Browse content similar to 06/03/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello. | 0:00:03 | 0:00:04 | |
Tonight, park-home residents who say they are living in fear of eviction. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:08 | |
It's horrible, horrible. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:11 | |
You've got it in the back of your mind all the time. | 0:00:11 | 0:00:14 | |
He is, in our opinion, Mr Nasty of the first degree | 0:00:14 | 0:00:16 | |
against residents. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:19 | |
We're on the trail of the park-homes businessman accused of making | 0:00:19 | 0:00:22 | |
residents' lives a misery. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:24 | |
I am not involved in these sites. This is... | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
This is a trial by media, ladies and gentlemen, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
and it's gone wrong. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
And the toxic city that's been told to clear up its act and its air. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:38 | |
Welcome to Inside Out for the south of England. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
First, one of the lovely things about life in a park home | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
is you own it but the running costs are much lower than | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
bricks and mortar. | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
Unless, of course, you're unlucky enough to live on a site | 0:00:59 | 0:01:01 | |
in West Sussex owned by one particular businessman, | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
where some residents say they live in fear of extortionate fees, | 0:01:04 | 0:01:09 | |
massive legal bills and even eviction. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:18 | |
The people living in these park homes have had enough. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
People are frightened of him. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
You know, frightened of him. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
I'm going to make sure that we get together | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
and fight him for all we can. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
They're getting demands for thousands of pounds, | 0:01:30 | 0:01:32 | |
and being threatened with legal action. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:36 | |
I was actually thinking about committing suicide. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:40 | |
I couldn't go on like this. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
They believe they're being exploited. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
Only a change in the law can help them. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
Reform. Stop it. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:49 | |
Treat people fairly. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:50 | |
In this country, we believe in fairness. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:52 | |
Do it. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
I've come to meet Rose. | 0:01:56 | 0:02:05 | |
She lives on Marigolds Park in Bognor Regis, | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
one of six parks owned by Silverlakes Property Investments | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
Limited which is co-owned and run by this man, | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
Barry Weir. More about him in just a moment. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:20 | |
?6,336. Yeah. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
So that's for the maintenance? Yeah. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
In the UK, park home residents own their home but not | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
the land it sits on. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
They pay a pitch fee to cover the upkeep of communal areas. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:35 | |
However, here at Marigolds, residents like Rose | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
are constantly being hit with extra charges. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:43 | |
?347.04. Yeah. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:45 | |
?287.40. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
Another skip for ?290. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
And we get charged for absolutely everything. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:54 | |
Every little thing they get and buy we have to pay for. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
?50 here, ?13 here... | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
This is just a little taster of the paperwork you get, isn't it? | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
Yes. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:04 | |
The pitch fee here is ?2,400 per year per home - | 0:03:04 | 0:03:09 | |
a third higher than the UK average - but still the extra | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
bills keep rolling in. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
All work that is done on site, we get charged for. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
Nearly all of them forwarded from Silverlakes Property Investments. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
My husband had a stroke two years ago. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
I think it was because of the worry of everything that's, you know, | 0:03:24 | 0:03:28 | |
going on in the site. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
It's horrible. It's horrible. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
Sometimes I could sit here and cry thinking, oh, | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
God, what have we done? | 0:03:36 | 0:03:37 | |
What have we moved onto? | 0:03:37 | 0:03:42 | |
When you buy a park home, you inherit the original contract. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:48 | |
Rose's original contract is signed by Barry Weir. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:54 | |
We've heard from dozens of people living across all six | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
of Silverlake Properties' parks, and they're all having | 0:03:56 | 0:03:59 | |
the same problems as Rose. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
So how is this happening? | 0:04:02 | 0:04:04 | |
Well, a park-homes contact by law has to include certain terms, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:10 | |
and one of those terms clearly states that it's the obligation | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
of the owner of the park to maintain the site. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:18 | |
The hedge at this park in the New Forest is trimmed | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
and paid for as part of that legal obligation. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
In fact, all the park owners we spoke to foot the bill | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
for this type of thing. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:29 | |
All, that is, except Barry Weir. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:35 | |
The law doesn't explicitly mention a financial obligation, | 0:04:35 | 0:04:40 | |
so his contracts include some unique clauses that allow him | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
to charge his residents instead. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
Lawmakers say Barry Weir and the operators of his parks | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
are using this loophole to unfairly pass the financial buck | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
to residents. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:55 | |
That's caught the attention of local MPs, including Sir Peter Bottomley. | 0:04:55 | 0:05:01 | |
It's quite clear that some park home residents are being exploited. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
They're being exploited by intimidation, by bullying, | 0:05:04 | 0:05:06 | |
by costs, and by fees which aren't justified. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
So, who exactly is Barry Weir? | 0:05:08 | 0:05:13 | |
?625,000 bought Dunderaeve for the Weirs. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
In the 1990s, he appeared on BBC Scotland when he was renovating | 0:05:17 | 0:05:21 | |
a castle he'd bought. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:24 | |
It came with the title "The Laird of Dunderaeve". | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
I was a gas fitter. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
I left school, took an apprenticeship... | 0:05:29 | 0:05:30 | |
Rags to riches! | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
Well, rags to riches indeed. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:39 | |
Barry's also a published author, and wrote this book, | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
Driving Ambition. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:51 | |
He loves his Aston Martins. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:52 | |
In fact, he commissioned them to build one just for him. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:56 | |
It's worth more than ?1 million. | 0:05:56 | 0:06:01 | |
But classic cars and castles are a far cry from the lives | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
led by the residents of another of the parks Mr Weir owns. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:12 | |
Here at Orchard Park in West Sussex, they pay one of the highest | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
pitch fees in the country - almost ?300 a month. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:23 | |
It's the same story as at Marigolds - home owners | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
are being hit with extra charges on top of their already high | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
pitch fee and it's taking its toll. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
Really, living here is bad for my mental health, | 0:06:30 | 0:06:33 | |
and I was off with stress because I couldn't sleep at night. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:37 | |
I was worrying about all these bills, and how I was going to pay? | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
Is he going to evict me? | 0:06:40 | 0:06:41 | |
Some people have been served eviction notices because they're | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
paying their pitch fee but withholding the extra charges. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
But many residents we spoke to simply don't want any hassle. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:52 | |
You get a letter to say, you know, you owe this money, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
and my husband's quite ill and he doesn't want any worry | 0:06:55 | 0:06:59 | |
about anything, so we paid it. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:05 | |
So this is beautiful! | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
Life should be good. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
It is good. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:15 | |
You know, on this park, it's excellent. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:17 | |
Brian Doick is the President of the largest organisation of park | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
home residents in the UK. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
What's the appeal of living on a park? | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
The appeal, really, is that it's a cheaper product to buy the home, | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
as opposed to bricks and mortar. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
Brian was awarded an MBE for his years spent fighting | 0:07:31 | 0:07:35 | |
for park home residents rights. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
You've helped a lot of people out at parks right across the country, | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
but how bad is Mr Weir? | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
I believe personally that Barry Weir is more than bad. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:49 | |
I've seen bills sent to a park for 35 pence for a light bulb. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:55 | |
I mean, that's how pathetic it is. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
And he's, in our opinion, Mr Nasty of the first | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
degree against residents, and it's got to be stopped. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:06 | |
But far from being stopped, the demands for money | 0:08:06 | 0:08:08 | |
have kept coming. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
I got a letter in May last year saying I owe ?3699.50. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:16 | |
Ashley Rivett lives in Bognor, on another of the parks owned | 0:08:16 | 0:08:22 | |
by Silverlakes Property Investments. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
They tried to charge us an extra... | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
He received letters demanding money for legal costs, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
but experts have told us that legal costs can't be charged | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
without going to tribunal first. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:36 | |
Ashley has never been to a tribunal, but he has been | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
threatened with legal action. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
It made my wife quite ill and myself quite ill. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
My wife threatened to leave me because of this money. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
I was actually thinking about committing suicide, | 0:08:50 | 0:08:52 | |
because I couldn't go on like this. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:59 | |
Barry Weir says neither he nor Silverlakes Property Investments | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
sent any letters asking for legal fees. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:06 | |
But what he's not saying is that the six parks owned | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
by Silverlakes Property Investments are leased out to four | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
different companies, the directors of which are Barry's | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
three daughters and his accountants, and the demands for legal fees | 0:09:17 | 0:09:21 | |
come from one of those. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:26 | |
We wanted to put our allegations to Barry Weir directly, | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
but we kept being told the parks were nothing to do with him. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:34 | |
But it's Barry's name that's on the contracts - | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
he's the one who attends the tribunals and | 0:09:38 | 0:09:40 | |
inspects the sites. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
We've tracked him down here to Guernsey in the Channel Islands. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
I managed to catch up with Mr Weir after he'd done his shopping. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
Hello, Mr Weir. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:50 | |
It's Jon Cuthill from BBC Inside Out. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
Yes, hello. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:53 | |
Can I just ask you about the contracts that you have | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
between yourself and the residents of your mobile park homes? | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
Are they fair, do you think? | 0:09:58 | 0:09:59 | |
I don't have any contracts. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:01 | |
The lease, the freehold lands owned by, erm, | 0:10:01 | 0:10:05 | |
Silverlakes Property Investments, of which I'm a director and that's | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
it, it's leased to other companies. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
They have the contracts, not me. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:12 | |
But you're still doing the park visits. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
No, no, no. Hold on. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:16 | |
The residents are saying... | 0:10:16 | 0:10:17 | |
There are 300 people on these parks. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
I know an awful lot of them they're very good friends of mine. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
I go on to the sites to see them. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
I don't inspect the parks at all. No need. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:27 | |
But do you think it's right to have pitch fees and then on top of that | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
management fees as well? | 0:10:31 | 0:10:32 | |
I have no idea what you're on about. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
One of the only mobile park companies in the entire | 0:10:34 | 0:10:36 | |
country who do that? | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
All I can tell you, all I can tell you... | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
Everyone else says it should just be a pitch fee and the management... | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
No, no, no... | 0:10:43 | 0:10:44 | |
Now listen to this viewers at home, very carefully. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
Listening ears on, as I say to my little grandchildren. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
I am not involved with these parks. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
Silverlakes Property Investments holds the freehold and leases it. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:56 | |
I am not involved. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
Can I quickly just talk about the contracts? No! | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
I'm not involved in them, I know nothing about them! | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
End of story, guys. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:04 | |
I'm going home. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:05 | |
Bye, everybody. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:07 | |
Thank you. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:08 | |
There we go. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:10 | |
Barry Weir - a man whose got nothing to do whatsoever with those mobile | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
park homes(!) | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
Despite Mr Weir's protestations, MPs say | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
they are fighting to close the legal loophole that they say allows | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
the people on his parks to be exploited. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:26 | |
People like him should not be allowed to take actions like that, | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
and I intend with fellow MPs to make sure that some of the excesses | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
are ended and most of the abuses are stopped. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
You think you move here for a peaceful settled | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
life in your retirement, but you don't. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
You don't. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
In fact, I've never met a man like him ever in my life. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:52 | |
As ever, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that story. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
Here's the e-mail address. | 0:11:55 | 0:12:00 | |
Still to come: Dorset's hidden treasures. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
Normally you can't actually get inside Rufus Castle, but we've been | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
granted special access. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:12 | |
Next, take a deep breath - do you ever worry | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
about the air quality? | 0:12:15 | 0:12:17 | |
There is nothing to worry about here but Southampton is one | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
of our most toxic cities. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
The European Commission just last month issued Britain | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
with a final warning - clean up your act or | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
face the consequences. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:38 | |
My name is Archie. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
I'm ten years old. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
My favourite thing in the entire world, erm... | 0:12:55 | 0:13:00 | |
I do rather like bouncing on the trampoline. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:08 | |
But there's one thing Archie's not head over heels about - | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
Southampton's air. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
Now, today looks like a beautiful day, but a day like today | 0:13:13 | 0:13:15 | |
causes you a few problems. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:17 | |
Why? | 0:13:17 | 0:13:18 | |
Yeah, because the air is very flat and moist, | 0:13:18 | 0:13:20 | |
feels very tight round your neck, and all the bits that go off | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
into the rest of your body that lead off from your neck feels | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
like they are Tube stations and the train is stuck in them. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:32 | |
There is just a tiny little gap for air to get through. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:37 | |
Archie has a severe form of asthma. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
Poor air quality can leave him struggling to breathe. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
It's a real worry for his mum Kirsty. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
On a day when there is an air quality alert, or on a day | 0:13:45 | 0:13:49 | |
like this when it's very still and so the pollution is pushed | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
down, he will generally be more wheezy on those days. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
Fumes, car fumes, things like that. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
Basically if it is a strong noxious smell, | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
that will start his asthma off. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:08 | |
The World Health Organisation names Southampton as one of the most | 0:14:08 | 0:14:11 | |
polluted cities in the UK. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
Pollution is linked to 110 deaths a year in the city, | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
and costs Southampton's health services annually | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
an extra ?50 million. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
Where there's more pollution, there are more cases of lung | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
and heart disease, and asthma. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
One, it's absolutely disgusting. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
Two, it makes me cough and its really annoying, | 0:14:31 | 0:14:39 | |
and I have to wear scarves and it makes me look like a marshmallow. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:42 | |
It makes me feel quite guilty that my choice of where to live | 0:14:42 | 0:14:46 | |
might impact Archie's asthma, and it does give me pause | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
for thought and make me worry. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:52 | |
To get an idea of how polluted the city is, | 0:14:52 | 0:14:59 | |
we've borrowed a smog-mobile. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
This hi-tech electric vehicle hoovers up the air and tells us | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
what nasties are in it. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
Duncan Mounsor is in the driving seat. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
It definitely is something for people to worry about, | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
particularly people who may be socially disadvantaged, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:17 | |
and people that live in very built-up, congested areas. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:21 | |
You can choose the quality of the water you drink from a bottle | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
if you don't want to drink the tap water, and you have a choice, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:28 | |
but none of us can choose the air that we breathe. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
So we have some more spikes here. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
The smog-mobile is detecting high levels of nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, | 0:15:35 | 0:15:40 | |
a gas produced by burning fuel. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:42 | |
Most of what we're seeing today is from rush-hour traffic. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
What sort of levels are we seeing this morning? | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
Well, I think we have seen upwards of 200 micrograms per cubic metre, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
which is very, very high. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
If those levels had stayed at 200 micrograms for longer then one hour, | 0:15:55 | 0:16:02 | |
that would be breaching one of the UK guidelines values for NO2. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:08 | |
And that's on a wet and blustery day, when typically air | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
pollution levels are lower. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:17 | |
Now a lot of people will think, if I am stuck in traffic, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
it's all right, I'm inside my car, everything's fine. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
Is it? | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
Well, I don't think we can be lulled into a false | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
sense of security there. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:28 | |
You are essentially in a sealed box. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
We have made measurements ourselves where the NO2 levels | 0:16:31 | 0:16:33 | |
inside the driver's cab can be up to 20% higher than they are outside. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:43 | |
To see the scale of the city's problem, you need some serious kit. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
Dr Matt Loxham, a scientist from the University of Southampton, | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
is studying airborne pollutants. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
The biggest ones that can get into our lungs are ten microns wide, | 0:16:56 | 0:17:02 | |
so that's about an eighth of the width of the human hair, so | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
tiny, and they're the biggest ones. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:06 | |
The very smallest ones could be about a 100 times smaller than that, | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
so about 1,000th the width of a human hair, and they don't just | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
get into the depths of our lungs, they can actually get | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
into our bloodstream. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:17 | |
And recently it's been shown it can get into the brain | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
and other organs as well. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
We know that in young people who are born in areas | 0:17:21 | 0:17:23 | |
where there is a lot of pollution tend to be born with | 0:17:23 | 0:17:27 | |
a lower birth weight. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
More people get asthma when they live in polluted areas, | 0:17:30 | 0:17:32 | |
and growing up we are beginning to see an association not | 0:17:32 | 0:17:35 | |
just with heart disease and cardiovascular disease | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
like strokes, but also suggestions that diabetes and Alzheimer's | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
disease and dementia might be associated with pollution. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
What we need to know now is how this happens, | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
and what is it about the pollutants that are doing that so we can better | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
understand the problem. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:49 | |
The Government has told Southampton and four other cities in the UK | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
to implement clean-air zones by 2020. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:56 | |
That means penalty charges for the most polluting HGVs, buses, | 0:17:56 | 0:18:00 | |
and taxis entering the city centre. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:05 | |
But, surprisingly, it won't include private cars, | 0:18:05 | 0:18:06 | |
which by the council's own figures are a significant | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
source of pollution. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
So, Councillor Christopher Hammond, why not? | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
This isn't about banishing the car forever more. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:18 | |
It's about encouraging people to, where they can, take that one bus | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
journey to walk to the shops rather than driving or cycling to work, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
because usually it's quicker, you'll be fitter for it, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
and that's a better way to go about it. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:32 | |
# All I need is the air that I breath...# | 0:18:32 | 0:18:38 | |
As well as busy roads Southampton has a busy port | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
with a dirty secret - heavy-fuel oil. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:47 | |
Scientists reckon one cruise ship emits as many air pollutants | 0:18:47 | 0:18:49 | |
as five million cars on the same distance. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
Heavy fuel oil can contain up to 3,500 times more | 0:18:52 | 0:18:56 | |
sulphur than diesel cars. | 0:18:56 | 0:19:00 | |
So the port is a real worry for keen cyclist and clean-air | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
campaigner Colin McQueen. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:07 | |
Nobody has been able to monitor air quality | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
within the docks, and I think that's really regrettable. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:15 | |
We don't know how much they push out, but we do know, for example, | 0:19:15 | 0:19:19 | |
that container ship at the moment is berthed and it's running | 0:19:19 | 0:19:24 | |
at the moment on auxillary generators which are collossal. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
So we have the poor air quality, but we have the noise | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
coming from them as well. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
One solution being used elsewhere virtually eliminates air pollution | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
from ships whilst they're in port. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:40 | |
A growing number of cargo and cruise ships, including | 0:19:40 | 0:19:42 | |
the Queen Mary II and Britainnia, have the ability to cut | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
the engines and plug into a port electricity supply. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
The only problem - Southampton doesn't have a socket. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:55 | |
Port Director is Alastair Welch. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:57 | |
In the cruise ship world, there's this idea of shore power, | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
and yet Southampton can't provide that facility at the moment. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
Why not? | 0:20:03 | 0:20:04 | |
Well, no port in the UK provides shore power for large ships. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
The challenge has been in particular there is no one | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
standard for shore power. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:10 | |
That's now in place. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:11 | |
My background's very much in the aviation industry, | 0:20:11 | 0:20:14 | |
where it's quite normal that you'll plug your aircraft in | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
when you come onto stand and run off power locally. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
I'd like it in place as soon as possible, | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
but we can't yet give a specific date, as we're reliant on working | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
with others to make sure we can work together to get to that place. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
But I should emphasise shore power is not the only answer and that's | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
why we're working with solar power now, and working with hybrid ships | 0:20:30 | 0:20:33 | |
now, because all of them have a part to play for the future. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
Currently the port does not monitor its own air pollution levels, | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
but this is about to change. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
Do you have any plans to do your own monitoring on site? | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
We are currently exploring that right now, yes. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:51 | |
ABP and all the associated companies that work within the docks | 0:20:51 | 0:20:56 | |
have a responsibility to the residents of Southampton. | 0:20:56 | 0:21:00 | |
They are here to trade and we understand that | 0:21:00 | 0:21:04 | |
we're not anti-trade. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:06 | |
We want them to trade in a cleaner way. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:11 | |
There's no doubt a cleaner Southampton would be good news | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
for the next generation. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
When I see the impact on children like Archie, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
I think everybody wants to make air quality better. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:27 | |
It's annoying when people drive constantly, because the only thing | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
you have to do is get up a bit earlier, and, I mean, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
like, getting up earlier, and that could help save the world, | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
and the asthma world. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:42 | |
Don't forget you can find out more about the show on Twitter. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
We are at... | 0:21:47 | 0:21:51 | |
Now, finally, time for a whistle-stop tour | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
of the Jurassic Coast to find Dorset's lesser-known castles. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:57 | |
Actor and historian Craig Henderson is your guide | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
and he starts in Weymouth. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:08 | |
The World Heritage Jurassic Coast - 95 miles of stunning scenery, | 0:22:08 | 0:22:15 | |
stretching from East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:20 | |
185 million years of history, written in its rocks and fossils. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:24 | |
But I want to introduce you to some man-made features - | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
the lesser-known castles of the Jurassic Coast. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:34 | |
They, for hundreds of years, protected Britain from invasion. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:38 | |
Castles at the cutting edge of design, and one that was perhaps | 0:22:38 | 0:22:43 | |
more of a vanity project. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
Tucked down side roads on the outskirts of Weymouth is one | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
of the town's best-kept secrets. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:56 | |
This is Sandsfoot Castle, filmed by a Dorset enthusiast whose | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
footage has been described as one of the ten most beautiful | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
drone videos of all time. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
# We left our sweethearts and our wives along that pier | 0:23:05 | 0:23:12 | |
# Cheer up, they said | 0:23:12 | 0:23:13 | |
# You'll soon return in half a year...# | 0:23:13 | 0:23:19 | |
This romantic ruin was saved by a lottery grant, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
thanks to the determination of the council and local residents. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:26 | |
It's one of several on the south coast built by Henry VIII. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
Back in 1500, Henry VIII fell out with the Pope big-time. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:34 | |
Determined to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
he was excommunicated, and went on to make himself head | 0:23:38 | 0:23:40 | |
of the new Church of England, and that, as they say, is history. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:45 | |
But it's a moment of time perfectly captured in | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
the ruins of this castle. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
Due to his need to divorce, he fell out with the Catholic church, | 0:23:50 | 0:23:54 | |
and everybody knows the history in terms of his approach to most | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
of the monasteries, and, in fact, this building contains pieces | 0:23:58 | 0:24:05 | |
of stone that were taken from a nearby abbey, | 0:24:05 | 0:24:07 | |
and they can actually still be seen. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
Now, because some of the outside stone has been taken away, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:11 | |
you can actually see the skeleton of this building, | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
how it was made up. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:15 | |
So there are a couple of stones, aren't there, | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
which are really obvious, can you just point them out to me? | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
Yes. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:21 | |
We've got one over on the floor level they are, in the far alcove. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
OK. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:25 | |
And then on this side, we've also got, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:27 | |
high on the tower there, we've got actually a nice, | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
curved piece of scallop stone that shows quite ornate carvings. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:37 | |
Henry is in a position, a difficult position. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
His divorce has rendered him a limited from the Pope. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:45 | |
-- alienated. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:46 | |
The Pope has two major allies in Europe, France and Spain, | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
and they have allied together and are looking towards Britain. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:54 | |
And Henry at that time chose to take defensive measures. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
His intention was to secure safe anchorages, harbour points, | 0:24:57 | 0:25:01 | |
to prevent either raiding for commerce or potential invasion. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:09 | |
Now, what we have here is Sandsfoot at that time built on a promontory | 0:25:09 | 0:25:13 | |
overlooking what was then called the Portland Roads, | 0:25:13 | 0:25:15 | |
and it is now Portland Harbour. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:20 | |
Without the large harbour structure so it is quite easy | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
to sail into it and cause problems and move out. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
We've got the port of Weymouth just adjacent, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
merchantmen coming and going, really important for trade. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:30 | |
So what Henry did at that time was to build opposing castles, | 0:25:30 | 0:25:32 | |
so we have Sandsfoot on this side of the harbour, on the north side, | 0:25:32 | 0:25:36 | |
and we have Portland Castle on the south side. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:41 | |
They've got the ability to create a crossfire situation, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:46 | |
if any foreign ship or aggressor was foolish enough to move | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
into that arc of fire... | 0:25:49 | 0:25:50 | |
And also they could reach the entrance to | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
Weymouth harbour as well. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:57 | |
Henry was very keen on changing designs, taking ideas from Europe, | 0:25:57 | 0:25:59 | |
and artillery was developing very quickly at that time. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:05 | |
For a while, Sandsfoot was the cutting edge. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
The only issue was that, as time went by, artillery improved | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
and became more mobile and more reliable, and, as a result | 0:26:10 | 0:26:14 | |
Sandsfoot fell away. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:18 | |
To a certain extent, it only lasted for maybe 50 years. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:23 | |
On the other side of the harbour, Portland Castle survived, | 0:26:23 | 0:26:25 | |
and was still in use during World War II. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:30 | |
Maybe it owes some of its longevity to the fact that it wasn't built | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
from the leftover bits of a monastery, but instead used | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
local Portland stone. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
Even less long-lived than Sandsfoot was another innovative and older | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
castle that was built in Portland at the wrong place | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
at the wrong time. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
What's left of Rufus Castle now stands at the end of the garden | 0:26:49 | 0:26:54 | |
of a clifftop bungalow, behind an impressive swimming pool. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
Normally you can't actually get inside Rufus Castle, | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
but since it's about to change hands again, | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
we've been granted special access. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
I suppose the most important features are the small | 0:27:04 | 0:27:06 | |
circular windows. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
You can see them behind me. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
These are in fact gun-ports. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
This is one of the oldest buildings anywhere that was actually | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
built to take advantage of the new invention of cannons. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:22 | |
And they would have used what were essentially large handguns | 0:27:22 | 0:27:25 | |
within the building to defend it, and to stop invaders coming | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
onto the island of Portland. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:31 | |
At what point did this castle become obsolete? | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
Very, very soon after it was built. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:35 | |
We know it was built in about 1450, but less than 100 years later, | 0:27:35 | 0:27:42 | |
the castle was a nonentity, and was not even referred | 0:27:42 | 0:27:44 | |
to in the records when they built the present | 0:27:44 | 0:27:46 | |
Portland Castle done by the harbour. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:50 | |
As the years went by, Rufus Castle became a rich man's folly, | 0:27:50 | 0:27:56 | |
a place for picnics in the grounds of a brand-new Gothic style castle. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:02 | |
Pennsylvania Castle was built by John Penn, grandson of the man | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
who founded Pennsylvania in the United States. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
Penn discovered Portland with King George III, | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
whose physicians had recommended sea-bathing | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
as a cure for the episodes of physical and mental | 0:28:13 | 0:28:15 | |
illness that plagued him. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:16 | |
Today, though, Pennsylvania castle offers a happy end to my journey | 0:28:16 | 0:28:21 | |
around some lesser-known castles of the Jurassic Coast. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:28 | |
Craig Henderson there and some of Dorset's wonderful castles. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:31 | |
That's it for now. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:32 | |
Until next time, bye-bye. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:36 | |
It's FA Cup action next week, but we're back on the 20th behind | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
the scenes of a rather special buzz on the Isle of Wight. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:44 | |
There is the kindness of people's hearts, where they do | 0:28:44 | 0:28:46 | |
give people a chance. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:48 | |
It certainly gets people of the streets and make them safe | 0:28:48 | 0:28:50 | |
and it gives them the chance to get their lives back together. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:54 | |
Hello. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:11 | |
I'm Riz Lateef with your 90 second update. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
Questions over Vauxhall's future in Britain after it was sold | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
to French car maker Peugeot-Citroen. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:16 | |
Vauxhall employs 4,500 people but its new owners | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
may want to cut jobs. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:19 | |
This is a new campaign to get the public to report | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
terrorism suspicions. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:23 | |
Police say they've stopped 13 possible attacks in four years. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
There are 500 investigations going on at any time. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:30 | |
President Trump has signed a new version of his travel ban. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:32 | |
It affects several mainly Muslim countries. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:35 | |
The previous one ran into legal problems and claims | 0:29:35 | 0:29:37 |