13/01/2016 Inside Out South West

Hello and welcome back to a new series of Inside Out South West.

Tonight, we go on a short vacation to find out the truth

Why are you 100 times more likely to be fined in Devon

You are letting parents get away with it, really, aren't you?

We are certainly not letting anyone get away with it.

We have the means to encourage parents who are failing

to send their children to school to go to school.

Also tonight, badger cull campaigner Brian May facing the farmer having

This is agony for the farmer and it is agony the whole country.

My overriding feeling is farmers deserve better.

And is Exmoor really just a wet desert?

Environmental activist George Monbiot doesn't hold back.

Sheep-wrecked, that is what has happened to our national parks.

They are being trashed by the white plague.

and welcome to Inside Out South West.

This week, Anna Varle has the story of an extraordinary

encounter in the south-west countryside.

Malcolm Huxtable's family have been dairy farmers

He used to export his Jerseys all over the world, but now

The reason - repeated infection by the disease bovine TB.

For Malcolm, it is hugely distressing.

When you load up your best animal to go to slaughter,

When you load up your best animals to go to slaughter,

Malcolm goes through the stress of these tests every two months.

But today, the tension's ramped up a notch,

because a visitor is heading his way.

one of the most well-known people on the planet.

..and it was that I should meet Brian May.

and a vocal opponent of culling badgers.

I think the cull should definitely be abandoned.

because it's pretty bloody obvious that they're not,

but even if you think they were, the evidence is conclusive,

pretty much, that killing badgers doesn't help.

But many farmers, including Malcolm,

believe culling helps control the spread of the disease.

I think there is no doubt that wildlife

plays quite a major part in the total spread of TB

are meeting Malcolm to see if they can find any common ground.

We did the test on Monday, they had two injections.

Each cow was clipped twice, injected and the vet will read

We've been praying for you, haven't we?

It is just one of these days but it is every 60 days,

But thank you for coming and I hope all goes well.

Well, I hope we can help in some way, but we are

This is the first time Brian has been on a farm during a TB test.

So each one, I am checking and actually feeling for a lump.

The vet is checking to see if any of the animals have reacted

it means the animals will be slaughtered.

If she is inconclusive twice, she will then go.

So unfortunately, the next step to that is we tag, a DNA tag,

then identifies that cow as a reactor.

So tell us what will happen to her now?

It's one of Malcolm's most valuable cows.

She will just jump a little bit when this goes in.

Right, if you can all move back, please.

She is such a wonderful cow that I can lead her anywhere

That is the problem for us, obviously, you feel

like you are the judge, jury and the executioner,

but again, with regards to the disease control in the cattle side,

we have got a role to play, we have got to do what we can.

This is so depressing, this is agony for the farmer

and it is agony for the whole country.

My overriding feeling is farmers deserve better.

The debate over how to control bovine TB

Infected badgers are thought to pass TB to cattle through saliva,

The Government says the evidence shows

badgers infect cattle with the disease.

It is planning to roll out culling to a wider area.

That is controversial, because the jury is out

scientifically on whether it will work.

But for Malcolm, the sight of badger setts on his land is proof

enough that they could be a source of infection.

For Brian, there's a simple answer to all this.

Vaccinating cattle against the disease.

He believes the cull is cruel, expensive and a waste of time.

It's not having the desired effect, so in my view, the cull

is an enormous red herring and taking attention away

from the things that we should be looking at

and, in my opinion, number one is vaccinating cattle.

And I would love to see us go to Brussels, sort it all out,

and I believe the will is there in Brussels,

we went ourselves, and start this ball rolling.

We don't want to kill anything but we are in a situation

which I think you fully appreciate, Brian, today.

You have seen what happens when you lose a good animal.

But wouldn't you like a solution, Malcolm, rather than something

Surely you want a new approach, don't you?

Yes, definitely, I want a new approach.

I don't think that killing badgers is the final answer by any means.

But if they will not give us any other option,

you put yourself in our position.

I am saying they should give you another option,

Well, I am with you. out how to protect

Looks like they are seeing eye to eye at last.

I hope that at the end of this, you don't regard us as the enemy,

I think we were hoping at the end of today,

we could actually be starting to come together

and try and push in one direction, rather than...

Butting heads is doing no good at all.

Work is underway to develop a vaccine,

but the Government says it is still ten years away and

Brian believes the process is stalled because of

So has today brought the two sides closer together?

Some people will probably say we were foolish,

but if we can't meet anybody and talk about our problems,

we are not going to get over our problems.

The press are very good at portraying me

as someone who doesn't care about cows

and only cares about badgers, you know,

I am the hugger of the badger huggers,

In the same way that they will portray farmers to us

When we actually sit down and talk, we realise that basically we do

We want healthy farm animals, we want healthy wildlife.

We have some differences in opinion as to how

that can be achieved but talking is great and I thought today

The two sides might never achieve perfect harmony.

But since the meeting, Brian is pushing for

the issue to be debated in the House of Commons.

The Government's cracking down on parents who take their children

It says the move has been a success,

with improved attendance and raised standards, but we have been hearing

that here in the south-west, the policy is in chaos,

with some parents being allowed to ignore the rules,

So we have decided to go on a mid-term mini break

On the way, we are going to meet parents and businesses who have got

concerns and we will find out why it will affect you differently

As you'd expect, we want to speak to the Schools Minister too.

His name is Nick Gibb and this is what he looks like.

So far, though, we haven't been able to convince him to take part,

First, let's head to Plymouth and meet someone who defied

Mr Gibb's government and paid the price.

his seven-year-old daughter on holiday during the school term.

I don't recognise the legs, but I think it is Nick Gibb.

Hi, Jason, sorry, I will put the kettle on in a moment,

but first of all, tell me why did you feel it was necessary

Unfortunately, I was in an industry where we were only allowed holiday

So six months of the year, we weren't allowed to take holiday,

it was a blanket ban, you could only book your

And will you take your daughter out of school again without permission?

The time we have together is precious, so as a seven-year-old,

I want her to go and experience things as a family which we can't

But the Schools Minister would say, well, education comes first,

before your holiday, before your job.

And I agree with him, education does come first.

But we are talking about a seven-year-old,

is two weeks going to affect her when she's spending time

Before the policy was changed, Jason's holiday wouldn't

have caused much fuss, but now headteachers can only agree

and that is not normally for a holiday.

If you take your child out of school without permission,

More than 80,000 of those fines have already been handed out,

But cross over into Cornwall and it's a different story.

Only 16 fines have been issued and we've discovered that

Hardly what Mr Gibb's government had in mind.

Time to ask the politician in charge of Cornish schools what is going on.

I think that there are better ways of making children go to school.

It is talking to the parents via either the schools,

the headteacher, the teachers or the the education welfare,

the headteacher, the teachers or the education welfare,

to say to the parents that it is really important

that your child attend school, rather than sort of using

the sledgehammer approach and saying if you don't send them,

But you have handed out hardly any fines.

You're letting parents get away with it, really, aren't you?

If there is long-term truancy or nonattendance, we will seek that

through the magistrate courts, so we are certainly not letting

We want children to go to school and we have the means of encouraging

parents who are failing to send their children to school

So in Cornwall, parents are getting a more sympathetic hearing,

but the policy is biting in another way.

In a Plymouth University survey, most holiday businesses

in the south-west reported lower turnover since

One in five firms said turnover was down by as much as 30%.

Julian Rand is a school governor near Helston.

Julian also runs a holiday cottage business but a drop in bookings

during term time has put that on the line.

Without those bookings, there is an impact on our cash flow,

because you are not receiving deposits, etc.

Nevertheless, your business is set up to receive those people,

you have to be ready for them, so if you don't get the bookings,

you have the cost, you don't have the income and that,

you can't sustain in the long run, I'm afraid, and that has forced us

to put our business up for sale and we may have to move away

from the village we love and that is very sad.

We asked Nick Gibb for an interview, so far we have been unsuccessful.

However, this is what he said about the schools policy

two-week holiday during term time every year and have an average

and appointments, then by the time they leave school at 16,

they will have missed a year of school.

Well, Jemma, I don't like to look at it in terms of that.

I think over the years, we have all had holidays or breaks

It was the norm, it wasn't something that was frowned upon and certainly

people weren't being fined to do it and I am sure Nick

and many of the other ministers in the Government

did have their holidays when their family could afford them

and when it was convenient for the families.

One thing the Government has done is given schools more freedom

I'm off to visit a school in Cornwall where

HIGH-PITCHED, FAST, GARBLED SPEECH ON LINE

Well, we have got transport, we could come to him.

Yes, it is a camper van, it is very nice.

Bishop Bronescombe Primary is one of five schools run by Mark Lees.

Last year, they spread the holidays and teacher training days

differently throughout the year to create a two-week break,

instead of one for the June half term.

We know that parents who work in the holiday trade in Cornwall do

find it challenging to get time off in the school holidays,

so again, we are trying to, you know, respect their difficulties

and give them another alternative, without breaking the law

How difficult is it for heads to be consistent?

For interschool consistency, I think there are issues.

For example, there are times when this school here have refused

a leave of absence because they did not deem it to be exceptional,

but another school, with siblings in that school,

At least Bishop Bronescombe appears to have found part of the answer.

I want to hear what our dad Jason Short thinks about

the different ways this policy is being enforced, but first of all,

I'm stopping off at St James's school in Exeter.

A lot of interest here in our vintage mode of transport,

but I am talking to Debra Myhill, who is an expert on education.

Does she know if there is any evidence that term time holidays

That general thing of improving attendance in order to improve

I think where it goes a bit astray is that it is not simply

about physically being there, so if you take the holidays,

for example, it depends on the kind of background you come from,

whether a holiday is likely to have a major effect

If it is just a one-week holiday, there is no evidence at to show that

that makes any difference to your attainment,

but if you are having one week's holiday and you are repeatedly

absent then, actually, it is a big difference.

All of which means the Government gets an E minus from Jason Short,

who was a lot less likely to be fined if he lived in Cornwall.

I think this Draconian law, they should be going back

to common-sense, which is putting the power back

They know what is going on in their school, they know

the attainment levels and also the attendance records

They should be able to make a decision if that person

Well, we tried, but Mr Gibb didn't want to join us for a chat

in our van or anywhere else for that matter.

We did, however, get a statement through saying that attendance

It seems whatever the impact on pupils, the holiday crackdown

Environmental campaigner George Monbiot says our wild places

You can chat live to George in a moment via Facebook,

but first, we sent him to Exmoor to see what they think

A vast expanse of open heathered moorland.

This is what you find at the top of Exmoor and it is pretty much

Now, to some people, including those who run

the National Park, this is paradise, but to me, it's a wet desert,

Shorn of most of the things that make an ecosystem work,

Well, of course, there are some large mammals.

And it is not just the animals which have degraded our uplands.

Regular burning of heather means it provides better grazing

Just imagine how we would respond if we saw this happening

We spend our lives telling people in other parts of the world to stop

cutting and burning and grazing, and yet here, we see them

The National Parks Authority carries out much of the burning here.

So how long ago did you burn this, then?

This was burned about a year ago, I would say.

Moorland is so important to Exmoor National Park

because it is one of the defining characteristics, OK?

Moorland, which is a farmed thing, is disappearing and a huge quantity

of what we call coastal moorland, so an even rarer habitat,

If you want a heathered moorland, two things have to happen.

The first is you have to burn it and you have to graze it.

But why should a conservationist want it?

I mean, from my point of view, what I see here is a place

which could be far richer in life, if the trees were allowed to come

back, all sorts of other wildlife could be here.

Recent evidence shows that there is at least 500 years

or so of control burning or grazing on Exmoor and large areas were made

or so of controlled burning and grazing on Exmoor and large

areas were made protected habitat in the 1990s,

so somebody believes it adds a good ecological value to it.

But nearby, there are fragments of what Exmoor once

Just walking through this wood, you can see it's got a fantastic

It's got the big old trees which are essential

for a whole range of birds and lichens and mosses.

Lots of little hollows, which are really great for wildlife.

And it's got the deep leaf litter, lots of dead wood, which loads

And as you look up into the branches, you can

One definition of rainforest is forest wet enough for plans

One definition of rainforest is forest wet enough for plants

And to me, it feels a heck of a lot wilder than the moors

But I want to go further than bringing back trees.

I would love to see a return to our national parks of some

of the magnificent creatures that used to live here.

I know, wolves and sheep have a few compatibility issues.

But while wolves enchance the ecosystem, sheep...

Sheep-wrecked, that is what has happened to our national parks.

They are being trashed by the white plague.

Of course, that is not a very popular message to take

Normally, I steer clear of the munching menace,

but today, I am stepping into the breach.

I have nightmares about scenes like this.

Some people count sheep to get to sleep, I wake up in a cold sweat

after imagining finding myself in just this situation.

And as if meeting the enemy face-to-face wasn't enough,

May's rams have done their work. wants me to lock horns with them.

My job is to separate them from the ewes.

May's family have been farming sheep for four generations,

so discussing my controversial ideas may be tougher.

I was one of four girls, so no boys, so we had to be tomboys

and we grew up with the sheep from that high.

And how would you respond to the idea of more trees

Exmoor has always been open moor and I don't know what people

would do in the villages if you went all trees,

because they wouldn't have any work, would they?

Maybe you could do the ecological restoration.

So, May, what would you do if sheep farming stopped?

Probably end up having a nervous breakdown.

I really don't know what would happen.

It's my view that by preventing trees from growing, sheep

grazing helps to cause devastation like this.

Of course, floods happened because loads of rain falls,

Another crucial determinant is the state of the land that it

falls on, and what happens up above can have a big influence

Exmoor gets plenty of rain, and towns like Dulverton

on its southern edge bear the brunt, as they know only too well

Oh, my gosh, so it would have been about up to here.

In December 2012, after days of heavy rain, the river Barle

had risen to the point where disaster was inevitable.

We try to barricade ourselves, barricade the pub in,

and then we literally went upstairs and we sat and watched it all unfold

and listened to it all unfold down here.

Chairs and fridges all crashing around and obviously

As Kenny pointed out, the debris brought down

by the rushing waters could have contributed to the flooding,

but another factor is the bareness of the hills.

Trees help to hold water back and release it slowly.

In some cases, preventing floods downstream.

Of course, more trees in the uplands probably means less sheep,

because sheep eat baby trees and so it prevents them

from growing, so what do you think the view of local people might

Yes, I am not sure, that may be quite a hard sell, really,

because they do things obviously in a very traditional way

round here and it might be difficult to get them to change

I understand why people love sheep farming, but I think

to consider a new, while the vision for our national parks.

I understand why people love sheep farming, but I think it is time

to consider a new, while the vision for our national parks.

Before that can happen, their leaders need to get

There is always this effort to try to say, well,

sheep farming is really good for the natural world,

it is an essential part of our ecosystem, whereas I see

sheep farming as being one of the greatest forms

I think you are really missing the point about what national parks

I mean, national parks were places which were identified as some

of the most precious landscapes, with the cultural heritage as a real

part of that as well and there are grazed habitats

which are important habitats for certain species of wildlife,

as well as other habitats, like woodland habitats,

which are important for different species of wildlife and it is that

mix which I think adds to the attractiveness

It is an important part of the economy, the National Park,

and a lot of what people come to see as well.

Unless we have a system that's going to work with people

as well as for wildlife, then that is not going to be

a sustainable system or indeed, one that people would welcome.

Of course, I accept the need for compromise and I understand that

you have to work with people and not against them.

But it seems to me that we could be more imaginative in the way

We could make them much richer and more wonderful and engaging

places which are great for wildlife as well as human beings.

So, do you agree with George's views or do you think places like Exmoor

should be preserved and left as they are?

Well, you can chat to him live now on our Facebook page

And that is it from us this week, but we will be back next Monday

with more stories from the south-west.

Hello, I'm Sophie Long with your 90 second update.

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