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Catch up on all the latest news from across the county with Nailah Mahomed.
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00:30Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight, live on KMTV.
00:33I'm Naila Mahamud and here are your top stories on Friday the 1st of May.
00:40Chaotic or historic?
00:42We look back on the first year of Reform UK at Kent County Council.
00:46But obviously they were going to have teething troubles.
00:49I feel very happy actually.
00:51Bears visit Blue Water.
00:53Eleanor offers a sneak peek of upcoming first of his kind art trail.
00:57They're going on sale, going to auction and raising money for Eleanor is always great.
01:01And finally, getting a steal for it.
01:04Our reporter heads to Canterbury to try out medieval combat.
01:09We teach you how to move, we teach you some flexibility, we teach you mindfulness.
01:13But we don't, it's just there.
01:27Frustration, fury and pride.
01:30These are just some of the feelings in the air at Kent County Council, 12 months on from an unprecedented
01:35set of local elections.
01:37One year ago today, Reform UK stormed to power at our largest local authority, promising savings, efficiencies and a different
01:44way of doing government.
01:45But how well has the party actually performed?
01:47Well, our local democracy reporter, Olly Leder, has been meeting all the movers and shakers at County Hall in their
01:54local area for this report.
01:56It's been extraordinary.
01:57Chaotic.
01:58Interesting.
01:59There are plenty of ways you can describe Reform UK's first year in power here at County Hall.
02:05This is beating the Conservatives in last year's local elections.
02:10It's been a bumper 12 months with some highs.
02:13Yay!
02:14Some lows.
02:14I'm just asking you.
02:15What are you what? That's exactly what you're asking me to do.
02:17No, no, no, no, no.
02:18And lots of political drama.
02:21Very good. What a result.
02:23Any reaction, Lyndon?
02:24My group will be leaving.
02:26These are all points you could make during the debate.
02:29So how have things changed in the last year at Kent County Council?
02:33And what can we expect next at the UK's largest local authority?
02:38True.
02:4057 reformed councillors were elected on May 1st.
02:44All of our energies have been focused on choosing the right person to lead this group.
02:49A stonking majority that brought in a new leader with a very different vision for Kent.
02:56Former BBC journalist Lyndon Kemp-Karron was one of the first faces on the scene at County Hall last year.
03:05I have put my name forward, but then again, so have a lot of my colleagues.
03:09It was not long until she was in the driving seat of an authority overseeing hundreds of millions of pounds.
03:17Well, the learning curve was enormous.
03:19I mean, I'd had no experience in local government prior to becoming leader of the largest local authority in the
03:24country.
03:25But luckily, there are two qualities about me that have helped me through all my life, really.
03:31One is that I love a challenge, and two is that I'm a very, very fast learner.
03:35But it's not been the easiest ride.
03:37Paul, I'm going to mute you in a minute. Let me reply.
03:40A leaked video shared by The Guardian gave an insight into a less than unified front behind closed doors.
03:50I am there to serve the people who elected me and my fellow members into Kent County Council.
03:57Even the ones who didn't vote for us, we're still there to serve them.
03:59That is my absolute number one focus.
04:02So I wouldn't want anyone watching this to assume anything different from that.
04:06Expulsions and defections from Reform UK soon cut her party's numbers down to 47.
04:13This grouping is a warm sanctuary for people that have been expelled, mistreated, defamed, or in general, just basically abused
04:21by the leadership in there.
04:22I expect to be exonerated from all charges, at which point I will be welcomed back into fold and continue
04:29the great work that I've been doing.
04:30One of those knocked out of the party was councillor Paul Thomas.
04:36It was only in 2024 he was campaigning alongside Nigel Farage at the general election.
04:44Now he's back in the ring as group leader of rival right-wing political outfit Restore Britain.
04:51I can see a few more people potentially walking the floor out of reform because it's unsustainable.
05:00If you've got a very aggressive approach to leadership.
05:07But it wasn't just reform last May that saw a change in their electoral fortunes.
05:13Anthony Hook is as familiar on the streets of Favisham as he is as opposition leader in the chamber.
05:22And there is no excuse.
05:23The Liberal Democrats now see themselves as the force to hold Reform UK to account.
05:30There haven't been any successes. Reform have lost control of the budget.
05:34There's a £45 million overspend in the last financial year.
05:38They've had a bad off-stead on the services that we're providing to children who are leaving care.
05:45Well, I mean, they would say that, wouldn't they?
05:47What else are they going to say?
05:48They're certainly not going to come out with a tray of gin and tonics for me, as Nigel once said.
05:51The opposition are never going to do that.
05:53Running services at the council is hard work.
05:57It's something Sir Paul Carter knows all too well.
06:01The former Conservative was in charge of the authority for 14 years.
06:06But after being booted off the back benches by reform last year,
06:11he's been forced to keep up with the headlines on the sidelines.
06:16You know, experience counts.
06:18I remember when I first became a county councillor,
06:20it took me at least a year to really understand how the system operates
06:24and how you could start to change and improve things.
06:28And they have had a year where they have shown their inexperience.
06:34Many of Reform UK's councillors and cabinet members are new to politics.
06:39Paul Webb was a photographer by trade before being elected.
06:44I put my glasses back on.
06:45He didn't have any glasses on in the last shot.
06:47He now finds himself in charge of children's services.
06:52A meteoric rise which started on the back benches
06:55and later saw him running regulatory services as well.
07:00All that within just 12 months.
07:03None of us were professional politicians.
07:05I think that's one of the things that showed initially.
07:07But it's something that we've also come to grips with running the council,
07:12managing other people, managing rules, regulations, statutory obligations.
07:16So it's something as we go forward that we've learnt a lot more from when we first started.
07:21But that's a good thing.
07:22That can only help us in the future as we go forward.
07:24Beyond the political drama, running a local council is all about providing services.
07:30Fixing potholes, sorting out adult social care.
07:3445% of people here in Headcorn voted for Reform UK at the last set of local elections.
07:40How do they think the party they voted for are getting on one year into power?
07:46I feel very happy actually.
07:49I work for our local parish council and we've had a lot of interaction with our member of Kent County
07:58Council,
07:59Sarah Emberson, and she has been really proactive and really helpful.
08:03I find it very frightening, very frightening because of the cost of living,
08:12the cutbacks in Kent County Council, things that they're trying to do.
08:18But obviously they were going to have teething troubles transferring over from, you know, one council to another.
08:25I think to give them time to actually, you know, settle in and work things out, I think that was
08:31fair.
08:32A divided public for a divisive year at Kent County Council, Reform UK do say they've made savings and efficiencies.
08:40But it's also clear it's been a bit of a bumpier year than they might have otherwise anticipated.
08:45Olly Lieder in Headcorn.
08:50Now the chairman for Southeast Water has resigned after a parliamentary committee declared it has no confidence in the firm's
08:57leadership.
08:58Following the building criticism over the handling of several water outages in Kent,
09:03Chris Train has resigned from the water company with immediate effect.
09:06This comes in light of a 55-page parliamentary report by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
09:13The report outlined several concerns, including a failure to maintain assets and a culture of failure.
09:19Southeast Water continue to reiterate their apology to customers impacted by recent operational failures
09:25and the resulting loss of public trust in the company.
09:30Now an NHS worker has avoided jail time after driving on the wrong side of the M25 and being involved
09:37in an accident.
09:38Charlotte Mayer Maloney was sentenced on the 28th of this month after driving her car on the wrong side of
09:44the road and crashing into another driver.
09:46The crash occurred on New Year's Day and while no injuries were sustained by both drivers,
09:51the other driver claimed to have seen Charlotte trying to flee the scene.
09:55She was handed a 10-month sentence but it was suspended for two years.
09:59She has also been banned from driving for three years.
10:03And today the Renters' Rights Act came into force, changing the experience for 11 million private renters in England.
10:10The bill includes abolishing no-fault evictions, strengthens tenants' rights for a pet
10:14and makes it illegal for landlords to discriminate against tenants, those with benefits or with children.
10:19And we spoke to some landlords and residents on the streets of Rochester.
10:24I thought it was well overdue. It's about time we had a legislation that protects people's rights in rented accommodation.
10:36Well, I think it will hopefully ease the pressure on the smaller houses, private ownership,
10:43because I think it's in high demand and it's quite expensive to try and buy a property.
10:48I understand the purpose behind it, but I think it's disproportionate.
10:54Obviously, I've got children as well, older children, who are trying to find enough money to buy in the property
11:02market here today.
11:03But also as a landlord, there just isn't the money in it.
11:06You know, pro-tenants and anti-landlords, but I mean, nothing is black and white.
11:12It's always a shade of grey, isn't it?
11:14But hopefully, if there's a fair system, and it's a just system, it will settle itself down and everyone will
11:22benefit from it.
11:24Landlords, if there's not the money there or the long-term investment in property growth, they'll get out.
11:32It enables people to have stability and then from that they can then, you know, make choices
11:39about how they're going to arrange their finances to possibly purchase property later on in life as well.
11:46And now it's time for a quick break, but don't go anywhere because coming up,
11:50we'll be taking a sneak peek of tonight's episode of Kent Chronicles and so much more.
11:55We'll see you soon.
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24:33I was born and bred.
24:35I mean, it's great to be able to contribute something back to it.
24:40Would you say that you're a bit of a history buff?
24:42A hundred percent, you know.
24:44In many of my previous jobs, I would be doing tour guiding around Canterbury.
24:48and yeah I just absolutely adore the history you know and you'd be surprised with what you'd find
24:54so for example Hearn Bay you wouldn't expect the amount of history there and you know so they've
25:00got the world's first freestanding purpose-built clock tower which I think was built in about 1837
25:06and you can see it on screen now yeah so this was done for the love week and yeah me
25:13and Manjosh
25:14went down and we had a look out there we had a look at the pier and of course a
25:18long time ago this
25:19would have been a fishing village and hence introducing people for the romantic getaway
25:23maybe a little bit of ice cream fish and chips by the shore and seaside but one of the things
25:28is
25:28sometimes there's just so much information that you can't fit it all in in one you know but it's
25:34great yeah and you talked about there's so much information there what is something about the
25:39history of Kent that viewers may not expect oh hard one I think there's just so much to it so
25:45for
25:46example Kent itself was made by the Vikings so they were formed by the Judeans which was a form of
25:54German
25:54Viking who came over in about 1500 ish years ago when the Romans retreated away so for example in
26:03Canterbury initially it was Roman built there was the river that was all Roman and the the gates itself
26:09however when the Romans no sorry when the Vikings came in they're the ones who actually established
26:14the kingdom of Kent and the county of Kent as we grown to know it and understand it today and
26:19we
26:19don't have a lot of time now but what can viewers expect for tonight's episode it's gonna be an exciting
26:24one so with tonight we're gonna get into sort of the the history of the industry so that will be
26:29a coal mine we're gonna take you down deal and just show you a little bit more so what's like
26:34sort
26:34of the functionality of that and it's great to see about sort of the paperwork and how even it's
26:39localized area being close to the river helped support it in the industry well how exciting looking
26:44forward to seeing that later and that's all we have time for tonight you can watch the show later
26:51um but we'll see you next week goodbye
26:56you
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