The Prime Minister last week declared that Britain will take a hard line on negotiations over Europe. On Monday night, on BBC1, PETER BARRON talks to Europeans living in the North-East about how they feel post-Brexit

ASK Lukasz and Dominika Samek how they feel about living in the North-East of England and smiles break out on their faces.

“We just feel very lucky to live in a place like Darlington which is so nice, so friendly,” says Dominika, glancing at her husband as he nods in agreement.

Lukasz, 26, and Dominika, 32, came to England 11 years ago having been childhood sweethearts in Niepolomice, near Krakow.

Dominika came to England first when she got a job as an occupational therapy assistant at the University Hospital of North Durham. Lukasz followed soon afterwards.

They settled in Darlington and he found work as an operations support administrator at the local branch of care home management company HC-One.

They are one of several case studies featured in an Inside Out documentary, which I present on BBC 1 at 7.30pm on Monday night (January 23) and it was clear from the moment I walked into their home that they are blissfully happy.

Chatting to them while they cooked Polish sausages in their kitchen, they were charming and bubbling with enthusiasm about their lives in England. What impressed me most was hearing about how they’ve become so involved in the local community.

Lukasz was the winner of the “Outstanding Pole in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland” award in 2015 in recognition of his charity and community work. It’s a long list which includes being vice chairman of Darlington Town Twinning and International Association, volunteering with Dominika to help organise stalls for Darlington Community Carnival, and being a prominent member of Darlington Round Table.

Indeed, on the night of my visit with the BBC cameras just before Christmas, Lukasz and his wife were out on the streets of Darlington with Santa’s sleigh, collecting money for good good causes with fellow Round Table volunteers. It was down to freezing when we did the filming but that’s nothing compared to the -30 degree winter temperatures back home in Poland.

“We love Darlington and its people. They have been so good to us and we want to put something back,” says Lukasz, proudly shaking his bucket to show that he’s collected a bit more money so far than his wife.

It is not such a happy story in Newcastle, where I spoke to Magda Lehmann. As well as running her own successful business, she volunteers as a reporter working for Polnews, an internet TV station which keeps the local Polish community well informed.

Magda told me that members of the Polish community are anxious because they don’t know what the impact of Brexit will mean for them. There’s uncertainty about their right to remain and fears over hate crime.

One Polish woman had been terrified after having her hair set on fire while on a bus.

“This is where we want to stay but it is hard to know what will happen,” she says.

Mihai Firescu, a hard-working junior doctor at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, does not share those anxieties.

He admits that his family back home in Romania are worried about his future in Britain but, as far as he’s concerned, it’s business as usual – helping to save lives.

It’s reckoned that there are around 50,000 people living in the North-East who were born in another country inside the EU. Mihai is one of 13,000 EU born nationals to move to the region in the last five years – that’s an increase of 35 per cent.

Another to settle here is Angel Romero and his partner Olga Fernandez-Infantes from Spain. They run a delicatessen in Newcastle’s bustling Grainger Market, selling Spanish produce.

They moved to the North-East at the end of last year and, while they’re relaxed about the impact of Brexit, they told me there have already been downsides for their business which imports all of its products.

On a lighter note, there just happened to be Flamenco dancers performing outside of their shop when we arrived and I was treated on camera to an impromptu lesson to the accompaniment of a Spanish guitarist.

Let’s just say it’s highly unlikely that the producers of Strictly Come Dancing will come calling.

Much of what I found, talking to Europeans who have settled in our part of the world, was heart-warming, with examples of hard work, contentment and integration.

There was also evidence of sadness, and genuine fear about what happens next.

But more than anything, I was left with an overall sense of how much these people enrich our region in so many different ways, whether it is saving lives in our hospitals, launching vibrant businesses that boost the economy, enhancing our culture with food and music, or raising money for local good causes on freezing nights on the streets of County Durham.

“Who knows what will happen next but we would like to go on living in Darlington because we have grown to love it here,” says Lukasz Samek.

He and his wife Dominika say they are lucky to live in a place like Darlington. Perhaps so – but I’d argue that Darlington is lucky to have them too.

  •  INSIDE OUT – BBC 1, 7.30pm Monday, January 23, 2017.