05/12/2011 Inside Out South West

Hello and welcome to Inside Out South West, stories from close to

home. Tonight:

I wonder if I might ask you if you are going to resign today?

The power struggle threatening the future of an iconic South West

fishing port. No fish market, rundown harbour, rundown port, less

fishermen, disaster. What I'd like you to do is taste

from each glass. Also tonight, head to head. David

Stafford investigates which Dartmoor beer really is the best.

Let the tasting begin! And David Braine on the tsunami

disaster that the nuclear industry says couldn't happen here.

Because we don't get tsunamis in Britain, do we? Well, actually, we

I'm Sam Smith and this is Inside First tonight, a bitter split in

one of the South West's most historic fishing communities. As we

found out, it's down to a row that's gone all the way from West

Cornwall to Whitehall. At one time, Newlyn was England's

premier fishing port. But not any more. What is beautiful,

potentially with the sea and everything it can offer to tourists

and local people alike has just taken a dip. The organisation that

runs the harbour has been accused of acting unlawfully and favouring

the interests of on powerful fishing family at the cost of

progress. I was hoping this was an opportunity to take Newlyn forward,

but what I've seen of it so far, it's not just stagnating, it's

starting to go backwards. Newlyn Harbour is in crisis, its

development hampered by a dispute that affects all those who depend

upon the port for their future prosperity. Local councillor Fiona

Thomas-Lambourn is frustrated by the lack of progress in attempts to

revitalise her home town. This time last year, we were hoping for great

things, with a new fish market and everything going well. And then

suddenly, with this last blundering nonsense, it's just wrecked

everything, to be honest with you. And it is through, actually, a few

people wanting too much power and things to themselves that this has

happened. Two years ago, Newlyn Harbour looked set for a radical

transformation. A seven-year consultation, costing the taxpayer

around �500,000, recommended a new state of the art fish market to

replace the old one. It's tatty, old, looks horrible. It's very

expensive to run. Costs 180,000 a year to run this fish market.

idea was to breathe new life into the whole harbour area. If we had

vast improvements to the harbour and a new fish market, I think we'd

regenerate Newlyn. But there was one big stumbling block.The new

market was to be run by a community interest company and back in 2009

Stevenson & Sons were having none of it. Why should I pay someone

else to do something I've been doing for 106 years? Why shouldn't

I do what I want with my fish? Might it not be in the best long-

term interests of this community to have an independent market that can

raise finance, that can charge the Stevensons a commission for putting

their fish through this market and put some of that money back into

the community? I need a rest. harbour is run by a self-selecting

board of commissioners. Last August, they decided against going ahead

with the new �5m market. The commissioners stood accused of

being unduly influenced by the port's biggest boat owner. They

only go along with whoever the biggest and the strongest is, cos

actually, this is talking about a fishing community. A lot of the

smaller guys who would have had the most benefit out of this didn't get

a chance to voice their opinions. Months of in-fighting among the

commissioners followed, culminating in a bizarre series of events that

have plunged the harbour into crisis. In a shock move, the

chairman proposed that three commissioners that had supported

the fish market proposals be thrown out. He said they were preventing

the commissioners from moving forward. A secret ballot sealed

their fate. The decision went the way of the chairman's

recommendation only because it included votes from members who

weren't even there. The ousted commissioners said the decision to

remove them was unjust and unlawful. I spent weeks of my time working

positively to help the commission and Newlyn. Actually, the three of

us have submitted more papers and more suggestions for discussion

than any of the other board members put together. There was no reason

to do it, the chairman was not giving any reason. There are so

many things wrong with it. Votes counted for people who weren't

there, secret ballots. It was a complete mess. The commissioner's

rules, laid down by Parliament, do not allow votes from absent members,

something the chairman seemed to have realised later, because he

sends an email inviting Nick Howell to the next meeting. I laughed when

it came in, cos I thought, "Ah, they've taken some advice, realised

they were acting unlawfully." And when I saw the agenda, I realised,

"No, no-one's given them any advice." Quite interesting to

invite the two of us to a meeting to make up the numbers and the

second part of that meeting is a motion to get John and I thrown out,

again. Why don't they just admit they are under pressure and get on

with the job, or get out? Others in Newlyn share Nick's frustration.

They include a fisherman, a former councillor and a fellow

commissioner who has resigned in protest I was on the commission,

hoping to make Newlyn a better place, but when they were being

unfair to hard-working commissioners, I felt I had to

resign. I've been a fisherman all my life, born and bred in Newlyn

and I was hoping that this was an opportunity to take Newlyn forward

and what I've seen of it so far is that Newlyn is not just stagnating,

it's starting to go backwards. And the people they've driven off seem

to be the people that were doing the most to benefit Newlyn.

actual commissioners are the ones that's brought, including the

chairman, the harbour commission into disrepute. The harbour

commissioners are meeting here today at Trinity Methodist Church,

which is also a community centre. The press and public are allowed

into the meeting so I've come along to try and find out exactly what's

going on. Well, this is very strange. It's 8:30pm and this is

where the meeting of the harbour commissioners is supposed to take

place. It's supposed to be happening right now, but there's

nobody here. The plot thickens. People do eventually start to turn

up but the only commissioners in evidence are the ones Mr McCabe

wants out. The meeting was rather abruptly cancelled yesterday.

you're here. I'm here because the residents of Newlyn who are

interested in this are having a meeting anyway to discuss the

situation and to learn a bit more about it. We wanted to film the

meeting but Fiona has bad news. Our camera is not allowed in. I think

the best thing is that we go down to the mission and we hold it in

the dining room. Because it's public. Public. I'm not having you

not in when that's the whole point. But there's a problem here too.

Unfortunately, the superintendent says we cannot film in the mission.

Why not? He just will not allow it. We end up on Newlyn's Old Quay,

where John explains their next step. We have asked the Department of

Transport to have a look at this, to investigate it, to take over the

management in an interim and to go right through to the end and

appoint a new commission because we think the situation is in such a

shambolic muddle at the moment that that is the only way it will go

forward. But later, in a statement, the Department for Transport said

they are unwilling to intervene and that it is up to the commissioners

to put their own house in order. Several weeks later, commissioners

and members of the public turn up for the next board meeting. And

Nick Howell and John Lambourn face a third attempt to sack them. The

chairman has so far ignored our requests for an interview. Mr

McCabe, hello. Sam Smith from the BBC, I wonder if I might ask you if

you are going to resign today, because a number of people here

seem to think you should. I am going to a meeting, thank you very

much. They say you've presided over a shambles. Mr McCabe still refuses

to answer our questions. And although the press and public are

allowed in for part of the meeting, again we are not allowed to film it.

With the public later excluded, the commissioners elect Elizabeth

Stevenson onto their board for three years. And once again, they

sack Nick Howell and John Lambourn. The fact that we have, once again,

been thrown out now raises the question of how are they going to

go forward? Because there will a section that feels they are not

doing the best for Newlyn. Fiona now fears the worst for Newlyn.

fish market, rundown harbour, rundown port, less fishermen,

disaster. Disaster for the community, disaster for everyone.

The sacked commissioners are now seeking legal advice. The board of

commissioners is looking for new members to replace them. While this

dispute rumbles on, the One of the great pleasures of

living in and visiting the South West is being able to sample local

produce, local food and drink. But as David Stafford has been finding

out, there's local and there's local.

One of the region's smallest companies is mixing it with one of

the biggest, over the name of a beer. Dartmoor represents us, we're

Dartmoor Brewery. This frothy version of David and Goliath has

led to some confusion. Dartmoor. Dartmoor. And divided

loyalties among the local publicans. We are able to put it at �2.60,

which in this economy is good. made a conscious decision that we

was going to go as local as possible, even though it cost a bit

more. Two local beers go head to head in our very own battle of the

beers. Dartmoor, Southern England's highest wilderness. There's nowhere

quite like it, is there? Now, I've had a lovely walk but the only

thing on my mind right now is, "Where can I find a pub that will

do a decent pint of local ale?" Should have brought a map. Hang on

a minute. Dartmoor. Dartmoor. Is there

actually any difference between these two? Yes, Dartmoor IPA is

brewed in the local village and Dartmoor Best is brewed by St

Austell's Brewery in St Austell. The brewers of these two beers have

been locked in a bitter struggle over which one of them is entitled

to the name Dartmoor. Dartmoor Best was originally brewed in Devon, at

Ferguson's Brewery in Plympton. But that shut down nearly 20 years ago,

and since then it has been produced by St Austell Brewery in Cornwall.

The brewers of Dartmoor IPA, located in Princetown at the heart

of the National Park, are hopping mad. When people buy a product,

whether it's our beer, or a cheese, or a biscuit, or honey, if they see

the word Dartmoor written across that product, they feel that

product is made on the moor, that is what they are looking for. But

anyone can use the word Dartmoor, as long as they put in little

writing underneath, "Made in Argentina," "Made in Cornwall,"

"Made in Dorset," what have you. That is wrong. Even though their

Dartmoor Ale entered the market later than its rival, Mark

Shackleton claims his brewery is more entitled to the name because

its product is made on Dartmoor. 90% of what you have in our beer is

local Dartmoor water, from the Moors around you. We try to keep

our ingredients as close as we can, so basically from Devon. Dartmoor

Brewery faces stiff competition from its Cornwall neighbour. Partly

because it has a lower alcohol content, St Austell is able to

undercut its competitor by around �10 a barrel, which counts for a

lot in these straitened times. Almost 7,500 pubs have shut in the

last five years and they are still closing at the rate of two a day.

They want to turn it into flats! The landlady at the Bishop Lacy on

the edge of Dartmoor knows just how tough it can be. I was a nurse for

20 years and all I can say is if people think nursing work is hard

work, they ought to try being a publican. For publicans like Wendy,

St Austell's Dartmoor Best is an attractive proposition. It's a lot

cheaper. We're able to put it out at �2.60 per pint for our customers,

which in this climate's good. Can't do that with any other beers,

really. You might think that other local pubs, like Wendy's, are

passing on this saving to their customers. But Inside Out contacted

a dozen or so pubs in the Dartmoor area and discovered that this just

isn't the case. The average price of a Cornish pint is �2.94, that's

compared to �2.90 for the Devon brewery. So it must be tempting for

landlords to stock the Cornish beer and make a tidy profit, but not all

of them are so inclined. At the pub that sits on the bank of the River

Dart, the beer that flows is the local beer, Dartmoor Brewery's IPA.

When we first came to Dartmoor, about 15 months ago, they were

serving Dartmoor Best Bitter, from St Austell's here. We decided we

wanted to go as local as possible with all our products. We've got

our steaks, our burgers local so it was only naturally that we have to

go with our beer as local as possible. It's worth it. Paul is

one of several landlords keeping it local, despite the smaller profit

margin. St Austell Brewery did not want to take part in this film. In

a statement, they told us that Dartmoor Best is a key brand in

their range. But who stands to lose most if they lost the brand name?

St Austell says it sells more than a million pints a year. This

represents around 7% of their total sales. Back on Dartmoor, Mark

Shackleton says the brand means more to his brewery. It's literally

25%, if not more, of the beer we produce. Plus, because of the name,

it is a very, very important brand to us because it's named after

Dartmoor. You're not going to let this lie, are you? We aren't,

because we're passionate about it. In 2009, the two rival breweries

signed a truce, saying they would not challenge each other's use of

the word Dartmoor. But hostilities have broken out again and Dartmoor

Brewery are hoping for reinforcements from the EU, in the

shape of protection for the Dartmoor brand, much as Cornwall

achieved for its Cornish pasty. if it has Dartmoor on the label,

whether it's our beer, whether it's bread, whether it's eggs, it comes

from Dartmoor. Number one, that prospects the consumer, because if

the consumer buys something with Dartmoor on the label, they want

that to come from Dartmoor. Austell Brewery says it does not

want to be drawn into a Devon versus Cornwall debate. It also

says it is proud to serve the whole South West and provides employment

in Devon as well as Cornwall. But never mind the debate, what about

the taste? Which beer do punters prefer? We arranged for a barrel of

St Austell's Dartmoor Best to go on tap alongside a barrel of

Dartmoor's IPA at Princetown's Plume of Feathers, for the same

price. Which one will sell the Halfway through a busy Saturday

evening, I ask Steve for the verdict from the till. The Dartmoor

IPA has outsold the Dartmoor Best by about three to one. Three to

one? That's a triumph for the local boy, then. It is this time, yeah.

But with Dartmoor Brewery just down the road, could that result be down

to customers favouring the local tipple? We decided to conduct a

more genuine examination of each beer's credentials, with the help

of half a dozen all too willing volunteers.

What I'd like you to do is taste from each glass.

You may repeat the process as necessary, until you've come to a

decision as to which beer you prefer. Is that understood? Let the

tasting begin! Each contestant raises the hand that held the beer

they prefer. So we have one, two, three, four,

five right hands and just one left hand. Can you please remove your

blindfolds? And I will tell you the results. The winner, by a margin of

five votes to one, is Dartmoor IPA by Dartmoor Brewery! Give yourself

a round of applause. The local ale might have triumphed in its own

backyard, but the real battle of the beers is far from over. The

bureaucrats of Brussels may eventually call time on this local

dispute but until then, whose round The tsunami that hit Japan earlier

this year has highlighted the risk of building nuclear power plants by

the sea. Spotlight weatherman David Braine has been examining fears

that a similar catastrophe could Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station

sits on the edge of the Somerset levels, an area that's seen

flooding, storm surges and even, it is thought, a tsunami. A great wall

of water came up the estuary and the houses that were there then

owners of Hinkley Point dismiss tsunami fears. All our analysis

suggests it's an ideal spot to build a power station.

campaigners say it is too big a risk. Our concern would be that a

massive wall of water coming in from the sea would knock out the

power supply and that could build up into a meltdown of the fuel, the

sort of thing that happened at Fukushima in Japan. It was a

massive offshore earthquake that triggered the tsunami in Japan

earlier this year. 16,000 people are known to have died. The

Fukushima nuclear plant was engulfed by a 15-metre wall of

water. Flooding knocked out power supplies, which eventually caused a

meltdown. The area around the plant remains uninhabited. In the South

West, there is only one nuclear power station. This one at Hinkley

Point near Bridgewater. And if energy supplier EDF are successful

with their current planning application for Hinkley C, this

will become Britain's biggest nuclear power station to date. If a

Fukushima-type disaster happened here, the exclusion zone would

reach Taunton. But we have no worries on that score because we

don't get tsunamis in Britain, do we? Well, actually we do. A three-

metre tsunami hit the South West tip of Cornwall in 1755, after an

earthquake that destroyed the city of Lisbon. But far more devastating

was a cataclysmic event that battered our coastline a century

and a half earlier, causing death and devastation on a vast scale.

Cardiff academic Simon Haslett believes it was another tsunami. I

met him in Appledore. In the area where the houses are built behind

us, houses that were there then were completely demolished, so

we're looking at a significant wave height, about seven or eight metres

or so. We've also got records that there was a ship, a 60-tonne ship,

fully laden with goods and ready to set sail, that was simply hoisted

out of the water and transported onto land. Simon's tsunami theory

has been challenged by the meteorological establishment, which

thinks there may be a more straightforward explanation for the

flooding that happened four centuries ago. On the day the great

wave crashed ashore here, in 1607, there were spring tides and it hit

around about the time of high water. We know from bitter experience that

that, combined with low pressure, strong to gale force onshore winds,

a lot of run off due to recent rain, is the classic set up for a severe

storm surge, something we see quite As recently as 1981, a storm surge

caused serious flooding when it overtopped sea defences at Burnham

in Somerset. But Simon insists the storm surge explanation doesn't

account for the ferocity of the 1607 event. Flooding that's created

by storms is quite different to that created by a tsunami and I

always tell my students that a storm surge is very much like a

bath to overflowing. -- bath tub. The tide gets to the top of the

bath, if you like, then flows over the sea defences and the first

thing you know about being flooded is that your feet are getting wet.

Whereas, one account from the time described a mighty wave advancing

at a speed "faster than a greyhound can run." In support of Simon's

theory, there are accounts of seismic activity in this area in

the months following the 1607 flood. But neither appears in official

Simon and I are travelling more than 50 miles up the coast to

Hinkley Point, close to the scene of the 1981 flood at Burnham. This

is the site of two nuclear power plants. Hinkley A, now

decommissioned, and Hinkley B, nearing the end of its useful life.

Could the 1607 event have travelled this far? Simon says the narrowing

of the Bristol Channel would have made it even worse. By the time it

gets here, it's actually what we call a higher amplitude, it's a

bigger flow. In fact, probably two or three metres higher. Once the

flood water reached the Somerset levels, there was no stopping it.

Both sides of the Bristol Channel were devastated, all the way up to

Bristol and beyond. About 2,000 people altogether died. This is a

colossal amount. And if that's true, it makes the 1607 flood the worst

natural disaster to hit British soil. And one of the worst affected

areas were the parishes around Bridgewater. And we think in that

area alone, around 500 people drowned, or perhaps, because it was

January, died of hypothermia in the flood waters. So much so that

apparently mass graves had to be Storm surge or tsunami, there's no

doubt something terrible happened As part of its plan to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions, the Government wants to see an

expansion of nuclear power. The ground is now being prepared for

Hinkley C. If its operator, EDF, is granted full planning permission,

the new plant will be five times more powerful than Hinkley B.

Protestors hope that day will never come. Their opposition is based

partly on the fear of a repeat of the 1607 event. Our concern would

be that a massive wall of water coming in from the sea would knock

out the power supply. It would also knock out the back-up electricity,

so the plant would have no electricity. And although it would

automatically shut down and the control rods would fall into the

reactor, there would still be a lot of residual heat. That could build

up into a meltdown of the fuel, the sort of thing that happened at

Fukushima in Japan. EDF is confident such an event could never

happen here, not least because Hinkley C will house a different

type of reactor from those employed at Fukushima. There's a very

comprehensive back-up supply arrangement on the existing

stations and the new station's got an even more comprehensive array of

back-up supply. The reactors at Fukushima are not licensed in the

UK, they've never been licensed and we're not looking to license that

type of reactor. The pressurised water reactor we're proposing to

build here has got a huge legacy throughout the world, where it's

been proven to be a very safe design. EDF says its power station

is elevated above the surrounding flood plain and its plans take full

account of the 1607 event. current stations have operated

successfully for over 60 years and there have been four nuclear power

stations along the Severn Estuary over that period of time, all have

operated safely. We intend to do the same and all our analysis

suggests this is an ideal spot to build a nuclear power station.

Stop Hinkley campaign will probably never be convinced by such

reassurances. But if the planning authorities allow it, work on the