22/01/2018 Inside Out West

Freezing and living on the street.

There was one in the next shelter

who was brought out in a shelter. He

froze? Yes.

Where s the dough?

A special delivery for

the bakery owner accused

of not paying his staff.

We d like to give

you the opportunity to answer some

questions.

They ve baked a cake for you too.

It's an uphill challenge

but can Billy make it?

Kate Grey challenges

one boy to get active.

Welcome to tonight s

Inside Out West.

If you re lucky enough to be

in a nice warm bed tonight,

spare a thought for the growing army

of people sleeping rough

on pavements and in doorways.

Here in Weston it's already

freezing ? just think

what it ll be like later on.

We ve got a noticeably cold night

ahead across North Somerset.

We ll find even on the coastal

fringes temperatures dropping

to freezing or -1 and there may well

be some fog around as well.

I m heading to Weston super Mare

to spend a night on the streets.

It's one of many

places in our region

where there are visibly more

homeless people ? we ll know exactly

how bad the situation

is when the latest

rough sleeper figures

are published later this week.

And while we might all walk

past homeless people -

how many of us ever really

think about what it s like to be

on the streets at night.

He was brought out

on the stretcher - he was gone.

He froze?

Yep ? he froze yeah ?

during the night ? hypothermia.

Nothing could prepare me

for what to expect.

I don t know how long til

sunrise but this is really, really,

really near impossible ?

it really is.

I don t know how they do it.

Could I make it to the morning?!

It s just after 6 o clock

in the evening here in Weston super

Mare and I m told it s not a great

place to be sleeping

rough on the streets

because of the terrible,

terrible temperatures.

I have the luxury of actually

going home anytime I want

to ? these guys don t.

And in that Victorian

shelter just down the road

there are a few of the guys

who are sleeping there ? I m just

going to go and introduce myself.

Hello, how are you?

This shelter is being shared

by Steve, Martin and Kev.

Kev, what s it like at night?

Freezing.

Is it?

Yeah ? we just have to manage, get

into the blankets and sleeping bags.

How long you been doing this, Kev?

7 months.

7 months, 7 months ? in this?

It s a familiar story ? Steve s been

sleeping rough in Weston

for the past 9 months.

What s it

like living like this?

It s not very good but it s life

and you make it the best you can.

It must feel like every day is this

horrible cycle you re in?

I don t even wanna wake up some

mornings ? I just want it to end.

Oh, gosh.

I can t do it no more now ? I m

still trying but everyone says

you can cope and you

can survive and yeah.

Steve, Martin and Kev

are being helped by local people -

who bring them hot drinks and food.

Hi Liona, I m Seb.

They ve also set up a Facebook page

in the last few weeks ? to raise

awareness and encourage more

people to offer support.

Your name is?

Joseph.

Joseph ? hello ? you

helping these guys out?

Yep ? I ve got warm food.

Do you think this is a problem

that ll ever get resolved?

They easily put things in to attract

people to Weston but then try

and hide the other side of Weston,

and there s things they can do

which I don t feel they do.

Everyone deserves a chance to be

in a house and somewhere warm ? not

out here in the cold.

It really does upset

you doesn t it Joseph?

Yeah ? it s not right.

It s 8 o clock - the group meet

around this time each night ? before

heading to different parts

of the town, taking

supplies to those in need.

There is no night shelter here ?

the closest is Bristol.

North Somerset Council estimates

the number of rough sleepers in ths

area as 7 but the volunteers

say it s much higher.

We ve calculated

there s about 20 or 30

of them sleeping rough.

As high as that?

Yes, yes.

So what have they got

wrong that you ve seen?

We re just going out having a search

and finding em more ? they are just

waiting for them to go

in the council office.

But it can be daunting

for them to go in that

council office sometimes.

It needs sorting now.

As Val takes me around the high

street and boulevard, I m amazed

to see there s even someone sleeping

outside the council offices.

Hiya, you alright?

In the few hours we spend

walking around ? we see

about 10 rough sleepers,

in just a very small area.

It s coming up to midnight

or so ? I ve just left

Val in the town centre.

I m heading down to the Victorian

shelter where Kevin,

Martin and Steve are setting down

for the night ? I ll be

sleeping over there.

I ve just got to hope I can make it

through the night ? that s all.

When I get back Steve is struggling

because of the cold.

You need to cover

yourself up my friend.

Tell me about your old life

Steve ? what was it like?

It was OK to start off with ?

I was married and had kids.

You were married.

How long were you married for?

10 years.

Do your kids keep in touch?

No, I never see my kids.

Do they know you re here?

No.

Do you miss them?

Yeah.

Do you think about your old life?

Yeah course, every time

I always see my children.

Do you?

Yeah in my mind.

Steve I don t know how

you do this ? it s, it s

seriously, seriously cold.

I m not too bad now I m in this

sleeping bag ? it s like I m living

back in a house again in my bed.

Is that how you picture it?

Yeah ? this is my home ?

if I could rent this off the council

I d rent it and block it all off

and put a door there

so I could shut it all off

and have my own little space.

At around 2am I attempt

to settle down.

This is the only way

I can keep warm.

This is, this is freezing.

No matter how hard I try,

I just can t get to sleep.

It s about 4:30

at the moment ? it s impossible,

absolutely impossible.

I ve got so many layers on but it s

just getting colder and colder ?

I think it s about 4

just getting colder and colder ?

Some of those guys in there have

terrible coughs and they ve been

coughing all night ? it s absolutely

freezing, it s near

impossible to survive this.

I m going to go back

in there and try and sleep

a little bit, at least.

The number of rough sleepers

across the region has almost

doubled in last four 4 years.

When it gets below freezing for more

than three 3 nights on the trot,

emergency accommodation should be

offered to anyone forced

to sleep outside.

One of the reasons is to try

and prevent deaths.

But we ve been told in the last year

alone at least 15 people have

died on the streets.

So it s 6:50 ? most of the time

there was freezing fog

around.

I ll show you on top of the car.

Look at that ? that s

a lot of frost there!

It s not just me who s

had trouble tonight.

Even for Martin who is used

to this ?sleeping in these

conditions is a struggle?

You OK, Martin ? how was the night?

Cold ? that s just a mild

night last night, not

as cold as it normally is.

Martin, there s a few guys who died

recently isn t there?

Yeah, there was one just

up that shelter there.

He was brought out on the stretcher.

He was gone.

He froze?

Yep ? he froze ? during the night ?

hypothermia I think.

That must be scary?

Yeah it is, but you ve got to brave

it out because I ve got no choice.

I m too old for all this.

I need help with my drink

cos I m an alcoholic.

I need help with my eyesight ?

to try and get my eyesight back

so I can see what I m doing ?

I don t wanna live

like this no more.

For me, luckily this

was just one night.

See you, boys.

It was really difficult

to say goodbye to Steve and Martin.

I ve really bonded with them ? I ve

been here for 14 hours and I ve

really got to know them.

Spent the night in that

shelter over there.

It was really difficult,

It s stressful when you don t know

who might just creep up on you.

And what struck me is how quickly

you can just lose morale ? you know

and because of the cold and intense

hopelessness, you can

just lose the will to do

anything the next day.

It s a very, very,

very sad situation.

What happened to those three after

we stopped filming? We kept in touch

and they are OK. Thriving. Just glad

the weather is mild this week. Don't

forgot to e-mail me with your

stories. Plenty more on Facebook and

Twitter.

An honest loaf ?

wholesome and reassuring.

But for staff at bakeries

we ve been hearing about,

life s been anything but.

Carys Edwards has

been investigating.

Endacotts ? one of

Britain s oldest bakeries.

They ve been mixing it

up here in Okehampton

for more than a century

But recently, frustration has been

rising faster than the dough.

When you work for a month expecting

to get paid and then you don't

and you're still anticipating

being paid and you're sat

here thinking, right perhaps

it will come tomorrow.

Perhaps it will, perhaps it won't.

Even vital supplies such as flour,

they say, are in short supply.

We're all trying to keep

it going at the moment

to see how long it will last

but we all know it's

going to have to go.

This is the owner of

Endacotts, Nicholas Gould.

He runs an assortment

of cafes and bakeries

from his house in Somerset.

Since he took over Endacotts

in Devon last year,

staff say things have been

hopelessly half-baked

Has this ever happened

to you before?

No.

It's been my life in here.

Never happened.

Never owed money to anyone.

Now I'm starting

to owe people money.

We ve evidence of problems at other

businesses Mr Gould has bought

in the last few years.

Urban Brunch in Yeovil seems

to have closed down.

And Mr Gould bought

the Oven Door Bakery

in the Hampshire village

of Fair Oak in June 2016.

It s been closed since November,

apparently for refurbishment.

Ray Norton has been

a baker for 43 years.

For the last ten of those

he ran the confectionary

department at The Oven Door.

Ray was suspended on

full pay last August.

He s sent recorded letters

and emails to Nick Gould and has

heard nothing back -

so he s going to tribunal.

I won t give up,

because it s unjust.

And basically you can t just ruin

people s lives and put em on hold.

Donna Gingell served customers

at The Oven Door for four years.

Donna says the problems started

when Nick Gould took over.

In October, she wasn t paid.

I had to beg him to actually put

money in my account.

I had no money for food.

No money for electric.

No money to pay the rent.

I m a single mum.

And that was my only my only income.

Mr Gould eventually paid

Donna some of her wages.

So why have things soured so badly?

We contacted Mr Gould to find out.

He said he had been dealing

with a number of issues at Endacotts

including two break-ins

and problems with admin.

He said he had appointed

a new manager who would add focus

and direction to the business.

Mr Gould told us he wouldn t comment

further because of what he described

as live legal cases.

With other staff worried they re

going to be on the breadline,

we wanted to give Mr Gould a final

chance to chew it all over with us.

But first I went to see

Joy Whittington at the West Camel

Bakery near Yeovil.

Joy says she s owed £500 for bread

she supplied to Mr Gould last May.

We ve written, we ve begged

and we ve asked and he s not replied

to any of our correspondence.

I m disgusted with him

really that he won t make

any provision to pay.

Joy s decided to let her

talent do the talking.

She s baked a showstopper

for Mr Gould.

if he s that hard up

he obviously needs to eat and

you ve written on it?

Yes, where s our dough,

and it s not just me, it s the dough

for everyone that he owes.

One cake, special delivery.

There is a question.

Don't do that,

this is such a bad form.

We would

like you to answer questions from

your staff. They have baked a cake

for you which asks where the money

might be.

They can only hope Mr Gould might

finally digest their message.

Where is the money that

you owe all these people?

Why can you not pay it or explain

why you are not paying it?

Man up and pay your bills.

You also know that it just isn't

that easy to lose weight. We

challenged nine-year-old Billy and

his family to get active with some

expert help.

This is Billy, he s 9.

He s about to take on his

first ever park run.

I'm feeling excited about it. It

will be my first copper run without

stopping.

It s a tough course ?

5km through the hilly

Ashton Court Estate

but the run isn t Billy s

greatest challenge today.

He has a visual impairment.

It means he can t do this

on his own, he needs a guide.

And even though it s my first park

run as well, I ll be

helping him round the course.

So why are we putting

Billy through this?

It s all about being active.

We know

exercise is good for our physical

and emotional well-being -

but we re doing less and less.

And it s all too easy to find

excuses to avoid doing any.

And that habit starts early ? less

than a third of 2 to 15-year-olds do

the recommended amount of exercise ?

and by age 11, a third of pupils

are already overweight.

So to challenge that,

the BBC have joined up

with the Premier League to create

Supermovers ? a two-year project

for primary schools to encourage

children to get more active every

day.

Although Billy is happily very

active - his eye condition means

it s going to get harder and harder

for him to play sport

in the future.

I find it hard if people

are trying to pass to me from a long

way out and it s usually quite

fast-moving so that s

also a bit tricky too.

His condition means

that he can t focus on objects.

My eyes are constantly moving from

side to side and then things start

shaking. I read on my Kindle because

usually books are too small for me

to see.

His eyes are very sensitive

in bright light so he wears

dark glasses outdoors -

and he has poor depth perception.

I have trouble with seeing how deep

steps are and things like that and

little bumps on the road. Especially

when it is my time as well because I

don't have good night-time vision.

Having a disability means

it can be tough to learn

new skills and sports.

I lost my hand, when I was just two

- and when I first started swimming

I was rubbish at it,

but my determination paid off

and I managed to make it

all the way to competing

in the 2008 Paralympics.

I want everyone to be more active ?

it s always been my life ? got

so much out of my sport ? having

a disability never held me back ?

still found it difficult sometimes

to get motivated even though I knew

how important it was to me.

Billy s parents aren t

going to allow his disability

to force him into giving up sport.

He loves absolutely every sport. He

is looking into running as something

he could get into. We have met up

with Colin.

As we run, I will give

you instructions about what the

circus is like. Is it rough or

smooth, are we going up and down?

How do you feel about using the

tether? I am quite confident with

it. Maybe we will give it a go and

do some running.

That's it. Move your arms around to

the right. Three, two, one. That's

brilliant. Excellent.

Really good,

how you feeling? OK.

Colin makes it look easy.

It s not.

And if I m going to guide Billy

round the park run I m

going to have to learn fast.

It's tough, isn't it?

It's preparing

ahead. Imagine a big crowd of people

you will be running with.

There are

two year left? Where. Then, then!

You have to be aware of everything

around and not get distracted. It is

easy to get distracted and forget

you have got to tell him what to do

and what not to do and they are

listening for every world.

And it s not just

physical well-being which makes

being active such a crucial part

of our lives.

There are psychological benefits. It

leads to feelings of happiness and

well-being and is evidence that

being physically active helps

children attain better rates in

school.

How important is the family

experience?

Families are really

important. The more they can do to

support their children's activity,

not being active with them, but

doing things that can encourage them

by taking them places, coming up

with new ideas and supporting them,

that can really help their physical

activity, too.

And Billy s family

are right behind him.

I took up running years ago when I

had a football injury. I had a

mental breakdown at the same time as

my dad passed away. I went into a

clinical depression and running

really helped me get out of it. I

have been running ever since. I

would recommend it to anyone

struggling with depression, Italy

helped me.

I've done two runs trying

to get myself on the fitness and I

am finding it is helping me, it has

given me the push of a have to do it

because I have a really fit family

and I'm not! I want to be able to

keep up with them!

It s just a couple of weeks

before the parkrun.

Billy s dad is in charge of training

- but there s been a setback.

What scares me about the run is

there are quite big hills and I

don't like running up them.

If Billy s feeling a bit

nervous about the run,

he might take inspiration from other

visually impaired runners -

like Tracy who lost her

sight 27 years ago.

I couldn't get over losing my sight

and I basically stayed in. It's only

been the last three years that I

have come out and started mingling.

I just shut myself off from everyone

and everything.

That first real

positive experience was getting

involved with a running club?

Yes,

it was a sense of freedom. Worries

went out the door.

Thinking about

Billy, how important is it to make

sure children at a young age are

getting positive experience?

I think

it's an important for Billy to meet

with people like myself who can give

him some ideas of the kind of sport

that he could be involved in now and

indeed in later life.

Do you have

aspirations to play football? Yes.

We need to have a little chat!

It s time to put my new-found

guiding skills to the test.

Over 300 people have

braved the cold to tackle

the hills of Ashton Court.

How you feeling?

Good.

What's the

plan for the rest of the race? The

same pace. Not to go too fast.

43 and a half minutes

later, it s all over.

The last bit going up that Hill, the

bad bid. The best bit?

Sprinting to

the finish. I do know where that

energy came from? I chipped over a

stone. That was probably because we

were having a chat!

Thanks to Billy, his whole family

is getting the supermovers bug.

Will you do it again?

I'd only just started running but I

think it's a great opportunity for

me to get out more and to get more

fit and healthy.

Well, if Billy s inspired

you check out this link

www.bbc.co.uk/supermovers

for lots of tips on how to get

you and your family active.

That s it for this week ? hope

you enjoyed the programme.

Bye.

Coming up, George came within a

whisker of death but who would shoot

a cat?

None of us could believe it,

we still are very angry and upset.

We didn't even know if he was going

to make it and it was totally

heartbreaking to loss.