04/02/2013 Inside Out South West

Hello and welcome to Inside Out South West, stories and

investigations from where you live. Tonight, the South West on the

slide. We head skyward to see why extreme weather is threatening the

nation's most popular trail. It's probably going to get worse. It's

certainly not going to get much better. Also tonight: Six floods in

a year. We could wait till 2014 and then be told we're back to square

one. The Devon villages who see their flood insurance going down

the drain. The village isn't viable if you can't get insurance.

concerns that the region's air ambulances could be under threat

from a new national service. funds for the local air ambulance

are diminished, people could die. I'm Sam Smith and this is Inside

You won't need reminding that last year was the second wettest on

record, and the results have been dramatic for the people and

landscape around us. We've been assessing the impact, starting with

one of the South West's greatest national assets.

At 630 miles, the South West coast path is Britain's longest National

Trail, and its most popular. Wear and tear is a given. Millions tread

this path every year. But now the route is under an unprecedented

From the weather. There have been 21 serious landslips in the last

six weeks, compared with just 11 in the whole of the past five years,

The coastline, like here in Dorset in December, is on the move. And

nowhere more so than in the South. This is where most of the recent

landslips have been. So how bad is it, and is there worse to come? We

sent geographer Dr Matt Telfer from the University of Plymouth to

assess the damage from the air. First stop, Talland Bay, west of

Looe in Cornwall. Dr Telfer's looking for the tell tale scars

where the path lies newly buried under soil and rock. He soon finds

them. There are at least two or three,

maybe four recent scars down along there, so in this case, it's not

just a single failure that we're looking at. There's a scar that's

taken out the path that's relatively high up on the slope.

What's failing and been brought down across the coast path here is

the much more recent, the much younger geological material, which

is referred to as "head". It's got big boulders in it, it's got big,

fine material in it. It's a real jumble of material.

And it's the rain that's to blame, the force of all that water in the

ground pushing the land's surface layers apart.

As the water saturates the sediment and the rock around here, it

increases the pressure in the water in the pores in the rock, and

effectively, the sediment, the rock becomes buoyant and slides off.

We continue east towards Plymouth, and just past Looe discover a

dramatic indication that things We've got a whole series of trees

being tilted in the centre down there, and that's one of the

classic early warning signs that a failure is about to happen or is in

the process of happening. Further on to Seaton, and more

evidence that the coast is crumbling. Properties close to this

failing slope have had a close call. At Portwrinkle, Dr Telfer spots

another sign of trouble in the car park.

We have tension cracks opening up, running right though. The fact that

it's tarmaced or not makes no difference. But we have to

recognize that these are dynamic environments. They always have been,

they always will be, and this Over in south Devon, some parts of

the coastline aren't so much evolving as dissolving, causing a

problem for Robin Toogood. He looks after the coast path for South Hams

District Council. At Lannacombe, part of the route has collapsed.

It's caused a diversion of more than two miles inland.

Sometimes when you get a coast path fall, if it's in a field or

something like that, you just walk around it and it's not a problem.

There's an instant solution. But in a situation like here, where the

cliff falls and you're up against somebody's garden wall or a house

or something like that, it becomes much more complicated. You can't

just end up putting a path through somebody's garden. In legal terms,

it's very straightforward. You've got a public right of way, it falls

into the sea, the public right of way disappears along with it. So to

find a new route for the path further inland, involves legal

diversion orders, creation agreements, all sorts of paperwork,

and I think what we want to do is make sure we move through all that

bureaucratic side of it as quickly as possible.

Today, Robin's meeting the local landowners who hold the key to the

re-routing of this stretch. It's the start of what could be a long

negotiation. It's hoped the new route will cross Anthony Vale's

smallholding. Well, you can't go across the beach

unless the tide's out. It's an important recreational route. So

we're going to do our bit, working with Robin at South Hams and Devon

County Council, write away to people, adjoining landowners, the

National Trust, who are my neighbours, and we will achieve

some continuity of the South West coastal foot path. But it can't be

done in five minutes. We've got to think about it very carefully.

Even with Mr Vale's goodwill, the diversion here could be in place

for months. Regardless of all that land

ownership and the legal side, you've just got the physical

practicalities. You may have to cut a route through a load of scrub and

bushes. OK, you can't do that in the bird nesting season, you can

only do it at particular times of year. The ground might still be

unstable. There's all these other factors and it adds up to a lot of

money and a lot of work. Back in the air and Dr Telfer is at

Whitsand Bay. These slopes were formed by an ancient landslip which

is again on the move. Cracks threaten the chalets below as well

as the coast path above This illustrates beautifully the

dilemma that we have in that we love being able to work and visit

these beautiful locations. But we have to bear in mind that we have

got widespread evidence of a cliff failure Armonk this section here,

and it is going to keep on occurring. -- amongst this section

here. So why has this winter seen the

biggest number of landslips in recent memory? Could it have

something to do with the drought of last winter?

The change from the very dry early part of the year to the very, very

wet part of the year may have opened up cracks which, when we

saturate the landscape again, act as points of weakness.

But it's not just the geology that's under pressure. Cracks have

appeared too in the path's finances. Natural England, the government

agency which looks after natural trails, has cut the path's

maintenance grant by 30%, from more than �600,000 to less than half a

million. Steve Church represents the 6,000

strong membership of the South West We would urge Natural England to

ensure that emergency funding is available for situations like this.

The money involved, from a national point of view, it's less than

peanuts. It's crumbs of peanuts. And yet the response we get from

that, this path brings in �300 million a year to the South West.

That's a fantastic return for Natural England's input of about

�300,000. The return is enormous. Let's put it that way. It's a

health asset, for goodness sake. It's the green gym writ large. It's

something that you couldn't possibly reproduce in any way like

that. For the minute sums that are available in order to ensure that's

always the case, we would urge Natural England, please, come and

join us. We're doing our bit. The natural authorities, the National

Trust are doing their bit, please, can you join us as well?

It could cost as much as �300,000 just to repair this winter's damage,

money that Natural England says is not available this financial year.

But it says it will do all it can to find additional funding in the

future. Until then, significant sections of this unique and

uniquely vulnerable national It's not just the great outdoors

that's felt the force of all that rain. Whole communities have

suffered too. We've been to one near Plymouth, where some people

fear repeated flooding means they'll be abandoned by the

insurance agency. That's the first sign of flooding,

when you see the water bubbling up through the manhole cover.

happened so quickly, within half an hour, it was just coming up through

We weren't allowed to walk down the street because the manholes may be

exposed and we could get sucked down. That's pretty frightening

stuff. The people of Colebrook have had

enough, of rain, of flooding - it's been six times in 12 months - and

of seven years of talk about how to protect them.

They were very non-commital because we asked them that at the meeting,

they said they didn't have any figures. They said they couldn't

possibly say. And now some fear their flood

insurance is a thing of the past, and that the life of this 700-year-

old-village could be drowned out altogether.

When ever they mention there's a weather warning with rain, I still

can't sleep. Jan Luke has lived in Colebrook for

38 years. She's been flooded three times in the last 12 months. Now

her insurance no longer covers flood damage.

In the kitchen, everything is ruined. All the electricals and now

the plaster has to come off the walls because of the damp.

It's not just water that invades her home, but sewage too.

I thought it was the carpets. It's just a woody smell, damp. It's a

disgusting smell and it takes weeks and weeks to get rid of.

The last time it flooded was just three days before Christmas.

I thought, "It's not going. When's it going to go? Where's this going

to end? Where are we going to end up?"

Becky Stucky and her husband Chris were woken in the night by

neighbours. The fire service, stretched by floods across the

region, were in Colebrook for nine hours but could only do so much.

The fire brigade said they were leaving and that was the

devastating point, when they said they were going. I absolutely

begged that fireman not to go. I said, "Please, you're all that's

"If you go, it's just going to crash through our house." He said,

"Sorry, we've got to move on." And I just thought, everything we've

worked for, our home and our So why is flooding such a problem

here? Well, you'd be forgiven for thinking the clue's in the name.

And yes, as you might expect, Colebrook does have a brook running

near it. Local people say that it was full to bursting, the stream

would've been running up to my waist here. But this insn't the

source of the water that's been flooding Colebrook.

Everyone agrees the real issue lies in the village itself, with old

drains that struggle to cope after heavy rain.

The sewage came through the kitchen, down through this corridor. You had

water in here. The water was coming up through the floors all the way

along the back wall. And you had customers while the flood was

happening? The pub was full. The Colebrook Inn has been closed

since November. Landlord Dave Mitchelmore's lost nearly �100,000

in takings and his chances of getting insured are going down the

drain too. We had a full body of people here

as well. And they were helping you try to get the water out. They had

to in the end because down here the water was coming up so fast through

the floorswe had to get out of the chairs and the sofas up to this

higher ground so we could try and save the furniture down there. But

then the water came up so high, it overlapped and came through the

back door as well. Colebrook sits at the bottom of a

hill and is surrounded by development. That also increases

the flooding risk, according to one expert.

It's very narrow and it's a prevailing route from the hills

down into the village. Almost like a mini-canyon, where you've got the

walls either side. It is. Professor Dragan Savic has spent a

whole career studying flooding, but you don't need a PhD to spot this

problem. In these situations with flooding,

it's not just the water that comes in, it's when you get these blocked

drains so the water cannot go into the drainage system, so it flows

the drainage system, so it flows the drainage system, so it flows

onto the road and makes the onto the road and makes the

situation even worse. Plymouth Council says it regularly

clears the gullies, but even unblocked, Colebrook's Victorian

drains have struggled to cope. Now theres a plan, first, put forward

in 2006, to divert more rainwater into the loal brook via a new drain.

But crucially, that needs approval from the Environment Agency, which

isn't guaranteed. Residents are also worried the plan could simply

overload the brook, resulting in flood waters from it flowing back

into the village. Concerns professor Savic shares.

If it happens that there is more water in the brookbeyond the

capacity, I think the flooding, the backing up of water in that

direction could possibly happen, yes. So that direction os the

direction back to Colebrook. afraid so.

It's mid-January. Today, Colebrook's residents have a chance

to air their concerns. The committee that oversees the

region's flood defences has come to the village.

We're a polite village but we've been too polite for too long.

Hopefully they'll know how upset and angry we are and act on it.

I ask, but the man from the council doesn't want to be interviewed. Nor

did South West Water. But they do take questions from local people

worried about the plan that's on the table.

And the Environment Agency told me that there is no guarantee that

Plyouth Council and South West Water will get a permit because the

tory brook is nearly at capacity, so we could wait until 2014 and

then be told that we're back to square one. There's no way that

we're going to lead anybody up the garden path for two years and then

suddenly say "no", but as chairman of the South West Flood Defence

Committee, I can gurantee that our officers wouldn't do that. When

people get very, very angry is when they're not informed, they start to

feel that nothing is happening and that they're being kept in the dark,

so you guys really need to keep the local residents informed.

absolutely with you and that's why we're here today. We thought it was

a good idea to come and listen to people and that will continue.

council's suggested baffle boards and sandbags could offer short term

protection. But it's the long term future of Colebrook itself that

worries those who fear they'll become uninsurable. The village is

not viable if you cannot get insurance. People start moving out

of the village because of the problems and people cannot get

mortgages for these properties even if they wanted to buy them. For now,

others have no chance -- choice but to stay put and face what ever the

weather brings. We are in a tricky situation. We cannot move. How long

will it be before it happens again? The authorities say they will be

working on detailed plans over the next six months. The people here

We are looking into a charity that is promising to save lives. The

children's air ambulance was set up six years ago, but has not been

able to fly a single child anywhere, and as we have been finding out,

the charity has sparked an almighty row amongst existing air and its

services. They are called the angels of its -- ambulance services.

They are called the angels of the sky and it is not hard to see why.

Air ambulances like these are run by charities, and as charities,

they depend entirely on donations to save lives. But now there is a

charity that says it wants to start a new service, a national

helicopter dedicated to transporting Sick children between

hospitals. There are fears this could impact on existing air

ambulance services. If plans for the local indolence services are

diminished, people could die. -- the local air and Dillons services.

So far, not a single child has been transported. There are questions

and how donations are being spent, but the backers believe in it.

people will get behind this and it is worth every penny. But how

realistic is the service, and would cost will it have on other air

It is a Sunday afternoon in January, and the crew of this air and

Dillons in Dorset are on their way to an accident. -- ambulance. It is

a suspected head injury. Are you comfortable? You should be!

ambulance flies 700 missions a year. It would not be possible without

money collected in places like this branch in Somerset. -- like this

garage in Somerset. This is the chief executive. Lately, he says

there has been a new collection box that has been causing confusion.

concern is that the people who see these boxes do not understand the

difference between the two. You do not know where this one operates.

This one is actually based in Coventry. The owner of this box

operates a two emergency helicopter services for people living in the

Midlands, but wants to start a new national service, dedicated to

transferring children between hospitals. Big and too often this

retrieval service by using one helicopter to -- a plan to use this

were true will surface by using one helicopter. This is causing concern

locally. Calling yourself and ambulance service is a misnomer.

There is more than one. It is presenting itself as a nationwide

service, and in fact, it is only part of the Organisation that is

involved nationally. The other two are local, just like us. I would

argue that it is quite impractical to expect one aircraft to do a

children's retrieval service nationwide. He is not the only

person to have concerns. We have spoken to former volunteers and

employees of the charity. This woman is one of them. She used to

work as a fund-raising manager there. Why did you leave? Because I

was very unhappy with the way in which the charity was moving. It

had become a hard-nosed business. Salaries, cars, the recruitment, it

got more and more. When of the senior personnel was the head of

public relations and was paid to a company. Did you know about this

company? Yes. The company organised events that benefited the air

ambulance. Barbara also says that the company helped book celebrities

for charity events, and that they were paid for their appearances.

What is wrong with celebrity endorsements and paying celebrities

if it raises money? It depends on how it is promoted, whether it is

perceived that somebody is appearing free of charge, what

profit is made from the event. charity was not only confined to

fund-raising events. Barbara also told me that she remembers a staff

get together. It was in this village hall in rugby. Two

celebrities from a popular BBC programme were invited to give

dancing lessons to the staff. It was organised by the chief

executive, Andy Williamson. She claims it cost the charity several

thousand pounds. Barbara also says that some staff were paid

performance related bonuses. She received �3,500, something she now

regrets. According to the latest accounts, Andy Williamson is paid

I have come to Coventry airport. It is the home of the air ambulance

service, where Andy Williamson is based. Why did you choose the name

of the air ambulance service? a good reflection of what we are

actually doing. People think that you are a national charity when you

are not. I do not think that they do. I think there is no confusion

between the charities. All charities tell people exactly what

they are doing and donors have to have a look at what the charity is

actually doing. All of the information is freely available.

it appropriate for your charity to have paid a business for services

when the director of that company is your wife? He does not a

conflict, because we are looking at the services that we need to

provide for our staff and our Organisation, because in the end,

we have to deliver this substantial sums to deliver patient care. We

have a board of trustees that ensure all of our processes and all

of our processes are correct. you keep your wife is the best

person for that job? Obviously. you paid celebrities to have an

awayday, morale-boosting afternoon. Is that really appropriate, to have

money spent in that way? Again, it is about what we do for our

patients, because... But that is for the staff. By everything is

about our patient. However many staff we have, we need to keep them

motivated and focused on delivering their particular role that ensures

that we deliver that patient care. This helicopter will cost �2

million a year to operate. And last month, it has transported four

medical teams. -- in the last month. So far it has not transported a

single child, but he believes it Bill by the spring. Mr Williamson's

charity is not the only one that is looking at services for Sick

children. The NHS has just commissioned a report looking at

how it can be achieved and who will provide it. We obtained a leaked

copy. This draft report recommends a network of different providers,

including regional air ambulances. But looking at the report, it is

apparent that a single air ambulance based in Coventry may not

be able to meet the emergency response times for all parts of the

country. Even if it could, less than a quarter of our hospitals

have a helicopter pad for it to land on. In the meantime, the

arguments continue over the way the in ambulance service is using its

children's helicopter to raise money and how it is impacting on

local services. Is this not just that you are feeling threatened by

another charity that can be a competitor? In Dorset and Somerset

there are lots of very good charities and I do not feel

threatened by any of them. They know exactly what they are getting

into. When you get into the air Ambulance Service, you can

understand my fear about the confusion. If the opportunity to

raise funds for the local air ambulance or diminished and there