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Catch up with all your latest news from across the county with Meghan Shaw.
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00:00Hello and welcome to
00:29Kent tonight live on KMTV.
00:32I'm Megan Shaw and here are your top stories on Friday the 6th of February.
00:37Data on drugs.
00:39Concern grows among professionals about the increase of youth drug use.
00:44I knew I was using heavy from a young age.
00:48So I mean an age where you wouldn't expect someone to be using drugs at that age.
00:54Happy birthday KFO.
00:56Kent Film Office celebrates its 20th anniversary in Maidstone Studios.
01:01You have local hotels, pubs, obviously hostelries.
01:05You have local taxi firms, you have local catering.
01:07So it really does help to boost the local economy.
01:10And KMTV Supreme.
01:13Our reporter faces off against professional table tennis player who trained Timothy Chalamet in Marty Supreme.
01:19I did sessions with him, so like rehearsing and gave little tips and tricks here and there.
01:26And yeah, it was awesome.
01:28Now more children in Kent are being supported for drug and alcohol problems than last year, with many still in their early teens.
01:37Behind the figures are families, frontline workers and people in recovery who say exposure to drugs is happening earlier, often online and often unnoticed.
01:46But what are parents and communities doing to help in the county?
01:51And Kristen Hawthorne has been speaking with a recovering addict, professionals, to find out more.
01:56New data shows a number of under-18s being treated for drug and alcohol problems is rising sharply across Kent and Medway,
02:04with ketamine emerging as a growing concern among younger users.
02:08In Medway, the number of children and teenagers in treatment has climbed by 55%, from 110 last year to 170 this year,
02:19one of the biggest increases anywhere in England.
02:22I went to the Kenwood Trust rehab to find out more.
02:25Traditionally, probably a lot of people coming to our rehabs are sort of mid to late 20s and upwards, I would say,
02:31but I'd say definitely we're seeing a drop in the age group slightly, particularly in recent years around ketamine use.
02:40That has meant that we are having to work with a younger age group in the service.
02:44I started taking things to look cool, do you know what I mean?
02:51So I can't remember what day it is, do you know what I mean?
02:55But I knew it was a very young age.
02:57Me using, I've lost a lot of memory from being young, so I can't really remember being young.
03:08But 15, 16, like heavy use, maybe 14.
03:15His experience reflects a wider pattern.
03:17Professionals say ketamine use is particularly worrying, because it's often perceived as low risk,
03:23yet can cause long-term damage to both physical and mental health.
03:26We're getting quite a lot of people in now who this is their first time,
03:29and actually their addictions really caught up with them really quickly.
03:33So actually they've gone from being in what they probably thought was quite a nice space
03:38around the substances they were using,
03:40to suddenly having a lot of physical pain and having a lot of suffering coming out of the blue almost for them
03:47and suddenly having to go into hospitals, then going to detox, then going into rehab,
03:52all within quite a short period of time, compared to maybe more traditional drug and alcohol users.
03:58Families and schools now face the challenge of the realities of youth drug use.
04:02My son Will died seven years ago.
04:07He died on a night out with a friend, just experimenting really.
04:11So it's just given me this passion to help educate young people about the dangers of experimenting.
04:20It's a flip of a coin at the end of the day.
04:21You haven't got a clue what substance you take is going to do to your body and how you're going to react to it.
04:27I think differently, education programme is not about not doing things.
04:31It's about informing them, giving them the information so they can make their own decisions
04:35when they're in that moment, you know, at a festival, at a party,
04:40and they get offered something.
04:42It might make them just think differently.
04:44Professionals say tackling the issue will require better education, early intervention and more support.
04:51But for many of those already affected, the cost of the lessons are very real.
04:56Kristen Hawthorne, KMTV.
04:58Next, potholes in Hartleip are causing travel chaos as drivers say they've been forced to swerve to avoid damaging their vehicles.
05:07The road on Matts Hill is notorious for its crater-like potholes,
05:11and a local business owner says the route is so bad that she feels drivers will avoid visiting.
05:16It's renewed calls for the local council to re-tarmac the road,
05:19and Chloe Brewster is here in the studio now to tell us a little bit more.
05:23So, Chloe, I mean, I've encountered many a pothole in my time driving around the roads.
05:28They can't be that bad, surely?
05:29Well, they are.
05:30You know, you can see in that image just there.
05:32It's either avoid the potholes or end up in the water.
05:35Or drown.
05:35Yeah, or drown.
05:36So, it's a pretty serious situation.
05:39It's more than a month.
05:40If you go into one of these potholes, it will rip your tyre.
05:43And not only that, it could cause damage to your suspension, your subframe, or throw off your car's wheel alignment.
05:49So, yeah, really, really damaging if you end up in one of these.
05:52It's not just potholes.
05:53It's loose tarmac.
05:55It's uneven road surface.
05:57Some of these potholes are even between 8 to 10 inches deep,
05:59with residents putting out cones to try and prevent motorists from driving into them.
06:03A local food van even said they see two vehicle blowouts a week on this road.
06:07And we can see them there.
06:08Look how deep they are.
06:10Yeah, they are huge.
06:11Good thing he's got his wellies on.
06:12Yeah.
06:13So, why can they be so bad then?
06:16We heard from that local business owner there that it's disrupting her business.
06:22Yeah, so, Kirsty, a local business owner, she owns an alpaca farm nearby,
06:25and she says she believes the potholes are so bad because of how close this road is to the farm.
06:31Obviously, there's big, heavy machinery that's constantly making these journeys along the road.
06:36And, yeah, the regular vehicle use means it makes it much more susceptible to the damage.
06:41And we don't have too much time, Chloe, but do tell us, have the council said anything at all?
06:45So, Midway Council say they're aware of the 13 defects along Matts Hill Road,
06:49and they say they're going to be re-analysing the priority for this area,
06:54and whether they should be trying to fix potholes a bit more regularly here.
06:57Absolutely.
06:58Well, thank you so much for bringing us that story and for keeping us updated there.
07:04Next, Kent Film Office is celebrating its 20th anniversary today.
07:08It has had a huge impact on Kent's filming industry, according to attendees of the celebration.
07:14Part of Kent County Council, sorry, the film office deals with the most of the organisational aspects of TV production,
07:22such as looking for locations and putting together a crew.
07:25And our reporter, Naila Mohamed, attended the anniversary celebrations earlier today.
07:29What do Bridgerton, called the Midwife, and the Mummy all have in common?
07:35Well, they were filmed right here in Kent.
07:38The Kent Film Office, now celebrating its 20th anniversary, has been playing a starring role in film and TV.
07:46From studios like this one in Mainstone to more scenic locations across the county,
07:51the Kent Film Office plays a large part in organising the production.
07:55It starts with trying to find locations, when location managers come and ask for them, find something suitable.
08:02And then if they do come, we help them organise the shoot, from road closures to public lights of way closures,
08:10to getting rubbish removed, to find parking, hotels, etc., permits, everything.
08:17So we do everything for them to make sure that they have a good experience.
08:20When people think of filming and TV, they probably think of Hollywood, big bright lights, and a red carpet.
08:27Maybe even unaware that a red carpet has been rolled out in Kent over the last 20 years.
08:32I am speaking metaphorically, there is no red carpet behind me, but I am in Maidstone Studios,
08:38surrounded by location managers, film producers, and even members of the Kent Film Office,
08:43who are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.
08:45Now, the Kent Film Office are the behind-the-scenes heroes of the Kent film industry.
08:50They ensure smooth location hunting, and even that the production crew are kept local.
08:55The aim is to make sure that production in Kent benefits Kent, especially when it comes to the economy.
09:01That has a knock-on effect to our economy. It's not just...
09:04Paul Webb is a Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services at Kent County Council.
09:09It's almost like a spider's web. It permeates out from when they start filming.
09:14You have local hotels, pubs, obviously hostleries.
09:18You have local taxi firms. You have local catering.
09:20So it really does help to boost the local economy, and it goes right throughout the county.
09:24And it really does help to encourage young people in Kent as well
09:27to get on that ladder of working in the film and TV industry.
09:31Kent Film Office also helps scout locations,
09:34even using some of the residents' housing as a potential set for film and TV.
09:40We own an American sort of Antipodean-style house in the Kent countryside.
09:46So we let it out for filming, photo shoots, pop videos, all sorts of things.
09:52So we get sort of scenes in quite big movies,
09:54and we've had Black Mirror and things like that at our house.
09:57So it's been really good fun.
09:59And now, at 20 years old, the Kent Film Office is still very much in production.
10:05And judging by the demand for Kent on screen,
10:08there are plenty more scenes still to come.
10:11Nayla Mahamud for KMTV in Maidstone.
10:14Cheers!
10:16Now, research done by a heritage community company
10:20has revealed that one of Kent's most historic waterways
10:23is heavily polluted with bacteria.
10:25Milton Creek in Sittingbourne has been found to have
10:29almost 10 times more bacteria than the River Seine in Paris,
10:33back in 2024, when a number of Olympic events were cancelled due to pollution.
10:39Rabel Charters has been collecting samples from the creek since 2023.
10:45And the director, Chris Foster, has led the research efforts
10:49along with volunteers and sets the three different spots on the creek.
10:53You can hear from him now.
10:54So the report, unfortunately, is not so great news.
10:59Essentially, Milton Creek has poor ecological status.
11:02The bacterial levels are so high,
11:04it would be completely unsuitable for any recreation.
11:08And, yeah, it's safe to say the creek's in quite a lot of trouble, yeah.
11:12Because we had three different sites,
11:14we could sort of triangulate where the pollution was coming from.
11:16And it seemed that most of the problems seemed to be
11:19with the sewage treatment works
11:20and the combined series alcohol right next to it.
11:24Now, that's all we've got time for, for now.
11:27But we've got plenty more after the break, so stay put.
11:30We'll be hearing about the Eurasian Lynx,
11:32set to be rescued from Ukraine
11:34after the Big Cats actually exceeded their funding target.
11:36And also, our own reporter, Finn McDermid,
11:40spoke and played with table tennis players Josh Bennett,
11:43who recently trained Timothee Chamele in the hit film Marty Supreme.
11:48We'll also be talking to Kent Phoenix American Football Club,
11:51Football Youth Club, coming up to the Super Bowl.
11:54Don't stay.
11:54Don't move, sorry.
11:55Stay.
11:56Stay.
15:41fps
16:06we've had some amazing support over the years and just seeing that continue especially
16:08especially in today's climate is just really special in in 2024 we did a lion rescue from
16:15ukraine from wild animal rescue and it wasn't until further conversations after her rescue
16:23natalia who's based at wild animal rescue center in kiev she just begged me that she had little
16:30links called ursa who's uh in the converted horse stable so she didn't have access to outside areas
16:37bonds are falling and she was just like please can you give her home and then yeah we got to work as
16:43soon as we're all in agreeance that we can do this for us so we can give her a better life and
16:46and uh yeah that's when uh the work started to to try and rescue her the illegal pet trade uh it's
16:54the fourth biggest illegal trade on the planet um and sadly it's one of the biggest uh impactors of
16:59the decline of so many species around the world you know lynxes are not pets cat like exotic cats
17:05are not pets and it's something that we're really trying to tackle but also raise awareness on
17:10but you know when she was found malnourished parasites uh not in a good way you know she's
17:15never been outside before um on grass so hopefully there'll be many firsts for ursa and she can be a
17:22little bit more uh how a link should be and now let's take a look at the weather
17:27tonight will be a mixture of cloud and clear skies wind speeds reaching 10 miles an hour heading
17:37northeast into tomorrow morning dartford will have some light rain the rest of the county stays
17:43cloudy bit of clear skies towards margate temperatures around nine degrees into the
17:48afternoon slight temperature rise to 10 degrees a bit of sun reaching maidstone and only drizzles
17:53around dartford and for your outlook for the rest of the weekend we've got 11 degrees on sunday a bit
17:58of sun peeking through down to 10 on monday and tuesday quite overcast but luckily no rain scheduled
18:05and some of kent's cinema goers may have thought timothy chalamet's latest film mighty supreme that sees a
18:18victory hungry table tennis pro in the 1950s the film features england's real life number 14 josh bennett
18:26who came down to medway park sports center this week to teach some aspiring players some new moves
18:31that he taught to the film's stars and phim mcdermid was down at the leisure center to find out more
18:37and challenge josh to a game
18:39timothy chalamet and marty supreme have been breaking the box office making millions and raking in awards
18:46so when medway sports park had table tennis set up for 40 schools this week they decided to bring in one england
18:52professional who's also an actor from the film to show off his skills they basically said come come down we've got this massive event
18:59they've got obviously two days of tournaments happening yesterday and today
19:01um so yeah i was like yeah happy days i'll come down it'd be nice to meet everybody and
19:07yeah show my face basically so
19:08josh is the number 14 table tennis player in the country
19:13and got involved with the film after being sent a casting call from table tennis england
19:16before doing auditions and being flown out to new york where he was in the film
19:20and also helped train timothy behind the scenes
19:23so he had a whole training regime himself i'm sure you've heard him speak about it
19:27um you know the whole process he was started you know good six seven years ago from the sounds of things
19:32um but i was only out there just briefly before the start of the film and
19:36yeah i did sessions with him so like rehearsing and gave little tips and tricks here and there
19:41um and yeah it was it was awesome to to meet him and obviously to see you know see someone
19:48like him playing table tennis as well for the film uh it was pretty cool
19:50josh also showed off some of the items he'd kept from the set including a poster with his character
19:55on it and a signed bat from koto kawaguchi another pro who played koto endo in the film
20:00he also gave out autographs to some of medway's aspiring players
20:04do you say tonight's made you like table tennis a little bit more maybe a little bit less i don't
20:08know depends how much you've been winning a bit more yeah i like playing table tennis in my free
20:13time because it's like you can get with the community and it's like you can make friends
20:16but josh wasn't the only one signing autographs
20:20well you know we always are looking for the talent here in medway and that's from
20:25every field whether that's sports entertainment even journalism so from that perspective i'm really
20:31proud of the kind of individuals that step forward and nights like tonight you know many people
20:35perhaps more mature people who perhaps play table tennis for fun again coming to see an international
20:41player like josh is a real rare opportunity in this particular sport but it's something we're
20:46very proud we do in medway all the time vince refused my offer of a game so i asked josh who said
20:52he wouldn't let me take a single point now it's time for me to play josh himself he's ranked the
20:57england number one in marty supreme and the england number 14 in real life time to see his skills for
21:03myself well i think i'll leave it to the pros both for table tennis and for acting finn mcdermid for
21:12km tv in medway and american football might be a long way from kent but to find out more i spoke to
21:20kent phoenix coach martin carr and his son henry and i'm joined now by henry and martin from kent
21:27phoenix so first of all can you please tell me what makes what is the difference between i suppose
21:33the normal football we see on the television and american football for anyone who's not too familiar
21:37so i suppose american football is probably closer to rugby than anything over here um but it's way more
21:43tactical it's almost like a human game of chess with when you move up to kitted levels with lots of
21:49contact and yeah oh sorry yeah it's very different because first of all use your hands instead of your
21:58feet especially for flag so yeah it's really really different to normal football what would you say
22:08the kind of american football scene is like in kent are you one of many teams um in kent there's
22:14a handful of teams there's kent phoenix open some exiles um there's more i'm forgetting there's one
22:22in canterbury isn't there yes i don't think they do flag i think they're more kit and there's a lot of
22:27university teams there's loads of sandwich teams all over the place it's a really big growing sport
22:32um with the nfl academy setting up over here recently and the nfl coming over to wemberley and
22:38tottenham quite regularly the sport is growing and obviously flags are now going into the olympics in
22:42la so that should be a bit of a boom and henry particularly obviously you're quite young how did
22:48you get into american football as opposed to i mean i suppose a lot of your classmates might play rugby or
22:54or british football yeah to be honest i used to watch it with um dad quite a lot and
23:02i i was just joking um to my mom and i was like can i play american football she's like yeah okay
23:10we'll find you a team and then we found ken phoenix and we've joined and yeah never look back and how
23:18long have you both been playing so two three years probably i used to play a lot of rugby before
23:25and yeah we've started playing rugby as well but yeah the american football is just something else it's
23:30great yeah have you been name a team that you've played do you go across the country playing matches
23:38this weekend our flag teams are going down to windlesham school house or winston house school
23:44to play them and brighton home scorpions so that's going to be a nice little friendly tournament
23:49our kitted players legion tend to travel around the country they were undefeated last season so they're
23:55going to start their season looking to get going and we've just started up around the 16s kitted team blaze
24:00and hopefully they're going to go on to big things as well and is that kind of are you both on a
24:05mission maybe to increase popularity of american football in kent and i suppose the rest of the
24:10uk is it something you try maybe promote yeah absolutely um the more players we can get involved
24:15in it the better it's a growing sport um we cater all ages all abilities the flag if you don't like the
24:22contacts if you want to go full contact when you're older you can so it's a great opportunity
24:27and we've had players come through kent phoenix who have gone through our flag program through
24:33our kitted program they're now playing for university teams they're getting sponsorship
24:38deals with under armor and things like that so it's it's a fantastic opportunity for kids to come
24:42through i suppose the main reason we want to chat to you today is also because the super bowl's
24:47um about to start is it something you look forward to every year absolutely yes especially this year as
24:53our team's back in the in contention so who are you looking forward to see patriots yeah new england
24:59patriots no one else will think they'll win but we're back on top do you watch all the games live
25:04so do you do you need to stay up really late to be able to see being an nfl fan in the uk um takes
25:10dedication and a lack of sleep so yeah having to watch them especially super bowl it'll be
25:17half eleven kickoff three four o'clock in the morning finish i'm not working monday yeah
25:25any any predictions for this year or are you just kind of hoping your team scores big
25:33really really hope um patriots over to win to be honest we've gone from the last couple of seasons
25:40absolutely terrible and now we've really flipped um flipped it around and we're in super bowl so
25:49that's fun absolutely definitely an achievement and um how long does the super bowl last is it is it
25:56something that um you recommend people at home to tune into even even if they've uh never been
26:02interested in american football as much well if you're going to watch any game watch the super bowl
26:07it's the biggest game in the entire season it has loads of everything else going on around it
26:11the half-time show if you don't like the football watch the music watch all the razzmatazz around it
26:16but yeah it's a long day normally on super bowl because not only if you've got the game you've got
26:21all the super bowl adverts you've got the half-time stuff you're looking three four hours but it's
26:25absolutely worth it especially when you get into the game and realize what's going on it is so enjoyable
26:31is seeing it live something on your bucket list or maybe something you've already done
26:34we've done we've seen the london games a few times absolutely want to get out to boston and go see
26:41the patriots play at home yeah but one day we'll make it to the super bowl yeah absolutely well
26:47thank you so much for joining us and telling us more and about american football cool pleasure thank
26:52you thank you thank you thanks for watching good night
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