42. > :08:45.Magistrates' Court is much more transparent and consistent and it
:08:45. > :08:50.delivers accident justice over and above what the private company can
:08:50. > :08:55.deliver in the future. Back in Croydon, their environment officers
:08:55. > :09:05.have traced the owner of the dump material and are in the process of
:09:05. > :09:07.
:09:07. > :09:11.contacting them, having cleared the waste away. Coming up on Inside Out.
:09:11. > :09:16.I think I was ten. It was probably my tenth birthday. I collected all
:09:16. > :09:21.the money from aunts andles and I went to Selfridges, first time I
:09:21. > :09:31.went to buy something on my own. What I was doing was going for a
:09:31. > :09:38.
:09:38. > :09:43.button down Ben Sherman because no Today the snow is back. These were
:09:43. > :09:49.some of the scenes this morning as once again much of the south-east
:09:49. > :09:59.turned into a Winter Wonderland. But if you think this was bad, you
:09:59. > :10:04.
:10:04. > :10:10.should have been here in 1963. It was the worst winter of the 20th
:10:10. > :10:18.century. And the coldest for more than 200 years P And it seemed to
:10:18. > :10:27.go on forever. 1962, 63 was the daddy of them all. Oh it was
:10:27. > :10:34.appalling. It was snow on top of snow on snow. In fact the first
:10:34. > :10:40.snow fell at Christmas, 1962, then more came, the following January.
:10:40. > :10:44.And then right at the end of that month, it snowed for 17 hours. And
:10:44. > :10:54.Kent was paralysed. It will go down in history and folk memory at that
:10:54. > :10:58.terrible winter of 1963. It was a remarkable remarkable winter.
:10:58. > :11:08.because the temperatures were so low, we were under a white blanket
:11:08. > :11:16.
:11:16. > :11:20.until March. That is more than two Villages and farms all over
:11:20. > :11:24.southern eng han, the telephone was the only remaining ling with the
:11:24. > :11:29.rest of the world. If the snow wasn't bad enough, it was
:11:29. > :11:35.occasionally made worse by the wind. Trisha was living in Brighton at
:11:35. > :11:41.the age of 7. So these are the snow pictures from 1963, and a lot of
:11:41. > :11:46.them show that there is not a lot of snow on the roofs because it was
:11:46. > :11:51.really blowing, very windy and we lived opposite east Brighton parks,
:11:51. > :11:54.Wilson avenue, and it was so bad, that there was snow in the loft and
:11:54. > :11:58.I think it's a dog basket up in the loft you can see in the photograph.
:11:58. > :12:04.The wind must have got in under the eves and blown the snow in. There
:12:04. > :12:08.is no holes in the roof and that is how it got in. I remember seeing
:12:08. > :12:12.children walking on top of hengs to the school bus, when the school bus
:12:12. > :12:19.didn't hurn up, they walked to school, because schools didn't
:12:19. > :12:23.close. Transport was badly hit and food supplys to more rural areas
:12:23. > :12:28.were becoming difficult. Someone had to dig the south-east out of
:12:28. > :12:33.the snow, and one of those was David Bennett from Swanscombe.
:12:33. > :12:39.Grateful people would give him and his colleagues food as they worked.
:12:39. > :12:44.One day, a farmer gave them two big raw steaks. We wondered how we were
:12:44. > :12:49.going to cook them. What we did, we made a fire, we cleaned our shovels,
:12:49. > :12:55.right off, clean, put the steak on the shovel, and cooked the steak on
:12:55. > :13:00.the shovel, with a can of baked beans, on the top. And that is how
:13:01. > :13:09.we had hot food. All day long. did it taste? The best steak I've
:13:09. > :13:19.ever tasted! But one of the most remarkable sights of the winter of
:13:19. > :13:19.
:13:20. > :13:24.63 was right here in Herne Bay. Or more specifically out there. Ice,
:13:24. > :13:32.ice and still more ice. There is not a break between Hampton and the
:13:32. > :13:38.main pier P It was so cold for such a long period of time, that the sea
:13:38. > :13:44.froze along the north Kent coast. By the end of January, the frozen
:13:44. > :13:54.water stretched two-and-a-half miles out to sea. Margate pier and
:13:54. > :14:05.
:14:05. > :14:14.Freezing conditions overcame the sea which froze for two miles out.
:14:14. > :14:18.Taking on the appearance of a white carpet of ice. Roger Turner was a
:14:18. > :14:28.journalist for the press. Like everyone else, he couldn't believe
:14:28. > :14:29.
:14:29. > :14:39.what he saw. I had been working on the local paper and was asked if
:14:39. > :14:46.
:14:46. > :14:49.big story for you? It was. There take photographs and some films of
:14:49. > :14:56.the sea. It was searched any unusual event. For the first time,
:14:56. > :15:02.the Medway froze from Chetham to Rochester. The Navy had to use an
:15:02. > :15:09.ice-breaker to keep Chatham dog free. What Roger remembers what was
:15:09. > :15:19.-- was not so much the site but the sound of the Allies. There was the
:15:19. > :15:20.
:15:20. > :15:27.rumbling noise. It was quite eerie. The whole PE was vibrating. You
:15:27. > :15:33.could feel it shaking with the force of the ice. Meanwhile in
:15:33. > :15:41.Mayfield in East Sussex, a young farmer set off on a 25 mile journey
:15:41. > :15:47.to see his fiancee. She lived in East Grinstead. Helen was 19 but
:15:47. > :15:57.her mother wouldn't let her get married and tell she was 21. I got
:15:57. > :15:58.
:15:58. > :16:03.a lift. The roads were so bad so I walked the rest of the way. I don't
:16:03. > :16:13.know how long it took me. When you widen and stupid, you do these kind
:16:13. > :16:20.of things. Derek made a heroic journey trudging for 15 miles.
:16:20. > :16:29.appeared like an overweight snowman. Suddenly my mother said, "if Derek
:16:29. > :16:34.love see that much, you can get married.". Apart from meaning he
:16:34. > :16:44.was 50 years since there was all that snow, it means it is 50 years
:16:44. > :16:55.
:16:55. > :17:00.Baquoba near Sevenoaks, the high standing village here was cut off.
:17:00. > :17:08.Lesley was part of the team attempting to open the road. He
:17:08. > :17:16.waited whilst a JCB digger went on head. He vanished into this white-
:17:16. > :17:21.out. We sat and waited and waited. Eventually, we saw this snowball
:17:21. > :17:26.coming through the snow towards us. What he hadn't realised was the
:17:26. > :17:32.wind was so strong, as fast as he was digging for Wood, the snow was
:17:32. > :17:38.blowing in behind him. Eventually he gave up and trudged his way back
:17:38. > :17:44.to the lorry. As far as I know, that digger stayed on the top of
:17:44. > :17:48.the common for at least two weeks. Imagine what it was like for Jean
:17:48. > :17:53.Stone at 50 years ago. She'd lived in Southfleet make Gravesend and it
:17:53. > :18:01.wasn't the best time to go into labour with her daughter, Deborah.
:18:01. > :18:10.They called the midwife who made an epic journey to reach them. There
:18:11. > :18:16.was no cards. She walked three miles across to me. It was in the
:18:16. > :18:20.middle of the night. It was quite a triage. Nick Knight in the heavy
:18:20. > :18:30.drifts was quite a challenge. to deliver a baby when she got
:18:30. > :18:34.It was obviously a difficult time for the south-east but it would
:18:34. > :18:42.appear that in the face of adversity, the community pulled
:18:42. > :18:47.together. It was unbelievable. The camaraderie, no one was down. They
:18:47. > :18:55.were laughing and joking. comradeship and everyone helping
:18:55. > :18:58.was fantastic. It was very much a, Rhodri effect. Like the last war.
:18:58. > :19:06.Everybody was looking after everybody else. There is a touch of
:19:06. > :19:14.wartime spirit. Everyone is chatting again. Did you enjoy your
:19:14. > :19:19.work? It was fantastic. It was a sense of being wanted. Two months
:19:19. > :19:26.of snow resulted in chaos but it also left many people with a tale
:19:26. > :19:36.to tell. That is why is it will be a long time before we forget the
:19:36. > :19:45.
:19:45. > :19:51.Also 50 years ago, a shirt factory opened in the middle of Brighton.
:19:51. > :19:56.The name on the label, Ben Sherman. Robin Gibson and covers the story
:19:56. > :20:03.of Brighton's contribution to British fashion and discovers why
:20:03. > :20:10.successive generations of trendsetters needed a Ben Sherman
:20:10. > :20:15.to look sharp. On the front in Brighton, a place
:20:15. > :20:21.to see and be seen. A picture that could have been filmed at any time
:20:21. > :20:27.during the last 50 years. The cocktail of youth cultures which
:20:27. > :20:37.found space here includes the Mods. I wouldn't feel like I wanted to go
:20:37. > :20:39.
:20:39. > :20:43.out until I had a pair of stay pressed on and a good coat. I
:20:43. > :20:50.couldn't figure of dressing anywhere else. The skin hope -- the
:20:50. > :20:56.skinheads, they it all weirdly dressed the same to look different.
:20:56. > :21:02.Part of their story started here with a shirt and an name. When I
:21:02. > :21:07.was at school, everyone wore Ben Sherman shirts. A shirt with
:21:07. > :21:14.something about it. They fitted and used to be very snug at the back.
:21:14. > :21:22.The quality of the material. Would you ever buy a Ben Sherman? If it
:21:22. > :21:30.looks cool, I would. If it was colourful. It is not really my
:21:30. > :21:38.thing. Who was Ben Sherman? suppose I was in the right place at
:21:38. > :21:43.the right time, we things that the youngsters wanted. He was a
:21:43. > :21:48.businessman, a wheeler-dealer from a family of Brighton pawnbroker's.
:21:48. > :21:53.Here in the middle of his home town, 50 years have passed since he made
:21:54. > :22:00.a deal to start a clothing factory. The starter for lunch -- the start
:22:00. > :22:05.of a legend, some would say. We won the first floor and apart from Fred
:22:05. > :22:11.Perry, who wasn't a designer, whose name is still going. Ben Sherman is
:22:11. > :22:16.the only fashion icon of those days that is still going. He thought the
:22:16. > :22:21.Sixties people were wanting fashion and colour and he was the man to
:22:21. > :22:27.sell it to them. His ideas came back from America where he read run
:22:27. > :22:31.a clothing business for his first wife's father. Wife number two was
:22:31. > :22:40.drafted into the business. Some ideas didn't work by one stood out.
:22:40. > :22:44.A all he knew was there was a gap in the market and the normal
:22:44. > :22:48.British man going on the beach down at Brighton would be quite happy
:22:48. > :22:53.with a square in Katif on his head and rolling up his white shirt and
:22:53. > :22:58.one in up his trousers and go paddling. What happened was the
:22:58. > :23:04.beach where didn't sell. The terry towelling robes, yes, they were
:23:04. > :23:08.quite good, but the button-down shirt just went down like crazy.
:23:08. > :23:18.The nice piece of cloth that knitted into the fabric of the
:23:18. > :23:20.
:23:20. > :23:24.The more the press and the media are reporting about a young youth's
:23:24. > :23:31.behaving in some way, the more people hear about it. That is how
:23:31. > :23:36.they learn how to do it. Room of invasion by a undesirables was
:23:36. > :23:46.wading out. Young people get recognised as a market, that people
:23:46. > :23:51.could be sold in a different way. If you and people round the 1960s,
:23:51. > :24:01.they had more money in their pocket. -- young people. They have
:24:01. > :24:08.
:24:08. > :24:15.different types of jobs from their He is a respected voice and music
:24:15. > :24:18.and style and he remembers well what it meant to wear the shirt.
:24:18. > :24:23.Buying my first Ben Sherman shirt was a really important moment in my
:24:23. > :24:28.life. It was the first time I had saved up money and gone up West to
:24:28. > :24:33.get a garment of clothing. I was 10 and I collected all the money from
:24:33. > :24:42.the family and went to Selfridges. The first time I had gone up West
:24:42. > :24:46.to buy something. What I was going for was a buttoned down Ben Sherman.
:24:46. > :24:56.The birthplace was Brighton, the setting for another piece of
:24:56. > :25:01.
:25:01. > :25:06.quintessential Mods and rockers Here in Brighton's lanes of met
:25:06. > :25:12.streets where Ben Sherman started out, people still come looking for
:25:12. > :25:22.what he started. The bright colours, but checks, the button-down collars.
:25:22. > :25:34.
:25:34. > :25:44.You don't have to look very far Mods, asking -- skinheads and two-
:25:44. > :25:45.
:25:45. > :25:52.tone has come here for or vintage gear like the shed. -- This shirt.
:25:52. > :25:58.These are the choice of the Mods. Buttons on the back, collars.
:25:58. > :26:03.do you think they were so particular about what they wore?
:26:03. > :26:07.Trying to be better than everyone else. The more detail on their
:26:07. > :26:12.shirts, the buttons on the sleeves, it was a working-class thing. They
:26:12. > :26:16.wanted to spend as much as the people that were more affluent.
:26:16. > :26:20.They're nice little touches, they spent their week's pay on a show it
:26:20. > :26:27.sometimes. The brand known worldwide is starting to celebrate
:26:27. > :26:33.its half-century. But the wheels of fashion turning once again. This is
:26:33. > :26:40.the place to ask how and why? button-down shirts, the box pleat,
:26:40. > :26:46.the slim fit. It is a lot more than that. We can look at any kind of
:26:46. > :26:51.product. Does it feel Ben Sherman? Does it have that magic? When we
:26:51. > :26:55.think about Ben Sherman, we imagine what he would think. Family members
:26:55. > :26:59.rarely buy my clothes any more because they know the collar won't
:26:59. > :27:06.be right. If it hasn't got a pleat at the back, I wouldn't be
:27:06. > :27:10.interested. They give up now. If I want clothes come I buy them myself.
:27:10. > :27:15.Ben Sherman became a legend in his lifetime but he sold his company in
:27:16. > :27:25.the Seventies and died in 1987 in Australia from lifelong heart
:27:25. > :27:31.problems. He is still in business. I think today, he would be thrilled
:27:32. > :27:36.and I think he would love to know what that people still buy the car
:27:36. > :27:42.for short -- shirts. In England, we don't go for these colours. He
:27:42. > :27:52.would have been really happy to be here now and be able to say to
:27:52. > :27:57.
:27:57. > :28:07.For more information on tonight's show, you can visit hour website.
:28:07. > :28:09.
:28:09. > :28:15.You can watch the whole show ago -- Coming up next week: Another time
:28:15. > :28:19.bomb for our trees. This time, the oak and sweet chestnut. The truth
:28:19. > :28:24.is that this would stop if we got Chestnut applied here. My business
:28:24. > :28:28.would collapse and everyone working in industry would lose their jobs.
:28:28. > :28:33.It would be an environmental catastrophe for the south-east of
:28:33. > :28:39.England. If and are the origins of English literature to be found
:28:39. > :28:44.closer than we think? We need a sure swashbuckling hero and a