Catch up on the latest news from across the county with Sofia Akin.
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00:02 - Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight live on KMTV.
00:28 I'm Sophia Akin and here are your top stories
00:31 on Wednesday the 7th of February.
00:33 It's been hell.
00:35 She and her family fear for health
00:37 after living in Maldi flat for 12 months.
00:41 - I've got to do something for my family
00:43 'cause we can't keep on living like this.
00:45 It's not fair on my family at all.
00:47 - Brushing up on dental care,
00:50 a change up in Kent's health service
00:52 as government cracks down on shortages.
00:55 - It's not gonna touch the side.
00:56 So they've announced 20,000 pounds over the next three years
00:59 to have new dental patients
01:01 being accepted at dental practice.
01:03 That equates to about four pound 50 an hour.
01:05 - And green on the green.
01:08 Canterbury Golf Club awarded for eco excellence.
01:12 - If it was left to its own devices,
01:15 invasive species like bramble, sycamore
01:18 and hazel would take over.
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01:25 - First tonight, a father from Sheerness
01:31 says he fears for the health of his three children
01:34 after contending with mould and damp in his flat for a year.
01:38 Their family doctor says this has led to all of them
01:41 developing a harsh cough.
01:43 Southern Housing says it's working to resolve
01:45 the repair issues raised,
01:46 but was unable to detect a leak when it's investigated.
01:50 Oliver Leder de Sacks has more.
01:53 (water dripping)
01:55 - The sound of leaking water,
01:59 a sound that Leslie Kemp says
02:01 has become a near constant presence in his life.
02:05 For more than a year, Leslie and his family
02:07 said they have lived with damp and mould
02:08 in this flat in Sheerness on sea,
02:11 which they rent from Southern Housing.
02:13 He says it has been a nightmare.
02:15 - Hell, it's literally been hell.
02:17 Now we've had contractors say it,
02:19 and I've only like defended it
02:20 as far as I've been in this property
02:22 with the damp and the mould.
02:23 But before that, we're so healthy.
02:25 Like we have to go to the doctors
02:26 every couple of weeks, three weeks,
02:28 to get antibiotics for the children.
02:30 And it's not fair for the children
02:31 to ever lift off antibiotics.
02:34 - I'm in the corridor that connects the bathroom
02:37 to the rest of the house.
02:38 And as you can see,
02:39 there's water leaking up through the floor.
02:42 Leslie says some of this is raw sewage.
02:45 They've had to install child gates
02:47 to keep their three children
02:49 out of this area of the house.
02:51 - And the smell is unbearable.
02:53 Now we have to shut the door.
02:55 And like, and in the evening time,
02:58 my children and us, we were all sleeping in the living room
03:00 and we had to shut the door off
03:01 because of the smell, so unbearable.
03:03 To be fair, they've got to do something for my family
03:06 'cause we can't keep on living like this.
03:07 It's not fair on my family at all.
03:09 - A spokesperson for Southern Housing
03:11 confirmed they temporarily rehoused Mr. Kemp
03:14 and his family during its investigations,
03:16 but say they weren't able to detect a leak
03:19 and found the wet carpets
03:20 were not near any potential water ingress
03:23 or damp penetration.
03:24 In a statement, Southern Housing said,
03:27 "Our team are continuing to support Mr. Kemp
03:29 "to resolve the repair issues he's raised within his home.
03:33 "Our specialist contractor previously investigated
03:35 "Mr. Kemp's complaint of damp and mold
03:38 "after reports the issue was leaving his carpets wet.
03:41 "Our damp contractor has since held discussions
03:44 "with Mr. Kemp, including providing support
03:46 "on how to reduce minor damp and mold.
03:49 "We're also booked in to carry out further repair work,
03:52 "including kitchen and window repairs early next month."
03:56 The family have now been offered new housing,
03:58 but still don't have a clear timeline
04:01 on when they will move.
04:02 The only thing Leslie says he knows for certain
04:05 is he can't keep on living in this flat for much longer.
04:09 Oliver, Leader of the Saks, reporting for KMTV.
04:14 Next tonight, a couple who died after being hit by a car
04:17 while they were walking their dog
04:19 have been named for the first time.
04:21 The pair and their dog were fatally injured
04:23 when a vehicle collided with them
04:25 down a country lane in Bairstead in January.
04:27 Miriam Bogota joins me in the studio with the latest.
04:31 Miriam, such a tragic story.
04:32 What more can you tell us about this today?
04:34 - Yeah, so we do have an update
04:36 on the tragic incident in Bairstead.
04:38 A couple, Thomas Corcree, age 61,
04:40 and his wife, Susan, age 68,
04:42 have been identified as the victims of the fatal accident.
04:45 The couple were walking their dog down Thurnham Lane
04:47 in Bairstead near Maidstone
04:49 when they were struck by a black BMW SUV
04:51 on the 20th of January.
04:53 The couple and their dog were killed.
04:56 Thomas was an accountant who was born in Ireland
04:58 and his wife, Susan, was a retired nurse born in Malta.
05:02 - And the inquest has opened today.
05:04 Have we heard anything else about this?
05:06 - Yeah, so today at the inquest opening
05:08 held at Oakwood House in Maidstone,
05:11 we learned the cause of Mr. Corcree's death,
05:13 and it was attributed to catastrophic head injuries
05:16 and multiple blunt and sharp force traumas.
05:19 At the time of the incident,
05:20 the driver remained at the scene of the crime.
05:22 However, no arrests have been made.
05:24 As investigations unfold, inquests have been adjourned,
05:28 awaiting further details as the police
05:29 do continue to look into the crash.
05:31 No date has been set for a new hearing at this time.
05:34 However, Kent police are urging anyone
05:36 who has witnessed the incident
05:38 or who has any information or dash cam footage
05:41 to call its Serious Collision Investigation Unit.
05:43 More information is available on Kent online.
05:46 - Miriam, thank you very much for joining us with that.
05:49 We'll bring you more updates on that when we have it.
05:53 And Kent police could be making cuts to staff numbers
05:57 as they have to make 35 million in savings.
06:00 The county's force has five years to find this shortfall,
06:03 with warnings local services could also be squeezed.
06:07 They've earmarked more than two million pounds
06:09 in staff cuts this year alone.
06:11 New papers submitted yesterday
06:13 show more than seven million pounds in savings
06:16 are needed to balance the books for 2024 to 25.
06:20 Along with job losses,
06:21 there could be delays to projects and IT systems as well.
06:25 Next, police are investigating after a man was bitten
06:30 by a dog suspected to be an Excel bully in Hoo.
06:33 Officers were called to a private address
06:35 on a new housing development
06:36 at around 12.40 on Sunday afternoon.
06:39 It followed reports an individual was injured
06:41 whilst trying to separate a fight between two dogs.
06:45 Both dogs were seized at the house
06:46 on Invicta Drive in Hoo.
06:48 A spokesperson for the police said the victim,
06:50 who owned one of the animals,
06:51 was treated for bites by paramedics.
06:53 Inquiries are underway into the circumstances.
06:56 And it comes, of course, as on Thursday last week,
06:59 it became a criminal offence to own an Excel bully dog
07:01 in England and Wales
07:02 unless you have an exemption certificate.
07:05 Now in some other news,
07:06 for a look at the week's health headlines,
07:07 here's KMTV's health expert, Dr. Julian Spinks.
07:11 Julian, Julian, thank you for joining us.
07:22 So much going on in the world of health news today.
07:25 First, we've been hearing a little bit about dentists.
07:26 So those who set up a practice in areas of England and Wales
07:31 with poor access to NHS dental care
07:34 could be offered a £20,000 bonus.
07:36 First of all, what's your kind of initial reaction to that?
07:38 How could that impact Kent,
07:40 where we know there are many areas, many deprived areas?
07:44 Well, nearly every week I see someone
07:46 who comes along hoping I can deal with their dental problems
07:49 and as a GP, I'm not trained in them,
07:51 so I can't really help them.
07:52 And that's because they're struggling
07:54 to access NHS dentistry.
07:57 So anything that helps is a good idea,
07:59 although I have to say that it's a very small amount of money
08:02 compared with the enormous cost that dentists face.
08:05 I have a sister who's a dentist
08:07 who's actually just retired early
08:10 because she couldn't face the amount of pressure
08:12 she was under and the fact that financially
08:14 it was no longer worthwhile working for the NHS.
08:17 Yeah, well, you're not the only person to say
08:19 that this potentially couldn't be enough money.
08:21 We've actually spoken to a Kent dentist about this.
08:24 Here's what he had to say.
08:25 It's not going to touch the side.
08:28 So they've announced £20,000 over the next three years
08:31 to have new dental patients
08:33 being accepted at dental practice.
08:35 That equates to about £4.50 an hour.
08:37 The cost of running a dental surgery,
08:39 one room is £150 to £200 an hour.
08:42 That's a tip of the iceberg to how underfunded we are.
08:46 It's an insult.
08:47 It's almost as if they don't want to care,
08:49 but it's a political move because elections are coming
08:52 and by saying £20,000, it makes it sound good.
08:55 It makes them sound electable,
08:56 but in essence, it's nothing.
08:59 It's an insult.
09:01 He says it's not enough,
09:03 but would you not see it as a step in the right direction?
09:05 The government are trying to sort of make improvements
09:08 to the stretched healthcare service.
09:11 It'll work for some dental practices.
09:13 It really depends on the sort of income they've got
09:16 versus the costs.
09:18 But the problem is if you can't actually make dentistry pay
09:22 in an NHS setting in Kent, even with that extra money,
09:26 you're still going to have problems.
09:27 But hopefully it's a start rather than the end of a process
09:30 to perhaps improve that access
09:32 because actually having good dentistry
09:34 affects your general health as well.
09:36 And so if your teeth are healthy,
09:38 the rest of your body will be.
09:40 - And we've also in some other news heard
09:41 about these two big health scandals this week.
09:44 First, we wanted to talk about the one with sodium valproate.
09:49 Hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly.
09:50 It's a medicine for epilepsy and bipolar disorder.
09:53 It can cause defects to unborn babies.
09:55 But for decades, many, we knew the risk,
09:58 but many weren't being warned about them.
10:00 And they were taking this medicine.
10:02 Now people are saying, we want compensation.
10:04 What have you kind of thought about this this week
10:06 with people calling for compensation for this?
10:10 - Well, it's true that some of the first warnings
10:12 came in the 1980s, although both in the UK and the US,
10:16 really the warning started to appear on packets
10:18 in around 2016, so quite a long time afterwards.
10:22 And I think it's because gradually we've realised
10:24 how dangerous it's become.
10:26 The initial concerns didn't really show
10:29 the size of the problem, which is that sort of 10%
10:33 of women who get pregnant when they're taking this
10:36 will have the risk of having a child with abnormalities,
10:39 physical and mental or developmental.
10:41 So it is a real problem and we do need to look back
10:46 and say, could we have spotted this was coming earlier?
10:49 - And we've heard the Patient Safety Commissioner
10:51 calling for government to give compensation
10:54 to those involved and we also saw another scandal
10:57 of women who were using pelvic mesh implants
11:00 facing serious health effects.
11:02 We don't have long now, but why are we seeing
11:04 these failings in the health service,
11:06 which many people rely on?
11:08 - The fact is that people set out with good intentions.
11:11 If you look at meshes and so on,
11:13 they were the gold standard.
11:14 They replaced far more invasive operations.
11:16 They've not turned out to be as good
11:18 as we thought they were going to.
11:19 But it wasn't a question of being sort of slapped ashes
11:22 because we've learned after having things there
11:24 for some time.
11:25 - Yeah, we've seen the government,
11:26 the Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins,
11:28 has said that ministers are going to be looking carefully
11:30 into this report and saying that the government
11:31 will need some time to think about
11:33 kind of meaningful recommendations
11:35 and proposals in response to both scandals.
11:38 Julian, thank you for joining us today.
11:40 Time now for a break, but after the break,
11:44 we'll be going behind the scenes at Canterbury Golf Club
11:47 after it won Ecological Project of the Year.
11:50 All that and more coming after this break.
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15:04 - Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight live on KMTV.
15:16 Now more than 40,000 pounds has been raised
15:20 towards a jockey's funeral who died on a Kent race course.
15:24 Keegan Kirkby was killed when he was thrown from his horse
15:27 in the final event at Charing in Ashford over the weekend.
15:31 Police, paramedics and an air ambulance were called
15:33 to the incident on Sunday at around 3.30 in the afternoon.
15:37 But the Somerset based jockey sadly died at the scene.
15:41 A fundraiser was set up the following day
15:43 with a target of 5,000 pounds,
15:45 but in just a couple of days,
15:47 it's made it to more than 40,000 pounds.
15:51 Now, Medway Council are looking for 20 million pounds
15:54 to fix the crumbling concrete at their headquarters,
15:57 hoping this will make it fit for purpose for up to 40 years.
16:01 Gunn Wharf has been closed since October
16:03 after a dangerous concrete rack was discovered,
16:06 forcing a number of council staff to work remotely.
16:09 A report released on Monday has discussed multiple options
16:12 to get the offices back up and running.
16:14 Alternatives include selling the building to find a new HQ
16:17 or continuing to operate with reduced capacity at Gunn Wharf.
16:21 Officers say the option of borrowing
16:23 is the most cost effective,
16:25 but this is all going to be discussed at cabinet next week.
16:27 And if approved, it would go to consultation.
16:31 Now, volunteers at Canterbury Golf Club
16:33 say wildlife conservation is a vital part
16:36 of looking after their course.
16:37 It comes as the club has won the Ecological Project of the Year
16:41 with the support of Natural England
16:43 at the Golf Environment Awards.
16:45 The club's biodiversity champion and member, Anthony Dance,
16:48 gave our reporter, Bartholomew Hall, a tour around the course.
16:53 Built almost 100 years ago,
16:55 Canterbury Golf Club's greens, fairways and roughs
16:58 are uniquely surrounded by acres of green space
17:01 inhabited by a rich variety of wildlife,
17:04 from trees and sprouting greenery to bats, moles and rabbits.
17:09 After winning Ecological Project of the Year,
17:11 the club took me on a tour of the course,
17:13 but rather than playing 18 rounds,
17:16 it was the elements in the rough that were of the most interest.
17:19 You can see that there's regeneration happening already.
17:23 We've got early pioneer species of gorse and broom.
17:26 All that seed and holly was in the woodland floor.
17:30 The wood, the sycamore that we cut, we've stacked
17:34 and we've created habitat, basically, for insects and small mammals.
17:39 Anthony Dance is a volunteer and member of Canterbury Golf Club.
17:43 He's behind their biodiversity plan, which won them the award.
17:47 It's very satisfying.
17:49 One, because I'm very interested in wildlife and nature
17:52 and conservation, so that's my angle, really.
17:57 I'm not too bothered about awards,
17:58 but they bring recognition and validation of all that we're doing
18:02 and can raise the profile as well.
18:04 Oh, well, it's fantastic.
18:06 I was blown away actually winning this award.
18:10 And it's testament to the volunteers
18:14 and the creation of the biodiversity plan by Anthony.
18:19 Canterbury's course is classed as a site of special scientific interest,
18:23 which means its land can help make a significant contribution to nature conservation.
18:28 Alongside winning the award,
18:30 the club is being granted a five-year funding grant from the government.
18:33 If it was left to its own devices,
18:37 invasive species like bramble, sycamore and hazel would take over.
18:42 So what we do is, in certain areas, we take it back to low level.
18:47 We coppice it, we scrub it or we cut it,
18:50 so that we get a variety of habitats.
18:54 I'm here now with some of the volunteers.
18:56 They come here weekly to help work on some of the biodiverse elements of the land here.
19:01 Today, they're taking some of the wood that's been chopped down from these trees
19:05 to create a woodpile.
19:06 Now, that's going to eventually become a brand new habitat
19:09 for the wildlife within the woods.
19:13 Golf clubs in the UK make up a whopping 33% of open green space in Great Britain,
19:18 and that's why it's hoped more clubs will join in and swing towards a greener future.
19:24 Bartholomew Hall for KMTB in Canterbury.
19:27 Bartholomew joins me now.
19:30 You didn't take part, but you did see some lovely sites.
19:33 I did, absolutely.
19:34 I mean, they've done a lot of work with their conservation, their biodiversity project,
19:39 and have won the award to prove it.
19:41 And it seems like the type of project that will never really come to an official end.
19:45 There's always stuff that can be improved on,
19:46 and it's such a large space there at Canterbury Golf Club.
19:50 That stat at the end really surprised me when I first heard it.
19:52 33% of all of Great Britain's open green open space is made up of the land of our golf courses,
20:00 so a lot of opportunity for biodiversity and for conservation.
20:04 And in fact, we'll be hearing more from Anthony,
20:06 who we heard from in that piece, in our next programme, Kent on Climate.
20:10 You'll be interviewing him.
20:11 Yeah, straight after the break, got lots of questions for him.
20:13 But now in some other sporty news, last night in the show we were talking about Maidstone.
20:18 We now know who they're going to be playing in Round 5 of the FA Cup.
20:22 Yes, absolutely.
20:23 Coventry City.
20:24 They beat Sheffield Wednesday yesterday 4-1 in their replay last night,
20:30 so a really dominant performance from Maidstone's hosts.
20:33 It's going to be a tough game for Maidstone,
20:35 but of course we said this all before when they went up against Ipswich,
20:39 so it's going to be a huge fixture, of course.
20:41 Taking place on the 26th of February, that's a Monday, 7.45 in the evening is the kick-off.
20:47 No ticket information has been released yet,
20:49 but it's not going to be, for Maidstone fans, much more of a journey than they're used to.
20:54 They actually played Torquay last night.
20:56 Usually that's quite the journey down to the south-west for them to play if they were to go away.
21:02 This journey to the West Midlands, only around about three hours, so not too bad.
21:06 A bit closer to home, then.
21:07 A bit closer to home, but it's going to be a day to remember for those Maidstone fans.
21:11 Final 16 for Maidstone, brilliant.
21:12 Absolutely, all eyes to the game. We'll have to see how that goes.
21:15 Bartholomew, thank you very much for telling us a bit more about that.
21:20 Well, we'll be hearing more from Anthony in Kent on Climate
21:23 from that first story about the golf club,
21:25 but now it's time to tell you about some of the reports we play on our website.
21:31 Don't forget you can always keep up to date with all of your latest stories across Kent
21:34 by logging on to our website, kmcv.co.uk.
21:38 There you'll find all our reports, including this one about probably the longest mail delay in Kent,
21:44 as one Maidstone resident received a postcard 50 years late. Take a look.
21:51 Sending a postcard from your holidays might be a dying tradition,
21:55 but one's just popped through this postbox.
21:58 Steve ignored it at first, but on closer inspection, it was a bit of a surprise.
22:04 I picked it up again this morning, had another look at it and noticed it was a four and a half pen stamp.
22:10 So I googled four and a half pen stamp. Four and a half pen stamps were issued in 1974.
22:18 So this has taken 50 years to get from the north of Scotland to here.
22:23 The message on the card tells of a camping holiday and an upcoming hike,
22:27 but it's addressed to the seemingly previous occupier of the house, Miss Freeman.
22:32 Now, if you thought that was strange enough, well, listen to what happened the next morning.
22:37 This morning, we got another one. This one has come from Denmark.
22:40 Again, quite clearly postmarked 1974.
22:45 But this is from a different sender. He's called Frank.
22:49 My thinking is he's been lost in a post office somewhere. But where? I don't know.
22:54 All those years ago, when the sender sent this card from Inverness,
22:58 it should have taken three or four days to arrive to the receiver,
23:01 but it took half a century. You might say it's snail mail,
23:06 when in fact, a snail could make that very journey from Inverness to Maidstone 28 times.
23:14 We've taken Steve's postcards to a Tunbridge stamp collector.
23:18 He's been collecting them since he was 10 years old.
23:22 He says these postcards are 50 years old,
23:25 but he reckons they may have been re-sent through the post.
23:30 I can't fathom even a guess of why they would put these in the post.
23:36 If the individuals posting them didn't know the postage rate,
23:42 why would they stick odds stamps on that are way out of date?
23:47 But they may have been delivered to that address in '74,
23:52 and somebody, just out of amusement, stuck them back in the letterbox.
23:57 I can't explain it. It's puzzling.
24:00 A Royal Mail spokesperson said incidents like this are very rare,
24:04 and we are certainly curious about how these postcards came to appear in our system
24:08 after such a long period of time.
24:10 Upon discovery, they were delivered to the address, as is our duty.
24:15 For these postcards, it seems that their sender, the receiver,
24:18 and where on earth they've been for the past half a century,
24:22 would have to remain a mystery.
24:24 Gabriel Morris for CAME TV.
24:29 So interesting that story. Strange enough receiving one postcard late, but two.
24:33 There's just got to be something going on there.
24:35 And I've just been told by my producer as well,
24:38 today is National Send a Card to a Friend Day.
24:41 So potentially a long-lost friend of 50 years sent that postcard.
24:44 If you do want to hear more from that story, there's more on Kent Online.
24:49 But now, a yellow weather warning is in place for Kent,
24:52 with heavy rainfall expected.
24:54 In some parts of the south-east, as much as 45mm of rain is expected,
24:59 prompting the Met Office alert.
25:01 It's in place from 2am tomorrow until 6 on Friday morning.
25:06 Warnings are in place for traffic and public transport delays,
25:09 while homes and businesses could be damaged because of flooding.
25:12 The Met Office have insisted that people living in homes at risk of flooding
25:17 should have a plan and an emergency flood kit.
25:20 Do be careful out and about on the roads.
25:22 That rain doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
25:25 And just before we go, let's take a look at the full forecast where you are.
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25:35 Yeah, as I was saying, very wet and drizzly.
25:37 Mostly around southern parts of Kent, looking pretty dry actually in other areas.
25:42 But rest through to tomorrow, looks like it's rain everywhere.
25:46 Slightly windy too, but not too cold.
25:49 Getting slightly milder as the day goes on, but that rain isn't going anywhere.
25:53 Light winds throughout the day.
25:54 And here's the outlook for the rest of the week.
25:57 Staying wet and drizzly, getting slightly warmer as the week goes on.
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26:10 So awful to hear that that wet weather just isn't going anywhere.
26:13 But that's all we've got time for on this episode of Kent Tonight.
26:17 You've been watching. There's more news made just for Kent throughout the evening.
26:21 Don't forget you can always keep up to date with the latest news across your county
26:25 by logging on to our website, kmtv.co.uk.
26:28 You can also keep us on your social timelines by liking us on Facebook,
26:32 following us on X, TikTok and Instagram too.
26:36 But straight after the break, I'll be back with a brand new episode of Kent On Climate
26:40 with all your latest environmental news from across Kent.
26:43 See you in just a few minutes.
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