21/11/2011 Inside Out West

Tonight we are in Wells on the trail of a businessman with unhappy

customers. Nigel Gifford organised a skydiving

trip to Everest, but high adventure it descended into deep

disappointment. I call it a joke of an operation. Not one person is

happy and they are all getting more angry.

Also tonight: Anger in the West Country solar power industry as the

government cuts its subsidiaries. It has basically killed off an

industry in its embryonic stage. was going to be a runaway success

so the government shut it down. And a beach volleyball team in a

city without a beach. Could they go all the way to the Olympic Games?

The Olympic Games in London is the pinnacle of that so it would be

everything to me and a dream come true.

I am Alastair McKee and this is Inside Out.

First tonight, a Himalayan holiday which ended in bitter dispute. Sam

Smith has been tracking down a businessman from Wells with some

This is the story of a skydiving adventure to the Himalayas. Nobody

has ever done this before, you are the makers of adventure history.

is also the story of a warning and an accident. Are you saying you

don't think you need to go over the top on safety? And the fall-out

captured on a holiday video from hell.

Nigel that is all you say, you say sorry but you don't do anything.

I am seeking answers from the trips organiser still claiming it was a

huge success. There were plenty of people that were happy. We have

spoken to plenty of people that 2008 and 36 people from around the

world were getting ready for the adventure of a lifetime. It became

a dream and you are the reality. Leading the expedition, Nigel

Gifford. The boss of a company called High And Wild. You are the

makers of adventure history, you are! His customers had paid up to

�17,000 for the chance to skydive Everest. At the start of the trip,

a two-day trek to get to the drop zone and at least one of his

clients was already disappointed. If you plan around, you may see

Everest approximately 20 miles in that direction, however if you look

at the brochure, we all paid for with a non-refundable deposit, for

all pass the rock faces of Everest. It is now being called a scam.

Gifford said the drop zone was as close as possible while being saved.

The trip has been captured by a young cameraman. I thought we were

going to make an adventure film, lots of people excited and everyone

seemed to be upset. I just realised it was not what I thought it would

be. Nigel Gifford's publicity promised for aircraft but only one

turned up. When I put my money down, there were four jump lanes which is

why there could make a decision. Nobody told me there was not going

to be a a refund. We did tell year that it was not here any more. We

did tell you that. He told me when you had all my money, didn't you?

When they realise there would only be one aircraft, it became more

difficult. Nigel, you had 36 people, not one of them are happy and they

are all getting more angry. We have been trying to get the Parachute

programme up and running. The weather has not helped us, the

aircraft came in here late and I have already explain that. That was

because there were requirements with the new Nepalese government

and we could not bring the aircraft forward.

To make matters worse, the single plane was not able to carry its

promised payload. There's no chance that you are going to take 10

people to 29 or 30,000 ft in any less time than a couple of hours.

So we limited it to four people which was taking 50 minutes. It is

supposed to be a fast turnaround and look, this has been another one

hour turnaround. This is another under resourced. I would call it a

joke of an operation. Eventually the jumping got underway

only for a prediction that there would be an accident to country.

One of the skydivers broke an ankle but her structure would not fit in

the helicopter so the Dunblane had to be used instead. Unbelievable.

Nobody could believe what was going on. All the staff had been told

that their helicopter could take her down the mountain. They tried

everything to squeeze her into the helicopter and it was not going to

happen. So we had to make arrangements to load the porter and

take care in that which nobody had anticipated. Consequently, that

firms were even more on the weed to find that the aircraft was now

going to be a way and not there for them to use. Nigel Gifford

maintains the jump plane was used because it was quicker. Whatever

the truth, he was now falling out with the guy filming him.

I remember going to the drop zone and he said you are no longer

welcome here. I want you to take your camera and you can walk back

to the airport. Stephen refused to leave and

carried on filming what was to be High And Wild's last adventure. Two

months after the trip, Nigel Gifford put the company into

liquidation with sky-high debts of more than half-a-million pounds.

Among the creditors, Dave Wood owed his fee.

Lots of things I would like to have done to the guy and I it was very,

very disappointed. As was a High And Wild investor who

lost �180,000. I trusted this person and I loaned

him a lot of money. To be let down like that, so I am a fall, but yes

I felt very sad and disappointed. Nepalese company that worked with

Nigel Gifford lost �80,000. It took its case to local police he issued

an order for Mr Gifford's arrested he should reappear in the ball.

This year five people made complaints to the police in the UK

about the financial aspect of the trip. After repeated requests for

an interview, we caught up with Nigel Gifford near his base in

Wales. Sam Smith from the BBC, we want as

key questions about your adventure holidays.

Mr Gifford said his company's treatment of creditors followed the

rules. My company was wound up in 2010 in

June and everything was fully investigated and the DTI had a

report on the company. I was not struck off as a director.

Everything I had done was the correct thing to do. My company was

one of many companies and many adventure companies that got into

financial difficulties. He insists that the expedition was a success.

The majority of customers were satisfied. From of the top of my

head, it is backing 2008, there were probably three at the end of

the expedition that were not happy. In addition to unpaid staff and

suppliers, Inside Out has been in touch with 10 paying customers who

were far from happy. Mr Gifford is planning a return to the adventure

travel business but that will come as cold comfort to some of his

former associates left high and dry after them this adventure in the

Himalayas. We would like to point out the High

And Wild company no longer exists and has no connection with any

other firm trading under that name. Later in the programme, the long

road to London 2012. Will it be these two men representing Great

Britain in the beach volleyball? Solar power, clean, green energy

from Pearson converted into electricity for our homes. On paper

it sounds like a no-brainer and some of the leading solar firms are

based here in the West. Now, though, there is a cloud obscuring that

sunshine. A cloud which investors say could kill off an industry just

Britain does not have a great track record when it comes to renewable

energy so when the government decided to give so low power a

helping hand last year, it was met with applause. The elation did not

last long. It was going to be a runaway success, the government in

my kit and shut it down. We have had to cut the size of the staff in

half. They basically killed off and Industry in his embryonic stage.

why did the government pulled the plug on solar power.

This issue to as Bottom Farm in the heart of the Mendips. Behind this a

hedge I am expecting to see out solar park. Let's have a look.

That just looks like a field with sheep in it.

Planning permission was granted for 28,000 Solar panels which would

have kicked out enough juice to light up 1500 homes and crucially

were de Velde prevent carbon dioxide being pumped into the

atmosphere. So what has gone wrong? To find out, I have come to Stroud

in Gloucestershire and the headquarters of Ecotricity. They

claim to be the world's first green electricity company and they were

planning some of that green electricity at shooters bottom.

had big plans for its Sola all over the company as did many other

people. We gained planning permission easily, but the

government had an emergency U-turn on feed-in tariff so and ruled big

projects out of the mix. Now there are no big solar projects going on

this year. Since April last year, Britain has been encouraging solar

producers by paying a subsidiary on the electricity they produce. This

is known as the feed-in tariff. Earlier this year, the subsidy for

larger producers was slashed by 80%. Where does this leave Ecotricity?

It showed us that the government does not want renewables to succeed

because solar was on the verge of being a success story. The tariff

may did economic and it does not have the problem that onshore wind

has. The government saw that it would be a success and shut it down.

You have to ask itself, with a government claiming to be the

greenest ever, why would they do such a thing? Back at shooters

bottom, I am pondering Dale's question. He is not the only solar

energy developer to have his fingers burnt.

Comes -- Inside Out has spoken to a lot of companies that lost money.

One estimate puts the total lost between them into the millions.

basically called lot of people out he had spent a lot of money doing

pre-planning applications, ground investigations, putting in for

applications so it cost a lot of money, getting funding behind them

and unfortunately the Government pulled the plug.

For businesses who were able to get their solo projects built before

1st August this year, a healthy feed-in tariff is promised for the

next 25 years. For those who were not finished in time, solar power

is looking like an expensive mistake. It has killed off and

Industry in its embryonic stage. Had the procedure stayed longer we

would have had a big industry. We have 25,000 people working in this

industry at the point where they are starting to cut. The government,

in our eyes, have made a complete mistake in what they are doing.

what possessed the government to do this? The minister responsible

blamed what he called speculators and hot money. Batty City traders

to you and me. He said they were using solar farms as an opportunity

to make a quick buck. Just before the government cut the

feed-in tariff this year, and number of solar parks managed to

get built like the one here at Westmill farm just outside Swindon.

That is what five megawatts of solar power looks like, enough to

power 1,300 homes. The driving force behind this project is local

farmer Adam Twine. He takes me on a tour. Here we have a little panel

which shows you how much electricity has been produced today.

It started generating about 9 o'clock, peaked around 2pm and it

is coming back now dashed down now. It comes up quite steeply. Yes, as

the sun comes up round over the panels. As a means of producing

clean power it is impressive but it was any of that hot money used to

build it? You don't strike me as a money-grabbing opportunist, yet you

have built this five megawatt solar Park, how has this come apart --

come about? The idea was it to have it as a community end park. We hope

that will happen in time. I have been engaged with the climate

change can pay for many years, the wind farm. When the feed-in tariffs

made this possible we started thinking about it and thinking

about it as a community end resource rather than just a private

enterprise. Ultimately the whole solar park will be owned by a co-

operative? All bar 25%. The developer is keeping a cut of 25%.

We hope this has been built with private money because we couldn't

make it happen in time, but we hope we have another option and we

should be exercising that early next year.

Ins Cirencester is the headquarters of Low Carbon Solar. They built

Adams solar Park. Other projects they were working up to haven't

fared so well -- Adam's solar park. We had to race like fury to

buildings by 1st August. It is a bad way to do business because you

end up spending a lot of money spending -- paying for expensive as

returns because there is a risk of not getting down in time. What has

been the impact and a business? have had to lay off a number of

people, cut the size of the staff in half, take the risk to develop

it, want to make a good return, we are not interested in getting

astronomical returns, we just want good project to build.

Britain is one of the poorest producers of renewable energy in

Europe, the only mortar and Luxembourg are worse. -- mortar. We

need to do more to reach the target of 15% of our energy of renewable

sources by 2020. What is this doing to our targets? The two we have any

hope of making as much clean energy as we have promised? A government

are way behind where they need to be with the renewables targets.

They put a lot of emphasis on wind, then they have problems getting

planning permission on shore so became offshore which was more

expensive. We have said this sort of interest that was created was

enough to help make those it 2020 targets, but unfortunately they

have thrown it away. Time to put all of this to the

government minister responsible for new -- renewable energy. Despite

several requests Greg Parker declined to give us an interview.

In the last few weeks the government has announced new

emergency cuts, this time to the feed-in tariff for small-scale

domestic solar power. They will take effect next month. As things

stand even the bleakest forecasts suggest the UK's solar industry

will eventually recover, but for many of those who have already

taken the plunge, this might not happen soon enough.

If there is something you would like us to investigate why not get

Hear in place they are proud of a local athlete, Mary Rand, who

jumped over 22 feet to claim gold in the Tokyo Olympics. In our final

film tonight the Olympic sprinter Jason Gardener is in Bath to meet

two men hoping to represent Great This is the Weymouth Classic beach

volleyball competition. Tom Lloyd and Robin Miedzybrodzki are

defending a title they won here last year. But they have got their

eye on an even bigger prize. I competed at the Sydney and Athens's

Olympic Games and both will also experiences. Now Tom and Robin are

aiming to follow in my footsteps all the way to London 2012 and

become the first ever men's team to represent Great Britain at the

Olympic beach volleyball competition. It is an absolute

culmination of everything I have been doing since I started the

support, since there was a youngster. I have always dreamed of

playing at a high level and the Olympic Games in London is the

pinnacle of that. It would be everything to me, a dream come true.

There are four British teams chasing the one and only guaranteed

place in the men's event. They have to hold down jobs, unlike women's

beach volleyball, because the men get no public funding. They are

based in Bath, a city with no Bee Gees. Happily team that has a great

track record for providing a Olympic athletes with exactly what

they need. If you are run it is straightforward, all you need is a

track. Amy Williams won gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, she

trade on Backus skeleton bobsleigh track. For beach volleyball players

you need the beach. I have come to the right place for a crash course

in how to play world-class beach volleyball. One palm on the other,.

Your thumbs at the floor. Knees bent, as the ball comes, lift up,

But the dig, brilliant. The play that to your partner then they will

come in and set the ball which is the second can take -- contact we

will show you. Try and spread them as well. Relax them. At the moment

they are coming together a little The third when his they hit. This

is the attacking play, it tried to win the point, put the ball down as

I am five foot nine, are there many players on World Circuit my height?

You would be about the smallest player. When we go to international

tournaments I am one of the Even with my new-found skills it is

obvious there is a lot more to this game than just being fast. Tom and

Robin face far tougher opposition on the road to Olympic

qualification. All the British hopefuls, both men's and women's,

must compete against the game's top players on the world tour. There is

a lot of prize-money at stake but overall results are what counts. In

order to qualify Tom and Robin have to be the best of the four British

teams fighting for that precious Olympic place. But travelling the

world to compete doesn't come cheap. Last year the men's public funding

was cut. Beach volleyball and the chance to play in London as none

too much to let it go. When the announcement was made we decided to

keep going. That was what we needed to do, stars self-funding, finding

financial solutions. It is crucial we find a sponsor,

and a win at Weymouth might help. He might not help towards Olympic

qualification but this is a hugely important event for the UK's top

players. It is a big thing, a lot of kudos around to is the Weymouth

champion. The big thing for our team to win the British Open and to

continue our rain as we must champions. A win here would raise

their profile and they have had some interest from a potential

sponsor. If we are successful in gaining the sponsorship that allows

us to set up a fall, world-class programme as we see it, that allows

us to go away in the off-season, get out of the UK and train summer

where there are other world tour teams at the right level to allow

us to prepare as well as obviously the sun which is not really here in

the Winter Forest to use so if we can get away and train throughout

the winter that set us up well for So far everything is going to plan,

but the semi-final this is no After two sets they win through to

the final where they face the Sheaf There are one of the four teams

also going for the Olympics. Nerves are there, a big final. But you

need to concentrate and focus. winners of the final between these

Olympic rivals will receive more than just the title. I think there

is a massive prize fund of �250 for the team! We are not here for the

money. But it is modest we a Weymouth champions. In the UK

doesn't get bigger than that. the biggest prize of all is the

Olympics. If they qualify it they will be playing in front of a

15,000 strong home crowd he at Horse Guards Parade where this

summer Bath's women's teams and Olympic hopefuls had the chance to

experience it for themselves at the test event. It makes us want to

train hard, get some good results so we guarantee we are here next

year. When they serve we need to start moving. Back at Weymouth Tom

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 55 seconds

and Robin prepare to face their They have done it, and they have

also one that new sponsorship deal, their Olympic dream is another step

closer but they will not know until next June, just three weeks before

the Games, if they have done enough to qualify for London, 2012. What

would it be like competing in front of a home crowd? Fingers crossed if

we can get the weather it will be one of the best events at the Games,

so having that home crowd on our side, it will be amazing, great

things can be achieved, I think. Please put your hands together for

Tom Lloyd and Robin Miedzybrodzki. Good luck to them in the coming

months. No pressure but it would be great to see them on the podium in

London next year. That brings things to a close tonight. Don't

forget, you can keep up-to-date on line.

In next week's programme we will be celebrating 30 years of the Bristol

Communication Aids Centre, helping to give a voice to people with