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Catch up with all your latest news from across the county with Kristin Hawthorne.
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00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:30Hello and welcome to Kentonite Live on KMTV.
00:34I'm Kristen Hawthorne and here are your top stories on Tuesday the 14th of July.
00:39Confidence running dry as South East Water set to pay out 30 million oversupply issues.
00:45Key takeaway for me is that this does draw a line under the sand.
00:50The performance was totally unacceptable.
00:52History in motion. SS Monty masts will be removed and preserved in £9.5 million operation.
01:01Our initial concern is making sure the masts are preserved and they are fit for the future
01:05and can continue to tell the story of the Allied forces.
01:08And from Strood to Santa Fe before England face Argentina in the World Cup,
01:13we learn about the town's connection to Messi's youth team.
01:16Hunt claimed that he alone took football to Argentina,
01:20but he's widely held to be one of the pioneers of football in Argentina.
01:35South East Water shareholders will be forced to pay out more than £30 million
01:38over supply failures that has repeatedly left thousands without water across Kent.
01:44Tunbridge Wells found itself in the heart of a major crisis between November and January,
01:48but the ruling from the regulator could be the core to those long-term fixes.
01:53Olly Leader reports.
01:55What happened particularly here in November, December, January was completely unacceptable
02:00and the way that South East Water responded to that was not acceptable.
02:04That's a damning verdict from the water regulator that comes with a £30 million price tag.
02:12The result of three separate investigations into South East Water
02:18that followed weeks of chaos between November and January,
02:23where tens of thousands were left high and dry in Tunbridge Wells and wider Kent.
02:30Their communications were confusing.
02:31Customers weren't able to decide how to deal with the situation.
02:35They weren't able to make choices about how to find alternative water provision.
02:40And when South East Water did provide alternative water supplies,
02:44they did that badly as well.
02:46The multi-million pound payout will fall on the shoulders of shareholders.
02:51The money will then go back into addressing supply issues across Kent.
02:56But in Tunbridge Wells, where many were left reliant on bottled water,
03:02it's too little, too late.
03:04I think it would be wasted.
03:06It would be wasted money, like everything that is done here.
03:10I think this is just incompetence generally and it needs to be addressed.
03:14I think they should use that money to restore the water pipes
03:18and make sure that it's all up to date.
03:20South East Water has committed to fixing its resilience and customer service.
03:27Speaking to the company last week,
03:30the hope is that things will start to get better.
03:33Really sorry to all our customers.
03:35And it's been a really difficult period for all our customers
03:37and for everyone who works at South East Water.
03:39It's not the level of service we want to give.
03:41And it's certainly, you know, we want to try and make sure
03:43we don't have any future interruptions.
03:44But we are doing short-term resilience and short-term changes
03:48to make sure that we can mitigate any issues in the short term,
03:50improve our response.
03:52But that's why infrastructure investment does take time to put in place.
03:55We are trying to do that as quickly and as efficiently as we can.
03:58And things will start to improve year on year.
04:00Months on, businesses are still recovering from huge losses in peak season.
04:06And with a hosepipe ban in place,
04:09it's little wonder those living here are still glass half empty
04:13when it comes to South East Water.
04:16Olly Leader in Tunbridge Wells.
04:21I'm joined now by Olly Leader to tell us a little bit more about that.
04:26So how significant is this redress package?
04:29I mean, it's huge.
04:30I mean, that's why I brought my laptop in
04:31because it's just so detailed where the money's supposed to be going.
04:351 million allocated to specific sites.
04:381.5 million for community funds for areas in Kent and Sussex.
04:435 million to provide free water butts for households
04:47associated with this targeted messaging during that water crisis
04:52that we saw from South East Water.
04:54I mean, all of this, what makes it really interesting
04:57from the perspective of someone who's been covering this story for months
05:01is none of this will come from customers' bills.
05:03It's all to come from shareholders.
05:0630.5 million pounds.
05:08There's no small amount of money
05:11and we'll really eat into those shareholder returns
05:14we've heard about with these big water companies.
05:17The proof will obviously have to be in the pudding.
05:21What is actually remedy issues
05:23we've been seeing in Tunbridge Wells for years?
05:26This didn't start in December of 2025.
05:29It didn't start in January of 2026.
05:32This started years ago, 2018, when the beast from the east rolled in.
05:37Tunbridge Wells found itself without water.
05:40And this wasn't just Tunbridge Wells.
05:42Tunbridge, parts of Sevenoaks, Maidstone.
05:45There were huge areas that were left without water.
05:48Livestock were affected.
05:49Businesses were affected.
05:51And let's be honest, consumer confidence is really low in south-east water.
05:56We did speak to them.
05:58They do acknowledge all their mistakes.
06:00They put forward some of these proposals to fix their water resilience.
06:03There's a reason the money's not going to the Treasury.
06:06But it is that big idea that south-east water are going to have to take long-term steps,
06:11which they're willing to do.
06:13But the off-wats, the regulator, they're going to be keeping a careful eye on south-east water going forward.
06:19And people in Tunbridge Wells, when you were there, what were they saying?
06:23Were they pleased with this?
06:23Or did they think it was not enough?
06:25I mean, water woes.
06:27You didn't even need to say much about it for this familiar 1,000-yard stare, as it were, to
06:33come on.
06:33People were frustrated.
06:35People were telling me they had to get all their water from bottle banks,
06:39that they had to get delivered to their house.
06:41If they couldn't drive, it would have been an absolute nightmare.
06:44I spoke to a business a few months ago, not long ago at all.
06:47They say they lost all their peak trade.
06:50That has impacted the entire year ahead.
06:52Some will still be demanding compensation.
06:56Still looking to get money back from what has been a very difficult year,
07:01particularly for hospitality.
07:03So I'd say people in Tunbridge Wells, they think it's a good thing it's been reinvested.
07:07They say there's not been enough investment in the pipework, in the reservoirs,
07:11in that water resilience.
07:13But they're also not confident in it actually being delivered.
07:17It's all in south-east waters court.
07:20They hope they're going to turn it around.
07:22They've got a new management team in.
07:23Let's see how they do.
07:25All right.
07:25Thank you so much, Oli.
07:28And in keeping with businesses and how this has affected Kent in general,
07:32we spoke to Tudor Price from the Invicta Chamber of Commerce to find out what the changes could
07:37mean for those businesses, both financially and operationally.
07:41So, I mean, the first thing you want to make sure, of course, is that the water supply is
07:45uninterrupted.
07:45However, things do go wrong, even if they're sort of well-maintained and renewed regularly.
07:50So, actually, by putting in place things like this sort of additional water storage and
07:55other capacities will actually mean that the impact that when water supply is interrupted,
08:01that it won't be quite as dramatic and therefore so critical as far as the business is concerned.
08:05You know, we saw during the last outages exactly what that did to retail.
08:09I mean, we were talking to a coffee shop.
08:11And, of course, you can't use recycled water or bottled water in those machines.
08:15So, they actually had to shut the shop and lose business.
08:19So, at least this will provide an opportunity to make sure that, you know, when these outages
08:23will occur, and they will at some point, that, you know, there is some resilience built into
08:27the whole of the network.
08:29And what have Chamber members told you about the financial and operational impact of those
08:34outages?
08:34As you said, you know, coffee shops and everything had to close.
08:37What have they told you?
08:40Well, it was clearly not enough.
08:42I mean, the impact was quite sizable.
08:44And, of course, if you remember going back to Tunbridge Wells, that very first outage,
08:47which sort of caught everyone's sort of attention.
08:50That was at a critical time of year.
08:52And I don't think there's any level of compensation that can be put forward that will actually address
08:56many of the losses that were incurred by businesses at that time of year.
09:00Having said that, the additional compensation scheme that they put in place does go some way.
09:05There's a bit of a job to try and sort of get applications in and try and get your assessment
09:09verified and therefore get a reasonable payout.
09:13I guess it's something.
09:15It's not perfect.
09:16A lot of the businesses we've spoken to are grateful for the enhanced payment.
09:21But first and foremost, what they really want is that investment, which we're seeing here
09:24with this intervention from Opswot, to make sure that the problems don't reoccur.
09:28And if they do, there is some sort of resilience plan in place.
09:31Is your final opinion that this is a good thing, but it's not enough?
09:39I think we're always going to be trying to be supportive, really.
09:45Yes, I think historically, this has been a problem waiting to happen for a long time.
09:51And the regulator holds a large proportion of the blame here for not having had these types
09:57of interventions earlier.
09:59So, yes, we can look back and harp on about what went wrong and what should have been done
10:03ages ago.
10:04But that is now water under the bridge, literally.
10:07And therefore, we need to be looking forward.
10:08And I think this is a good sign.
10:10We'd like to see more interventions like this, reassurance to the business community
10:15that water supply is something that is going to be taken seriously by this government and
10:19governments of any other colour moving on.
10:21Yeah, and hopefully it makes quite a positive difference.
10:24Thank you so much, Tudor.
10:26The former owner of a camp pub has been shot dead in Trinidad and Tobago, leaving family,
10:32friends and a community in shock.
10:34Elaine McGowan ran the Castle Hotel in Saltwood, Hyde and was outside her grandfather's home
10:40on July 5th when a gunman got out of his car and opened fire before fleeing the scene.
10:46She was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Centre but was pronounced dead on arrival.
10:52A foreign office spokesperson has said they're in contact with local authorities.
10:56Tributes have been paid online with Rosalind Terry describing Miss McGowan's death as devastating
11:04news and a great loss of a fantastic friend.
11:08The investigation into Anne Whittacombe's death has revealed that the former Maidstone MP
11:13was killed in a politically motivated targeted attack.
11:18After she was found dead in her home in Devon earlier this week, an investigation was launched
11:23with the counterterrorism unit conducting it.
11:26The head of counterterrorism policing, Assistant Commissioner Lawrence Taylor, has said officers
11:32are working to understand the extent of any planning or preparation and the motivation behind the attack.
11:43Now it's time for a short break but don't go anywhere as we have much more coming up
11:47in just a few minutes.
11:48We'll see you then.
15:18Well, hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight Live here on KMTV.
15:23A Gillingham man who stole £15,000 from a pensioner has been jailed.
15:28Amos Smith stole the cash after completing landscaping work in the victim's garden.
15:32He took a payment of £11,000 before returning to the victim's home and a month later asking
15:38for more.
15:39Chloe Brewster joins us now to tell us more.
15:42Chloe, this isn't the first offence that Smith has committed, is it?
15:45No, so he actually, when he was arrested, he'd just finished a sentence that he was serving
15:51for an offence earlier this year.
15:54He also was sentenced to prison for four years back in 2017 for, again, a similar offence
15:59for stealing a wallet from a house and that took place just two years after he stole a disabled
16:06women's handbag as well.
16:08So this clearly isn't something that comes as a surprise to people who know Smith.
16:14We can actually do the moment this time around with the incident that you just described,
16:21his reaction when police came to arrest him, because obviously he'd just literally just
16:25left prison.
16:25So we can hear from him now.
16:33And intimidate the victim into withdrawing money from cash machines and use the false identity,
16:38which is to make a game for yourself and cause a loss to the victim.
16:41That's the allegation.
16:43All right.
16:43So you're going to be arrested on suspicion of fraud by false representation.
16:46So I've done six months.
16:48Hear me out.
16:48Hear me out.
16:48So you don't have to say anything, but it may help my defence if you do not mention one
16:51question.
16:52I know about it.
16:53And if you do say, maybe give me a go.
16:55I know about it.
16:55Do you understand you've been arrested?
16:57Well, obviously.
16:58You've just arrested me, isn't you?
16:58Yep.
16:59What was you going to say about the six months?
17:01Well, I've just done six months on a recall for no reason.
17:04Now being released, now you've come up and been doing this here.
17:06Yeah, so he's just come out of prison, then he's getting re-arrested.
17:10What did the court say about all this?
17:11So obviously this was a really serious offence.
17:14So Smith had charged the pensioner £11,000 for some landscaping work.
17:19That included just clearing trees and sorting out rubbish in the victim's garden.
17:23And just a month after that work was completed and the money was paid, Smith actually returned
17:29to the victim's address, telling him that he owed him more.
17:32He walked the pensioner to the shops to withdraw that cash.
17:37And this happened over several days.
17:40So more and more cash was taken from that account.
17:43And that actually added up to an additional £4,000.
17:48As you saw, we just saw the footage of him saying, I've done six months on a recall for
17:52no reason.
17:52I'm now being released.
17:54Now you're doing this here.
17:55So he was surprised, but really he shouldn't have been after having done this crime.
18:01He was charged with two counts of fraud by false representation, which he admitted to
18:06at Maidstone Magistrates' Court on June 29th.
18:10At the same hearing, he was jailed for two years and eight months.
18:14Investigating officer, Detective Constable James Finch, said that Smith took advantage
18:18of a vulnerable member of our community and thought that he could get away with it.
18:22He said that he approached his victim with persistence and that he should have had more remorse and
18:28should have had more reflection regarding his actions.
18:31All right.
18:31Thank you so much, Chloe.
18:59Thank you so much, Chloe.
19:02Many people in the Kent region have already received the jabs, but many teens and young
19:06people still haven't been offered it for free.
19:09For more than 80 years, the masts of the SS Richard Montgomery, or the SS Monty as it's
19:15known locally, has stood as an eerie reminder of one of Kent's most infamous wartime shipwrecks.
19:21Now, after years of debate, plans are finally in place to remove them in a £9.5 million
19:27operation starting in September.
19:29I went down to see them in person, ask about the safety of the project and where they will
19:34go next.
19:34The iconic World War Two shipwreck, the SS Richard Montgomery, has been laying dormant
19:40for over 80 years since it sunk off the coast of Sheerness, leaving just its masts visible.
19:46In what's been a lengthy and controversial process, the decision has now been made that
19:51they'll be cut down and preserved at the historic dockyard in Chatham as part of a £9.5 million
19:57operation.
19:59So, once the masts have been removed, they will, all being well, make their way to the
20:04historic dockyard where we will start a process of conservation and preservation.
20:07And the first part of that will be undertaking condition assessments, understanding what actually
20:12do they look like, what are the problems they're going to be facing.
20:16These are masts that have been under the water for over 70 years now, over 80 years actually.
20:21So, you know, understanding the condition, what we need to do, how we need to conserve them,
20:25and what that looks like will be the first process we then look at.
20:28And then we will start to do that.
20:29And our intention is we do that in front of the public, so people can actually get up front
20:34and hopefully see these masts whilst they're initially being conserved with us.
20:38So, far behind me in the distance is the three masts.
20:42And there was a planned boat trip today to go out and see them, but as you can tell,
20:46it's just too windy.
20:48But as the masts are being removed, these are the kind of conditions that the workers could
20:52be fighting against.
20:53Still on board the SS Monty is 1,400 tonnes of unarmed munitions, meaning this is no reckless operation.
21:01What we've done is identified areas where this jack-up barge can safely anchor itself
21:08at the bow section and the stern section in order to chop the masts off.
21:12So, minimal contact with the ship by the jack-up barge and only the crane and the saw onto the
21:18masts and off.
21:19So, I would stress that we're not interacting with the safe to transport munitions.
21:24So, those masts that you could barely see in the water will be transported here to Chatham
21:29Historical Dockyard.
21:30They're not yet known how they're going to be preserved.
21:33They could be half in water, half not in water.
21:35And you could possibly get just close enough to touch them.
21:39Whether or not they're going to stay here at the dockyard is not yet known.
21:43What's happening is these masts are being removed, they're getting taken to Chatham Historic
21:46Dockyard for important preservation work and then we'll come to a decision about where
21:51best they need to be so that local communities can have access to them and that everybody
21:55can share in this really important part of our local maritime history.
21:58While a decision is being made about where the permanent homes for the masts should be, the
22:03wreck itself will remain beneath the waves.
22:06But its most recognisable feature is about to surface in a whole new way.
22:11Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV, Sheerness.
22:15The work for that will be starting in September and like I said, the permanent home of the
22:19masts has not yet been decided but Kevin McKenna, MP for Sitting Born in Sheppey, is adamant
22:24that at least one of them should stay in the town.
22:27Absolutely, I'm pushing really, really hard that we get at least one of the masts in Sheerness
22:32and actually that we also get one of the masts in Southend as well.
22:36I think it'd be great to have them on both sides of Thames Estuary, it'd be a great link
22:39between the two towns.
22:41So that's what I'm pushing for.
22:43There's three masts, if Chatham wants to have a masts that's absolutely fine and you know
22:46if they're doing the conservation work and that also keeps them local and in another museum.
22:51But the most important thing to me is that we get a masts on Sheppey in Sheerness where
22:55the public can see it.
23:00And like you can see now we're into the weather.
23:03So we have got highs of 21 degrees up there in Dartford, 19 across much else of the county,
23:09clear skies apart from in the east tomorrow morning.
23:13We've got highs there of 22 degrees, 14 wind speeds and then that all increases into the
23:19afternoon tomorrow.
23:20All the clouds leave and temperatures increase to about 25 there.
23:24Thursday we've got clear skies, 26 degrees.
23:27Clouds coming back on Friday and Saturday and then staying at 26 on Friday and 25 then
23:32on Saturday.
23:38And finally, with England facing off against Argentina in the World Cup tomorrow, many
23:43here in Kent may not know that a schoolteacher from Stroud is known as one of the pioneers
23:48of Argentinian football.
23:50Isaac Newell started a school in Rosario that would go on to become Newell's old boys, one
23:55of the biggest clubs in the country and the youth team of Lionel Messi.
23:59Finn McDiarmid reports.
24:01On Wednesday night, most England fans will be worried about Lionel Messi, considered the
24:06greatest player of all time.
24:08But would he be the player he is today without the efforts of an English teacher from Stroud?
24:14Well, it's an incredible story, really.
24:17When he was 16, he had a letter of introduction from his father to a businessman in Argentina.
24:24So he sailed to Argentina.
24:26At that time, this was in the 1870s and when football was in its infancy and he probably
24:37took football, he helped introduce football to many parts of Argentina.
24:42He eventually ended up in Rosario, which is about 180 miles north of Buenos Aires and he and
24:51his German-born wife started a school there.
24:54He ended up founding a school in 1884 known as the Collegio Comercial Angelicano Argentino
25:01or the Anglo-Argentine Commercial College, which had the emblem that would later be adapted
25:07for Newell's old boys, the football club established by his son Claudio.
25:11Children at the school started playing football and when his son Claudio took over from him,
25:18his son Claudio formed this football team called Newell's old boys in honour to Isaac.
25:26And they went on to become one of the most famous football teams in Argentina, as they
25:32still are today in the Premiership.
25:34The name Newell's old boys comes from Isaac himself, with old boys referring to the former
25:39pupils of the school and the first players on the team were actually graduates of the
25:44Commercial College.
25:45The team went on to have an impressive roster of youth footballers, players like Mauricio
25:50Pochettino, Gabriel Batistuta, Lionel Scaloni and Lionel Messi.
25:55They even had Diego Maradona playing for their first team.
25:58I think when Maradona played for Newell's old boys briefly in the 1990s and he was asked
26:05why he wanted to play for Newell's old boys, he basically said because they are the history
26:10of football in Argentina.
26:13Well, tomorrow night, Messi might be the oldest player on a pitch more than 4,000 miles away.
26:18But his youth club has roots all the way back to a Strood schoolteacher in the 1800s.
26:23Finn McDermott for CAME TV in Strood.
26:26And if you've been seeing pictures of snow in Canterbury on your social timelines, you
26:30wouldn't be mistaken.
26:32No, it's not a freak weather event, but a scene being set in the new city for a brand
26:37new Hallmark Christmas movie.
26:38Crews have transformed the Butter Market and Christchurch gate areas into a festive landscape,
26:43with even a Christmas tree taking its place rather early outside the cathedral entrance.
26:48A source said the work should be there for the rest of the week.
26:52So enjoy.
26:53We'll see you soon.
26:53Bye-bye.
27:14Bye-bye.
27:14Bye-bye.
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