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Catch up with all your latest news from across the county with Kristin Hawthorne.
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00:26Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight Live on KMTV.
00:29I'm Kristen Hawthorne and here are your top stories on Friday the 17th of July.
00:34Andy comes to Kent. New appointed Labour leader visits Gravesend in first official
00:40visit.
00:41Welcome to Andy in, gave him a nice big hug, lovely to see him, congratulated him and then
00:47I went straight to the juggler which was, can we have Gravesend will be ferrying back,
00:51can you help me with this campaign?
00:53Pollution penalty, Southern Water finds £7 million for untreated sewage discharges.
01:00And Dartford's going on a bear hunt. Hospice charity opens Bear Trail in Dartford and in
01:05Bluewater.
01:06We just want people to enjoy themselves. There's so much stuff going on in society that's kind
01:10of bearing down on people, if you pardon the pun. We just want to lift some of that and
01:14give people a smile.
01:24Our top story this evening. Andy Burnham made his first visit to Kent since becoming Labour
01:28leader but did not speak to us on the visit. Labour MPs seem hopeful but there are fears
01:34over a lack of scrutiny for the incoming Prime Minister. Local Democracy reporter Olly Leader
01:38reports. He's the new leader of the Labour Party. He's set to be Prime Minister on Monday and he's certainly
01:46not speaking to local media here in Gravesend. Andy Burnham greeted local MPs and councillors
01:54in his first big visit to Kent. But while he was more than happy to take selfies, the former
02:02Manchester Mayor didn't put himself forward to us for interview on the big issues that
02:08matter here. Though he did give his backing for the return of the Tilbury Gravesend Ferry
02:14when preaching to the converted. Much to the excitement of the town's MP.
02:20I welcomed Andy in, gave him a nice big hug, lovely to see him, congratulated him and then
02:27I went straight to the juggler which was, can we have the Gravesend Ferry Ferry back, can
02:31you help me with this campaign. And he understood it because it's about connectivity and it's
02:35about allowing people to get to jobs and it's also about protecting and helping our high streets
02:40and our businesses.
02:42Burnham has become Labour leader without any opposition. There have been concerns that the
02:48so-called King of the North is an unknown quantity here in the South East.
02:54As usual we've been left in the dark about what you know the next Prime Minister who let's not
02:59forget is unelected, has no mandate to govern, is being inserted into number 10. I'd love to know what
03:05he thought but unfortunately he's been avoiding all scrutiny, all interviews with proper journalists.
03:12Politicians in Kent have been giving him their backing, saying he could transform the county.
03:19He will be a Prime Minister for all parts of the country. Look he's been a fantastic member of the
03:25local and regional government family for the last 10 years and he's done an amazing job in Greater Manchester.
03:31He's one of the reasons why we're so desperate to see a mayoral combined authority for Kent and Medway.
03:37And I hope with his leadership we'll see that come sooner rather than later.
03:40With Wes Streeting also dodging interviews with us when he was Health Secretary,
03:46Burnham isn't the first senior politician to avoid Kent's local media. He's hoping he's more
03:53forthcoming on future visits or when he sets out his stall on Monday. Olly Leader in Gravesend.
04:01While Andy Burnham took his first steps as Labour leader in Kent,
04:05we're taking a look back at Sir Keir Starmer's tumultuous relationship with the county.
04:09From launching the general election here in Kent to choosing an MP just to losing an MP just two
04:15months in and squabbles with our county council, it hasn't been a boring one.
04:19Chloe Brewster is casting her mind back to the beginning.
04:22On the pitch of Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium, Keir Starmer launched the Labour general election
04:28campaign. He later claimed 30% of Kent's vote but just two and a bit years later,
04:34Starmer is hanging up his hat as Labour leader. His relationship with the county however isn't
04:39explained simply in the numbers. Kent is very important to us, it's very important to me.
04:45I grew up on the Surrey-Kent border, I know this area very, very well.
04:50It was a very surreal day, the entire world's media descending on the dual stadiums. I was kind of struck
04:56by
04:56how slick and polished he was, given that one of his big problems as Prime Minister was the media
05:03frenzy, not necessarily coming across as human in interviews. When I spoke to him, he was very
05:10personable, seemed to understand Kent a lot. He'd been laying the groundwork for a while,
05:15speaking in Chatham with Medway leader Vince Maple.
05:21I think Keir's done a very good job as Prime Minister. If you'd said to me in December 2019,
05:27that a leader of the Labour Party would bring us a Labour government, three Labour MPs for Medway
05:33and a Labour Council. If you said that to me in December 2019, I'd go, that's pretty unlikely.
05:39Keir Starmer has delivered that. But not all relationships remain so positive,
05:43as Rosie Duffield quit the party after just a few months of it being in power.
05:47I'm not on to Keir Starmer's leadership, I'm afraid.
05:49The next challenge, perhaps as expected for the Garden of England, was from Kent's farmers.
05:55Manifesto claims to increase inheritance tax brought about pushback.
06:00The Labour announced changes a couple of weeks ago. How do you feel about those?
06:04Well, very, very sad. It's a detriment to the countryside. I want to hand it over to my son.
06:11We just don't, you know, we don't make any money out of the place and that's the whole purpose of
06:16being here really.
06:17Later, the new tax announcements were relaxed, but it didn't stop Starmer from adopting a new,
06:22rather uncomplimentary nickname. Starmer the Farmer Harmer.
06:25Edenbridge Bonfire Society had hoped to make Starmer their newest kindling,
06:30a sentiment likely shared by Kent County Council's new reform leadership after he slammed them in the Commons.
06:37My sympathy is with the people of Kent whose lives are being disrupted by the staggering incompetence of reform.
06:45However, the real stress test came as more questions flooded in on Peter Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,
06:52with Mandelson's appointment happening with Starmer's oversight.
06:56It became the final straw in many Labour MPs' faith in the leader. That included Gillingham's Nashabha Khan.
07:04Unfortunately, I do not think that the Prime Minister's position is recoverable.
07:10Starmer kept his job, but later, after a landslide victory by incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham in the Makersfield by
07:17-election, he quit.
07:18Watched on by Oli and I. On Monday, storm from the north Andy Burnham will be sworn in.
07:24We wonder whether he'll have as much of a journey here as his predecessor, Chloe Brewster for KMTV.
07:32Still on politics here in the county and local government reorganisation has come to Kent,
07:37with the county to split into four large unitary councils. But not everyone is pleased,
07:43as Oli Leder, our local democracy reporter, has been finding out.
07:46It's out with the old and in with the new. The government are tearing up our existing political map,
07:53replacing our 14 existing councils with four massive unitaries that will deliver all of your local services.
08:01There were five different options on the table. From one giant authority favoured by Kent County Council,
08:09to a mixture of three, four and even five different authorities. For Kent's movers and shakers,
08:17this map here is something of a mixed bag. Do you know how much this is going to cost,
08:22Option 4B? It's going to cost anything from £350 to £530 million to implement across Kent.
08:31Up to £530 million. Who's going to pay for that?
08:35Yes, it will damage aspects of democracy and it will improve other aspects. So having
08:41the two-tier system of local government doesn't work well at all.
08:46I have no problems with Medway. Vince and I get on great, they're a great council,
08:49but they're a great council for Medway. And I don't want them making decisions about
08:53a leisure centre in Dartford. Any more than the people of Medway want us making decisions in Dartford
08:58about them. It leaves some of the challenges which we highlighted already. People like Walter Slade will
09:04still be in two different councils. You can breathe. For the time being,
09:08these changes won't be coming in until 2028. With elections for these new shadow councils set for
09:16next year, Ollie Leda at County Hall. And in case you missed it, our politics show aired at 5pm this
09:24evening. In this episode, we spoke with Linton Kim Caron, leader of Kent County Council,
09:29Councillor Jonathan Hawkes representing Dartford Borough Council, and George Perfect, leader of
09:34the Conservatives at Medway Council. Here are some of the highlights.
09:38So we've not had a sit-down meeting yet to discuss our options going forward.
09:42After months and months of LGR, we knew this was coming. You must have accounted for all the
09:47sorts of scenarios that might have come out if it wasn't the plan you'd hoped for.
09:52Yeah, of course we have. But no concrete plan if there'll be a judicial review?
09:59With respect, I'm certainly not going to discuss it here on KMTV. It's a decision that will be taken
10:06by myself and my team on Monday. Answer, are you good at maths? Because I'd love you to tell me,
10:11is 4.99 higher or lower than 3.99%? Higher or lower? And what are you referring to, Lyndon?
10:21The council tax rise that Medway Council imposed on its residents this year.
10:25Yeah, it was the one that you promised you weren't going to make.
10:30Is that higher or lower than 3.99%? And I'm really worried that Kent is going to be a
10:34dumping ground,
10:35that these plans to split us up is a way of imposing more and more new housing developments on our
10:42green
10:43belt on our precious agricultural land to house the millions and millions of people that are being
10:48let in to this country. You think that local government reorganisation is a plan to let more
10:55immigrants have houses in Kent? It wouldn't surprise me at all.
11:01You can watch that full episode on our website at kmtv.co.uk.
11:06Multiple dispersal orders have been introduced across parts of Kent's east coast ahead of the weekend.
11:12The 48-hour orders came into force from 4pm today in Whitstable,
11:16Hearn Bay, Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Margate. They give extra powers to police to move people on in
11:23anti-social behaviour with those who return risking arrest. Chief Inspector for Thanet Ian Swallow said
11:28we will continue to put these orders in place across our popular beaches and coastal towns to
11:33ensure that everyone can enjoy the spaces responsibly and safely.
11:39We're going to take a short break now but don't go anywhere as we have much more exciting stories
11:43heading your way like finding out about the £7 million fine against Southern Water. All of that
11:49we've got a lot more to come. See you in a few minutes.
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15:17live here on KMTV. Southern Water has been fined £7 million for unauthorised discharges in Thanet.
15:24The Environment Agency brought forward the civil case against the water company after discovering
15:28several discharges from pumping stations in Margate and Broadstairs. The prosecution comes
15:33about five years after Southern Water received a record £90 million for almost 7,000 illegal
15:39discharges. Chloe Brewster joins me now to discuss this further. Chloe, what can you tell us?
15:43Yeah, so as you just heard, this isn't the first time that Southern Water has been fined. They were
15:49once fined £90 million, that was five years ago, and now they're being fined £7 million. Now that
15:54doesn't seem anywhere near in comparison, but this affects rural people. This was affecting people
15:58in Thanet. As you can see behind us, there's this picture of people protesting about it because this
16:03was sewage going into people's water and it was avoidable issues. So there were several different
16:09times that sewage was pumped into the water. You can see this is one of the pictures that the
16:13Environment Agency released detailing all the different sanitary products that had ended up
16:20in the sea. There was several dumpings. There was about 13 charges related to dumping or untreated
16:28sewage in Thanet. The first of which began in June 2019, which the Environment Agency investigation
16:34found 10 million litres of sewage was discharged for almost 24 hours. They said that that could
16:39have been prevented, but staff showed a lack of system knowledge. Southern Water is also
16:43legally obliged to report pollution to the agency as soon as possible, but said they failed
16:47to do so on numerous occasions to Fanet District Council, meaning people were getting into the
16:51water without being told that there were any issues. A little more than a year later,
16:56around Bank Holiday 2020 in August, there was another illegal discharge in Margate. There
17:04was a failed pump at Margate pumping station and then there was a second pump that failed,
17:09several different issues. And then there was another occasion where in February 2021 there
17:16was a pumping station fault after a computer broke down at Broadstairs. So this time the Environment
17:22Agency was told about sewage and debris off the coast and they gave advice to swimmers to stay
17:28away from a five kilometre stretch of Kent coastline. But obviously this is getting more and more frustrating
17:32for people who do live near the water. I spoke to someone a few months back who told me about
17:36how
17:37she's an open water swimming coach and these issues, they shouldn't be having to look up every day
17:41before they go out training. Whether there is pollution in the water and whether it's safe to swim,
17:47people can get ill. It said in Canterbury Crown Court that the firm admitted to 13 charges related to
17:53the dumping of untreated sewage in Fanit which led to beaches in the area being shut for a week
17:58and protests like I mentioned. Across five major pollution incidents, Southern Water repeatedly failed
18:03to maintain critical pumping equipment, delayed reporting pollution to regulators and allowed untreated
18:09sewage to enter coastal waters. The firm pled guilty at Medway Registrates Court and the sentencing took
18:15place in Canterbury very, very recently. All right. Thank you so much, Chloe.
18:19And now for a quick look at the weather forecast.
18:28Well, we've got temperatures tonight ranging from 17 or 16 degrees up till 19 degrees, wind speeds of
18:33eight miles per hour, clear skies into tomorrow morning. Then those clouds are starting to come in
18:37and then wind speeds ever so slightly increasing and temperatures are about 19 degrees. Then into tomorrow
18:43afternoon, we have highs there of 24 degrees towards the middle of the country, sorry, in Maidstone.
18:50Friday to Sunday, clear skies, 23 on Friday and Saturday and 22 on Sunday.
19:04Four Sittingbourne school boys who helped find a missing teenage girl have been commended for their
19:09actions. Police had been searching near Highstead Road in Sittingbourne after receiving a report that
19:14a vulnerable girl had gone missing at around 4.20pm on Thursday, July 2nd. The boys, Will, Archie, Jack and
19:21Charlie had been passing by and said that they'd seen a girl deep in the quarry. This led to police
19:26finding the girl soon after. The boys were later visited by PC Fraser Harris and were presented with
19:31an upstander award for their efforts.
19:36And now don't forget you can keep up to date with all our latest stories across Kemp by logging onto
19:40our
19:40website KMTV.co.uk. There you'll find all our reports including this one about a miscarriage of justice.
19:47I was sent to prison for 12 months and the girl was also sent to prison for six months.
19:52A simple mix up turned into a criminal conviction. Simon Edgecombe says he was wrongly imprisoned after
19:58selling a van to a post office owner in 1983. He says he sold a van, handed over an invoice
20:05and was
20:05paid £750 in cash which a staff member took from the till, with the understanding that the boss would
20:12later replace the money. I provided the van, that was pretty much as far as I was concerned the end
20:17of it.
20:18But it wasn't the end. The day after, two post office investigators did an unexpected spot check
20:24and discovered that money was missing from the till. And they asked me, they said they wanted
20:29to come in and ask me a question. They came in, they asked me one question only which is,
20:34have you ever had money from the girl in the sub post office? To which my honest answer was yes,
20:39I have. And I showed them the duplicate invoice book and the copy of it was there. They took the
20:44book,
20:45looked at it and that was the last that was ever seen of it. They seized it. After that,
20:50he was questioned further at the police station and eventually the case went to court.
20:54That post office prosecutions people, barristers, suggested that it was coercion,
21:01that what I had done is coerced the girl in there to give me the money. But the ridiculous part
21:07of
21:07that was, even if that was true and it wasn't, she was a victim. But they imprisoned her as well.
21:17Now, after decades of searching for answers,
21:20he says the documents which could help him in his appeal have disappeared. In response,
21:26the post office have said they have no papers regarding this matter as it's over 40 years old.
21:31It's not even been established that Post Office Limited was the prosecutor. MP,
21:36Helen Whateley has been supporting Simon in his campaign for justice.
21:39At first, he was told and I've been told that there are no records. This goes back to the 1980s.
21:44But now it looks like there actually could be some records. He received some information through
21:49that's heavily redacted. So what I want is to keep the pressure up so that people keep digging to find
21:56out, you know, find some evidence of who decided what and why and what actually happened.
22:02Since Simon left prison in 1984, this is an example of just some of the emails and letters
22:08that he's sent to authorities across the country to try and prove his innocence.
22:12But with no avail, he's now hoping that KMTV viewers can help him.
22:16So I hope that there will be somebody, perhaps, who worked at the court at the time.
22:21They can find a stenographer's report, perhaps even a member of the jury. But I need some form
22:28of evidence that what I am saying and what I said to the Court of Appeal is actually true.
22:34During his time in prison, he lost his home, his girlfriend and his job with the London Fire Brigade.
22:40And more than 40 years later, Simon is still asking for the same thing. A chance to clear his name.
22:47Kristen Hawthorne, KMTV, Tenham.
22:51Sam Street was told he has months to live after skin cancer spread to his brain and is hoping to
22:57marry
22:57his long-term partner and take his family on one last holiday. The dad was diagnosed with terminal
23:02cancer after suffering what initially was believed to have been a stroke just days after moving to his
23:07new home at the start of the month. The diagnosis came six weeks after doctors had classed his skin
23:12cancer as stage two. After being told he has months to live, Sam told Debbie he wanted to marry her
23:19as soon as possible and wants to take his family on a holiday together, likely Cornwall.
23:25A hospice helping those with life-limiting conditions has launched its bear-themed art trail.
23:31Eleanor's We're Going on a Bear Hunt themed project named after the beloved children's book aims to get
23:36families to find bears across Dartford and Bluewater while spreading the message of the hospice in this
23:41first ever borough-wide art project. Our community reporter Henry Luck joined them for the exciting launch.
23:52And the hunt begins! Eleanor has partnered with Dartford Borough Council and Wild in Art to introduce the
24:03first ever borough-wide public art trial and the biggest community project of its kind by a local hospice.
24:13Inspired by the book and television adaptation of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, around 80 bear sculptures
24:22have been placed across Dartford and Bluewater, designed by local artists, schools and community groups.
24:32It was chosen to make sure that we were able to inspire so many young people and adults. We know
24:37that
24:37loads of adults remember those stories from their childhood and it's a great way to be able to
24:42inspire so many people and tell a story but also tell that story of hospice care and Eleanor to many
24:49more people.
24:50We just want people to enjoy themselves. There's so much stuff going on in society that's kind of
24:54bearing down on people, if you pardon the pun. We just want to lift some of that and give people
24:58a
24:58smile. What's crazier than seeing 31 massive big bears all over a town like Dartford? So that's what it's
25:05about. Community involving people. The bear that's been unveiled today, inspired by the Dartford figure,
25:11Sir Peter Blake, is just one of the many that people can find across Dartford this summer.
25:21And then we have this one inspired by a chocolate sundae where the bear has stuck its face in a
25:27dessert
25:28and got a cherry on its nose. A former member of the Kent Messenger and professional photographer
25:36has even gotten involved in the plans. I've always been involved and when they approached me to
25:41be involved and be the imaging partner, I thought it's something you really can't say no to.
25:46Because A, it's a fantastic project. B, it was really great for me to work with Joe,
25:50the artist who just did an amazing job. And also you're doing something good. So it was an absolute
25:56no-brainer for me. With more than 250,000 visitors expected, the bears can look forward to a lot of
26:05company before the trial ends on the 13th of September. But I think this sums it up best.
26:16Henry Luck for KMTV in Dartford.
26:22You've been watching Kent Tonight Live on KMTV. There's more news made just for you throughout
26:26the evening. Don't forget you can always keep up to date with the latest news across the county by
26:30logging onto our website kmtv.co.uk. You can also keep us on our social timelines by liking us on
26:37Facebook and following us on TikTok and Instagram as well. And if you have a story you think we should
26:43be covering then certainly get in touch. We'll see you on Monday. Bye bye.
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