Alastair McKee reports on the cost for our councils of dealing with village green planning applications. It's been five years since the Commons Act 2006 gave absolutely anyone the right to apply to register land used by locals for recreation as a protected Village Green. Residents and environmentalists say the act helped to tip the scales of power for a fairer planning process but small landowners and developers say the act is being used by small groups to prevent otherwise perfectly acceptable, widely supported and often much-needed developments from going ahead.

Plus Scott Ellis reports on the cuts to housing benefits being introduced this year and what impact it will have on communities in the West of England. Critics of the policy argue it will further concentrate low income tenants into deprived areas.

And David Braine asks if the Hinkley nuclear power station could withstand a tsunami on the Severn estuary. He discovers evidence that a major flooding event happened on the Somerset levels just over four hundred years ago. The operators at Hinkley insist the plant is built to cope with such an event. Show less