Mystery surrounds 'toxic' smell at new roundabout

Ian Lenehan has noticed a chemical-type smell coming from the road's surface at a new roundabout

Transcript

00:00I'm standing at Cold Harbour Roundabout, which is just off Junction 5 of the M20,

00:04and in the last four to six weeks I've noticed a very strong chemical smell in this quadrant of

00:11the roundabout. I drive this roundabout regularly, three quadrants are normal smelling, this quadrant

00:17smells of a phenolic compound, which is a very strong medicinal acid type smell. I work within

00:22the medical profession and I use phenol as an element of my work on a daily basis, so I'm

00:27very familiar with it. I know it to be a toxin, so when I smelt it here I was rather concerned

00:33about the pungicity of the smell. Prior to the smell here everything was normal, we lived

00:40in the Kent countryside with beautiful fresh air, this is not fresh, this is toxic, I'm

00:44concerned that it might be damaging people's health. We've got the hospital up the road,

00:48we've got a hospice over here, we've got new schools being built in the area, I'd like to

00:52get to the bottom and find out what's going on.