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Press Releases
Inside Out West Midlands working for the clamp down
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The first of the new series of Inside Out, at 7.30pm Wednesday 17 September on 91Èȱ¬ One West Midlands, reveals the abuse of the disabled "blue badge" parking scheme, which is being exploited by people using permits that do not belong to them, are forged or even stolen.
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Birmingham City Council believes it could be missing out on £500,000 a year in lost parking revenue.
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Currently, the council can only have abusers' cars towed away and issue them with a parking ticket. Critics have said a minimum fine and fees of £140 is not much of a deterrent.
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The programme reveals that planned city council changes mean many blue badge cheats could end up in court, facing much bigger fines and a criminal record.
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The Inside Out team join the council's parking enforcement officers on the streets of Birmingham to discover how difficult it is to resolve the issue of blue badge abuse.
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In the second of tomorrow night's reports Mark Hoban (Last Man Standing) travels to the Shropshire and Staffordshire countryside to find out if it's all downhill for farmers trying to diversify from their core business.
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As a growing number of farmers turn to adventure sports for income, Mark tries his hand at sphering and mountain boarding.
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Sphering is the disorienting activity in which participants are strapped inside a giant, transparent ball before bumping down a valley; mountain boarding is like skateboarding down a hillside.
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The question is, can such hair-raising activities generate sufficient income to help the farming industry?
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As well as farmers, independent record shops are also being credit crunched.
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The rise of the internet, among other factors, has wiped out two thirds of the Midlands' stores in the last decade – Coventry is left without a single one.
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Adil Ray aims to find out if the remaining few can survive. Ìý
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