Browse content similar to 16/07/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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That's all from me, stay with us on BBC1, | :00:00. | :00:12. | |
Good evening, welcome to BBC London News. | :00:13. | :00:14. | |
The London School of Economics could be facing legal action | :00:15. | :00:20. | |
A group of postgraduates claim a block of halls near Borough | :00:21. | :00:28. | |
became overrun by mice, contaminated with mould and riddled | :00:29. | :00:30. | |
They're now crowdfunding to raise money to pay for legal fees, | :00:31. | :00:34. | |
in what they allege is a breach of its tenancy contract. | :00:35. | :00:36. | |
Students at the London School of Economics took these photos | :00:37. | :00:52. | |
of their University rooms at Sidney Webb House in Borough. | :00:53. | :00:55. | |
They say they were so unhygienic, they made the students ill. | :00:56. | :00:57. | |
Eye irritation, I also had intense headaches, coughing, | :00:58. | :00:59. | |
and because of that I went to the doctor and it was there | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
when the doctor said, you have to change your room immediately. | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
They say at least 15 students have gone to hospital because of problems | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
created by the conditions, but more were affected. | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
I developed a series of skin infections, which I never had. | :01:12. | :01:14. | |
It's reached the extent that I couldn't walk, basically. | :01:15. | :01:19. | |
I had to go to the emergency section of St Thomas and Guy's Hospital | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
Severe headaches, problems breathing, problems getting to sleep | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
at night, waking up with a very sore throat, a dry throat, | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
these are all symptoms related to mould exposure and mould spores | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
Students were initially offered ?100 as a goodwill gesture, | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
Now they're looking into taking legal action against the university. | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
Accommodation is difficult obviously, but universities | :01:46. | :01:47. | |
have a responsibility to their students, | :01:48. | :01:48. | |
They must be able to live in reasonable conditions. | :01:49. | :01:56. | |
As you can see, it's under refurbishment. | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
The LSE did say they were aware of the complaints | :02:00. | :02:01. | |
The University also says pest control was sent in. | :02:02. | :02:04. | |
The students say this was not the way they planned | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
To spend our time talking about mice and rodents and mould in our house | :02:08. | :02:15. | |
is something we did not sacrifice so much to come here to do, | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
They are now fund-raising for their campaign and are waiting | :02:20. | :02:21. | |
It's destroying native species on riverbanks, | :02:22. | :02:29. | |
Introduced in the 1800s as a garden plant, the Himalayan Balsam smothers | :02:30. | :02:35. | |
Now conservationists have found a novel way of dealing with it | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
and raising funds at the same time, as Yvonne Hall explains. | :02:41. | :02:46. | |
The Himalayan Balsam, brought to the UK by Victorian explorers. | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
Now it's spreading across river banks, gardens and allotments, | :02:54. | :02:55. | |
It really overshadows everything and that has a massive knock-on | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
The only way to get rid of it is pulling it up by hand. | :03:02. | :03:09. | |
Here, next to the River Stort in Hertfordshire, conservationists | :03:10. | :03:11. | |
and volunteers are trying to destroy hundreds of plants before | :03:12. | :03:14. | |
And each plant can shoot 800 seeds, up to 22 feet away. | :03:15. | :03:23. | |
Normally, once the Himalayan Balsam is cleared from the river banks, | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
it's just thrown away, but a while ago conservationists | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
were talking to the owners of a distillery. | :03:32. | :03:33. | |
Between them they came up with a plan to do something much | :03:34. | :03:36. | |
Then add them to alcohol, juniper, orange and lime | :03:37. | :03:44. | |
and a few more ingredients, and turn the invasive | :03:45. | :03:46. | |
The whole idea was for us to develop a gin that, rather than be | :03:47. | :04:00. | |
using botanicals that were farmed or foraged, were to use something | :04:01. | :04:03. | |
that was going to be thrown away, and the trust indicated | :04:04. | :04:05. | |
that they had these clearing projects. | :04:06. | :04:15. | |
Himalayan Balsam was one of the effectively rogue plants | :04:16. | :04:17. | |
and we were looking for a way to use it in a gin and then have a gin | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
that we could use to raise money for the trust. | :04:23. | :04:24. | |
And purely in the interest of investigative journalism | :04:25. | :04:27. | |
Definitely getting notes of invasive species there. | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
Let's get you up to date on the weather. | :04:32. | :04:50. | |
Any lingering cloud will clear, things could turn hazy with | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
temperatures up to 26 Celsius. Not bad. | :04:56. | :04:58. | |
Well that's it - Sonja Jessop will be here tomorrow morning from 6.20. | :04:59. | :05:02. |