06/03/2017 Inside Out South East

The Government said it was a rural road, so air pollution

Dartford was not getting the recognition of the data

That was because the road was classed as a rural road.

Why are front rooms becoming the new venues for bands?

I started hosting house gigs about two and a quarter years ago

because I really missed having a social life and I really

And we meet our eight-legged friends in the English Channel.

It takes a couple of months to build this sort of trust

between keeper and octopus, but she loves it.

I am Natalie Graham, with untold stories closer to home.

From all around the south-east, this is Inside Out.

Hello and welcome to the programme, which this week comes

to you from Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex.

Now, this is just the place to get a lungful of good fresh air.

But other parts of the south-east are not so lucky.

Is this the most mysterious road in Britain?

And a few miles back, signs will tell you you're on the M25.

But apparently, this is a rural road.

We're going to find out why this is and how it

This area, just south of the Thames in Kent,

is covered by Dartford Borough Council.

Dartford has one of the highest percentages of deaths linked to air

pollution out of anywhere in the south-east, and over

The crossing is one of the busiest roads in the country,

Heavy traffic pumps out harmful fumes, and this stretch

is a prime suspect as a source of air pollution.

It's full to capacity most of the time and congestion

can quickly back up to affect local roads.

Are you concerned for people living along that road

Well, hugely concerned to be perfectly frank.

People's health is suffering quite badly, and the main reason

for it is because we have this huge chunk of motorway running

This busy road takes traffic from the M25

In its shadow is a housing estate called Temple Hill.

The residents living here are just a stone's throw away from that road,

so are they being exposed to levels of air pollution here

His late wife Judy had respiratory problems ever since she was a child.

She couldn't even walk up the road here.

And Jim thinks living so close to the road made her problems worse.

The air pollution round here certainly didn't help her.

She used to say, I wish we could move, Jim,

She said, I'm not going to make old bones, and she was right.

But Jim couldn't afford to move and his wife died.

Experts have proved that people with respiratory problems like these

are particularly at risk from air pollution which can

The Government is required by the EU to abide by the limits on air

pollution, and if they break them, they face fines.

Nitrogen dioxide levels have been recorded by the council

as being over the safe limits here every year

Now this might some as a surprise to you, and it did to us,

but the Government haven't been reporting the nitrogen dioxide

levels here to the EU because they've classified it

Well, to begin with, this is genuinely not the M25.

When they built it, they classed it as an A road.

Part of the reason they did this was to allow buses

to use the crossing, which wouldn't be possible

So even though it looks like a motorway,

Dartford Borough Council pass on their own pollution

measurements to the Department for the Environment, or Defra.

But when that data came back in the form of an air quality plan,

the council spotted there was something wrong.

As a direct consequence of the figures and data

that was published in 2015, we discovered that the approach road

And, therefore, the air monitoring figures that they had,

Because the road was classed as a rural road.

We have seen a letter from the Minister at the Department

for the Environment responsible for air quality.

The letter goes on to say that the problem was fixed

We spoke to the Department for Transport to find out how

long they had classified the Dartford Crossing

But they told us that this is a question for Defra.

They say that Defra designated that road as a rural road, not the DfT.

So then we spoke to the Department for the Environment and asked them,

for how many years has the A282 been excluded from the air quality

Keith Kelly at Dartford Borough Council is concerned that for years,

pollution data from Dartford was not getting through to the EU.

There has not even been the threat of fines where Dartford

significantly exceeds the EU recommendations, as it has done for

We want help to get it resolved as soon as possible.

Because it is blighting our residents' lives.

What do you think of that being classified as a rural road

by the Government and the Government therefore not monitoring it?

It is one of the busiest roads in the bloody country, I would say.

Whether it is a motorway or rural road, people living next to it

have a right to know what is in the air

There is a lot of black stuff that you get on your shelves and things.

It is black. I don't know what is in it.

In order to solve the mystery of the black dust, we have decided

to take some measurements of our own.

We have a specialist team to bring in a machine

The machines will measure the level of PM10 and PM2.5.

These are small particles of pollution that can penetrate

deep into the lungs, and they have been linked with heart

Professor Frank Kelly is an expert in air pollution -

he'll be helping us make sense of the results.

So how will these machines be picking up pollution then?

So what they do is they draw air down into the machine.

This one is measuring anything that is less than ten

And to put that into context, if you take a human hair,

So you get five particles across one human hair.

That means they are invisible and that is why we need

machines like this to measure the concentration.

What are these small particles of pollution that we are measuring?

From a health viewpoint, the larger particles are the ones

which affect our airways and the smaller particles

are the ones that get further down into our deep lung.

Increasingly, we realise that they have effects beyond the lung.

So, they are associated with heart disease,

they are associated with stroke, they are associated with some

of the newer degenerative diseases such as dementia.

The machine will now be left for a month to gather data.

It is time to catch up with Professor Kelly in his lab

He is about to deliver the results and tell us what is in that soot.

This is the filter roll from the particle monitor.

As you can see, it has a series of spots on it.

And what is in those spots? What are our residents breathing in?

The analysis of those spots indicates that there

There is the black carbon, coming from the exhausts of diesel cars.

There is the particles coming from the abrasion of the road.

This represents what people living in that area would be breathing in.

On several days during the month, the particle pollution levels

exceeded the EU limits on what they consider

The European legal limit was broken on three days.

That was primarily because the pollution which the road

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

with pollution that was coming over from the continent.

Was that harmful for the health of residents, to be breathing

It would affect some people if they had a cardiovascular

or respiratory condition, they may have felt more unwell

on those particular days, but really it wouldn't be sort

of causing disease because for that to happen it

requires exposure over many years, many decades.

So what do the residents who have lived here for many decades think

about being exposed to harmful levels of pollution?

I feel sick about that and I'm living here and I could be ill

at any time, you know, and it frightens me as well.

I feel sorry for the little children that are running around in this,

Does it worry you that you're breathing this stuff in?

The residents here thought that they were living

It turns out that, technically, they were living

That error has now been fixed and the council's data has now been

In the meantime, all the people living here want is clean air.

The octopus spotted in the English Channel.

And this is the first time you have seen octopus out in the wild?

It is the first time ever that I have seen one underwater

and I have been diving since the mid-1980s.

Now, every band dreams of one day playing Wembley Stadium.

But first, they might have to think small.

By day, Eccles might seem like your normal,

But, by night, something happens here and in other houses

across the country that could save the British music

Small venues are in trouble at the moment.

Had it not been for the Cavern Club, the Beatles

Had it not been for the Marquee in London, the Rolling Stones

Over the past ten years, 40% of small music venues have

And with gentrification, rising rents and business rates soaring,

the venues left behind are struggling to stay open.

They are vital and they are not just places where music starts.

They are places where people start to develop ideas.

If you don't have those small venues, where are these

So we're going to find out if staying in, albeit

in someone else's home, is the new going out.

Anna is getting ready for the gig this evening.

Not at the O2 or the Wembley Arena, but in her very own home.

I started hosting house gigs about two and a quarter years ago

because I really missed having a social life and I really

I am a single parent who lives in a village with really poor

transport links and I just missed being able to have a night out.

It is so enriching and connecting and that is kind of irreplaceable

for a musician, that actual, genuine coming together of hearts,

The band has just arrived in Eccles, so who is headlining Anna's living

I would say it is probably the smallest venue I've ever played.

As part of a band, Clea has played some massive gigs,

Worked in an electronica band for a while.

Went touring around America, Europe...

Clea has hit the dizzying heights of playing in major festivals

in front of thousands, so why does she want to play

When I first heard about house gigs, I thought it was a cool idea.

Since going solo and having to promote her own music,

Clea has found there are fewer to play now.

So she decided it was time to give house gigs a go.

It toook me about a year of Anna asking me to do this

Yes, she is a right diva! No, she isn't.

She is incredibly busy and a brilliant, brilliant musician.

I am delighted that she is coming to play.

What finally made me say yes to it was just really wanting

Legally, she is not allowed to sell tickets, so she asks for voluntary

donations towards the cost of the artist and a jacket potato.

You're probably wondering by now if Anna has understanding neighbours.

I haven't got massive expenses, so I'm not trekking up to London

I can literally walk five minutes from my house and they get to be

The first thing I did was to say to them, look,

We're going to have some not very loud music but it will be

And they all said, yes, that's absolutely fine.

And I have invited some of them and they really enjoyed it.

This is a writer from the NME and she is passionate

But with so many of them closing down, she has come to Kent to see

if there is a future in even smaller venues.

This is not the type of place I would normally go to a gig, no.

Normally, they are much more kind of venue shaped and larger sized.

This is quite small and quite residential.

Oh, my God, the NME are coming to my house gig!

It's like, I used to be done when I was 16 and it feels really

strange that it is going to be a drummer was talking

about the future of music and rock 'n' roll in living rooms and I am

With over 20 people crammed into the front room, it is time

These gigs are important for rising artists like Clea and a chance

to test out new songs that may not have been heard by a

Bone Dry is a song from my early 20s.

So where does the inspiration for her music come from?

I had to take a part-time job in a well-known

My role was, like, a security person.

It was so hard and it was, like, working nights.

I had been moaning to my friends and they said,

So I did and it came out in about, literally, five seconds

And it is just a song about that, and I always dedicate it to people

With a lack of other places for professionals

to perform, is this the future for grassroots gigs?

I think it is a great idea that people are having gigs

If people want to keep live music alive, you have to go to more

You have to go to gigs at small venues.

You have to go to gigs at grassroots venues that are run by local

Things are being done to stop the closures.

There is the Music Venue Trust, who are sort of the English

The MVT is a charity set up three years ago to combat closures.

So what do they think about the idea of house gigs?

Any opportunity for artists to be able to share their music somewhere

where the audience has space, where they have reasonable

sound, there is a respect for what they are doing,

If that is in someone's home, that is great.

Basically, what we don't like is performers stuck

in a corner in a pub or something where everyone is ignoring them.

But Beverley does not think we should all start

I think my concern with home gigs is people are more likely to do it

for a short time and then perhaps get frustrated with the struggle

So you have to have opportunities that you can count on and as far

as we're concerned, they are best represented at the moment by the

But maybe the reason that house gigs work is that they can offer

something special to both audience and artist that the

Staying in is the new going out. And rock 'n' roll is not dead.

It just comes with a cup of tea and an early night now.

Now, lurking out there in the English Channel

And marine boffins find them fascinating.

One particular scientist is a sucker for an eight-legged friend.

I work for the Marine Biological Association.

I love my job because I get to come out here and work

with the most amazing creatures, no matter what the weather.

While I am fascinated by all our native sea life,

An animal so unlike us that it is almost an alien.

With eight arms, three hearts and in my experience,

Today, we're out hoping to catch some native specimens.

Now it is time to get these guys back to the lab.

Monitoring of sea life helps us understand

The octopus we usually see off the south coast

is the curled octopus, and whilst many species of sea

life are struggling, with the rising sea temperatures,

What we see straightaway is an increase in feeding

and growth, when the temperature is just a degree or two higher.

This makes sense because octopus are fast-growing but

Any increase in temperature is going to automatically result

What we're aiming to find out is what behaviour changes

they make to deal with this increase in metabolism.

Are they simply going to hunt more or will they switch

And here is a relative of the octopus, the cuttlefish.

They grow up to 65 centimetres long, but these babies

So it is feeding time for these cuttlefish,

and I have actually trained them to take small pieces of fish.

And so what I am doing is actually moving the fish around

In the wild, they would normally only attack moving prey.

That is how they recognise that it is food.

Cuttlefish are absolutely voracious predators.

And as well as their tentacles, they have this amazing beak.

Almost like a parrot's beak in two parts.

And they use that to inject a neurotoxin into their prey,

I could watch them all day, but what I'm really

interested in is octopus' in their natural habitat.

In Dorset, there is a man I very much want to meet.

Local diver Colin Garrett has regularly seen at least one octopus

off the 18-mile spit at Chesil Beach.

What's more, on his night dives, when the octopus is most

Colin has been diving and filming in these

waters most of his life, yet

he had never seen an octopus, let alone managed to

As you can see, initially, it wants to swim away,

but then, it settles down with our presence there.

This footage is amazing. How did you get it?

A friend of mine reported seeing an octopus and we went diving a few

And, unbelievably, came back across the same octopus.

The same one? The same one.

He has one arm missing, as you can see.

Yes, you can really see the missing arm.

Yes. Indeed.

This is the first time you have seen octopus out in...?

It is the first time I have seen one ever underwater.

And I have been diving since the mid-80s.

That is amazing. Yeah.

And you saw this guy in the same place every night, did you?

There was a certain location we would go to and then

Within a few minutes, we would find him, yeah.

That is really interesting, because we don't actually know that

much about territoriality in octopus.

We think that they probably do have a home area which they patrol,

but unfortunately there is almost no way of gauging this in the wild,

unless you are as fortunate as yourself and able to film them

It is really valuable information for us.

They are not bothered by our presence at all.

No, not at all. Especially to feed like that.

That is something that is quite rare to film in the wild because these

And Colin's remarkable video reveals yet more about this shy creature.

This is wonderful, because you can even see iridophores under here.

Iridophores are cells which reflect light,

creating an iridescent glow which can distract

This is to counter-camouflage them against the light.

So if they are swimming in the sea and they are viewed

by a predator underneath, the iridophores will effectively

Yes, and all of this is filmed just out here.

Just out here in the bay? Yeah.

Incredible to think that we have native octopuses patrolling the sea

As most of us will never see one in the wild,

I have come to the Sealife Centre in Weymouth to meet a particularly

friendly Octopus vulgaris who will soon be on show

Luckily, I get to go behind the scenes.

Meeting me is chief octopus wrangler, Phil.

Hi, Phil. I'm Alix.

How is it going? Nice to meet you.

At the heart of the building are the tanks where Phil looks

So, how long have you had the octopus for?

Like me, Phil has found each octopus has its own distinct personality.

This is one of our newest arrivals. Wow.

She is very grabby for such a long octopus.

She is very grabby for such a young octopus.

It usually takes a couple of months to build up this sort of trust

between a keeper and octopus, but she loves it.

Or throwing lots of water at us, as you can see.

What is it that you love so much about octopus?

As a wild animal, you expect it to run away when you go near it,

So, from the very first time, it was love at first sight, almost.

You just put a little finger in and they just grab you.

Do you find they have individual personalities?

Previous octopuses I've had will come up every so often

This girl likes to squirt all the time.

So, a lot of the time, I will be here for a good 20,

30 minutes until she is happy and I can leave her.

You can see by her colour at the moment that she is quite

If she was scared or worried, she would be a very dark colour.

But with the colours we have at the moment,

It really goes to show the range of personalities that just

naturally occur in a species like this.

Personality is something we think of as being distinctly human

but research is starting to show that animals such

as octopus and cuttlefish, but not just that, even sharks,

distinct personalities that we can test and see

Leaving Phil and his octopus behind, it is time for me to become the lab

specimens we caught in Plymouth Sound.

The octopus only lives for a couple of years,

so it is time for these guys to go back to the sea.

We bring them to pretty much the same exact

I feel very privileged to work with these beguiling creatures

and I hope I have given you just a glimpse of why I find these small

animals with very big personalities so fascinating.

Off he goes. Now, if you want more information about the programme, go

to our live ages and BBC News website. And you can watch the show

again on the iPlayer. Coming up next week...

Taxi wars in Brighton. We have nearly 2000 cabs in the city as it

is. What more do you want? We don't need any more caps.

What happens when a man gets breast cancer? Everything I was reading was

pink, pink, pink and there was no mention of men at all.

That's it from us for tonight, from Bexhill. Thank you

I'm Riz Lateef with your 90 second update.

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