:00:09. > :00:13.Tonight we are in Ashton Vale on the edge of Bristol. This is where
:00:13. > :00:18.Bristol City football club wants to build its new stadium and it is
:00:18. > :00:22.land which some locals think should be protected as it Heald Green.
:00:22. > :00:28.Tonight we are looking at how planning applications for town and
:00:28. > :00:33.village greens are costing hour local council's a small fortune.
:00:34. > :00:40.The average council tax payer, unless he lives overlooking the
:00:40. > :00:44.land, would be horrified at the cost. Also, cuts to housing benefit
:00:44. > :00:52.and the people who could be forced to move home because of them.
:00:52. > :00:54.of people find themselves homeless. Could be Hinkley nuclear power
:00:54. > :00:59.station and withstand a tsunami? Campaigners argue we should learn
:00:59. > :01:03.some lessons from Japan. concern would be that a massive
:01:03. > :01:08.wall of water coming in from the sea would not about the power were
:01:08. > :01:14.supplied and that could build up into a meltdown of the few will.
:01:14. > :01:24.All our analysis suggest this is an ideal spot for nuclear power
:01:24. > :01:26.
:01:26. > :01:29.station. This is Inside Out West. The traditional English village
:01:29. > :01:39.green. It is supposed to be the picture perfect image of a quiet
:01:39. > :01:44.country living. Things are changing. A new generation of village greens
:01:44. > :01:47.are popping up in the most unlikely places. They have become a
:01:47. > :01:53.battlefield in a multi-million- pound war between developers,
:01:53. > :01:57.residents and their local councils. There is no chance of a negotiation.
:01:57. > :02:01.It is a blunt tool for stopping development. The fact is they are
:02:01. > :02:05.local areas that local people have enjoyed and developer should keep
:02:05. > :02:10.off their patch. We have discovered a war over the humble village green
:02:10. > :02:15.which is tucked -- costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of
:02:15. > :02:23.pounds. That money is being spent on everything from a seafront to an
:02:23. > :02:26.abandoned airfield, to a lake and the middle of the city.
:02:26. > :02:30.This part of Bristol is not the sort of area that comes to mind
:02:30. > :02:33.when you think of traditional village greens. There are no duck
:02:33. > :02:41.pond or quaint village ponds around here but there is a piece of land
:02:41. > :02:45.which some locals think should be made an official Talbot Green. This
:02:45. > :02:53.is it. At patch of council owned land, once covered in houses but
:02:53. > :03:00.now used as an outside space by residents. Residents like Suzanne
:03:00. > :03:04.who think this sub -- scrubland is what village greens are all about.
:03:05. > :03:08.It is just as precious as a typical town green. It is so well used in
:03:08. > :03:14.the summer. All of the community come around the corner and they
:03:14. > :03:20.walked dogs and children play here. A lot of residents call it a green
:03:20. > :03:23.lung. It would be a tragedy and a travesty to lose the spaces.
:03:23. > :03:27.Residents here are are fighting to keep this three from development
:03:27. > :03:32.and they are using every legal tall they can. In preserving these
:03:32. > :03:38.patches of land we have to be aware of current legislation. We have to
:03:38. > :03:43.use every angle possible to say these patches of land. That
:03:43. > :03:49.includes the law that protects village and town greens. The
:03:49. > :03:53.Commons Act 2006 gives anyone the right to apply for land to be
:03:53. > :03:58.registered. Charles is a barrister who specialises in interpreting a
:03:58. > :04:02.complex law. The law as it currently stands is that any land
:04:02. > :04:07.is a village green are provided that you can show that it has been
:04:07. > :04:13.used for 20 years by local people for sports and pastimes. It must be
:04:13. > :04:16.used, as of right, which means not by permission. It is also a law
:04:16. > :04:21.which trumps any planning permission which has already been
:04:21. > :04:24.granted a so campaigners can use it to fight of development regardless
:04:24. > :04:29.of where the land is or what it looks like. Village greens can be
:04:29. > :04:36.used as a weapon against developers and very effectively. If you can
:04:36. > :04:41.get land registered as a village green it is her criminal offence
:04:41. > :04:45.and it is the highest protection of any land in English and Wales.
:04:45. > :04:48.Success hits the land owners' pockets hard. They get no
:04:48. > :04:53.compensation for having their land taken of them. They have to allow
:04:53. > :04:56.the public in and they are responsible for any damage. They
:04:56. > :05:02.have no capital value and they cannot sell it because nobody would
:05:02. > :05:12.want to buy it. Kate from the Open spaces Society believes that the
:05:12. > :05:14.
:05:14. > :05:19.more Rivage Greens are registered They ought to be able to register
:05:19. > :05:24.it. We are here on a new green, which is not always the traditional
:05:24. > :05:28.sort of green. It has not got the oak tree and the pub and all that.
:05:28. > :05:32.It is important to the people who live round about to be able to
:05:32. > :05:38.enjoy in this piece of land for informal recreation. His this a law
:05:38. > :05:41.that benefits the few at everyone else's expense? We use the Freedom
:05:41. > :05:46.of Information Act to ask every council but deals with applications
:05:46. > :05:52.just how much they are costing the taxpayer. Of the 66 applications
:05:52. > :06:02.dealt with in the West of England, the council provides cost for 47.
:06:02. > :06:03.
:06:03. > :06:13.More than �680,000. Somerset County Council spent �84,000 home 13
:06:13. > :06:13.
:06:13. > :06:23.applications.. Bristol City Council spent �328,000 for dealing with 12
:06:23. > :06:24.
:06:24. > :06:29.The average the average council tax payer would be horrified at the
:06:29. > :06:32.cost of it all. If he lives in a house which currently has the
:06:32. > :06:38.benefit of the perspective of village green he would be delighted
:06:38. > :06:41.at everyone else in the county is paying for been getting an open
:06:41. > :06:46.space. If you think this is not a village green should look like, you
:06:46. > :06:49.will be surprised what the money is being spent on. A failed
:06:49. > :06:56.application to have this lake declared a village green cost more
:06:56. > :07:00.than �20,000. They rejected attempts to protect part of this
:07:00. > :07:04.former airfield in Weston-super- Mare cost taxpayers more than
:07:04. > :07:08.�12,000. Somerset County Council is dealing for an application to have
:07:08. > :07:11.these seafront gardens made a village green and the one that has
:07:11. > :07:15.caused the most controversy is the attempt to protect this land from
:07:15. > :07:22.development by Bristol City football club which has cost the
:07:22. > :07:25.taxpayer more than �123,000. That case is set to go to a judicial
:07:25. > :07:31.review after a public inquiry had to be held and it is those
:07:31. > :07:34.inquiries that caused costs to escalate. Where does the money go?
:07:34. > :07:38.A small amount goes to the local authority but most of the goes to
:07:38. > :07:44.the lawyer's and professionals involved. It is good news for
:07:44. > :07:48.barristers but not such good news for council tax payers. Yes, it is
:07:48. > :07:52.good news for barristers and that is bad for the public interest.
:07:52. > :07:58.one of those public inquiries involve this piece of land in
:07:58. > :08:02.Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire. Pauline Radley applied for village
:08:02. > :08:08.green status with the support of the neighbours and they are using
:08:08. > :08:11.the law to stop a housing development. Is there an element of
:08:11. > :08:18.Not In My backyard about this? You want the house is built somewhere
:08:18. > :08:26.but not here? Yes, there probably is. That is in most cases, not many
:08:26. > :08:30.people want people on their back doorstep. This is the only area
:08:30. > :08:35.left. If the application succeed it will not be a private developer
:08:35. > :08:40.that loses out but a social housing provider. Bristol-based planning
:08:40. > :08:44.consultant believes this is where campaigners using the law are
:08:44. > :08:51.causing the biggest problem. weird by the large number of
:08:51. > :08:56.housing associations -- we advise a large number of local housing
:08:56. > :09:01.associations and this stops a lot of homes for people who cannot
:09:01. > :09:04.afford them. This could be landed has not been used for 20 or 30
:09:04. > :09:09.years that are owned by Central Government and could be used for
:09:09. > :09:14.projects like hospices or two at infrastructure ought to be sold on
:09:14. > :09:18.to raise money for other projects in the area. It is no surprise that
:09:18. > :09:25.developers are calling for the Government to change the law so it
:09:26. > :09:29.is more difficult to use against them. The minimum criteria for open
:09:29. > :09:33.spaces being designated as village greens needs to be brought up
:09:33. > :09:38.higher and shown that these areas of land are of high higher quality
:09:38. > :09:43.and that they are used by a very broad and wide selection of people
:09:43. > :09:46.from the local community. Government has suggested
:09:46. > :09:50.introducing a character test to define what a village green should
:09:50. > :09:53.look like. It sounds like a nice idea which would protect places
:09:53. > :09:58.like we are standing on but not scrubby wasteland. The problem is
:09:58. > :10:02.in practice it would be difficult to administer and it would keep my
:10:02. > :10:08.bank manager happy because I suspect we would have a lot of egg
:10:08. > :10:11.-- arguments. A test you can think of, I do nothing would working
:10:11. > :10:15.practice. Concrete proposals will not be made until later this year.
:10:15. > :10:20.It looks highly unlikely that the sun will set on this particular
:10:20. > :10:25.land were bought any time soon. These are yet another tactic used
:10:25. > :10:33.by developers and local people to further their respective interests.
:10:33. > :10:36.It is not surprising but it does not seem to be very fair. Our worst
:10:36. > :10:39.fears that government decides to do away with the system for
:10:39. > :10:48.registering and as Greens ought to severely restricted. We would fight
:10:48. > :10:58.that all the way. If there is something you would
:10:58. > :11:01.
:11:01. > :11:04.like us to investigate then drop me Her later in the programme, we
:11:04. > :11:13.asked if Hinkley nuclear power station could withstand major
:11:13. > :11:16.flooding along the southern estuary. That is coming up on Inside Out
:11:16. > :11:22.West. This month the government is
:11:22. > :11:25.cutting the amount it pays out in housing benefit. Scott Ellis has
:11:25. > :11:34.been investigating what the impact of those changes will be here in
:11:34. > :11:41.the West of England. Owning a home is an aspiration for
:11:41. > :11:45.many. The reality in Bristol and Bath is that one quarter of people
:11:46. > :11:49.are now renting. One third of those receive some kind of housing
:11:49. > :11:55.benefit. It is a bill the Government has long promised to
:11:55. > :12:01.rein in. Are we happy to go on paying housing benefit of �30,000,
:12:01. > :12:05.�40,000, �50,000? Are constituents working hard to give benefit so
:12:05. > :12:12.that people can live in homes that other people could not even dream
:12:12. > :12:16.of? I am going to meet those that are now losing out. A lot of people
:12:16. > :12:19.will find themselves homeless. There does not seem to be any two-
:12:19. > :12:23.bedroom properties in the area but I do not see why I should move away
:12:23. > :12:27.from the area where all of my family are. I will meet a man who
:12:27. > :12:31.is police that �2 billion is being cut from the benefits system.
:12:31. > :12:37.People should move out from the centre, it is very set expensive,
:12:37. > :12:43.that is what I did. One of big cut has come in this year. It affect
:12:43. > :12:49.those claiming local housing allowance. In Bristol it leads 900
:12:49. > :12:53.claimants at least �40,000 a week worst-off. Until recently if you
:12:53. > :12:58.were single and under 25 you got enough allowance to live in a one-
:12:58. > :13:03.bedroom flat of your own. That has now changed to people over the age
:13:03. > :13:09.of 35 only. If you're a single and 34 Don't go, you will only get
:13:09. > :13:19.enough money to pay for a single room in a shared house. It is a big
:13:19. > :13:25.
:13:25. > :13:31.drop in your rent and it could be a It may means Kate -- it may mean a
:13:31. > :13:38.cake has to move out. In the summer, my rent will be produced -- reduced
:13:38. > :13:45.to �71 a week. That will be a reduction of nearly �50 a week.
:13:45. > :13:48.That will force me to be in shared accommodation. I am 29. The idea of
:13:48. > :13:58.moving back into shared accommodation does make me feel
:13:58. > :14:02.like I am going backwards in life. It is something I have done in the
:14:02. > :14:06.past and I thought I had moved forward. Kate is in for another
:14:06. > :14:10.shock when she starts looking to move. There is a dire shortage of
:14:10. > :14:16.rooms for rent in Bristol for those on benefits. Right now, we have
:14:16. > :14:21.only one house that have a double room available. That is �280 per
:14:21. > :14:28.calendar month. If I put somebody and unemployed in there, he might
:14:28. > :14:32.only be eligible for �240. Where is he going to get the extra money?
:14:32. > :14:37.says landlords are not dropping rents as the Government had hoped.
:14:37. > :14:44.Instead, they are getting tough on tenants. I have not had a landlord
:14:44. > :14:49.walk in and say, if the housing benefit is reduced, I will accept
:14:49. > :14:54.this, whatever they pay. No. They say, my flat is worth so much and
:14:54. > :15:02.that is how much I want. If I cannot get that, please could you
:15:02. > :15:08.serve notice for the tenant to quit. Evict the tenant? Yes. Bristol's
:15:08. > :15:11.head of housing is also worried. He thinks the cuts will concentrate
:15:11. > :15:15.those on housing benefit into deprived areas. People may choose,
:15:15. > :15:20.if they're able to, to live further afield but then they have the cost
:15:20. > :15:25.of travel. It is more likely to spread into the suburbs of the city.
:15:25. > :15:30.A people talk about poverty ghettos, where people on benefits have to
:15:30. > :15:34.live in poorer areas -- area is out of the city centre. Is that a true
:15:35. > :15:41.reflection of what might happen? are already seeing it. What we know
:15:41. > :15:46.about this group of people is they are concentrated in the east, the
:15:46. > :15:50.low rent area. The likelihood is that there will be more renting in
:15:50. > :15:57.those areas. He in Bath, with cuts in housing benefits, there is a
:15:57. > :16:01.bigger impact. Bath is a very expensive city. There is a large
:16:01. > :16:08.student population. If this man from the Julian House charity is
:16:08. > :16:12.encouraging more landlords to rent rooms to benefit claimants. But he
:16:12. > :16:15.doubts there will ever be enough to go around. There will be more
:16:15. > :16:22.homelessness and overcrowding. People have to live together,
:16:22. > :16:25.perhaps with too few rooms, in order to meet -- make ends meet.
:16:25. > :16:30.The impact of local housing allowance is that people have to
:16:30. > :16:34.pay on top for their accommodation. Benefits are paid as a minimum
:16:34. > :16:41.which people need to survive each week. If you then have to take some
:16:42. > :16:46.housing costs out of that, people are below the poverty line. Tim is
:16:46. > :16:50.an author and a member of the TaxPayers' Alliance. It campaigns
:16:50. > :16:55.for lower taxes and supports the reduction in housing benefits.
:16:55. > :17:00.Government needs to make cutbacks and it is going to be a cutback of
:17:00. > :17:04.10%. They seems reasonable this should be shared by all people. We
:17:04. > :17:10.are all having a hard time. If 100,000 people are affected by
:17:10. > :17:18.these changes to housing benefit, and the burden on the taxpayer
:17:19. > :17:24.through claiming of other benefits and crowding in that may result,
:17:24. > :17:28.that will create eight greater tax burden on you and I.
:17:28. > :17:35.That does sound like scare tactics to me. We are talking about a
:17:35. > :17:40.cutback of 10%. You have heard some of the arguments. Does that change
:17:40. > :17:44.your mind? Those people at the lower end of the margins, they need
:17:44. > :17:51.some help, but I think the Government is giving them help.
:17:51. > :17:55.They are getting money and housing benefit. It is just been capped.
:17:55. > :17:59.There are the changes coming in as the Government tries to cut the
:17:59. > :18:04.Housing Bill. One of the subsidy for families living in houses that
:18:04. > :18:10.are too big for them. For their bedrooms are a luxury the country
:18:10. > :18:14.can no longer afford. -- spare bedrooms. Another meeting. This
:18:14. > :18:18.time, a family living in social housing. The current proposals,
:18:18. > :18:23.that means they may have to move out. The problem is, she has three
:18:23. > :18:31.bedrooms. She and her daughter and the need for two. This is my third
:18:31. > :18:36.run. It is not huge. If the only way to stay here is to sub-let, I
:18:36. > :18:41.do not think anybody would want this at the bedroom. This is the
:18:41. > :18:46.reason why a I cannot stay in this house. My little home. Helen says
:18:46. > :18:51.there is a shortage of two bedroom homes in the area and she does not
:18:51. > :18:55.want to leave the neighbourhood where she grew up. A I do not see
:18:55. > :18:59.why I should be pushed out of an area where we have built a
:18:59. > :19:04.community, we walk about to make sure the place is clean, you know
:19:04. > :19:13.all your neighbours... It is not just me starting over again. Is
:19:13. > :19:18.everything. It is so much more than just a house. I do not drive.
:19:18. > :19:22.lived in north London for 25 years, lots of friends, and then I had to
:19:23. > :19:27.move to get a bigger house. You do that, you make new friends and
:19:27. > :19:32.settle down. Helen could stay she pays an extra
:19:32. > :19:36.�15 a week for the spare room but at the moment she is on incapacity
:19:36. > :19:41.benefit and cannot afford it. Do you think Helen should stay
:19:41. > :19:45.here? She cannot pay the �15, she will have to move. Do you feel
:19:45. > :19:49.sympathy? She is a lovely person. Do you sympathise with the fact
:19:49. > :19:58.that she has to move? Absolutely, it is difficult but moving is
:19:58. > :20:02.always difficult. Helen has been thrown a lifeline. The House of
:20:02. > :20:06.Lords has voted against the Government's spare room proposals,
:20:06. > :20:10.deeming them unfair in cases where other suitable accommodation is in
:20:11. > :20:14.short supply. Ministers will have a rethink in the next few weeks but
:20:14. > :20:24.are keen to push on with their plans to cut Britain's spiralling
:20:24. > :20:25.
:20:25. > :20:29.benefit bill. We are asking what would happen if
:20:29. > :20:36.a tsunami hit the Severn Estuary. If you think it could not happen,
:20:36. > :20:39.we have used the you. It probably already has. We have been
:20:39. > :20:46.investigating whether they Hinckley nuclear power station could cope
:20:46. > :20:52.with such an emergency. Hinckley Palace Station sits on the
:20:52. > :20:58.edge of the Somerset Levels. An area that has seen a storms and it
:20:58. > :21:02.is even bought a tsunami. A great wall of water came up the estuary
:21:02. > :21:07.and houses that were there were demolished. The owners of Hinckley
:21:07. > :21:12.Point dismissed tsunami fears. our analysis suggests this is a
:21:12. > :21:17.good place for a power station. Campaigners say it is too big a
:21:17. > :21:21.risk. Our concern would be a massive wall of water coming in
:21:21. > :21:28.from the sea would knock out the power supply and that could build
:21:28. > :21:32.up into a breakdown of the fuel. was a massive offshore earthquake
:21:32. > :21:40.that triggered if the horror came back in Japan last year. 16,000
:21:40. > :21:44.people are known to have died. -- the tsunami. The plant was engulfed
:21:44. > :21:50.by a 15 metre wall of water. He knocked out power supplies which
:21:50. > :21:55.eventually caused a meltdown. The area around the plant remains an
:21:55. > :22:05.inhabited. Since the 1950s, four nuclear reactors have been built in
:22:05. > :22:09.the West of England, including two at Hinckley Point. Energy suppliers
:22:09. > :22:14.are have applications. This will become Britain's biggest nuclear
:22:14. > :22:18.power station to date if they are successful. In a disaster happened
:22:18. > :22:26.here, the exclusion zone would reach Taunton. We have no worries
:22:26. > :22:31.on that score because we do not get tsunamis in Britain. But we do. A
:22:31. > :22:39.three-metre tsunami hit Cornwall in at 1755 after an earthquake
:22:39. > :22:44.destroyed the city of Lisbon. But far more devastating with a
:22:44. > :22:49.cataclysmic event that battered our coastline a century earlier,
:22:49. > :22:54.causing death and devastation. Cardiff academic believes it was
:22:54. > :22:58.another tsunami. I met him on the north Devon coast. In the area
:22:58. > :23:04.where the houses are built behind us, the houses that were there then,
:23:04. > :23:09.were demolished. We are looking at a significant wave height, or seven
:23:09. > :23:17.metres. Only one house built before 16 07 remain standing in the street
:23:17. > :23:20.that backs onto the shore. Simon's tsunami theory has been challenged
:23:20. > :23:25.about the meteorological establishment which think they may
:23:25. > :23:32.be a more straightforward explanation. On the day the wave
:23:32. > :23:39.crashed ashore, there were spring tides. It hit around the time of
:23:39. > :23:47.high water. We know that that combined with low pressure, strong
:23:47. > :23:56.winds, in lot of rain, is the classic set-up for a severe storm.
:23:56. > :24:00.As recently as 1981, the storm surge caused serious flooding. But
:24:00. > :24:05.Simon insists the storm surge explanation does not account for
:24:05. > :24:15.the ferocity of the 16 are seven event. Flooding that is created by
:24:15. > :24:19.other storms is different to that of a tsunami. -- 16-7. It is like a
:24:19. > :24:23.bath overflowing. The first thing you know about being flooded is
:24:23. > :24:31.your feet are getting wet. account from the time described a
:24:31. > :24:39.mighty wave advancing at a speed faster than a greyhound can run. In
:24:39. > :24:44.support of Simon's theory, there are two accounts. Neither appear in
:24:44. > :24:48.official records of British earthquakes. Simon and I are
:24:48. > :24:54.travelling more than 50 miles up the coast to Hinckley Point, close
:24:54. > :25:00.to the scene of the 1981 flood. This is the site of two nuclear
:25:01. > :25:07.power plants. Site aiders de commissioned and site be is nearing
:25:07. > :25:12.the end of its life. The narrowing of the Bristol Channel will have
:25:12. > :25:20.made it even worse, according to Simon. A by the time in get here,
:25:20. > :25:28.it is that higher altitude. Once the floodwater reached the Somerset
:25:28. > :25:33.Levels, there was no stopping it. Both sides were devastated. 2,000
:25:33. > :25:43.people died. It was a colossal amount. If that is true, it made
:25:43. > :25:44.
:25:44. > :25:50.the earlier flood the worst natural disaster to hit British soil. In
:25:50. > :25:57.one area alone, 500 people drowned. Apparently, mass graves have to be
:25:57. > :26:07.dug to dispose of the bodies. -- had to be dug. Storm surge or
:26:07. > :26:07.
:26:07. > :26:10.tsunami? There is no doubt something terrible happened. As
:26:10. > :26:13.part of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the
:26:13. > :26:20.Government wants to see an expansion of nuclear power. The
:26:20. > :26:23.ground is being prepared for Hinckley. If its operator is
:26:23. > :26:28.granted full planning permission, the new plant will be five times
:26:28. > :26:32.more powerful than the previous Hinckley site. Protesters had that
:26:32. > :26:37.day will never come. Their opposition is based partly on the
:26:37. > :26:41.fear of a repeat of previous events. Our concerns would be a massive
:26:41. > :26:46.wall of water coming in from the sea would knock out the power
:26:46. > :26:50.supplied, it would also knock out the back out electricity. The power
:26:50. > :26:55.station would have no electricity. Although it would automatically
:26:55. > :27:00.shut down, it would still be a lot of residual heat. That could build
:27:00. > :27:07.up into a meltdown of the fuel. That is what happened in Japan.
:27:07. > :27:13.F is confident such an event could never happen. Hinckley will house a
:27:13. > :27:19.different type of reactor to the Japanese ones. There is a back-up
:27:19. > :27:25.supply. The new station have a new comprehensive back-up supply. In
:27:25. > :27:29.Japan, the reactors are not licensed in the UK. We are looking
:27:29. > :27:33.to licence that type of reactor. The pressurised water reactor we
:27:33. > :27:39.are going to build, proposing to build, has got a huge legacy
:27:39. > :27:43.through the world where it has been proven to be safe. The company says
:27:43. > :27:53.the power station is elevated above the surrounding flood plain and
:27:53. > :27:55.
:27:55. > :28:01.plans take full account of the event from its 16 07. Everything
:28:01. > :28:08.has operated safely. All our analysis suggests this is an ideal
:28:08. > :28:11.spot to build a power station. stock pinkly campaign will probably
:28:12. > :28:16.never be convinced by such reassurances. In the planning
:28:16. > :28:24.authorities allow it, what on the new plant could take off around one