31/03/2017 Inside Out East

We ask why the Environment Agency doesn't know how much raw sewage

is being released into our rivers.

And when sewage goes unchecked, businesses suffer.

It was unfit to harvest shellfish,

because they would be poisonous to the public.

We spend time with Lauri Love, who is accused of stealing data

from the United States government.

It's just absurd that someone should be sent to a foreign prison system

which leaves a lot to be desired.

And a landmark battle on land, 350 years ago.

Revealing the stories that matter closer to home.

That's tonight's Inside Out.

Hello, welcome to Felixstowe, on the Suffolk coast.

This is the last programme in our current series.

The quality of our water is vital.

Hundreds of people's jobs rely on it, and the shellfish

from our shores ends up in top restaurants around the world.

But Inside Out has discovered the Environment Agency doesn't know

exactly how much raw sewage

is being released into our rivers and estuaries.

Here's Richard Daniel.

These tidal mudflats and salt marshes attract hundreds

of thousands of wetland birds every year.

It's an area that's considered so important both to wildlife

and the shellfishing industry that its protected by law.

The River Roach is part of the country's largest inshore

Marine Conservation Zone.

It is a huge area -

it's about 100 square miles of inshore waters

from Clacton in the north to Foulness Point in the south.

So you might be surprised to learn that water companies can

and do release raw sewage into places like this.

Now, this big pipe behind me is a storm overflow.

Now usually when we put stuff down our drains, our sinks,

and our toilets that material goes to a sewage treatment works

where it's dealt with.

But when there's torrential rain, water companies are allowed

to put out raw sewage through pipes like this.

It finds its way into rivers, estuaries and the sea.

This is Barton Hall, on the River Roach near Southend.

Two years ago, water tests revealed there was a problem.

We received a letter saying the river had been closed.

The E.coli count was so very high and when we looked at it was 93,000

when it would normally be in the very low hundreds

and it was unfit to harvest shellfish because they would be

poisonous to the public.

Rightly so.

And of course we were devastated.

Because at that time we actually had a company that were looking

to buy the river from us.

And that was going to be our pension.

Shellfishing at Barton Hall was banned.

The Environment Agency says sewage

was getting into the river upstream -

homes hadn't been plumbed in properly.

Anglian Water says that wasn't its fault but fixed the problems.

It also repaired a partly-collapsed sewer,

and cleared some partly blocked sewers.

The Environment Agency says the river is recovering.

Why was the problem able to develop?

Just sort of crept up on us, really.

Less people around these days from the agency

looking into the river.

These things just caught us unawares, really.

Do you actually know at the moment how often

raw sewage is going into our rivers and estuaries?

"No" is the quick answer.

We don't.

There is no sort of system actually monitoring

when many of these overflows do operate.

I think a lot of people will find that astounding.

So why is that?

Basically, there hasn't been the money or the wherewithal

to actually monitor these things closely.

So why does water quality matter so much?

For two and a half centuries, the Haward family

has been harvesting in the Blackwater Estuary.

Their oysters end up in top restaurants around the world.

They only come from good quality waters, and are regularly checked

to make sure they're safe to eat.

We bring the oysters in here and we put them in these trays,

which have got salt water running through them which has been purified

by passing ultra violet tubes, and then the oysters purify

themselves by pumping the clean sea water

because they naturally do that to feed.

So how long do they stay in here then?

They're in here for 42 hours.

Then we drain them down we take them out and pack them and send

them away to customers.

And will be on a table very quickly where?

Could be the other side of the world in two days.

If we don't have good water quality, we're very unlikely to get oysters

spawning successfully and thereby maintaining and increasing the stock

of oysters in the area.

And it's not just the fishermen who rely on clean water.

Here we are.

Two thirds sky, it's a beautiful habitat,

beautiful environment, and it's really our

last natural habitat.

Essex Wildlife Trust looks after this nature reserve

at Fingringhoe Wick.

We've got red shank, we've got avocet, and grey plover,

a particularly important bird here on the Colne estuary.

This is a really precious, important area ? the Essex

estuaries support many tens, hundreds of thousands of wading

birds that are coming in from northern Europe

in the winter.

So we have an obligation, we have a responsibility

to protect these areas, not just for ourselves and the birds

that use them in the winter, but for the whole of Europe.

Anglian Water says, on the rivers Blackwater, Roach and Crouch,

it has 43 storm overflows but it only has to monitor half of them.

So what do you think of the fact that Anglian Water can legally,

from time to time, discharge raw sewage into this environment?

Well, clearly we're not happy that situation.

We hope that over time it will get better

and we will cease those sort of discharges.

We are sinking a shaft into the ground here,

to a depth of 22 metres.

Anglian Water is responsible for the sewers in the region.

So what does it have to say?

The fact is, the Environment Agency has told us they don't

know the quantity of sewage you're putting into the environment,

and how frequently.

That cannot be acceptable.

We do it under permit.

It is authorised by the Environment Agency,

and it only ever happens if the system has been

inundated with rainwater.

Say you cannot tell me how much you're doing,

how money times you're doing this, or how much sewage

you're putting in?

I can tell you in terms of how frequently in this particular

area have triggered, and we're looking somewhere

in the region of, based on the last three years data,

one in every five that is here that has triggered.

We are working very closely with the agency in terms

of installing monitors to give us a better idea of how

much volume goes out, to help us with these impact

assessments and to target where investment needs to be made.

So when will this problem be sorted?

When will you stop putting raw sewage out

into rivers and estuaries?

I think there will always be a need to make sure there are safeguards

systems on sewerage networks, because if you don't people's homes

will become flooded with sewage.

What I can say is that the incidents where this happens are carefully

monitored, we're doing everything

we can that they don't happen very frequently,

and when they do happen, as we have here at Southend,

we're investing to put additional storm storage in or additional

solutions to reduce the likelihood.

Anglian Water says it isn't doing anything wrong,

and provides the information it's legally required to.

The Environment Agency told us most of the time sewage discharges

don't cause a problem.

But it also admits it to has to do more.

We are now requiring the water companies to put on monitors that

will be able to tell when discharges to start and stop.

By the early '20s, we should be in a position where we've got

the information and them we can, on a priority basis,

get these overflows improved.

Last month, the shell fishing ban on the River Roach

at Barton Hall was finally lifted.

It's part of a network of places that we must look

after, for all of us.

Not just for me as a fisherman, everybody.

You know, these estuaries are stunning, and they're

so important, not just for wildlife, but for people's livelihoods too,

but what we've found out is that we still have no idea how

much sewage is finding its way into precious precious environments.

And we're not likely to know until the end of the decade.

So the question then is when, if ever,

will the problem be sorted out?

Well, if there's something you think we should be looking

into here on the programme, you can get in touch with me

on Twitter or drop me an e-mail.

You're watching Inside Out for the East of England,

right here on BBC One.

Later on, the little-known battle that happened

right here in Felixstowe

that helped to give us the modern day Royal Marines.

Four months ago, Lauri Love from Suffolk was told he could face

99 years in prison if convicted of hacking allegations against

the United States government.

The 32-year-old, who has Asperger's, is fighting extradition.

We've spent some time with him.

This is basically a whole computer processing unit,

sort of spread out and split up so you can see all the operations

in terms of logic gates.

In an actual computer, this entire thing is smaller

than your finger nail and a million times faster.

After a while in primary school, it was identified that

I was getting a bit bored.

So somebody came in for a while to give me some extra tuition.

And we spent a lot of time on the computers,

so I was introduced to databases.

I stopped just playing the game on the computer and I realised

that the game followed rules that I could list and I could get

a listing of the entire code for the game and through thinking

about it hard enough and through systematic

methods of trial and error, I could change that game

and I could make it easier or harder or cheat and get to the final level.

From that, there was a great feeling of, I am no longer constricted

and confined by the limited imagination of other people.

You can play Tetris on it as well!

It's very hard for me to be not be able to access information,

using computers, that's the way I interface with the world.

Being sent to a country that I've never visited to be locked up

for the rest of my life would be like losing my sight,

if I was locked away from technology, and I could only

make a phone call to speak to family once a week.

There you go, game over.

I had a coffee, I was in this dressing gown, my mum calls to say

there is a parcel for me, which does happen periodically.

I came down, there was a guy in a UPS uniform, which seemed

pretty consistent with that story.

Sadly, instead of getting an interesting box full

of interesting things, I got handcuffed and told

that I was under arrest.

Then the UPS delivery guy was actually a National Crime Agency

officer, in inverted commas.

Him and his 11 or so friends came into the house and started turning

everything upside down.

It took about four or five hours for them to effect

their search and seizure.

During which time my parents were very upset.

My dad wasn't allowed to go outside get fresh air,

despite having a heart condition.

I had to try and reassure them that it was not the end of the world

while thinking in my head, this is the end of the world.

Eventually, about 11:30, I was driven to the police

station in Bury St Edmunds.

This is not right, that my son can be taken away.

It is my belief that it is not fair or just that our boy,

who has mental health issues, can be taken away from his family

or his support network, merely to satisfy the desire

of the Americans.

It's wrong.

You have to give my love to everyone.

I would take you with me, but you're not allowed to leave the house.

Yeah.

Well, I've got bail again tomorrow.

I just constantly watch Lauri's mental health be affected by this,

because it is deeply worrying.

I don't think anyone who has listened to the case

envies his position one iota.

The charges are clarified in the United States.

The issue for me is that I haven't been charged in the UK.

Nobody is requesting that I don't face justice,

just that I face the justice of the country where

I live and was born.

I believe that Lauri should be allowed to have a trial in this

country and pay the price for anything he may have done.

I don't know what he's done, because that's not be my business

to find out what he did or didn't do.

He should pay the price for it.

Assuming it's determined I did anything wrong!

Exactly.

In this country, the maximum is about three years.

In America, they will lock him up for decades.

They say that is just.

I would imagine that I will have a significant about time in.

-- in prison.

It's absurd that someone should be sent to country

they have never been, thousands of miles from

from their friends and family, to face foreign law,

foreign punishments in a foreign prison system.

If there are no other options, if there is a choice

between being subjected to the US justice system and being turned

into an example or deterrent, or choosing to end my life,

I do reserve the right to do that.

# You can get it if you really want # Try and try, try and try... #

We're just on the way to the police station,

where I have to go and put a scribble

on a bit of paper twice a week, between 12pm and 4pm

on Monday and between 10am and 12pm on a Wednesday.

I don't mind, but it's very tedious having all these bail conditions.

I don't find going to see the police, but sometimes I've had

to come all the way from far afield to get back in time for bail.

Recently, they've been trying to make sure that I'm at home

in bed at 9pm or 10pm.

I'm not going to skip bail, I don't want my parents

to lose their ?5,000, I won't get my passport back,

and another be able to come back to the UK and ties

with my friends and family.

I'm not going anywhere until we had our appeals

and gone through the process and hopefully won.

It's unfortunate that rather than there being a swift justice

in the UK, where by now I would be on the other end of it

and getting on with my life, the long drawn-out process

of there being three extradition requests has meant that I've had

three years of another deal that I would not wish my enemies.

It's not without it's cost, and it is constant in the fact that

I have trouble sleeping.

You can see it on my face, where my eczema flared up

because of the stress.

I constantly having to go to the doctor to get creams

or to deal with infections.

It takes it on my parents, who worry in some ways even more

than me because if it's your child, it's difficult to imagine them going

away and never seen them again.

I have something resembling faith that things will turn out OK.

It may just be a very slow process.

We intend to win in court.

Beyond winning, we intend to win to the extent

that a precedent is set.

I may be tried and convicted in the UK, but that's small fry

compared to spending the rest of the life in America.

This year is the 350th anniversary of the first ever land battle

of the predecessors to the Royal Marines.

It's a battle little-known by historians, but it happened

right here in Felixstowe.

The man who led the soldiers is a local hero.

This shingle spit, off the Suffolk coast, is just next

to the bustling port of Felixstowe.

And it doesn't look like much, but this unassuming piece of coast

has been a strategic military post for hundreds of years.

And it helped to form one of the most elite fighting

forces in the world - the Royal Marine Commandos.

In 1543, King Henry VIII decided that the shipping route was too

important to be left unprotected.

The deep channel was an important trading route,

much like it is today.

So they made a makeshift fort with guns from the Tower of London.

But it wasn't until 1628 that a proper fort was built,

and it was about to really come into its own.

350 years ago, there was a battle at Landguard Fort.

It was a really David and Goliath type of affair.

1,500 Dutch soldiers were invading the Suffolk coast

but at the Fort there were only 400 English soldiers.

The battle only lasted about a day, but what happened

here actually lead to the birth of the modern day Royal Marines.

The elite fighting force that has fought more battles on sea

and land than any other part of the British Armed Forces.

The man seen by many as a founding father of the Royal Marines

was Captain Nathanial Darryl of the Lord High Admiral's Regiment.

It was the forerunner to the Royal Marines.

He was in charge and also the commander of Landguard Fort.

Paul Grant works at the Fort, and knows all the history.

There have been fortifications down here since Henry VIII's time,

because this a strategic location to defend the port of Harwich.

It's nothing to do with Felixstowe, it's all about defending Harwich.

It was a really important deep water port even in medieval times.

The reason for that is any ships wanting to get

into Harwich will have to go through the deepwater channel,

and it comes very close to the Felixstowe side.

This was the best place to actually put the fort to defend the Port

of Harwich at the time.

Captain Darryl was based here during the Anglo Dutch War.

They were fighting over trade routes and ships were being attacked

and sunk on both sides.

The Dutch fleet had the upper hand.

There'd been a massive battle in the Medway,

and the English had been humiliated.

And so the Dutch, after the Medway, they were looking for other

opportunities to force the hand, force the British into some

negotiations and get the upper hand.

So they picked on Harwich.

It was a very important deepwater port, and had

a naval dockyard there.

So they sent a fleet to sink it.

So a really impressive fleet.

Dutch warships were gathering out here between Harwich and Felixstowe.

But before they could attack the Harwich naval dockyard,

they had to take out the fort first.

So they strategically landed their soldiers

here at Kobold's Point.

They marched down with scaling ladders, and dragged

small cannon with them.

They got down to the fort and commenced their assault.

It was the Musketeers of the Lord High Admiral's Regiment

which really were the most effective for the first Dutch assault.

The Dutch were charging at the fort, trying

to get over the walls.

The fort is a bit different to this one here,

it was basically sand and earth banks turfed up, and the Dutch

were trying to get in.

The musket fire from the Marines just kept them at bay.

Another thing that happened was a small ship came out

of Harwich, just with a few small cannon on it,

all the Navy could muster, but started firing

across into the shingle

where the Dutch were taking cover from the musket fire.

The cannon balls, although they were small,

they sprayed up the shingle which acted like shrapnel,

causing injuries.

They made a second attempt to storm the fought,

but again they were beaten back.

The Dutch ran back down here, to where they'd been dropped off

earlier in the day and fled back to their ships.

Captain Darryl and his men had won, but it also changed the face

of the armed forces because this was the very first ever land battle

of the Royal Marines.

Every year, they celebrate Darryl's day at Landguard fort.

It is open to everyone, and even Royal Marines come out

to remember captain Darryl.

Warrant Officer Jake Laidlaw is a Royal Marine veteran and today

he's in charge of the parade.

I joined in 1954, I did 18 months learning to be a bugler and drummer,

and then was drafted onto the HMS Gambia for the Far East,

and the flagship, which was a cruiser.

From then, I rose the ranks and became a trained infantryman.

Then I served in Singapore, Malaysia, Borneo, Cyprus.

When you joined the Marines, were you ever aware of what actually

happened with Darryl and the efforts and the battle that

happened here at Landguard?

No, I wasn't.

It was about three years ago that I really got

to hear about it, you know?

Goodness me, you served your entire life in the Royal Marines,

and this was pretty much the birth of what we have today

as the Royal Marines, and you never knew?

After three decades?

No, it was not part of our history.

We have so much history in the Royal Marines that I suppose

it wasn't one of the big events, you know?

What do you think was going through his mind when faced

with that kind of manpower coming at him down the coast,

they'd landed at Kobold's Point, and were headed to Landguard Fort.

As somebody who was in command, what would he have been thinking?

Utter panic. Utter panic.

I mean, to have odds like that.

It was three to one.

So he was amazing.

He decided to hold the fort.

That is fantastic with the amount of people.

Bearing in mind the infantryman he had were battle hardened,

so they won't novices.

That's what gave them the advantage against the Dutch.

Do you think he was a hero?

Yes, I do.

As far as we are concerned, he's our hero.

That's why we come together to celebrate once a year.

Sergeant Major Mick Hernaman is with the Royal Marine reserves.

He's here today to pay tribute to captain Darryl.

What do you think was going through his head when he was faced

with this approaching raid?

I would think, from my experience, you've got to get on with the job.

Obviously, in my time, automatic weapons,

you can let off a lot of rounds.

For some reason, that does calm you.

It must've been harder when you've got a sword or a musket which takes

about a minute and a half to load.

I think an awful lot would be going through his mind.

But focusing on his job and getting that done and basically not getting

hurt so you can continue with your job.

Do the Marines owe something to captain Darryl?

Up to then, they fought and ships, hadn't had any

significant land battles.

Here it was, a turning point in history.

Not necessarily in the Marines, but the whole country,

certainly this area of Britain.

We need our heroes, don't we?

Someone that

did something right.

I do like the Dutch!

We're all friends now.

Captain Darryl was injured in the battle,

but made a full recovery.

People called him a hero, but not long after the battle

at Landguard Fort, he seems to disappear out

of the history books.

No one knows what happened to him.

England was down, it had had the great Fire of London,

the plague, attacks by the Dutch, the Dutch had

humiliated the King, it had humiliated the Royal Navy.

Finally, one man stood up with his men in Landguard and won

a small but important victory for the English.

And the 350th anniversary celebrations take place this summer.

That's good for this series, but I'll be back in the autumn.

In the meantime, we're going through all stories you sent in.

If you want to add to those, get in touch with me

by e-mail or on Twitter.

That's it from Felixstowe.

I'll catch up with you later in the year.

Take care, goodbye.

In the meantime, next Monday, there is a special programme

as the internationally renowned photographer Rankin visits Norfolk

to uncovered the remarkable story of Olive Edis.

Had any male photographer photographed such a range

of society the way she did, it would have been worthy of note.

The fact it was a moment at a time when men dominated society

makes her truly extraordinary.

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