00:36Hello and welcome to Kent tonight, live here on KMTV.
00:40I'm Chloe Brewster and here are your top stories on Tuesday the 21st of April.
00:45Costly commutes. Drivers feel the pinch as high fuel prices hit homes in Kent.
00:51Before the Trump war started, we were paying in the region of 70 to 76 pence per litre for red
00:58diesel,
00:59which meant my running costs per tractor per day were approximately £140 just on fuel.
01:05Don't take our tank. Petition starts to save century-old Ashford World War I tank,
01:11but council deny removal plans.
01:13If tank go, we don't have any name anymore.
01:18And Hollywood Hall, grandson of late actors, have put Golden Age relics under the hammer.
01:23I knew that they were there and when my lovely mum died, they were all things that were passed on
01:28by my mum.
01:39Our top story tonight. Drivers across the UK are feeling the squeeze as fuel prices remain high.
01:46Global tensions are helping to push costs up, but what does that mean for people closer to home?
01:51Our reporter Maisie Walker has been speaking to residents in Kent about how they're managing that financial pressure.
01:57Rising costs at the pump of fueling anxiety for drivers across the county as prices refuse to come down.
02:04It's a mix of global tensions and rising taxes, which continues to push up what people pay.
02:10But it's the everyday impact that's hitting Kent residents the hardest.
02:14All motorists would have felt the sting from the rising costs of fuel over the past couple of weeks,
02:19but how are residents in Kent actually dealing with this added financial burden?
02:23Businesses that rely on petrol and diesel, such as driving instructors and farmers, are being hit hard by these rising
02:30prices.
02:31It is impacting the business, of course it is, because it's not just the fuel that's gone up.
02:36I mean, for example, this is a leased car, and the lease of this has gone up £100 a month
02:43from the last lease.
02:45So you've got the insurance, you've got the fuel, you've got the car expenses.
02:48That means that driving less than prices have to go up.
02:52Before the Trump war started, we were paying in the region of 70 to 76 pence per litre for red
02:59diesel,
02:59which meant my running costs per tractor per day were approximately £140 just on fuel.
03:06We're now paying, as of the Trump war, in the region between £125 and £145 per litre,
03:13so we're nearly doubled, so we've gone from £140 a day to nearly £300 a day.
03:19Some people I spoke to who did not feel comfortable stepping in front of the camera
03:23say they've been cutting back on journeys and reworking their budgets,
03:26as the pressure shows little sign of easing.
03:29Everything's going up, the phone's going up, the gas is going up, the electric's going up, you know, it's never
03:34-ending, isn't it?
03:35Yeah, I think everybody, even the government are powerless.
03:38There's nothing they can do, it's an international situation.
03:41We all pay the same price around the world for fuel.
03:44Our country seems to spend its time saving the rest of the world, but who saves us?
03:49So we're fuelling another country for war.
03:52While petrol and diesel prices did fall slightly at the end of last week,
03:55the decline has been very small, with diesel down by 6p and petrol by 3p.
04:01So with no sign of costs easing any time soon,
04:05some Kent motorists will be forced to take a different route,
04:08both on the road and with their budgets.
04:10Maisie Walker for KMTV, Maitstone.
04:16A dispersal order is in place in Ramsgate after fights broke out
04:20between groups of young people over the weekend.
04:23It follows multiple reports of disturbances in the seaside town involving the teenagers.
04:28Locals said they had been intimidated and also reported assaults across five separate incidents.
04:33Police issued a 48-hour dispersal order yesterday,
04:36giving them extra powers to remove people from problem areas.
04:40Youths were also spoken to, and in total eight were acting in an antisocial way
04:44and were later removed from the town centre.
04:47Video footage shows the moment a motorcyclist was knocked off his bike while riding along the A2.
04:53Charlie McPherson was filtering through traffic when a vehicle started to merge from the fourth lane
04:58and clipped his motorbike.
04:59The 20-year-old was left needing surgery on a broken arm.
05:03His dad, Andy, who was riding ahead, says his son was just seconds away from being killed.
05:08He sent out a Kent police for their investigation,
05:10claiming they took more than a week to get in touch
05:12and that the driver of the car simply walked away with a talking to.
05:16While police say they're still keen to speak to anyone with any information about that collision.
05:21In the past two days, you may have noticed problems contacting and booking appointments
05:25with your GP practice, particularly online.
05:28This is creating delays in care due to backlogs of information.
05:32The cause of this is IT failures across surgeries in Kent and Sussex,
05:36which is something that Dr Julian Spinks says is becoming more and more of a common problem.
05:40When it comes to IT, general practice has limited control over it.
05:44Most of it is provided by the government via the Integrated Care Board.
05:50And so we don't really have much choice over that.
05:53And certainly this isn't a nationwide problem we've had today.
05:56It's something limited to Kent and Medway.
05:59And I do know the Integrated Care Board and the Kent Local Medical Committee
06:02are working very hard with the IT people to actually sort this out.
06:06But it does seem to be taking a long time to reach a stage where we can come in
06:11on a Monday morning in particular at the busiest day of the week
06:14and be confident we can log on and start seeing patients.
06:18So Kristen Hawthorne joins me here now.
06:21Kristen, can you tell me a little bit more about this issue?
06:24Yeah, well, it is quite technical.
06:25But basically, it seems that the computer systems are failing across many parts of Kent,
06:30across many different practices.
06:31And it's causing a difficulty connecting to the internet.
06:35So it stems from a capacity issue with the gateway between an internal computer system
06:39and outside systems.
06:42Julian says that it usually happens, it's been happening over the past two to three weeks,
06:46particularly on Mondays, because the system is too small
06:49and it simply gets overloaded on Mondays, which is their busiest day.
06:53So this week, it was down yesterday.
06:55And then they got a message today that it was down today as well.
06:59I spoke to another doctor as well on the phone.
07:02He said that it's getting to a stage now where they almost expect it to happen.
07:07And how serious is something like this?
07:10What is the impact on patients?
07:12What's the impact on doctor surgeries themselves?
07:15Well, general practices are almost entirely computer-based now.
07:19Usually, years and years ago, they would have written everything down.
07:22But now, they can't really do that.
07:24In order to write things down, it would take a long time
07:26to kind of transfer that back into the computer.
07:30In doing that, in writing things down and transferring it,
07:32you also have problems with maybe breaches of information
07:35or things not going where they're meant to.
07:36There's all sorts of difficulties that come there as well.
07:40Those who do have appointments for follow-ups and test results
07:43will be unable to get those records
07:46because on the computer, it has all of their medical records
07:50and all those different things, the context of their issues.
07:52So when you do go into the GP and you have that 10-minute slot,
07:55it can be quite difficult to get everything across
07:57that they maybe don't have on their computer already.
08:01So for those that maybe were trying to get an appointment yesterday or today
08:05or at the start of the week over the past few weeks,
08:07they would have noticed that it's very difficult to get an appointment,
08:10especially if you're trying to get one online.
08:12So it is quite serious.
08:13And if it continues, care won't be able to be provided
08:16to patients here in Kent and Medway.
08:18Thank you so much for joining me, Kristen, and telling us all about that.
08:24Now, a new petition has more than 1,500 signatures
08:28to keep the Mark IV tank in Ashford's town centre
08:31after rumours it could be permanently removed after repairs.
08:35While in agreement that the armoured vehicle needs fixing,
08:38Ashford Borough Council have denied wanting to relocate the tank.
08:42Thungmit Dermid went down to a cafe nearby to find out more.
08:47A new petition has been started in Ashford to save their historic tank
08:50from potentially being moved from their town centre,
08:53but the council have said it isn't going anywhere yet.
08:55The town were gifted the Mark IV, number 245,
08:58more than a century ago back in 1919.
09:01And since then it's become a local landmark,
09:04even getting its own cafe,
09:05who helped start the petition to keep it in the square.
09:08And it's, if the tank goes, we don't have any name anymore.
09:13And that's why we do the petition,
09:15saving the tank in Ashford, and saving us as well.
09:19Because we're a community cafe.
09:21It's the old people we know each other.
09:23And it's, we're talking about anything that's going on in Ashford as well.
09:28And I'm lucky they supported me.
09:31We're doing real well in here.
09:33We don't want to be moved and go to different places.
09:36It's the atmosphere, it's not the same anymore.
09:39Now it has been more than a century since this tank has seen any action.
09:43In fact, the last time that its tracks were actually used
09:45when it was driven to this spot in 1919,
09:47on the 1st of August, after being gifted to Ashford.
09:51Across the country, 260 tanks were donated to 260 towns.
09:56And this was number 245 donated to Ashford.
09:59It's been a while since it's seen any action.
10:00The last time, in fact, that these tracks were used
10:02when it was driven to this exact spot.
10:05It was brought on the train and then driven up from this station in 1919.
10:09But the council themselves have said that they haven't talked about moving it.
10:13The leader of Ashford Borough Council, Noel Ovenden,
10:16added that some initial discussions have taken place
10:18in order to understand how best we can protect
10:20this nationally significant rare tank from disappearing through decay.
10:24Some councillors have come out in support of the petition.
10:27Now, the leader of Ashford Borough Council has agreed already
10:30to a public consultation on the tank.
10:32But it's not firmly said that the World War I tank will stay in the borough of Ashford.
10:37I think what this petition is going to achieve is it's going to show the leadership
10:41of Ashford Borough Council that the public firmly want the World War I tank
10:45to stay in the borough of Ashford for perpetuity
10:47because it was gifted to the people of Ashford
10:49and because it's a symbol of hope and resistance
10:52and the people of Ashford want it to remain.
10:55That's the main reason why I'm supporting this petition.
10:57A report in 2020 revealed the tank could collapse within the next 10 to 20 years,
11:02with one option being floated as it's transfer to the tank museum in Dorset,
11:06who would restore it there.
11:07But the council say they haven't yet made a decision
11:09and won't until the public have been consulted.
11:12After more than a century of it being there,
11:14many say it wouldn't be the same Ashford without the Mark IV.
11:18Finn McDermid for KMTV in Ashford.
11:22What a wonderful lesson on history there.
11:24I had no idea that tanks were being gifted to towns.
11:26Very cool.
11:27Well, after the break, we'll talk to Tudor Price
11:29from the Kent and Victor Chamber of Commerce.
11:31Talk to us all about the latest business news.
11:34That includes lowering unemployment rates among university leavers
11:38and the move towards green energy.
11:41We'll also get a look at the weather for tonight and the coming days.
11:45And we'll be talking to a man who found a treasure trove of Hollywood relics
11:49that belongs to his late grandfather, Hollywood legend Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
11:54We'll also speak to an author about her newest work.
11:58We'll see you after the break.
12:19Bye-bye.
12:20Bye-bye.
12:20Bye-bye.
12:24Bye-bye.
18:49And just moving on to energy.
24:34It's about you.
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