Browse content similar to 18/09/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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And saving local pubs - ministers consider scrapping the law which | :00:37. | :00:47. | |
:00:47. | :00:47. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2133 seconds | :00:47. | :36:21. | |
Hello and welcome back to the Politics Show in the South West. | :36:21. | :36:24. | |
Hopes for an 11th-hour reprieve for two key parts of the region's | :36:24. | :36:29. | |
marine safety network were dealt a severe blow this week. On Friday, | :36:29. | :36:31. | |
the Transport Select Committee published the Government's response | :36:31. | :36:35. | |
to its concerns about the proposals. While the government has backed | :36:35. | :36:38. | |
down on some of its plans to reduce coastguard stations and manpower, | :36:38. | :36:41. | |
it's clear minsters are determined to press ahead with cuts to | :36:41. | :36:45. | |
emergency towing vessels and specialist firefighters. In a | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
moment, we'll hear from the chair of the Transport Committee who says | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
the government is making a short- sighted decision which will put | :36:51. | :36:59. | |
lives a risk. But first, Tamsin Melville has this report. It has | :36:59. | :37:02. | |
been described as having the potential for creating a perfect | :37:02. | :37:07. | |
storm off the Cornish coast. Government plans to radically | :37:07. | :37:10. | |
restructure the coastguard service, cut funding for firefighters that | :37:10. | :37:15. | |
see an end to the contract for up emergency towing vessels. While the | :37:15. | :37:20. | |
close card proposal Robin revised, time is fast running out for the | :37:20. | :37:30. | |
:37:30. | :37:32. | ||
others, prompting concerns of their worst case scenario. They could | :37:32. | :37:38. | |
have collisions with a tanker. Why hope we're not here saying, I told | :37:38. | :37:45. | |
you so it after an oil spill. Anglian Princess is a very familiar | :37:45. | :37:51. | |
sight in these waters around Falmouth. She is one of four | :37:51. | :37:56. | |
stations tucked around the UK. But it is not for much longer. The | :37:56. | :38:00. | |
funding which keeps her he is said to be scrapped at the end of the | :38:00. | :38:05. | |
month. These vessels were introduced after the 1993 it oil | :38:05. | :38:08. | |
spill disaster off the Shetland Islands. But the Department for | :38:08. | :38:13. | |
Transport now says it wants private operators to stepping in, telling | :38:13. | :38:16. | |
MPs that responsibility for ensuring operational safety it of | :38:16. | :38:26. | |
:38:26. | :38:33. | ||
chips is a matter for the Contracts will expire at the end of | :38:33. | :38:39. | |
the month, saving �32.5 million over the spending review period. | :38:39. | :38:43. | |
MPs on the transport select committee say the government's | :38:43. | :38:47. | |
hardline is inviting disaster. A view shared by enable Union which | :38:47. | :38:52. | |
is considering action. If you don't provide that service in times of | :38:52. | :38:56. | |
need, it will not be there when you need it. Who wants to gamble with | :38:56. | :39:03. | |
that? Who wants a billion pounds worth of clean-up costs? Who wants | :39:03. | :39:09. | |
to have it on their conscience that communities with devastated fishing | :39:09. | :39:15. | |
industries, tourist industries? bid to save money is also part of | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
the decision to cut funding for specialist firefighters who tackle | :39:18. | :39:25. | |
incidents at sea, again by the end of this month. The incident | :39:25. | :39:30. | |
Response Group is one of 15 around the UK set up in 2006. It has been | :39:30. | :39:34. | |
deployed twice off Cornwall, most recently involving efficient | :39:34. | :39:40. | |
factory vessel in Barmouth in 2010. But ministers say it they have | :39:40. | :39:49. | |
rarely been used on several occasions. It is a short-sighted | :39:49. | :39:57. | |
move for some. To be unkind, it is the bean counters looking at the | :39:57. | :40:00. | |
beans. I have a degree of empathy in the current climate, but let's | :40:00. | :40:06. | |
be serious about this. There is a potential to lose people's lives. | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
Terrorism has not gone away, who will deal with the aftermath of a | :40:10. | :40:17. | |
terrorist incident on the ship? It is not going to go away. It is very | :40:18. | :40:20. | |
short-sighted and nothing we have got to wait to see what the | :40:20. | :40:25. | |
outcomes are. Core will fire and rescue Service say without the | :40:25. | :40:34. | |
central funding, they are left with no choice but to remove the 7th -- | :40:34. | :40:39. | |
Cornwall. One local MP whose husband died while at sea still | :40:39. | :40:46. | |
hopes to change Minister's mind. -- ministers' minds. I'm urging them | :40:46. | :40:56. | |
:40:56. | :40:56. | ||
to have those coastguards put in place. They have unique knowledge | :40:56. | :41:00. | |
of both the changes in the sea conditions, when the weather | :41:00. | :41:07. | |
changes so quickly, and also to be able to use the other local | :41:07. | :41:14. | |
emergency services in the area when we have an emergency. I'm yet to be | :41:14. | :41:22. | |
condensed that a station based at Dover or Falmouth would be able to | :41:22. | :41:30. | |
pick up the slack left. It is looking almost certain the | :41:30. | :41:37. | |
capability will be gone and just a few weeks. -- in just a few weeks. | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
Tamsin Melville reporting. Well, we did request an interview with the | :41:40. | :41:42. | |
Shipping Minister, Mike Penning. He wasn't available, but earlier I | :41:42. | :41:45. | |
spoke to the chair of the Transport Select Committee, the Labour MP | :41:45. | :41:49. | |
Louise Ellman. I asked her if she was at least happy with the | :41:49. | :41:51. | |
Government's revised plans for the Coastguard service, which include | :41:51. | :41:54. | |
fewer station closures and a guarantee of 24-hour cover in those | :41:54. | :41:56. | |
that remain. I am pleased that there will be fewer closures and | :41:56. | :42:00. | |
that the government has dropped its plan for daylight early stations. | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
But there are still concerns about the closures that by going ahead. | :42:04. | :42:07. | |
There is a new consultation and I hope that the Government listens | :42:07. | :42:11. | |
carefully to the responses. If the government accepts the importance | :42:11. | :42:21. | |
:42:21. | :42:22. | ||
of local knowledge, it is -- it must show how it can do this. | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
Emergency towing vessels, the government has not given any ground | :42:25. | :42:29. | |
on this at all. You said in your report they should be continued to | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
be provided by the state, but not to do so it is quite literally | :42:32. | :42:36. | |
inviting disaster and we were not convinced there was a commercial | :42:36. | :42:39. | |
alternative. The government is saying that they think the | :42:39. | :42:42. | |
commercial shipping industry should pay for this kind of thing, not the | :42:42. | :42:50. | |
taxpayer. The emergency towing vehicles are there to prevent major | :42:50. | :42:56. | |
pollution incidents which cost the taxpayer millions of pounds. They | :42:56. | :43:00. | |
decided to rid -- withdraw funding from his Brussels without any kind | :43:00. | :43:03. | |
of risk assessment and without any consultation. We saw no evidence at | :43:03. | :43:07. | |
all that the private sector was ready to step in and I hope the | :43:07. | :43:13. | |
government even at this hour revises its plans. Another area of | :43:13. | :43:17. | |
be concerned few if they government's decision to remove | :43:17. | :43:21. | |
funding from the Maritime incident Response Group. You said this is | :43:21. | :43:27. | |
very important and that they must go away and come back with a more | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
cost-effective way of running it. The government said they have | :43:30. | :43:33. | |
looked at this now and it is not possible to provide the level of | :43:33. | :43:39. | |
service needed for less money? thought there was a case for | :43:39. | :43:44. | |
reducing the cost of the specialist fire-fighting force and the | :43:44. | :43:47. | |
maritime incident Response Group. I'm very disappointed that the | :43:47. | :43:50. | |
government have not looked said it in that way and are withdrawing | :43:50. | :43:57. | |
their funding. -- looked at it. you don't accept it is not possible | :43:57. | :44:02. | |
to provide the level of service required for less resourcing? | :44:02. | :44:05. | |
accept that there is a need to reduce funding, but I don't accept | :44:05. | :44:10. | |
it is impossible to produce a good service for less money. To turn to | :44:10. | :44:15. | |
another issue, you were very concerned at during the process of | :44:15. | :44:19. | |
your inquiry into this that coastguards were prevented from | :44:19. | :44:23. | |
giving oral evidence to the committee. The government in its | :44:23. | :44:26. | |
response has stuck to its insistence that postcards are | :44:26. | :44:32. | |
junior civil servants and it would be inappropriate to give oral | :44:32. | :44:40. | |
evidence -- postcards. The minister did give us an assurance that the | :44:40. | :44:42. | |
coastguards would be able to talk directly to the committee and that | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
that was subsequently changed. I'm not convinced by the government's | :44:47. | :44:51. | |
response. We did find a way of talking to the coastguard officers | :44:51. | :44:54. | |
by going to the stations, but that would have been better if they had | :44:55. | :44:59. | |
been able to give us evidence directly at our committee. There is, | :44:59. | :45:04. | |
as you say, a further consultation, but it is pretty limited, it isn't | :45:04. | :45:09. | |
it? In particular, these issues are of huge consent to, the emergency | :45:09. | :45:15. | |
towing vessels, they are not within the town so that consultation. For | :45:15. | :45:20. | |
a lot of your concerns, is this the end of the story? The consultation | :45:20. | :45:25. | |
is limited but I hope the Government listens to the responses. | :45:25. | :45:28. | |
The government seems to be determined on its decision to | :45:28. | :45:32. | |
withdraw funding for the emergency towing vessels and for the | :45:32. | :45:35. | |
emergency fire-fighting service. There is not any more consultation | :45:35. | :45:40. | |
on that. These are very serious issues and a head the government is | :45:40. | :45:44. | |
still considering the position. you think that is likely's it | :45:44. | :45:48. | |
doesn't look likely, but I hope that they are. | :45:48. | :45:51. | |
In Prime Minister Questions on Wednesday, a Devon MP said David | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
Cameron needed to take tougher action against the sale of cheap | :45:54. | :45:57. | |
alcohol. The government's promised to ban shops and bars from selling | :45:57. | :46:01. | |
drinks for less than the tax paid on them. But the Conservative MP | :46:01. | :46:05. | |
for Totnes, Sarah Wollaston, who of course used to be a GP, says that's | :46:05. | :46:13. | |
not enough. I know they have Prime Minister is serious about tackling | :46:13. | :46:20. | |
violent crime and anti-social behaviour. Would he make of me to | :46:20. | :46:24. | |
discuss the evidence that we need to go further on minimum pricing, | :46:24. | :46:27. | |
availability and particularly the marketing of alcohol to young | :46:27. | :46:31. | |
people? David Cameron praised her work on the issue of alcohol abuse | :46:31. | :46:38. | |
but said he disagreed on this particular point. I'm very happy to | :46:38. | :46:41. | |
meet with the honourable lady who has written a lot of articles about | :46:41. | :46:47. | |
this issue, and I think she's right in many ways, that actually, there | :46:47. | :46:52. | |
is a problem of binge drinking are now country. A lot is related to | :46:52. | :46:57. | |
very low cost alcohol, particularly in supermarkets. I want see an end | :46:57. | :47:00. | |
to that deep discounting of a rather than the way forward that | :47:00. | :47:03. | |
she suggests. But I'm very important to discuss this vital | :47:03. | :47:08. | |
issue. Over the summer, the Government announced a review of | :47:08. | :47:11. | |
the legislation governing the sale of failing pubs. Ministers say | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
they're looking for ways to help communities who want to buy their | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
local and keep it open. At the moment, if you're selling a pub you | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
can impose a covenant which stops the building being re-opened as a | :47:20. | :47:23. | |
public house. Campaigners say the market should be left to decide | :47:23. | :47:31. | |
whether a pub is viable or not. Emma Ruminski reports. | :47:31. | :47:35. | |
committee of Stoke Canon no longer have to walk miles for a pint. | :47:35. | :47:40. | |
Beginning to said they had lost a valuable social resource and so | :47:40. | :47:44. | |
banded together to reopen it. The Stoke Canon in was bought by its | :47:44. | :47:47. | |
private landlord and the community it all bought shares to rent it | :47:47. | :47:57. | |
:47:57. | :47:58. | ||
back off him. It is now a free house run by volunteers. It was | :47:58. | :48:03. | |
like Kevin Costner's Field of dreams. People started pouring out | :48:03. | :48:13. | |
:48:13. | :48:19. | ||
of every alleyway. It was wonderful talking to people. We got through | :48:19. | :48:29. | |
:48:29. | :48:33. | ||
it very quickly. We got together in about March and reopened in June. | :48:33. | :48:39. | |
had never done any work like this before. It is a chance to meet more | :48:40. | :48:44. | |
people, rekindle some friendships. The villagers claim rent in the pub | :48:44. | :48:49. | |
has put the heart back in the community. -- renting the pub. Most | :48:49. | :48:53. | |
of the drinkers have a �50 at stake in the scheme say it has made the | :48:53. | :49:03. | |
:49:03. | :49:06. | ||
pub by a bull. It has only been open to month. -- two months. | :49:06. | :49:13. | |
couldn't bear to think of it not been a pub anymore. Redecorated, | :49:13. | :49:22. | |
painted, cleaned and opened it. The community spirit was fantastic. | :49:22. | :49:26. | |
not for committees are as fortunate as the Stoke Canon. This pub closed | :49:26. | :49:31. | |
last year and will be -- will be demolished. The Campaign for Real | :49:31. | :49:36. | |
Ale fate many pubs have Covenant on them. Buyers have to enter into an | :49:36. | :49:42. | |
agreement, promising not to reopen them as a pub. Claims have been | :49:42. | :49:50. | |
made it has been used by larger companies to limit competition. | :49:50. | :49:57. | |
have been licking to doing away with restrictive covenants -- | :49:57. | :50:03. | |
looking at doing away. Over the summer, the government announced it | :50:03. | :50:08. | |
was reviewing legislation to help communities that want to try and | :50:08. | :50:18. | |
:50:18. | :50:23. | ||
revive his closing cubs. -- closing pubs. We have got these ageing by- | :50:23. | :50:26. | |
laws were a proper has got to be proven to be trading at a loss | :50:26. | :50:32. | |
before it can go and how many pubs are they in the village except her, | :50:32. | :50:39. | |
let it go and let people make the pub the centre of the community | :50:40. | :50:45. | |
again. But the British beer and pub Association says there are bigger | :50:45. | :50:55. | |
:50:55. | :50:56. | ||
issues facing pubs, where restrictive covenants are not | :50:56. | :51:00. | |
regularly applied. It is still early days for the Stoke Canon in, | :51:00. | :51:04. | |
but they have big plans. They are now looking for a chef to provide | :51:04. | :51:11. | |
food here on a franchise basis. The aim here is to keep the proper live | :51:11. | :51:16. | |
for the community to socialise and support each other. Earlier, I | :51:16. | :51:19. | |
spoke to the East Devon MP Hugo Swire who's backing the review. I | :51:19. | :51:28. | |
asked him how much of a problem restrictive covenants are. Between | :51:28. | :51:34. | |
2004 and 2009, five under and 70 pubs were lost to their communities | :51:34. | :51:39. | |
because of restrictive covenants -- a 570. The pub companies have told | :51:39. | :51:49. | |
:51:49. | :51:50. | ||
us that they don't intend to impose many of the covenant for any more. | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
There were five in Lancashire, somebody who had a petrol station | :51:53. | :51:59. | |
and a shop and he sold it and put a covenant so that he could open up a | :51:59. | :52:07. | |
pub round the corner. That is a thriving organisation. I think it | :52:07. | :52:13. | |
is important that people actually do look at it on line and make | :52:13. | :52:18. | |
their views known to the department. So your mind is not entirely made | :52:18. | :52:23. | |
up? When slightly prejudiced. Bearing in mind what icy around the | :52:24. | :52:28. | |
place, I believe the part that is central to the local community -- | :52:28. | :52:36. | |
what I see. From my own experience, I go to my local pub when I see | :52:36. | :52:43. | |
that are fewer people are there. It would be a great loss to the | :52:44. | :52:48. | |
communities. Beer is very expensive at the moment. That must be one of | :52:48. | :52:51. | |
the reasons why people just don't go to the pub. The pub companies | :52:51. | :52:57. | |
have said, and indeed your neighbour in south Dorset, the | :52:57. | :53:02. | |
Conservative MP, seems to agree, that the government puts up duty | :53:02. | :53:10. | |
all the time, which is a big problem. It is incumbent on us to | :53:10. | :53:14. | |
try and rebalance the economy to stop it going in the same direction | :53:14. | :53:20. | |
of many other countries within Europe. Unfortunately, people have | :53:20. | :53:25. | |
to be taxed. There are other factors involved, like the low | :53:25. | :53:28. | |
price of alcohol in supermarkets and the offers they come up with. | :53:28. | :53:37. | |
That is also effective. But if you look at tax, 10 pence on a pint | :53:37. | :53:44. | |
this year, it is a lot of money very quickly. It is a lot of money, | :53:44. | :53:54. | |
:53:54. | :54:02. | ||
but there are also other factors, not least in certain parts.A better | :54:02. | :54:09. | |
position if you're in a free pub, but at a worse position if you're | :54:09. | :54:16. | |
in a local community with no pub at all. The Conservative government in | :54:16. | :54:22. | |
the 1980s tried to break the monopoly which the big breweries | :54:22. | :54:24. | |
had. People like David Cameron would say that clever businessman | :54:24. | :54:29. | |
got round that a run-out in a situation where if you pick pub | :54:29. | :54:39. | |
:54:39. | :54:41. | ||
companies have a large number of pubs. Could do nothing fundamental | :54:41. | :54:51. | |
:54:51. | :54:55. | ||
be done? Things are shifting, behaviour is changing. Some people | :54:55. | :54:59. | |
are saying they would radically we do all the pubs owned by a certain | :54:59. | :55:03. | |
groups and make them more American to reflect people's changing habits. | :55:03. | :55:08. | |
I don't think we are saying anything should be an aspect. Some | :55:08. | :55:18. | |
:55:18. | :55:21. | ||
of the pops, -- at some of the pubs, people come together and buy their | :55:21. | :55:29. | |
pubs. They have got a pub, internet access. That is the kind of new | :55:29. | :55:34. | |
thinking we need. When you go to remote villages, there is also a | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
post office and a shop, it becomes the thriving centre of overall | :55:38. | :55:43. | |
community. I would like to see more of that. | :55:43. | :55:46. | |
The prospect of a fuel duty reduction on the Isles of Scilly | :55:46. | :55:49. | |
took a step forward this week. The European Commission approved the | :55:49. | :55:52. | |
five pence per litre cut in principle. But before the UK | :55:52. | :55:55. | |
Treasury can confirm the discount it must now seek approval from | :55:55. | :56:05. | |
:56:05. | :56:05. | ||
member states. Of course, if it is successful, there is the | :56:05. | :56:08. |