06/03/2017 South East Today

Today's main headlines in the South East.

How the Dartford Crossing was officially classified as a rural

road, avoiding the need to publish pollution data.

And the new boss of Paramount Park outlines their plans

for the ?3 billion attraction in north Kent.

And after some decent spells of sunshine, tomorrow's Woodborough

tomorrow stays dry and bright. The Dartford Crossing is one

of the busiest sections of road in the country and air pollution

levels regularly exceed the safe limit, but until two years ago,

it was classified by the Government The error means the levels

of pollution there haven't been passed on to the European Union,

which can impose fines when safety The mistake was revealed

exclusively to BBC South East 50 million journeys are made on this

stretch of road every year. The towns closest, Dartford

to the south and Thurrock to the North, have some

of the highest percentages of death due to air

pollution in the south-east. In Dartford, the council has

recorded nitrogen dioxide levels above safe limits for years

and when the town didn't appear in the national air quality

plan, they were puzzled. We discovered that the approach road

was classed as a rural Road and therefore, the air monitoring

figures that they had and that they were using for their modelling

purposes were incorrect. It means for years, national data

on our pollution has not included this incredibly busy

stretch of road. Whoever decided that there is no

pollution around here must be... Probably doesn't live

in Dartford, to be honest. I've got two small children

and regularly if you live here, you will notice several times a day

or several times a week, there The crossing and its approach roads

are not classed as part of the motorway but as the A282,

and a roads can count as rural But that's clearly

not the case here. Jim Sutton, who lives

near the crossing, believes it is exasperated the respiratory

problems which affected The air pollution around

here certainly did not help her. She always used to say,

I wish we could move, Jim. Scientists from Kings College have

carried out their own monitoring. The European legal limit was broken

on three days and that was primarily because of pollution which the road

is producing every day with the traffic on it was joined up

with pollution that was coming over The Department for the Environment

says the Department for Transport The Department for Transport says

it was the Department Either way, it has finally been

reclassified as bourbon. Leanne is on the approach

to the Dartford crossing and Leanne, this is more than just a mix up over

names, isn't it? Yes, because it means the air

pollution from this road behind me which affects thousands of people

either side has not been considered by the government and when those air

pollution levels rise above those levels set by the European Union,

there has not been any penalties. All this comes as the leader of the

World Health Organization has described air pollution as one of

the most pernicious threats to public health, disproportionately

affecting children. There's fresh controversy tonight

over hundreds of pounds of cosmetics that should have gone to needy

people but were instead sold by a Labour party

member in Ramsgate to help fund her County Council

election campaign. BBC South East Today has spoken

to one woman who told us she was led to believe the sale was in aid

of charity and says The equivalent amount

of money raised has now been Our Political Editor

Helen Catt reports. This sale of donated

cosmetics in a Ramsgate Pub Facebook posts by its organiser

Karen Constantine made clear that the money was destined

for Labour coffers. But now there are claims that

customers at the pub sale may have thought they were giving

to charity instead. I asked her what she wanted on that

board and the word charity Natalie Garrett was working

at the pub during the sale. As a former charity

volunteer herself, she says Some of my friends and even some

of my family purchased some If they'd have known

that it was for a political party, then it just wouldn't

have been supported. But here we are at the warehouse,

and we are fortunate The sale has already caused

controversy after it emerged the donations had come

from a charity Food For All. ..Good causes and today is one

of those good causes, one of the good causes that I stand

for as well, which happens to be the Labour Party, so yes,

my name is Jenny and you are looking at our warehouse and hopefully we

can raise some funds for the cause. Jenny has since apologised

for giving the goods. When contacted by us today,

Karen Constantine declined She reiterated that she fully

apologised for not knowing the election funding laws

regarding charities and had taken immediate steps to make sure

that the money raised had gone Labour has repeated its statement

that the party has not breached electoral law and there is no

allegation that the party Natalie says knowing the money

is now with charity is rightful and just but she believes it doesn't

make up for it happening The manager of the pub in Ramsgate

where the Lush products were sold has contacted BBC South East tonight

to claim that the wording 'for charity' was noton

the advertising board on the day of the sale and says

that he has CCTV footage A former British Army

officer from Sussex has Tristan Voorspuy was killed

on the ranch he owned on Sunday. Mr Voorspuy was a pupil

at Eastbourne College and moved to the area of Laikipia in Kenya

in the 1980s to set up The area's suffering a drought

and the Foreign Office is warning of an increase in armed raids

by cattle herders in The company planning to build one

of the world's biggest theme parks in North Kent says small businesses

may have to sell up if they can't London Resort Company Holdings

intends to submit a planning application for Paramount Park

later this year. The attraction on the Swanscombe

Peninsula is projected They hope to attract around

15 million visitors a year and plan to create around 27,000 jobs

in the area. Disneyland Paris, a huge

entertainment resort, the likes of which can't be found

in the UK. But this man wants

to change all that. He wants to build a grade one

destination theme park twice the size of the Olympic Park

with 5000 hotel rooms But businesses in the area fear it

all mean they could be How much are you going to offer them

to make way for your attraction? Well, we are in talks with them

and we meet regularly and we will be offering them obviously the market

related price of their land. It won't be the case that they'll be

forced off their land? In terms of that, there is a process

with any planning application where either the forehand,

before the application is submitted, people can enter into an agreement

and in some cases, there will be a time where we will purchase

their land after the planning And he says if an agreement isn't

reached, that could mean land having to be bought by a compulsory

purchase order, but in return, there'll be

a world-class resort and jobs. There has been a tremendous

response, a tremendous positive response locally,

for reasons which I think We are going to provide

jobs, 27,000 jobs. It will bring a lot

of jobs to the area, how traffic is going to cope,

I don't know. I'm quite excited

about it, to be honest. I am a bit worried about

the build-up, but I understand it is in four or five years,

so hopefully by then, the railways and the roads around here,

because they are diabolical as it is, so hopefully,

it should be all right then. The planning application will be

submitted by the end of the year and if the outcome of that goes

the developer's way, Paramount Park could be

opening its doors five That's it from me, we'll

have the national weather in a moment, first here's

the forecast for the There will be some rain around this

week. Especially for Wednesday but we are expecting to see temperatures

by Thursday and Friday reach highs of 13 or 14 degrees. Average for the

time of year is still around six or seven. Tonight, one or two scattered

showers but mostly dry as we start the day tomorrow and with clearer

skies, temperatures falling away. Lots of sunshine tomorrow,

especially given the morning. By the afternoon, we start to see a bit

more in the way of cloud cover. For tomorrow afternoon, very pleasant.

Light winds and where we see temperatures in more sheltered spots

reaching ten or 11 degrees. As we had to tomorrow night, overnight

lows will only be falling away to six or 7 degrees. That rain is heavy

at times. Spent -- eventually it will head eastwards. A very mild

night. Outbreaks of rain on Wednesday, particularly during the

afternoon but staying very mild. Temperatures in double figures.

Highs of 11 or 12 degrees. As we had through the tail end of the week,

staying breezy. A lot of cloud around. Especially for Thursday.

Temperatures staying in double figures. Here is the outlook for the

south-east. cool, it will be windy at times as

well and still rather unsettled with some blustery showers around. That's

the London forecast and now for the National forecast, over to Nick

Miller. North-west France and Plymouth were

miles apart weather-wise. This southern flank in north-west France

there was a wind gusts of 120 mph which we just dodged. That area of

low pressure continues to move quickly south-eastwards so that by

tomorrow it is in Italy on its southern flank, stormy in Sardinia

and around it strong winds blowing through south-east France. We've got

a little bump in the ice bars with lighter winds, a brief ridge of high

pressure, things briefly settled going into tomorrow, overnight there

are some showers around moving through western Scotland and

north-west England and the Midlands, clearing Wales, one or two in the

east, the North Sea tip of high pressure, things briefly settled

going into tomorrow, overnight there are some showers around moving

through western Scotland and north-west England and