23/10/2017 Inside Out West

Tonight - built in Bristol, the world s fastest

This car is a class apart ? I have never

driven anything quite like this before.

And an incredible tale of recycling ? before it was trendy.

You can see the island goes in behind me because this is

Welcome to tonight s Inside Out West.

But first, most children are lucky enough to grow

But for some, life in a children s home is as good as it gets.

Some viewers might find what comes next upsetting.

Marlowe Child and Family Services say they provide specialist

therapeutic care to children who ve often suffered abuse and neglect ?

I think I got more traumatised in my two years at Marlowe

I think the organisation is more interested in making money

And we ve heard disturbing reports about sexual grooming.

They made it easy for those men to come and get me.

Local Authorities all over the country send some of their most

They run five private children s homes in Gloucestershire, which each

They re inspected by Ofsted, whose recent reports into some

of the homes are damning ? they describe a very high turnover

They say inexperienced carers fail to control highly dangerous

behaviours by the young people ? like smashing windows and throwing

We ve spoken to people who ve worked for Marlowe within the last year.

We heard that at one home the children had cuts

Someone else described the home as like Beirut -

a terrible place, not safe for anyone.

We d be violent to each other, there d be violence

This young woman lived at a Marlowe home for over a year,

after a series of other care placements broke down.

I ended up having my window boarded shut so that I couldn t abscond out

of my window and it felt like a bit of a prison.

Ofsted points to ineffective behaviour management

at one of the homes, saying that, Since the last

inspection, which was three months earlier, there have been 67

On at least five occasions a restraint lasted an hour.

You could be restrained for hours on end multiple times a day.

Some people say restrain was for your own good.

The staff would say it s a last resort.

Being pinned down against the floor by numerous adults,

predominantly male, was the worst experience.

The restraint was used it as a punishment.

One of Marlowe s homes is here, in this quiet part

of the Gloucestershire countryside, and like their other homes

There s no shops, buses, cafes, basically no facilities at all.

Linda has lived next to one of Marlowe s homes

for more than 10 years, and takes a close

After highly critical Ofsted reports, it and some of the other

homes are currently closed, but she worries they ll soon reopen.

In the past I ve been spat at, property damaged,

four separate riots that I can think of, swearing, shouting, yeah,

I phoned up the home ? relatively recently ? and I spoke to a young

lady and I said is there any way that you can kind of do something

I'm really sorry but I have to confess it s the first

I don t know the children and I don t know the staff but I ll

Now you can t leave somebody that s got no knowledge or certainly

of the children in charge of the home.

Isn t this just a case of NIMBYism?

These kids are difficult and you don t want them near you?

When the home was well run ? when it had a very good manageress in there,

which it did for about 18 months ? I didn t have any problems,

But it s worrying that there are people out there that

are being paid what is a huge amount of money to care for children

We asked some Local Authorities who ve sent children to Marlowe

homes how much it cost - the average price is around

It s in line with fees for other private residential homes ?

but is it good value to the taxpayer, if Marlowe isn t

helping children become happy, productive members of society?

Where was the money for my therapeutic intervention going?

Those staff were on minimum wage or close to it.

Marlowe Child and Family Services told us it is wholly committed

to continued investment in the recovery of young people

who have always had appropriate therapeutic support, including

It says money is not the prime motivation in continuing

The company strongly refutes the notion of restraint

It says the Board has appointed a new and expert

senior management team, who have a proven record of turning

around health and social care settingsThese changes were made

in March 2017 and regulators are already noting improvements.

The company added it is unaware of any specific damage

to Linda s property But we ve also heard disturbing allegations

about sexual exploitation from people outside the home.

I was outside the children s home and the staff were watching us

and this van pulled over, told me I was pretty,

And the staff would know that I was going out and having sex

The first incident of when I was pimped out ? as you like -

I took another one of the girls with me and I was raped in a van.

And it went on like that and it got worse.

It wasn t just one man that raped me then, it would be multiple.

And I d come home and I d be covered in bodily fluids from these men.

I remember getting back in the early hours of the morning one night.

I got a bottle of bleach and locked myself in the bathroom and had

We ve seen documents showing staff were aware

of the men picking her up, that Marlowe put a risk

strategy in place and that the police were involved.

One social worker describes trying to talk to her about it.

Eventually they moved her to a placement outside the county.

But she says ultimately the home failed to keep her safe.

One member of staff who really cared ? he chased the van down the road

There were a significant number of staff who had

the illusion that I was just a promiscuous little girl.

A member a staff said to me, if it was that bad,

really answer that today, all these years later.

So you cried out for help but nothing came?

I cried and I cried and I cried and I cried and I cried.

And honestly, it s only last year that I ve realised

that it wasn t normal, for groups of males

Why didn t anybody tell me that it wasn t?

Marlowe Child and Family Services do not accept the allegations.

At no time have any investigations found any

of our staff were indifferent to the systematic grooming and/or

We are certain that all safeguarding events have been reported

Nine out of 17 children s homes in Gloucestershire are rated good

But some seem to be failing our most vulnerable children

Had I not gone through the extensive sexual abuse while I was at Marlowe,

Maybe I wouldn t have of the choices that I ve made?

Maybe if somebody had of nurtured me at 14,

they said they would do that, maybe if they ve have done everything

that they advertised on the tin, things wouldn t

Please get in touch with me about your experiences ?

That's exactly what lots of you did after our programme last week.

We told you about controversial surgery to fix bowel

The operations were carried out in Bristol by surgeon Tony Dixon.

He s currently under investigation by the NHS and we understand

Scores of his patients contacted us with their experiences

I d like you to read you this one ? it's fairly typical:

I am one of Mr Tony Dixon's patients and have had several

My life is a living hell and has been for the last few years

Our investigation was also raised in Parliament last week

in a debate on mesh surgery ? calling for all forms of this

over the coming weeks ? and we still want to hear from you.

Here in the West innovation is in our blood

the edge of the M5, a car is being built that could one

day go faster than the speed of sound.

And on Thursday we ll get a chance to see Bloodhound SSC in action

Imagine driving a mile in just 3.6 seconds

You d need a pretty extraordinary car to do it ?

A car that could one day travel at a truly hair-raising 1000mph ?

and I m here to find out exactly how they re going to do it.

Well this is that extraordinary car -

Bloodhound SSC, built in Avonmouth, aiming to astonish the world.

Those initials by the way ? stand for Super Sonic Car.

In fact it d get from Bristol to London in under 10 minutes.

But no-one really wants to drive that fast do they?

it s his own record that Andy s trying to break.

Andy was in the driver s seat when Thrust

SSC went 763 mph in 1997 ? making it the first car to exceed

being involved with some of solving problems that have never been solved

before, that we have not but to go that is why are you trying to break

it to go not just a bit faster but can be a risky business VO: This

is Richard Noble ? he s now the project director

of Bloodhound and Thrust SSC. But his own World Land Speed Record

attempt over 30 years ago Seven miles an hour more

and the car would have taken off. American driver Craig Breedlove also

had a close shave when trying to break the record in 1996 Archive

? on Breedlove s last run On the American black rock desert ?

his car flipped on its side ? and careered off course ?

miraculously he was unhurt. Bloodhound will have far more

power than those cars, so getting the design

right is critical. I like to push boundaries

and someone of my age does not normally get the

opportunity to do so. Retired missile scientist

Ron Ayers is behind Bloodhound s design ? as the project s chief

aerodynamicist - it s his job to make sure

the car doesn t take off. Any mismatch in the forces

around the car will be enough at the front, a lot of it gets

squeezed we to lift the front end so that air there are three the car

would stay The key to Bloodhound s

speed is that as well as a jet engine ? Ron has

designed a spot for a rocket. coming it is one of the loudest

noises Bloodhound has been

in development since 2008 ? but raising the money to keep

a project like this going is almost as complicated

as building the car itself. there has never been anything we

would like but we are dictated by the cash flow as

The car is here at Newquay airfield because

the plan is Andy will test drive Bloodhound in full public gaze

to check everything s working as planned.

The run will test all the mechanics but the short

runway means she ll only hit a top speed of 200mph ? but it s

still set to impress Jemma ? just a leg stretch going to be a wow.

this is 200 miles an hour is a fifth of our target speeds were just

getting the you will have the crowd standing 100 as you will ever get at

an airshow and you will physically feel it her organs will move with

the low frequency vibration. It is genuinely going to grab people will

be and they can raise enough money -

the plan is to take Bloodhound to the South African desert in 2019

? and it s there that attempts Driving this little car doesn t seem

so impressive now ? but hey at least I know roughly what s

going to happen when I put my foot Now check this out ? I ve

never noticed it before. But this plaque is actually a copy

of another one 2,000 A subtle nod to a jaw

dropping story. This is a tale of two cities,

and how the foundations of the future can be built

on the ruins of the past. In November 1940 Britain had entered

the Second World War and was bracing itself for waves

of bombing attacks On the evening of the 24th

November, German bombers Their mission, to attack Bristol

and at around 6.30 in the evening, 12,000 incendiary bombs and 160

tons of high explosive The devastation was huge,

and in some places total. Castle Park here in the historic

heart of the city, This was just one of many raids

that struck the city Sheila Carey was only seven

when the Bristol Blitz happened, but still remembers the night

when the first bombs fell. We heard a whistle,

we knew it was a bomb, we didn t see it but we heard it,

and all of a sudden we heard this terrible noise and all the dust

and stones from across the road was all gushing down,

and the next thing we heard was my father running up the road

and saying quick get out get out! But all I remember then

was my mother grabbing us and running up the road

and the people were shouting out, be careful, be careful,

there s shrapnel and that, and we were running up the road

like this because we were so scared. Our neighbours that we lived next

door to, all they were killed in the bomb, and that was very,

very sad, cause they had a little Their son was in the army

and when was sent home, he just stood at the top

of the street and cried. It was sad I ve never forgotten it

but it s something that sticks Tell me about this

road, what was it like? Well it was entirely different

to what it is now, this road, here behind was Cabot Street

which is where I lived Ted Williams was only

five when the Blitz There was a church,

St Johns Church, well right up until I left school,

this was our playground. In November 1940, that s

when it was bombed, When the bomb dropped and we came

out there was all skulls and bones around the place where it blew up,

the graves blew up. What was that night like,

can you remember that? Well because you were in

the shelter you didn t know until it was all over,

then you d come out and see all the sky red,

the flames everywhere. Like anything after a while it s

a way of life, you get the bombs in you get the sirens going off,

you get the all clear going off, You didn t realise it until you grew

that was the life that you lived. By the time the raids

were over, nearly 1,300 people had been killed,

with a similar number Hollywood superstar Cary Grant,

real name was Archie Leach, Several members

of his family were killed when their house here in Dean street

was destroyed in December 1940 Over 80,000 buildings were ruined,

most of them homes. The survivors were reliant

on humanitarian aid for help. Yes we were homeless,

we lost everything. The next day we were told

that we haven t got a home to go back to, and all the clothes we had

on, we had to keep that until we were sorted out to go

to the people that were making from the United States

and the Lend-Lease Programme, signed in 1941 would provide over

$30 billion dollars of aid But the large convoys of merchant

vessels transporting this valuable After unloading their goods,

the ship s needed ballast Local historian Julian

Lea-Jones has been looking into how the solution came

from an unlikely place. The merchant navy,

they insisted on putting something in the ships,

when they went back. to keep the thing sat down

in the sea and not riding across We had a problem in Bristol

with clearing the streets for the emergency services,

and you had rubbles from the bomb sites, people s houses,

people s homes, and they were just taking it in barges down and dumping

it in the Severn Estuary, And then somebody had

this brilliant idea, we ll use the bomb site rubble,

to put it into the ships, when they went back empty,

when they got back to bring One man who remembers this

is Sheila s husband Ron, who as a boy watched the trucks

arrive at Avonmouth. Well they were coming down

with lorries, tipping it in, and the dockers were getting it

all and chucking it It was a bit of a joke,

it were a laugh to the dockers, because they was saying

ooh, Bristol s moving. But, this wasn t

the end of the story. of Manhattan was engaged

in a massive construction project, The large amount of stone arriving

at the docks was just what was required to add

the necessary landfill In total, 14 acres of land

was reclaimed using You can see that

the island goes back in again behind me,

this is because this In June 1942,

the section of road was opened, and a grand ceremony held to rename

the area as Bristol Basin . the union crated at that because

there was construction that these buildings that you see around me and

when the towers were finished we created a ceremony

part air he was very moved and spoke about his family and he and to have

this remembrance The plaque, passed

by joggers, tourists and commuters every day,

reminds us even here more than 2,000 miles away and more

than 75 years later, the sacrifices of Bristol

during the Second World War, Fascinating isn t it

? I mean who knew? That s it for tonight

? see you next week. Next week, we investigate

the violent drug gangs Next thing, there was

a knock at the door. go. That's it for others to night

from the Medway Hello, I'm Riz Lateef

with your 90 second update. The European Commission has denied

a report that Theresa May "begged" the EU for help

in the Brexit talks. It's claimed she appeared

"anxious" during a dinner with the Commission president,

Jean-Claude Juncker, last week.