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00:09Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight Live on KMTV. I'm Oli Leder and here are your top stories on
00:16Friday the 22nd of May. Hot and bothered, Kent heatwave sparks concerns for county's pets.
00:23Killing trade fury from Chatham shop owners over parking charge hikes. And finally breaking barriers
00:31Raynham's student hopes to inspire girls into STEM.
00:44First this evening, health warnings have been issued across Kent as temperatures are set to hit 31 degrees
00:51over the weekend with the UK Health Security Agency issuing an amber alert across the southeast.
00:57And it's not just our elderly and vulnerable who are being advised to keep cool with worries that
01:02our pets could also be at risk. I caught up with our reporter Tim Forster who was out on a
01:08very hot
01:08day earlier. Well Tim joins us now on an absolute scorcher of a day. You must be sweltering in that
01:17black suit. Yeah I've not chosen the best outfit for today. The UK Health Security Agency actually
01:26issued a yellow heat warning earlier this week. This has now been updated to amber as of 2pm today.
01:31That's set to stay in place until 5pm on Monday the 27th and it covers Kent and London and even
01:38parts of
01:39the Midlands. This alert as I say is in place until 5pm on Monday with temperatures expected to reach
01:45upwards of 31 degrees which even for the bank holiday weekend is pushing it a bit far. Temperatures will
01:52peak on Friday and Saturday with the southeast of England seeing temperatures reaching the mid to
01:57high 20s. Most likely maximum temperature on Friday and Saturday 28 Celsius but there's a 20% chance that
02:05somewhere in the southeast most likely London will get 30 Celsius. Lots of high temperatures there from
02:13the Met Office. What can people do to stay safe during the sunshine? Well it's recommended that you
02:22continue to drink fluids wherever possible. Carry water whenever you travel and apply sunscreen over
02:27SPF 30 whenever you get a chance. You should also make sure you don't leave vulnerable people locked in
02:34parked cars such as children for example or the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
02:39The officials warn that for health and social care services they could be stretched to the limit.
02:46But it's not just vulnerable people that will be impacted by this is it Tim?
02:54No the other big group that will be affected is actually our beloved pets and actually Maisie Walker
02:59has been finding out about exactly how the weather can affect them. Temperatures are expected to reach
03:0426 degrees this week and into the next but this is raising some concerns over our animal friends at home.
03:10How are we supposed to keep them safe during these hot conditions?
03:14So the risk for animals with pre-existing health conditions particularly those which affect the heart
03:19and the lungs they are significantly more likely to experience heat related illness. In terms of symptoms
03:24to look out for things such as excessive panting, drooling, weakness, noisy breathing and in the most severe
03:34circumstances collapse will occur. We have a five second hand test and if you lay the palm up your hand
03:41on the pavement for five seconds if it's too hot for your hand then it is too hot for an
03:46animal's paws.
03:47So we do sadly see incidents of burns on the bottom of the feet.
03:52When I was in Rochester many residents weren't even aware a heat wave was on the way. I spoke to
03:58them
03:58to find out whether they were concerned about how the rising temperatures could affect their pets and
04:03other animals. I am a massive cat person like I have a rescue cat so I'm very much aware of
04:08you know
04:08keeping animals cool and when I see people walking dogs midday I'm always like.
04:12I live in a top floor flat for one and the heat just because it's old and has a slated
04:17roof it's
04:18just really hot all the time it's like a greenhouse and even when you come out there's some relief but
04:23and then there's my dog as well obviously she's a French poor dog and she struggles in the heat.
04:29We've had horses and dogs all my life so know how to look after the animals in summer keep the
04:33dogs in
04:34literally just on the grass carry them onto the grass put them back indoors again wouldn't let them on
04:39pavement and horses same thing flash sheets on keep them in turn them out at night.
04:44It's important to give your pets plenty of water access to shade and protection from the hottest
04:50parts of the day as this heat wave comes into full force. Maisie Walker for KNTV, Rochester.
04:57Well I'll be making sure to keep my dog out of the sunshine but let's take a look at the
05:02weather and
05:03see what this heat wave has in store for us.
05:11Taking a look at tonight we can see a warmer evening with lows of 17 degrees in the east rising
05:17across the west into tomorrow sunshine a bit of cloud in the north of the county 21 degrees in
05:24Margate rising to a whopping 28 degrees in Mainstone and Dartford bring along that sunscreen and the
05:32temperatures are not letting up through till next Tuesday 30 degrees on Monday lots of sunshine in
05:39store for us.
05:47Now it's massively affecting us well that's what Chatham traders are saying about skyrocketing
05:53parking tariffs claiming that high street sales have fallen off a cliff. Medway Council have increased
06:00parking charges for stays over an hour despite slashing 30 minute stays to just £8.
06:07So our local democracy reporter Megan Shaw has been speaking to angry business owners about what
06:14it's like on the high street.
06:16Obviously the war going on is several things affecting business as well on top of these parking
06:21charges and so on. Angry traders on Chatham high street who claim that Medway Council's increased
06:27parking charges has stopped footfall in its tracks. A lot of customers are coming into the shop saying oh
06:34we're not going to come into Chatham anymore due to these high prices that can go other places i.e.
06:39Hempstead Valley, Blue Water which is free parking so it's affecting us massively.
06:44From the 1st of May one hour of parking went up from £2.40 to £2.90 and two hours
06:51went from £2.90 up to £3.50.
06:55This came alongside reducing the cost of a 30 minute stay to just a pound down from £1.90.
07:04Kei Singh who's run first choice shoes for 40 years is also struggling with getting customers through the door.
07:11You know when a lot of young people don't want to come by bus, they normally use a car and
07:18they do
07:18affect us then say oh a bit too much let's go there somewhere free like Dockside or Hempstead Valley, Blue
07:27Water you know.
07:2848 business owners in Chatham have signed a petition for Medway Council and seemed up for having a conversation
07:36after claiming they weren't notified before the new tariffs came into play.
07:41If they try to make like a meeting with any shop owners or if we go any we will be
07:49happy to go there and
07:51tell them our problems no one came no one asked.
07:54Medway Council begged to differ. A spokesperson said the revised parking charges were introduced
08:01after careful consideration and in response to well-publicised financial pressures affecting
08:07local authorities around the country. As with many aspects of council business parking charges remain
08:14under review. But the council is also working against serious deficit having secured government
08:21funding for the third year in a row. So does each party simply need to walk a mile in the
08:28other's shoes?
08:29Megan Shaw in Chatham. Well Councillor Harinder Mahil, he's the portfolio holder for economic and social
08:37regeneration at Medway Council. Is this actually going to help with that mission of economic and social
08:43regeneration? Traders are obviously quite concerned about that footfall. I understand, I sympathise on
08:49several levels. I've known Mr Singh who was in that clip there you know since I was a boy and
08:55not only that
08:56I've just taken on a lease in the high street myself. So I will be very shortly, I've got the
09:02meeting the builders after this show actually. So I'll be a trader in the high street myself. So parking
09:08is an issue. As a result I actually met the traders along with Vince Maple. We spoke through not just
09:13parking but a whole series of issues that they have raised and they've really just built on one against
09:20the other over the past 10 years. So it's a wider set of issues than just parking. Of course there
09:27are
09:27the budget pressures that were mentioned and that's very fair to mention. But at the same time
09:34as well as sort of looking at the budget that we have to address the Medway Council, we are looking
09:39at
09:39what we can do for the high street more generally. So for example we'll be opening, we'll be launching
09:45next Friday a mobile hub, community hub that will be going out and that's working with police, that's
09:52working with charities and the council to actually get a physical presence in the high street which we
10:00can use in different areas as well. So that will be tackling things like antisocial behaviour and things
10:06like that that actually put people off. So I understand the parking element is an issue, that's
10:12why I lobbied really hard to get that 30 minute decrease down to a pound which has helped in some
10:17areas. It doesn't help as much in terms of Chatton because of the size of it so that 30 minute
10:23by the
10:23time you've parked and gone to the shop and then gone back that 30 minute is you'd have to run.
10:29So we're
10:29still looking and as the report there said it's under review and we genuinely mean that it is under review.
10:36But I mean you actually run a restaurant just outside Chatham High Street using the same car
10:42parks. Does it impact you at all? So I can't tell you that it has impacted my restaurant and it
10:49really
10:49does, it depends on what type of retailer or what type of shop it is. So mine is really based
10:58on the
10:58night time economy so that a lot of people come for evening meals so that's a different sector to
11:05those that are really being affected by different things all together. So we're talking about any
11:10given second in Medway there are thousands and thousands of Amazon parcels being shuffled across
11:17and getting to people's front doors. That's the real reason why there's been a real sort of slow and
11:23increasing decline in people going to high streets and that's forgetting even mentioning the supermarkets
11:30that started around the 70s and 80s. So it's been a long term decline. Regeneration is a big thing in
11:36Chatham. I'm sure we're all speaking about this again very, very soon. Some reassurance there for
11:40traders. But thank you so much Prinder. We'll be back after break with plenty more news including
11:45about student finance. Why is it all changing? See you soon.
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15:10now, is it a new graduate tax where that's how those studying at the University of Kent described a major
15:17shake up of loan repayments by the Government.
15:20New plans would see thresholds for repayments increased with interest rates still rising.
15:26There are worried students could be left with larger debts to pay off in the long term.
15:30Jude Moulton has been finding out the feelings of the student body on the Canterbury campus.
15:36Life at university isn't all fun and games.
15:40For many students, the concerns of repaying their student loan loom over their time learning.
15:47The government made big changes to the repayment plan threshold
15:51and it's designed to ease financial pressure to make repayments more manageable
15:56as living costs continue to rise.
15:59Now, being here at the University of Kent, the students that I have spoken to have a sense of unease
16:05when it comes to the repayment plan thresholds that have changed in April.
16:09This, in relation to cost of living crisis and employability,
16:13may leave some students with questions among their postgraduate life.
16:17I think it's still harsh. I think that the new threshold is still harsh because cost of living is rising.
16:22In considering cost of living, it's continuously increasing.
16:25It's remained more or less the same, hasn't really much changed how it affects me.
16:29It has sort of increased my, how I feel about it, like scarcity, I guess.
16:38Felt quite sudden, at least for me. I didn't really see anything about it.
16:41And then suddenly I see all this new stuff coming up.
16:43You know, making one grand more or one grand less isn't.
16:47If it was 5k that they upped the boundary by, it would kind of decrease my concerns about it.
16:53But what has changed?
16:55Well, the implementation of Plan 2's new limit at £29,000, changing from £28,000
17:02and the introduction of Plan 5 for graduates that started university in 2023 seems like a good change
17:09as students will end up paying less per calendar year towards their student debt.
17:13But some students and economists still have concerns whether student debt will continue to rise.
17:19I think they're going to end up being a bit more harmful for graduates
17:22than the government initially expected when they set the plans.
17:26This might cost them an extra £250 a year or similar.
17:32I'd expect now those numbers are probably looking more like £450 to £500 a year.
17:37The way the system works is kind of halfway between a debt and what we would call a graduate tax.
17:43The Department of Education have been contacted,
17:46but even with these pathways for later payments, students don't seem convinced.
17:52Jude Moulton, KMTV.
17:56Now for Victoria here, her dreams of a career in radiology have taken one step closer
18:02after winning a national competition to visit a leading radiology facility in Grenoble.
18:08Let's hear a little bit more about her story with Kristen Hawthorne.
18:11Victoria is just one of 16 people nationwide that's been selected
18:16to visit a world-renowned science facility in France.
18:20It's called the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
18:23It was a competition and it said I needed to write one 500-word essay about this scientist
18:30and how I relate to her, because it was all about feminism and stuff.
18:34And then there was another 500-word essay of why I should go on this trip.
18:38As Victoria dreams of a career in radiology, she stands out not only for her academic ability,
18:44but also for the challenges she's overcome.
18:46Ever since I was born, I've always had x-rays and they always show me what these x-rays are
18:52like
18:53and it's in this big room.
18:54There's so many machines around me and because I was little, they'd have to explain it to me
18:58because it was quite scary when I was little.
19:01So they show me all the anatomy, how it works, why they have to stand behind a big screen.
19:07Physics still remains a male-dominated subject.
19:09And last year, the Education Data Lab reported that just 24% of those entering A-level physics exams were
19:17female
19:17and say physics still has the second lowest percentage of female entrants of all A-levels.
19:23It is difficult. It is really difficult.
19:26We don't always have a physics class here.
19:29Sometimes there's not enough students that want to do it.
19:32Sometimes they want to move to a different school.
19:35But we've been really fortunate.
19:38We've got a great cohort of students in Year 13 who have kind of blazed the way, really.
19:45And they've achieved really, really well.
19:46And I think when younger students see that there are already students in the school studying physics,
19:52they then see it as a possibility.
19:54This is part of the experiment that Victoria was teaching her class today,
19:58which shows that light can be thought of as particles.
20:01But as teachers find it difficult to get girls involved and interested in physics,
20:05what do the students here today think?
20:07I love STEM.
20:08It's so interesting.
20:09One of my favourite things to do is watch motor racing
20:12and being able to look at all the female in that sport.
20:16And I love it.
20:17And I feel like it's so important that more people realise,
20:20oh, I can go do that stuff.
20:22Victoria's journey is taking her from Reynum
20:24to one of the world's leading science facilities.
20:27But back in this classroom, she is not the only one with big ambitions.
20:31They're proving they're not being held back by the numbers.
20:35Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV and Reynum.
20:39The future is bright, isn't it?
20:42And if you want to find more extraordinary stories like that from across Medway,
20:46check out our website, kmtv.co.uk,
20:49including this one about a new market at Chatham's historic dockyard.
20:55Opening opportunities to local traders.
21:00It was all hands on deck for Medway Market's launch this weekend.
21:05Uniquely located inside a disused shipbuilding space at Chatham Historic Dockyard,
21:10it hopes to mark a return of the traditional market to the town.
21:13We're looking to bring local traders, the community all together, different cultures,
21:18and just have a traditional market, which we haven't had for years.
21:23People are often talking about Rochester.
21:26And as a kid, I went to it, and all I remember was great times.
21:30But there's nothing like that around here.
21:32We just want local traders, who we know times are hard at the moment,
21:37to hopefully trade with us for the future.
21:40Part of our role as mayors is to support new businesses in the borough,
21:45is to promote Medway.
21:46So obviously when we hear about opportunities where people are coming forward, really,
21:51to serve the community in this way, we're keen to help.
21:54Our high streets are struggling.
21:55So, I mean, we want people to be, not have to travel to get what they want, really.
22:01So the wider the choice we can have, the better it is.
22:04And because this is at the dockyard, this is just such a fantastic place.
22:08We want people to come here, and to increase the offer on-site is actually great.
22:12Well, it's an early Saturday morning, so I had to go and get myself a coffee
22:15from the Kent coffee shop inside my own car.
22:18But as well as coffee, there's food, there's vintage clothing,
22:22there's toys, there's flowers.
22:23There's actually 90 vendors signed up to be here today.
22:27This is a great opportunity for the handmade workers who live in Kent on Midway.
22:32This is a great chance to market your stuff, sell, and let the people know about it.
22:37I was scrolling like you do on social media, and I saw the advert, and I thought,
22:43ooh, a new market.
22:44So this is the first time for me in a very long time.
22:48So I thought it was a good opportunity and a fresh start.
22:52I think being at the dockyard, and it's repurposing an old building,
22:56and it's like bringing all the old elements together and reusing.
23:04The event also featured entertainment alongside family attractions and food stalls.
23:09The market plans to operate from 8am to 4pm on the first Saturday of every month,
23:14with free entry and parking available on-site.
23:17The organisers hope the market will be anchored into the community's calendar in the future.
23:22Chloe Brewster for KMTV in Chatham.
23:27And finally, Rachel Reeves has announced the Great Summer of Savings scheme
23:31to help reduce the cost of living.
23:33But in Ashford, a free shop is taking it one step further.
23:37Today marks the opening of a brand new centre in Kent.
23:40It's not just a community food bank,
23:42but the shop also provides food, clothing, and essentials to those who need the most.
23:46All for free and all donated by the community.
23:50Nayla Mohamed went along to the opening.
23:57Crowds of people gathered outside for the opening of a brand new free shop.
24:02Food, books, clothes, and toys.
24:05Everything in the store has been donated by multiple businesses or even members in Ashford.
24:10And it was set up by Carolina, a single mother of four,
24:14who wanted to thank her community for all the support they've given her.
24:18Nobody should travel alone.
24:19Nobody should feel lonely.
24:22So Ashford Free Shop is about showing the love, the compassion, the kindness
24:26that we still have for one another.
24:29In a world where there's so much negativity, there's still good people.
24:33There's still kind people that care about people.
24:37This has to work in Ashford because people need it.
24:40People need to know that they don't have to suffer alone.
24:44Opening for the first time in Ashford,
24:47this centre marks the expansion of Maya's Free Shop in Herne Bay.
24:51And there are plans to expand this even further, even in Birmingham and in Coventry.
24:55But what is a free shop?
24:57Well, Finder Maya says it's a shop with no till.
25:00Everything is free.
25:01All these clothes have been donated by the local community
25:04or to help the community here in Ashford.
25:06And some things have even been brought over from Herne Bay.
25:09So according to Maya, a donation is a donation.
25:12And no matter where it's from, it needs to go and help someone.
25:15I wanted people to know that not only we can run the free shops,
25:19but we can help them to open their free shops in their town,
25:22serving their community.
25:24Poverty doesn't wait.
25:25Cost of living doesn't wait.
25:26So what we do, we just keep going.
25:29Free Shop is a movement.
25:32It's a green plant.
25:34Free recycling centre.
25:36It's a bridge between waste and people in need.
25:40More free shops we open, more people in need we will help
25:43and more waste we will save.
25:48And the community gives back to the store too, in more ways than one.
25:53Because I've been homeless, I was homeless for a while.
25:58I've sofa surfed.
25:59I've been on the streets.
26:01I've witnessed people passing away through ammonia, things like that,
26:05and people being cold.
26:07So when I heard something about this,
26:09it was kind of inevitable to be there
26:13and to put a face and help out as much as I can
26:17because I needed it when I was homeless.
26:19At a time when many are struggling,
26:21Ashford's food shop shows how compassion,
26:23dignity and community spirit can make all the difference.
26:27Naila Mahamud for KMTV in Ashford.
26:31What a lovely day for the team at Myers.
26:34Well, we'll catch you at the Bulletin at 8pm this evening.
26:37For now, from me, have a good weekend.
26:40Take care.
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