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00:00Hello and welcome to Kentonite Live on KMTV, I'm Kristin Hawthorne and here are your top
00:28stories on Thursday the 25th of September. Canterbury con man, court gives six years in prison to a man
00:35who stole more than a million pounds from family and friends to fund his gambling. Definitely
00:40something has to be done not just for this case but for anybody you know how can you gamble ten
00:46million pounds. All aboard tens of thousands sign online petition in hopes of bringing back Eurostar
00:52services to Kent. We get billions of pounds worth of business into Kent and the whole of the southeast
00:59region. And ready set restore, we hear from a comic book store which has been recovering from an arson
01:05attack. You know I've cried several times about the support that we've had because the amount of
01:11people that have come in here and asked, I will never get bored of explaining it.
01:25First tonight, a Canterbury man has been sentenced to six years of fraud after he stole a total of a
01:29million pounds from close friends and family. They believed he was investing their money into a
01:34thriving IT company when he was actually spending it on betting sites. Finn McDermott was down at
01:40Canterbury Crown Court earlier today. One million three hundred and eighty four thousand pounds.
01:45That's how much money that Kenny Sanders stole from his victims during a multiple year campaign of
01:50fraud. It has now landed him six years in prison. The fraud involved convincing some of those closest
01:55to him to part with their savings, inheritance and their pension pots. As he assured them he was
02:01investing their money in a thriving IT company when in fact he was using it to gamble. Some of those who
02:07watched the scene in the courtroom described it as a frosty atmosphere. Once the sentence of six
02:12years was announced some began to cry while others buried their face in their hands. Some of this
02:17emotion speaks to the depth of dishonesty that the judge described. He said that dishonesty has ruined
02:23lives and added that the harm caused goes beyond simple financial losses with each victim suffering
02:29detrimental effects and psychological harm. Some of those victims spoke to me earlier.
02:34I think no matter what any of the all of this whole situation has always continually just made me
02:41feel anxious. Some justice has been done by that. That's not going to bring back the last six, eight
02:47years. And now it's time for me to rebuild and to look at where we go forward from now.
02:55I think and what makes me more happy is that he's behind bars tonight and he can't do this to anyone else.
03:01Sanders pled guilty to seven offences of fraud by false representation relating to nine different
03:07cases and one case of fraudulent trading between January 2015 and 2018. Four other charges of fraud
03:14by false representation involving separate alleged victims were ordered to be left on the court file.
03:19The judge also saw fit to disqualify Sanders from being a company director for 10 years. If he chose to
03:25do so he would be committing a crime. In the case there were however some mitigating circumstances
03:31with Sanders having pled guilty before his crime was detected and they acknowledged that he had a
03:35gambling addiction. All of this meant that the six year sentence was a reduced one. Investigating officer
03:41detective constable Mark Hutley said Sanders gained the trust of family and friends making them think he
03:46was nothing other than a respectable businessman but in fact he was conning them in order to fund his own
03:51gambling habit. This case shows that Kent police take offences of fraud seriously and that offenders
03:56are pursued to gain justice for the victims of this type of crime. It's been some time since many of
04:01the victims had their money taken from them and during that time they've been subjected to psychological
04:06issues, stress and of course financial problems. But now with Sanders serving his six year sentence
04:12they hope that they can now begin to rebuild their lives. Finn McDermott for KMTV in Canterbury.
04:18Now taxi drivers are considering avoiding the waterfront bus station in Chatham after people
04:23have been targeted in their moving vehicles. Police attended reports of a disturbance on Monday at
04:28around 7pm in which drivers were allegedly assaulted. A dispersal order was then put in place.
04:34As we can see in this video here it is believed to be the same incident. You can see two people who have
04:40jumped on a bonnet of a moving car before one falls off while the other holds on. It is understood that
04:45one taxi driver has been injured and taken to hospital and now others have fears for their safety
04:50and damage to their vehicles. Next tonight an online petition has been gaining significant traction
04:57in the hopes to bring back Eurostar train services to Ashford and the county. Many have said that it
05:02would encourage them to do more travelling. So demonstrating the public desire for the line's return
05:06we sent our reporter Ronnie Glastal to find out the wider impacts the return could have on the public.
05:11More than 74,000 signatures have now signed an online petition asking for the return of Eurostar
05:19services to Ashford station. But if this line makes a comeback to the county what would that mean
05:24not just for Eurostar but for Kent's businesses? What that would mean for us locally is that we can
05:30then confidently start to re-advertise Ashford as an international destination to those investment
05:38organizations. We can start to give some reassurance to those businesses that are looking to plan
05:46sort of four, five, ten year strategies that actually the international is something they
05:51should factor in. That in itself creates a much more interesting proposition from a social economic
05:56perspective where people see Ashford as being not just a nice place to live in the Kent countryside but
06:01actually has international connectivity and provides a whole range of opportunities. So that again encourages
06:06people to perhaps relocate to here and sort of raise families here and that brings skills into the
06:11into the territory. That may be what it brings to the county but would those already living here
06:15feel as though they would make use of the services as well if they were to return? I think they should
06:22um I remember before they went they were saying about getting a train that went straight to
06:26Amsterdam and all my friends are really excited about that and then all of a sudden they stopped doing
06:31it because the Covid and then international went. Yes 100% I think they should bring it back because um
06:38going away up to London is a very long way and if they brought it back to Ashford it'd be a lot better
06:46for a lot of people that live in Ashford. I think it'd be good for it to return
06:50but also it's just as easy to get the train to London and then elsewhere. It'd be fantastic to come
07:00back. We've only lived in Ashford for about three or four years but the thought about going to Paris
07:06or something like that for the day would be wonderful. But how does the local council feel
07:10about the service's potential return? The council's perspective on it is that we need the economic benefit
07:16of getting this station back into action. We believe that if it was running now with an operator
07:22providing a decent number of services to it we could be well over 860,000 possibly even over a
07:28million people a year. So the economic benefits of getting the services back are huge. We we get
07:34billions of pounds worth of business into Kent and the whole of the southeast region particularly on the
07:40tourism side and the money that would come in and the jobs that would be generated from that would be
07:46incredible. So that that's all possible at the moment. Obviously we have a we have a monopoly
07:52situation with Eurostar. They're very comfortable in St Pancras. They're very comfortable pursuing their
07:57strategy of city to city and there's no motivation really for them to to reopen the station because
08:03they're making more money from what they're doing at the moment. Ronnie Glastol for KMTV.
08:09And now dressed as sharks, unicorns and hippos, racers are getting ready to get to the start line at Buckmore Park
08:15this weekend. They will be racing laps in a two-hour endurance challenge which all started after a
08:21cancer diagnosis. Over the years they've raised money for breast cancer now and many other charities.
08:26But Megan Quirk joined me earlier to tell us what can be expected from the day.
08:31Well thank you so much for joining us today Megan. First of all can you tell us about the race for
08:35others? Yeah so I created Race for Others back in 2021 I believe now. It all started because in 2017
08:48my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer and it was quite hard for the whole family to deal with and
08:55certainly for myself as well. I found that I needed to do something to try and help and I obviously couldn't
09:01help medically. I tried doing a fun run but running's not really my game and I work at Buckmore Park.
09:10We've done charity races there for years and suddenly Race for Others was born. My mum turned around to me
09:16one day and said why don't you do a charity race for breast cancer at work. I was like okay and ever since
09:23this is the fifth year we're now running. Fabulous so that's part of the reason then why you chose
09:29that charity and then I believe you've included My Shining Star as well which is the Childhood
09:33Cancerous Charity. Why did you include that one as well? So we did the first year with just breast
09:40cancer now. After we'd done that I suddenly realised we were sort of making enough money that we could
09:45support more than one charity. Breast cancer is always the reason I started this so that will always be
09:53the charity that stays the same and then after that we started changing the charity so we raised money
09:59for prostate cancer. We've raised money for Great Ormond Street and now this year we've chose My Shining
10:04Star. And how much money have you raised in the past and how much maybe are you hoping to get this year?
10:11Over the past four events that we've done I've raised over 22,000. I'm hoping this year we can
10:17make roughly around 8,000 if we can. That then puts us over the 30,000 mark over five years.
10:23And then, so it all sounds brilliant and who can take part? Can anybody join or is it specific people
10:30who've maybe been go-karting before? Anybody can join, that's the beauty of it. This is completely to
10:36take the mickey. All fun and games, no one, you could never have set foot in a cart before. That's
10:42absolutely fine and you still have a chance at winning. We buy laps, sell laps, buy forfeits,
10:48everyone turns up in outfits. We've got people in inflatable outfits and this year we're going to
10:53actually do an inflatable running race as well. So no experience is necessary at all or those of
10:59people that have lots of experience can still race and could possibly lose as well. And what are some of
11:04the best outfits that you've seen so far? Oh we've had quite a few ones. We've had
11:12Pink Power Rangers, we've had a Hippo, Pirates, Barbie, everything like that. Anything you can think
11:19of we've probably had. Certainly looks like a lot of fun happening this weekend so we'll be sure to
11:24update you on that and if anything else exciting happens. But time for a quick break now but coming
11:29up we're speaking with our guest Andre about the big the big Kent bird migration watch coming up this
11:36weekend about the species you'll be able to see take flight. We're also going to be taking a look
11:40at the weather for the weekend with all the exciting things that are happening. But until then we will
11:45see you in just a few minutes. So yeah, bye-bye.
11:59We'll see you in just a few minutes.
12:59you
13:29you
13:59you
14:29you
14:59Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight Live on KMTV. Now this weekend many bird watchers from
15:16around the county will be getting ready to watch flocks take flight. Many birds will start to migrate
15:22with swallows and swifts heading to Africa. Other species will be arriving to our Kent wetlands and
15:27coasts. To tell us about the Big Kent bird migration watch happening this weekend. I was joined by
15:33Andre earlier today. All right Andre thank you so much for joining us today. First of all can you
15:39tell us a bit about the Big Kent bird migration watch of 2025? I can. This is the second year that
15:46that we've run it. It's organized by the Kent Ornithological Society. We're a fairly small organization
15:53about 800 members and we're the premier bird recording organization for the county. But we've
15:59brought in our friends and colleagues from the RSPB at Dungeness, from the Dungeness Bird Observatory,
16:06from Sampajo and from the Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory so that we've actually got some activities
16:11on the ground that people can turn up and find out more about migrating birds. And it's a fantastic time
16:17of the year. September is peak migration as all of our birds are heading south to escape the winter and
16:24other ones are coming in from the north to avoid even harsher conditions further north. So there's
16:30plenty to see whether that's just out in the countryside around your own home where swallows
16:35are skipping along the hedgerows at the moment heading south or coming to one of the the big events where
16:41there's an opportunity to see bird ringing so you can see birds in the hand where people are putting
16:45harmless little rings on their legs to study the migration or there'll be talks, there'll be
16:50activities, there'll be chances to meet bird watchers and conservationists. So lots to do and a great time
16:58of the year to celebrate our migrating birds. And how did it go last year? Are you maybe going to see
17:04any changes this year? Do you think that there's going to be any, maybe less birds, more birds?
17:09Well that's always, that's partly why we do these sorts of things to see what the changes look like.
17:15But of course with migration it's very weather dependent so there might be a little bit of
17:20rain about at the weekend and while that's not great for going outside, put a coat on of course,
17:26for migration it might be something that just holds birds up a bit as they move. Kent of course
17:32an insula sticking out into the North Sea and we're the closest point to the continent. So this is a place where
17:38birds are often spending their last few hours in the country before they set off over the sea. So
17:44there can be all sorts of things that we don't expect yet. There are scarce birds like redback
17:49shrikes and rhinex that we might get to see. Both of those used to nest in Kent but now sadly we've lost
17:56them as breeding species but we see them as they're heading south. And one really amazing thing that's
18:02happened this this autumn is we've been inundated with records of glossy ibis which is a lovely bird
18:09where you get the sun just right on its purples and greens and long curving bill. And normally we see
18:15one or two or three around the county, a sort of scarce bird and they have bred in Britain just the once.
18:21But this year over 600 have arrived in Britain and we've had dozens in Kent so there's a really good
18:26chance to catch up with an exotic southern European bird at one of our sites on the Kent coast this
18:33weekend. Fabulous so it could be very interesting then and are we starting to see more rare birds
18:38in Kent? It seems like we are. Well yes it's partly dependent on how many people are out there looking
18:44and of course there's lots of very skilled bird watchers are out there looking for the the the rare and
18:49the unusual and a weekend like this is is a chance for us all to perhaps share in that excitement for
18:56a bird migration but whether it's a chif chaff wintering or you know just about to set off on
19:01its autumn migration in your garden or as I mentioned the swallows zipping along hedgerows there are the
19:07common migrants to enjoy as well as well as the rarities and as well as concentrating on the birds this
19:12is a great opportunity to encourage more and more people to get connected with Kent and its amazing bird
19:19life and we were a very lucky county we've got lots of interesting habitats important habitats
19:24vital wildlife sites that support our birds so there's lots of lots to learn lots to get involved
19:30with and perhaps who knows somebody's interest may be sparked for a lifetime's interest. And now don't
19:37forget you can keep up to date with all our latest stories across Kent by logging on to our website
19:41kmtv.co.uk there you'll find all the reports including this one about Princess Kate coming to Kent.
19:48Cuxton's industrial estate is not normally alive with Kentish crowds and excited hounds but then
19:54again the Princess of Wales normally doesn't come to town. It's a little place I was surprised that
19:59anybody would really know about it yeah and me I've got a day off today so I thought I'd come down and
20:05yeah it's really nice that someone like Princess Kate is coming to Cuxton she's lovely. I really love
20:10what they do for you know all the local charities and communities I think that's lovely. She's lovely
20:17especially like our grandparents that unfortunately passed away they absolutely love the royal family
20:22so I feel like we're here for them. The Princess of Wales was visiting Marina Mill a family-run textiles
20:28business known for its beautiful threads fit for royalty. I've done very basic screen printing at school
20:34so I don't know if it's where you've got a hat and then with a Ouija. No wonder the Princess looks so pleased as she lent a hand
20:48Princess printed the yellow
20:52um and this is what she actually printed earlier today. Marina Mills is one of the only few
20:59handmade textile companies in the UK now one of these could retail at 250 pounds per meter
21:07because of its beautiful handmade design. We're one of the very few hand printers left in the UK
21:16and everything we do is done by hand there's no machinery and so hands are on the squeegee and you
21:23actually print and no one else really does that anymore. Most of them are much much smaller than we
21:29are they have a small three meter table or they put onto machine or big big setups but we're in between.
21:39A rich history fit for historic visit but for many working here they'll just be happy about the broad
21:45strokes of Cuxton receiving a rare royal visit. We had a phone call from Kensington Palace
21:53it was back in June when they were first going to come and when Colin Colin called me and said
22:00Kensington Palace on phone I thought it was a hoax I was like shut up but um but yeah it was and they
22:07yeah she seemed to be really interested um she was hanging around wasn't she she wasn't um rushing
22:15through so she was obviously interested in each stage. Holly Spires for KMTV in Cuxton.
22:24Lovely report there from Holly but now let's take a quick look at the weather.
22:27Cloudy skies this evening with highs of 12 in Dover lows of 10 in Tunbridge Wells low wind speeds of up
22:38to six miles per hour going into tomorrow morning a cloudy start to the day highs of 13 in Canterbury
22:43lows of 12 in Ashford into tomorrow afternoon then temperatures reaching 16 in Dartford lows of 14 in
22:50Dover wind speeds picking up though to nine miles per hour Saturday we've got partly cloudy skies 17
22:55degrees Sunday is the exact same as Saturday and looks like Monday is as well
23:09but now Get Ready comic store in Rochester which was hit by an arson attack a month ago
23:14has now reopened and is in the process of fixing up the damage that was left behind Paul the owner of
23:21the store says that he's grateful to the community and that he didn't realize the support that he had
23:25until the incident happened. Well bringing us this report from the store is our reporter Kai Wei.
23:31This was then a comic store hit by an arsonist and engulfed in flames and this is now.
23:39Rising from the ashes and backed by community Get Ready comics has come back swinging after
23:44being hit by a devastating arson attack. We managed to open relatively quickly after the fire.
23:51Thankfully not a lot was damaged inside contrary to what was reported. We've been very lucky the
23:59community support has been insane it's like we couldn't have asked for better a better response
24:05to something really bad that happened. Stating the thickness of the wooden wall is what saved their
24:10inventory Paul praises the efforts of emergency services but mostly the loyal customers who stood by
24:17them and even set up a GoFundMe after the fire. We're honestly lucky that the Kent Fire Fire and Rescue
24:22Service have been so amazing but also the police have been incredibly helpful. I did also take to the
24:30streets outside the store and asked locals what they thought of comics and the importance it holds for
24:35them. Personally I grew up with comics so in the age before kids having computers so I chose my age but
24:44I would buy comics every Saturday and I loved it just sitting there reading them and that was a real
24:50pleasure for me. If you ask me who my favourite superhero is I'm increasingly anti superheroes because
24:59generally superheroes attract negative superheroes there's an almighty fight there's destruction a lot
25:07of death. Get Ready Comics is my favourite store in the high street I go in there all the time I love it
25:14for me Get Ready Comics is like for me personally like the hub of the community at least for me and
25:21it's a great way to meet new people as well so I yeah I love it. Paul says above all else the support from
25:28the community was what moved him most. I don't think we've realised the impact of how strong the
25:34community is here and it's you know I've cried several times about the support that we've had
25:40because the messages the comments the people that have come in the amount of people that have come
25:44in here and asked I will never get bored of explaining it. Yeah I don't think we realise that until
25:50this has happened and that feedback is yeah it's incredible I'm we're lucky to be doing what we're doing.
25:56Grateful and recovering Paul says that he hopes most of the store will be recovered soon and although
26:02he doesn't think the damages will be fixed by Christmas he does now know the community that's
26:08behind him. Kai Wei for Kame TV in Rochester. Well time for a quick break now but coming up we hear
26:16about a Canterbury man sentenced for fraud after stealing more than a million pounds from friends
26:21and family on a gambling site. Our reporter Ronnie Glastal investigated an online petition to bring
26:27Eurostar train services back to Kent and I'll be joined by Etley Reynolds to discuss the plans for
26:33a new women's training facility for the London City Lionesses in Denton. All that and more after the break
26:40so we'll be very excited to see you then. Bye bye.
27:10Bye bye.
27:40Bye bye.
28:10Bye bye.
28:40Bye bye.
29:10Bye bye.
29:40Bye bye.
30:10Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight Live on KMTV. I'm Kristen Hawthorne and here's a recap of your
30:17stories on Thursday the 25th of September. Canterbury con man. Court gives six years in prison
30:24to a man who stole more than a million from family and friends to fund his gambling.
30:30All aboard. Tens of thousands sign online petition in hopes of bringing Eurostar services back to Kent.
30:35And ready, set, restore. We hear from the Kent comic store which has been recovering from an arson attack.
30:45But first tonight, a Canterbury man has been sentenced to six years of fraud after he stole
30:51a total of a million pounds from close family and friends. They believed he was investing their
30:55money into a thriving IT company when he was actually spending it on betting sites. Phil McDermott
31:00was down at Canterbury Crown Court earlier today and sent us this report.
31:04One million three hundred and eighty four thousand pounds. That's how much money that Kenny Sanders
31:09stole from his victims during a multiple year campaign of fraud. It has now landed him six
31:14years in prison. The fraud involved convincing some of those closest to him to part with their
31:19savings, inheritance and their pension pots. As he assured them, he was investing their money in
31:24a thriving IT company when in fact he was using it to gamble. Some of those who watched the scene in
31:30the courtroom described it as a frosty atmosphere. Once the sentence of six years was announced,
31:35some began to cry while others buried their face in their hands. Some of this emotion speaks to the
31:41depth of dishonesty that the judge described. He said that dishonesty has ruined lives and added that
31:47the harm caused goes beyond simple financial losses, with each victim suffering detrimental effects
31:53and psychological harm. Some of those victims spoke to me earlier. I think no matter what any of the all
32:00of this whole situation has always continually just made me feel anxious. Some justice has been done
32:06by that. That's not going to bring back the last six, eight years. And now it's time for me to rebuild
32:15and to look at where we go forward from now. I think what makes me more happy is that he's behind bars
32:22tonight and he can't do this to anyone else. Sanders pled guilty to seven offences of fraud by false
32:27representation relating to nine different cases and one case of fraudulent trading between January 2015 and
32:342018. Four other charges of fraud by false representation involving separate alleged victims
32:39were ordered to be left on the court file. The judge also saw fit to disqualify Sanders from being a
32:45company director for 10 years. If he chose to do so, he would be committing a crime. In the case,
32:51there were however some mitigating circumstances, with Sanders having pled guilty before his crime was
32:56detected and they acknowledged that he had a gambling addiction. All of this meant that the six year
33:00sentence was a reduced one. Investigating officer Detective Constable Mark Hutley said Sanders gained
33:06the trust of family and friends, making them think he was nothing other than a respectable businessman,
33:11but in fact he was conning them in order to fund his own gambling habit. This case shows that Kent
33:16police take offences of fraud seriously and that offenders are pursued to gain justice for the victims
33:21of this type of crime. It's been some time since many of the victims had their money taken from them
33:26and during that time they've been subjected to psychological issues, stress and of course
33:30financial problems. But now with Sanders serving his six year sentence, they hope that they can now
33:36begin to rebuild their lives. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Canterbury. A family in Raynham have been left
33:44devastated after a pair of pygmy goats were stolen from their farm. Paul who lives at the site says he has
33:50CCTV footage of two men entering their field and taking the animals. The goats cost around £150 each,
33:57but it's the emotional trauma for the animals that the family is worried about, especially
34:01since they've been separated or if they've been separated. One is a chocolate colour with white on
34:05the nose and forehead. The other is brown with white legs and a distinctive tuft of fur on its back.
34:11Police say anyone who might have more relevant footage should contact them.
34:15Next, a winemaker Chapel Down has confirmed his called off plans for a £32 million winery near
34:23Canterbury. They said that moving the current production site would mean that they could triple
34:29the number of wine they could make to more than £6 million by 2032. But the scheme would have seen
34:35building work on an area of outstanding beauty, meaning that legal challenges have been a difficulty.
34:41Chapel Down has said that those challenges have led to the decision not to move forward
34:45with the plans. They instead plan to optimise existing assets at the Tenderton branch and use
34:51existing third parties. Next tonight, an online petition has been gaining significant traction
34:59in the hopes to bring the Eurostar services back to Ashford and the county. Many say would encourage
35:04them to do more travelling. Demonstrating the public desire for the lines to return, we sent our reporter
35:10Ronnie Glastel to find out the wider impacts the return could have on the county.
35:15More than 74,000 signatures have now signed an online petition asking for the return of Eurostar
35:21services to Ashford station. But if this line makes a comeback to the county, what would that mean
35:26not just for Eurostar but for Kent's businesses?
35:30What that would mean for us locally is that we can then confidently start to
35:34re-advertise Ashford as an international destination to those investment organisations.
35:42We can start to give some reassurance to those businesses that are looking to plan
35:49sort of four, five, ten year strategies that actually the international is something they
35:53should factor in. That in itself creates a much more interesting proposition from a social economic
35:59perspective where people see Ashford as being not just a nice place to live in the Kent countryside,
36:04but actually has international connectivity and provides a whole range of opportunities. So that
36:08again encourages people to perhaps relocate to here and sort of raise the families here,
36:12and that brings skills into the territory. That may be what it brings to the county,
36:16but would those already living here feel as though they would make use of the services as well if they
36:21were to return? I think they should. I remember before they went they were saying about getting a
36:27train that went straight to Amsterdam and all my friends were really excited about that and then
36:32all of a sudden they stopped doing it because of COVID and then international went. Yes 100% I think
36:37they should bring it back because going away up to London is a very long way and if they brought it
36:46back to Ashford it'd be a lot better for a lot of people that live in Ashford. I think it'd be good for
36:52it to return but also it's just as easy to get the train to London and then elsewhere. It'd be fantastic
37:02to come back. We've only lived in Ashford for about three or four years but the thought about going to
37:08Paris or someone like that for the day would be wonderful. But how does the local council feel about
37:13the service's potential return? The council's perspective on it is that we need the economic benefit of getting
37:19this station back into action. We believe that if it was running now with an operator providing a
37:25decent number of services to it we could be well over 860,000 possibly even over a million people a
37:31year. So the economic benefits of getting the services back are huge. We get billions of pounds
37:37worth of business into Kent and the whole of the southeast region particularly on the tourism side and
37:44the money that would come in and the jobs that would be generated from that would be incredible.
37:49So that's all possible at the moment. Obviously we have a we have a monopoly situation with Eurostar.
37:56They're very comfortable in St Pancras. They're very comfortable pursuing their strategy of city to
38:01city and there's no motivation really for them to to reopen the station because they're making more
38:06money from what they're doing at the moment. Ronnie Glastol for KMTV. Now the London City
38:13Lionesses have submitted plans to one of the largest, oh well we're staying with this one at the moment it
38:19seems. A viewpoint at a popular nature reserve in Dungeness has closed while large scale repairs get
38:25underway. Bosses announced Hanson Hyde at RSPB Dungeness on Romney Marsh will be shut until at least October 9th
38:34while the work takes place. In a statement the reserves managers said that throughout the period
38:39we'll be closing Hanson Hyde and the trail from the car park to the Hyde to visitors. We will be taking
38:46island clearance and vegetation clearance around the Hyde during this period to reduce disruption when it
38:51reopens. Back to this then I got clearly very excited to get on with it. The London City Lionesses have
38:58submitted plans to build one of the largest state-of-the-art dedicated women's training facilities in
39:03Ditton. They want to completely overhaul Cobb Town Sports to create a facility comparable to a men's
39:09Premier League club. Those plans outline proposals to demolish the existing clubhouse and replace it
39:15with a modern purpose-built building. Etley Reynolds joins me now with more. So what do these plans
39:21involve then? So we've got a bit of a picture on the screen here to kind of show you the scale.
39:26Yeah and the plans have been proposed as you said by the Lion City, London City, sorry Lionesses,
39:33which are the only women's super league that does not have a men's affiliate. They submitted plans
39:38in August to Tombridge and Moreland Council to build these state-of-the-art facilities. They hope to
39:44include a changing and locker room, treatment rooms, things like a gym and a pool, saunas and hydrotherapy
39:52facilities. And we can see some more pictures on screen of some of those proposed plans. A spokesperson
39:58for London City Lionesses said it would help its academy significantly grow but would also mean that
40:04it would become the central hub for Kent girls and ladies football leagues. And it also proposes to
40:11create 50 new jobs in the county. So it really is kind of giving back to the local community and putting
40:18well women's football a bit more here in Kent. And what has the reaction been? Have residence
40:23councillors said anything? It's been a generally positive reaction to this. Aylesford School have
40:28backed this describing it as a huge asset and the council's leisure service team have said it could
40:33help promote inspirational benefits for young women and girls. Obviously in Kent we have Alessia Russo,
40:39a women's football player and she has inspired many young girls to take it up and this can hopefully help.
40:47There have been some objections, most concerned about the diversion of the public right of way,
40:52but they will look to reroute the path around its new campus, with councillors saying that the plans
40:58would create a significantly more attractive and user-friendly route, which they're also saying
41:03would be safer. Overall the plans have been recommended for approval following a section 106 agreement
41:09and consent to various planning conditions. So we might be seeing this happen then? We might be,
41:15and it is quite exciting. Like I said, we already have Alessia Russo and this would just facilitate
41:21so many young girls to take up football and maybe encourage a lot more young girls to get active in
41:26sports. Yeah, I mean she's an inspiration of herself, so something like this I'm sure she could go along
41:31and inspire other young girls and women as well. Absolutely, yes. Fabulous, thank you so much.
41:36Time for a quick break now, but coming up we will be hearing more from Get Ready Comics, who were a victim
41:42in an arson attack last month, and we'll also be catching up on the weather. All that and more
41:46after the break, and so I'll see you then. Bye-bye.
42:12.
42:18.
42:20.
42:22.
42:24.
42:26.
42:28.
42:30.
42:31.
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42:37.
42:38.
45:09Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight live on KMTV.
45:15Got it mixed up there.
45:17Today marks 50 years since Maidstone was subjected to an IRA bombing that was stopped thanks to a keen-eyed soldier.
45:24The Heronhound pub normally welcomed a small crowd of locals and soldiers from nearby barracks, but that night one 19-year-old soldier, Sapper Campbell, noticed the bomb placed between the owner's car and the pub's wall.
45:36The alarm was sounded and a bomb squad arrived from London soon after detonating the bomb.
45:42Brian Worcester, who once owned a pub, says he and his family were lucky to have escaped unscathed.
45:47Now, Get Ready Comic Store in Rochester, which was hit by an arson attack a month ago, has now reopened and is in the process of fixing up the damage that was left behind.
45:59Paul, Paul, the owner of the store, says that he's grateful to the community that he didn't realise and he didn't realise the support that he had until the incident had happened.
46:07Well, bringing us this report from the store is our reporter, Kai Wei.
46:12This was then, a comic store hit by an arsonist and engulfed in flames.
46:18And this is now.
46:20Rising from the ashes and backed by community, Get Ready Comics has come back swinging after being hit by a devastating arson attack.
46:28We managed to open relatively quickly after the fire.
46:32Thankfully, not a lot was damaged inside, contrary to what was reported.
46:36We've been very lucky.
46:39The community support has been insane.
46:41It's like we couldn't have asked for a better response to something really bad that happened.
46:48Stating the thickness of the wooden wall is what saved their inventory, Paul praises the efforts of emergency services, but mostly the loyal customers, who stood by them and even set up a GoFundMe after the fire.
47:00We're honestly lucky that the Kemp Fire and Rescue Service have been so amazing.
47:05But also, the police have been incredibly helpful.
47:09I did also take to the streets outside the store and ask locals what they thought of comics and the importance it holds for them.
47:16Personally, I grew up with comics, so in the age before kids having computers, so I chose my age.
47:24But I would buy comics every Saturday and I loved it, just sitting there reading them.
47:30And that was a real pleasure for me.
47:32If you ask me who my favourite superhero is, I'm increasingly anti-superheroes, because generally superheroes attract negative superheroes.
47:46There's an almighty fight, there's destruction, a lot of death.
47:49Get Ready Comics is my favourite store in High Street.
47:53I go in there all the time.
47:54I love it.
47:55For me, Get Ready Comics is, for me personally, the hub of the community, at least for me.
48:02And it's a great way to meet new people as well.
48:05So, yeah, I love it.
48:07Paul says, above all else, the support from the community was what moved him most.
48:11I don't think we've realised the impact of how strong the community is here.
48:16And it's, you know, I've cried several times about the support that we've had, because the messages, the comments, the people that have come in, the amount of people that have come in here and asked, I will never get bored of explaining it.
48:29Yeah, I don't think we realise that until this has happened and that feedback is, yeah, it's incredible.
48:35I'm, we're lucky to be doing what we're doing.
48:37Grateful and recovering, Paul says that he hopes most of the store will be recovered soon.
48:42And although he doesn't think the damages will be fixed by Christmas, he does now know the community that's behind him.
48:50Kai Wei for KMTV in Rochester.
48:54Brilliant display of the importance of community there.
48:57But now, don't forget you can keep up to date with all our latest stories across Kemp by logging on to our website, kmtv.co.uk.
49:03There you'll find all our latest reports, including this one, about a Kent-based superfan of Princess Diana.
49:11She was the people's princess, a global icon remembered for her compassion, style and quiet rebellion against royal tradition.
49:19But for 19-year-old Kieran Lee from Tunbridge, Diana is more than just history.
49:24She's a personal fascination turned social media phenomenon.
49:28And with nearly 700,000 fans on TikTok, Kieran has created a fan club that has attracted the attention of millions.
49:34So back in like year 10, which is about 2021, 2022, me and my friends started a royal family page.
49:43And then my teacher was talking about Princess Diana.
49:47So then obviously I went home, done like my homework on her, everything like that.
49:51And then I started making videos about her and they just started blowing up.
49:54So then I started watching more documentaries and things like that.
49:58And then, I don't know, she like kind of went from there to be honest.
50:01Sometimes like being quite like gay in schools as well, I felt like quite like an outcast, if you know what I mean.
50:09Just exactly how she did.
50:11So it felt like kind of like a connection level with her, with that as well.
50:15Kieran's fan pages on social media reached millions, even Princess Diana's own butler, Paul Burrell.
50:22He followed me from one of my edits and he texted me saying that the edit was really good.
50:28And then just from there, he started liking all my posts, liking all my videos, like following my actual personal account as well.
50:34And then messaging me and then he invited me to a book signing of his because he made a book of Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth.
50:40And, yeah, I think that was like quite surreal.
50:44And like when I went up to him, he knew who I was as well.
50:47Princess Diana captured hearts in the 80s and 90s.
50:50And now, nearly three decades later, she's found a new generation of loyal followers.
50:55One viral post at a time.
50:57Holly Spires for KMTV in Medway.
51:01That's two stories now that Holly's done, including the royal family.
51:04But time to take a look now at the weather where you are.
51:12Looks like cloudy skies this evening with highs of 12 in Dover, lows of 10 in Tunbridge Wells, low wind speeds of 6 miles per hour.
51:19Into tomorrow morning, then a cloudy start to the day, highs of 13 in Canterbury, lows of 12 then in Ashford.
51:24And into the afternoon, temperatures reaching 16 degrees in Dartford, lows of 14 in Dover, wind speeds picking up to 9 miles per hour.
51:34Saturday, then, we've got cloudy skies with 17 degrees, the same on Sunday and the same on Monday.
51:40So, I suppose you can, well, you can have a good weekend.
51:43It's not too bad.
51:43And now, ahead of Kent Film Club this evening, the show's presenter, Chris Deasy, joins me now to discuss filming in Kent and some new upcoming releases.
51:58So, you have seen this film, which is, I believe, I Swear, and it's coming out soon.
52:04I think it's on the 10th of October, maybe.
52:06That's right.
52:06Now, I went to see it in Dover.
52:08Cine will put these unlimited screenings on, secret screens.
52:12You don't know what you're going to watch.
52:14Mixed feelings about it, because sometimes people walk out if it's not the sort of film they want.
52:17This one, most people stayed.
52:19It's a Scottish film based on a true story of a chap who grew up in the 1980s with Tourette syndrome, but before anybody knew what it was.
52:27So, it's a very moving film about somebody who was an outcast, somebody who, in his own family, was seen to be a bit of a pariah.
52:36You know, the family didn't know what to make of him.
52:38He was swearing all the time.
52:40It was just embarrassing when he was out.
52:41But then he became an ambassador, and in later years, and actually got an MBE from the Queen in 2019.
52:46And the film has some very black comedy moments, at the most inappropriate moment, including as he's about to go up to the Queen to get his MBE.
52:55And he says things which, obviously, you wouldn't say, in polite society.
52:58But it also really gets to the heart, in a way that, say, Rain Man didn't, with its study of autism back in the 1980s with Dustin Hoffman.
53:06And a real tour de force.
53:08And I felt so moved while watching this film.
53:11And I really felt that it was trying to do what films, I think, historically haven't always done to this sort of degree, which is to really understand, almost like from the inside perspective, what it is to suffer from something that makes a lot of people sometimes cast somebody out.
53:27It was really saying, you know, the world, it's not the fault of somebody with Tourette's, it's the fact that people don't understand what Tourette's is that makes it a social problem.
53:35Well, that's it.
53:35And, you know, I have seen clips of this on social media.
53:38And first of all, I mean, I know that he's a brilliant actor, so I'm sure that he brought a lot to the production in and of itself.
53:43But did they kind of raise awareness with this by including a bit of comedy in it as well?
53:47Oh, totally.
53:48Well, often it's the inappropriate outbursts that were going on, almost like, you know, the police would be walking by in the street.
53:54And then he'd say the very thing that would get their attention at just the moment that he might be, you know, carrying something on his person.
53:59If you watch the film, you see what that is.
54:00And the police then look in the very place.
54:02So some very dark moments.
54:04But it also straddles that line, I think, very carefully about raising awareness and a very sympathetic portrayal, but also making it something that is entertaining to watch.
54:14I was really deeply moved, actually, throughout.
54:16And then as it becomes, I suppose, what I was thinking earlier on is it's harder and harder to make original films.
54:23So do you feel like, you know, raising awareness through these films is going to be the new kind of theme going forward?
54:30Well, that's right, because, you know, famously, when it comes to things like the Oscars, if somebody is playing a real-life character or somebody –
54:37I mean, you know, Anthony Hopkins has done this before as well – you know, characters who are perhaps suffering from something,
54:44or maybe there's a social phobia or there's a disability, then often it can raise awareness.
54:49But often, of course, there's that debate about whether actors themselves should have whatever condition that they may be portraying.
54:56You know, so there are all those sort of questions about representation and appropriateness.
55:00We had it with Helen Mirren playing a Jewish leader in the past.
55:02You know, so it's an interesting question, but this film, that he's such a good actor and he inhabits the role so well that I think it was so accomplished that it certainly did the job from my perspective.
55:13Yeah.
55:13I mean, I've heard people say that as long as it's accurate and respectful, then they don't really mind too much.
55:17Absolutely, yeah.
55:18But, of course, it's always something to consider.
55:20Moving on, then, we were talking earlier about Black Mirror, a Black Mirror episode that was filmed here in Kent, which was supposed to – it was supposed to reflect, what was it, Massachusetts?
55:29Yeah, Cape Cod in Massachusetts, that's right.
55:32And do you think, then, that – I mean, the third season of Walking Dead was also filmed in Kent as well.
55:37Do you think that there's rising opportunities for Kent filmmakers here, actors even?
55:40Yeah, because we often talk, indeed, on Kent Tonight about that question, what about all these films?
55:45You know, how do we lure filmmakers to Kent?
55:47But, actually, they're stand-ins.
55:49And, apparently, the people in Herne Bay didn't know – I think they were, like, fake seagulls being created.
55:53It was all shrouded in mystery.
55:55They filmed in Tankerton as well near Whitstable.
55:57So, yeah, just incredible.
55:58So, the pier in Herne Bay doubled for Cape Cod pier in – Eulogy was the name of the episode.
56:06Now, it's got Paul Giamatti in it, who's an Oscar – he's in Downs and Abbey, Oscar-nominated actor.
56:11I don't think he was in Herne Bay, but I wouldn't know that.
56:14So, you know, there's that sense, that parallel lives and universes that I think you know about, because I think you talked about Black Mirror on Kent Film Club.
56:21I did.
56:21I talked about the Bandersnatch episode, which is an interactive one, but I know that this episode was brilliant as well.
56:27I've watched them also.
56:28Maybe in the future we'll see Kent again in Black Mirror, but something very exciting.
56:32And I thank you for joining us this evening, Chris.
56:36You've been watching Kent Tonight Live on KMTV.
56:39There's more news made just for you throughout the evening at 8pm.
56:42So, I will see you then.
56:44Bye-bye.
56:44Bye-bye.
56:45Bye.
56:45Bye-bye.
56:50Bye.
56:50Bye.
57:09Bye.
57:09Bye.
57:10Bye.
57:11Bye.
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