- 9 months ago
Catch up with all the latest news from across the county with Bartholomew Hall.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight, live on KMTV.
00:28I'm Bartholomew Hall. Here are your top stories on Tuesday the 13th of May.
00:34Safe spaces. More than 150 Kent businesses invited to sign up to scheme tackling women
00:40and girls' safety. Flag fallout new KCC leader faces backlash over plans to remove Ukraine flag
00:47from Council HQ and getting children reading. Charity calls for action as one in four pupils
00:54and leaving primary school without essential skills.
00:58But first this evening, as figures for sex-based harassment against women and girls have been
01:02rising in Kent, a new initiative has come into force in Tunbridge Wells, aiming to help.
01:08The MP Mike Martin has teamed up with a local women's organisation together as allies and
01:13has invited over 150 businesses from the area to an event where they could sign up to become
01:18a safe haven, a place to help women and girls feel safer and more supported by their community.
01:24Kristen Hawthorne went along to the event's launch.
01:28If you're a woman, you may be well aware of the feeling of being unsafe or vulnerable.
01:33But now, a new scheme in Tunbridge Wells is aiming to change that by turning local businesses
01:38into lifelines called safe havens. Businesses can show that they've signed up by having a
01:43sticker in the window or by showing it on the Safe Havens app. Details can also be found
01:48on the Royal Tunbridge Wells Love Local app.
01:51This initiative is really trying, you know, there's people involved and people running it
01:57that have been through these experiences themselves. And I think that's a massive, massive part of
02:05the way that we can connect with each other, with each other's experiences and therefore we
02:10can build relationship and we can build trust through that. And I would, of course, encourage
02:16anybody who feels threatened or who has had any of these experiences to absolutely use this initiative
02:25to help them, to support them.
02:28The initiative comes as frustration grows over delays in enforcing the Sex-Based Harassment Act,
02:33which was passed last year but is still not in force.
02:36In response, MP Mike Martin and a local women's safety organisation, together as allies, have
02:42come together and invited over 150 businesses in Tunbridge Wells to join the Safe Havens project.
02:49So ultimately, Safe Havens are cafes, libraries, everyday locations where a woman or a young lady
03:00could walk in, frankly it's anybody, I mean anybody who feels vulnerable, they can step in,
03:06know that they could offer a chair, offer some water, plug their mobile phone in and just reset
03:13and recalibrate so that they can carry on their onward journey feeling safe. Because the challenge
03:21is that safety and feeling safe, that's very hard to police because everybody feels safety in a very different way.
03:35So we have a basket of initiatives that are going to be rolling out over the next two or three years.
03:41This is the first one, the Safe Havens one, which is obviously about giving women and girls,
03:47but also boys and men can use it if they feel vulnerable travelling home, but it's predominantly aimed at women and girls.
03:51Some of the other work, some of the other initiatives in that basket of initiatives will be focused on working
03:58with boys and young men to educate them and to bring alive to them how women and girls feel in certain situations.
04:05Training for the participating businesses begins in June, but organisers say it's not too late for others to get involved
04:11and to help women and girls feel that little bit safer and supported.
04:16Kristen Hawthorne, KMTV, Tunbridge Wells.
04:23Well, Laura Toope, the founder of Together as Allies, and Ian Torpe, who set up the Safe Havens campaign in London,
04:30joined us earlier on the Kent Morning Show to talk more.
04:32I mean, I probably should take a step back because I am also the independent advisory group chair to Kent Police.
04:43And so we already have close relationships and ties with the police within the district.
04:50And it became apparent through that work that, you know, safety is,
04:58and I say in the clip that you've just shared with the audience,
05:01that safety is not just a rule of law.
05:06Safety is a feeling.
05:09And the reality is, the level of how we feel safe is different between each individual.
05:17So through the work that we did do with the IAG, which is bringing community voices together
05:26to understand, elevate, and amplify, to bring about community safety together,
05:34along with all different partner agencies, the police obviously included,
05:38we did a, for want of a better way of describing it, a big brainstorm and spotlight session around violence against women and girls
05:49in December of last year.
05:51And the police were there, and what came out of that was this work around safe havens,
06:00drawn from the City of London's work where safe havens have already been delivered and trialled.
06:08So that, along with some of the other initiatives like active bystander training,
06:15which will roll out later this year, came into life.
06:21This is a project that has lots of different sort of sections in it, doesn't it?
06:25And we spoke to Ian earlier about how it went down in London and why he's brought it over here.
06:31But for you then, can you tell me a little bit about your organisation together as allies?
06:35Because I was looking through the website, and you've got lots of different things about,
06:39you know, that boys can be allies and all these different things.
06:41So can you go into a little bit about that and what your, sort of what your personal organisation offers?
06:48So, I mean, together as allies is really about community coming together to co-create solutions.
06:57And, you know, for me, it's trying to join DOTS, signposts, and, as I say, co-create, collaborate.
07:08And together as allies was ultimately that collaboration.
07:13So for me, it is making communities safer, healthier, so that we can all flourish.
07:27I think where, for me, my personal story into all of this, I, 10 years ago, my life spectacularly imploded.
07:37And I went from having everything to my husband dying, becoming extremely ill myself, and ultimately losing the career I'd built.
07:49So in the space of six to eight weeks, I'd gone from having everything to having nothing.
07:55And, you know, the world was very noisy for me at that point.
07:59And I, you know, telling me what I needed to do, very complex, very overwhelming.
08:06I felt very disconnected, very much like I was in a parallel universe, wading through treacle, separate to the one that everybody else seemed very happy with.
08:19And ultimately, I didn't know how to get back to a place where I felt safe.
08:25So, you know, tiring of everything, I flew myself off 5,000 miles away and sat on a beach.
08:31And Project Me ultimately became my outcome of that work.
08:38And Project Me is about understanding our own personal agency.
08:42And that even when in our world, where it is incredibly complex, busy, moving very fast, we can still connect and have a level of personal agency to make things happen.
08:58A man's been charged after thousands of pounds of damage was caused to businesses in Maidstone's town centre.
09:04Callum Packman, of no fixed address, was arrested after calls to a break-in at a Sainsbury's supermarket on Sunday night before further reports of damage caused to other firms.
09:14He's also accused of throwing a fire extinguisher at officers, which damaged their vehicle.
09:18When the suspect appeared before Medway Magistrates Court today, the case was sent to Crown Court and will be heard in June.
09:25Now, backlash has been mounting across the county to reform UK's pledge to ban the Ukrainian flag from council buildings.
09:32Members of the Ukrainian community say they are disappointed.
09:36Our local democracy reporter, Oli Leder, explained the story this morning.
09:40So, it's a bit of a controversial one.
09:42It all has to do with this new policy from Reform UK for the counts they won during the local elections.
09:48They only want to see the St George's flag, the Union flag and whatever county flags there are, such as the Invicta flag with the famous Kent horse on it above County Hall.
09:59And that means you won't be able to see the Ukrainian flag flying there any more.
10:04We spoke to Lyndon Kemm-Karen.
10:07She's the new leader of the KCC group at Reform UK and therefore the leader of the council.
10:13But where she stands on it, she calls it a distraction.
10:16We can hear a bit of her logic behind the decision now.
10:20I think the fact that they're here and they've come here legally and they've made their lives in Britain, some of them.
10:25Some of them have gone back home to Ukraine, others may stay for a long time.
10:29That's absolutely marvellous.
10:30They're amazing people, the Ukrainians.
10:32They've contributed amazingly to our society.
10:34That's great.
10:35A flag doesn't change any of that.
10:37I think what you need to bear in mind, for a lot of Ukrainians, seeing the symbol isn't the be-all or end-all, but it is an important symbol of solidarity.
10:45One Ukrainian who recently went back to Ukraine for her father's funeral said that it's disappointing that the flag is no longer going to be flown in County Hall.
10:57While opposition leaders say that there's been a lot of support for Ukraine.
11:01The previous leader, Roger Gough, signed a pledge supporting the Ukrainian people with the sister partnership over in the country.
11:12And remind us how the local group from UK, what have they said about all of this?
11:18Well, as I said before, they think it's all a bit of distraction.
11:21They say the war's thousands of miles away.
11:24They want to focus on the local issues.
11:26They want to focus on running Kent County Council.
11:29You can see in the chamber right now that the Ukrainian flag takes quite a bit of a centre stage in the chamber.
11:37But we won't probably see any changes to any of this until the end of May at the earliest.
11:45Time for a quick break now.
11:47We'll have plenty more news just for Kent after this.
14:59Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight live on KMTV.
15:16Now, a man from Maidstone's been sentenced to prison after running from police when he was wanted for at least nine fuel thefts.
15:2447-year-old James Dunn from Quarry Road reversed his car into a lamppost and another car whilst having a young child in his vehicle.
15:33At Maidstone Crown Court, he admitted to the theft as well as charges of dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and going equipped for theft.
15:42Mr Dunn was handed a 16-year-old, Mr Dunn was handed a 16-month imprisonment and disqualified from driving for a further two years.
15:47More than 80% of disposable vape users are stockpiling ahead of the upcoming ban.
15:53But experts warn it's not just bad for your health, it's also a major fire risk.
15:58The lithium batteries inside can explode if damaged, wet or overheated.
16:03New research shows demand is high across all age groups and it could even drive a black market.
16:09Well, Dr Marina Murthy from Hayap Group joined us earlier on the Kent Morning Show.
16:14So Hayap Group is an e-commerce platform, so we're basically like an Amazon of nicotine products.
16:20So we sell, you know, millions of products every month to millions of consumers.
16:24So we decided to survey our consumers to see what their intentions were ahead of this ban.
16:32And like you said, we've seen that a huge number of them are planning to stockpile or are already stockpiling.
16:40So up to 82% of people said that they would stockpile.
16:46And some people are planning to stockpile enough product to last them for 18 months,
16:50which is a considerable amount of product even for one person.
16:54And if you put it into context, if you think that there's 1.68 million or something like that consumers in the UK,
17:01you're talking about potentially 1.38 million consumers planning to stockpile products.
17:09And it's really interesting.
17:10I've certainly seen around the streets of Kent at the moment,
17:13lots of these vape shops, corner shops doing some special deals.
17:17And these obviously they're going to be banned in a few weeks time.
17:21Why is this so bad if you are going to stockpile?
17:24Because there are risks which come with this, particularly with fires and even explosions,
17:28which we're just finding out.
17:31Well, like I said, when you have so many people planning to stockpile so much product,
17:36I think it's important that they understand the product that they're planning to store.
17:41And like you said already, they contain lithium batteries, which a lot of things do.
17:44And of course, they're perfectly safe if they're stored properly.
17:48But the problem is that with so much product,
17:51people are going to probably struggle for space to store them.
17:57And I mean, it's very important that they're kept in the correct environment.
18:01So it needs to be cool, dry and have plenty of ventilation.
18:05And also you need to eliminate the risk that these products would be damaged.
18:09Because if they are damaged, they can cause fires and they can release toxic gases.
18:13So it's very important to understand how to store them.
18:17And also I think the other thing is that people need to be aware of the fact that they need to recycle them.
18:23And I think that's something that people aren't necessarily aware of.
18:27So they need to store them properly.
18:30And they also need to be cognizant of the fact that they should be recycling them when they're finished with them.
18:35And because there'll be a lot of product at the end of the day.
18:38People know about this.
18:40Do you think there's going to be a risk here?
18:41I'm not so sure that people know about this.
18:46I mean, there has been a lot of, we'll say, headlines about disposable products in the last year.
18:53But I haven't seen any sort of, you know, public information campaigns about what you should do,
18:59how you should store them, or indeed what you should do instead of using disposable products.
19:03Because a lot of people have been using them, which is, you know, why they became so popular.
19:09They're very popular, they're very convenient.
19:12And I'm not so sure that people are necessarily aware of how they should be storing them and how they should be recycling them.
19:19Well, now, according to research, as many as one in four children are leaving primary school in the UK unable to read.
19:26It's been found that only 10% of those children go on to pass key subject GCSEs.
19:31So how do we get more young people into books at school and at home?
19:35Well, Emily Jack, CEO of the charity Bookmark, joined us on the line earlier to explain why there is such a lack of reading skills nationally and what the picture looks like here in Kent.
19:45Yes, reading for pleasure is so important, as you've said, as it removes barriers to education and beyond.
19:51But not only that, it helps the comprehension, confidence and empathy.
19:55And we're looking at a picture where one in four children leave primary school unable to read well.
20:00And so Bookmark Reading Charity has been set up to help with this.
20:03And we're currently supporting 15 schools locally in Kent.
20:06Yeah, so one in four UK children are leaving primary school unable to read.
20:12That's quite a shocking statistic.
20:14Why are we at this number?
20:15Well, we're in a world where children have limited access to books and disadvantaged communities.
20:23But not only that, we're competing with technology.
20:26And they also have fewer role models in terms of adults reading as well.
20:30Reading is on the decline.
20:31So as a result at home, we really have to carve out time to help children read.
20:35And also, if anyone did have an hour to spare, then 30 minutes twice a week really could change a child's story.
20:43So we send reading volunteers into schools, online or in person, to help read with a child.
20:49Obviously, schools are facing huge cuts and budget cuts with teaching assistants.
20:54And so our reading volunteers can go in and help with that intervention.
20:58Yeah, so you're just going to pick up on what you said there.
21:01Schools facing huge cuts at the moment and challenges financially.
21:04So is there less emphasis being put on reading now at schools compared to perhaps when you and I were there?
21:12I think it's tricky, isn't it, at the moment, because there is so many competing things.
21:18And yes, when you and I were at school, maybe mobile phones weren't such a big thing.
21:21Social media, there's so many competing priorities.
21:24And also we're in a cost of living crisis.
21:26So parents struggling at home with books and also, you know, two parents working and, you know, just not carving out that time at home.
21:34So our reading volunteers really can help with that.
21:38And is there a certain point in childhood where it may become harder for a child to read?
21:43So if this sort of thing isn't done, when people go in and read to them, is there a point where it might be even more difficult?
21:50Or, you know, will it have any lasting impacts if these children don't get reading at these ages?
21:56Yes, of course. I mean, the older you get, the more embarrassing it is, the more stigma there is, and the harder it is to learn how to read.
22:06So if you can crack it in primary school, you really do have the tools for greater success in terms of removing that barrier.
22:12And that's why we want, we have started a charity and we're trying to help with changing that statistic around one in four children leaving primary school unable to read at the expected level.
22:23I have a statistic this morning as well.
22:25One in eight children aged five to eight say that they don't have a book of their own at home.
22:31Is this something that is disproportionately impacting children now from disadvantaged backgrounds?
22:36Is there a correlation between, you know, children from disadvantaged backgrounds and low reading rates here?
22:44Yes, I mean, we're finding that in disadvantaged communities, children have less access to books.
22:49And that's why, for example, our charity Bookmark Reading, we supply termly book bundles to schools and also build libraries, as well as this one-to-one reading programme, because we want to try and combat that.
23:00And it's really important that children have access to books that they like, but also high quality, diverse books that they can pick up and read and also adults can read with them.
23:12Now, don't forget, you can keep up to date with all your latest stories across Kent by logging on to our website, kmtv.co.uk, there you'll find all of our reports, including this one.
23:22Indoor football is nothing new, but here at the Will Brown Jr. Cafe, there's a slightly different goal in mind.
23:31Back in December of 2023, seven-year-old William Brown was killed by a car when collecting a football from the busy road outside his house.
23:42People love football and this was Will's kid, which has obviously got great memories for me.
23:48Now, his father wants to continue his son's legacy and keep children here in Folkestone on side when it comes to traffic.
23:56And, you know, it's a positive message. Although it's a sad thing that's happened, you know, we've turned it around into a positive thing.
24:03This is what Will would have wanted, you know. I felt Will say to me, basically, when the incident happened, you know,
24:09Dad, you've got to tell him about the roads, you know, because I don't feel that, you know, if he had more education on the roads, he wouldn't have been in that road getting the ball.
24:18William Brown Sr. says he's working with local schools on road safety seminars, turning his son's love of the beautiful game into life-saving knowledge off the pitch.
24:31We've spoken to Will's school at St Innsworth's, so they'll be the first to come in.
24:37So what we're going to be doing is there's going to be a projector on this wall that's going to run a road safety video so we can get the children in, you know, a bit like in the school hall, you know,
24:51all watching the road safety and obviously learning, you know, what happened to Will and, more importantly, how it won't happen to them.
25:00William Brown Jr.'s memory continues to live on in his hometown, but while some youngsters may just be here for the crossbar challenge,
25:10they could end up learning a thing or two about the challenges of safely crossing the road.
25:16Oliver, leaders of Sanks for KNTV in Folkestone.
25:20Such a lovely report there from Ollie Leader. Now, though, let's take a look at the weather before we go this evening.
25:30Well, tonight it's looking fairly clear in the sky. Temperatures of around 11 and 12 degrees as we go into tomorrow morning.
25:38Those temperatures rising ever so slightly. Skies staying clear. Highs of 17 degrees in Ashford.
25:45And into the afternoon, temperatures rising again. Highs of 20. Skies staying rather clear.
25:50Those winds picking up as well. And as we go towards the weekend now, highs of 20 on Friday.
25:56Skies continuing to stay lovely and clear.
26:07Just can't get enough of this lovely sunny weather at the moment, can you?
26:11All right, that is it from us this evening on Kent Tonight.
26:14You've been watching us live on KNTV.
26:16There's plenty more news made just for Kent throughout the evening.
26:18And don't forget, you can always keep up to date with the latest news across your county by logging on to our website, kmtv.co.uk.
26:25You can also keep us on your social timelines by liking us on Facebook and following us on TikTok.
26:31And, of course, if you have a story you think we should be covering, then just do get in touch.
26:36We also have a series of special programmes for you to watch on our website and throughout the week here on KMTV.
26:41We'll see you soon. Bye-bye.
26:42We'll see you soon.
Comments