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Catch up with all your latest news from across the county with Chloe Brewster.
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00:20Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight live here on KMTV.
00:24I'm Chloe Brewster and here are your top stories on Monday the 20th of July.
00:28Stolen While I Slept, Maidstone Delivery driver sees her car taken from her driveway on two separate occasions.
00:36It has a massive, massive impact on your life. I will always wonder what happened to my doing well.
00:45Bridging the gap, fresh calls for traffic lights on Kent's most dangerous crossing.
00:50People that don't know this way, they've got faster and faster and that's where the accidents have happened.
00:55In chaos on camera, I joined Sheppie job seekers as they trained to be crisis actors for the military.
01:01It's one of those weird jobs that you only find out about through like word of mouth and stuff.
01:15But first tonight, Labour leader Andy Burnham has become the seventh prime minister we've had in the last ten years.
01:21It comes just days after he rallied Labour supporters in Gravesend.
01:26The former Manchester mayor has promised to overhaul social housing and tackle the cost of living.
01:32But what did people make of him when he came to Kent last week?
01:36I didn't even know he was coming to Gravesend until you just told me.
01:40I'm just hoping that he's going to do better than Keir Starmer and go from there, you know, and see
01:48what he's like.
01:49And see what the voters do if we have another general election.
01:53I think Keir was doing a good job and he got really bad press.
01:58And I do think Keir somewhat lacked charisma and Andy Burnham's got that, you know, an enormous amount of charisma.
02:06So if he's got his policies right and he seems to have got it right for Manchester, he'll hopefully get
02:10it right for the country.
02:12Yeah, he's got to be better than the last ones in government, but see if he does a good job
02:16in it.
02:17What do you make of him in your town?
02:19He seems alright to me at the moment, but give him a chance, innit? You've got to give him a
02:24chance.
02:26A woman from Maidstone says that after her car was stolen from her driveway, not once, but twice,
02:33she's become paranoid that it could happen again.
02:36Jen Browning delivers hot food to the elderly and needs a car for her work.
02:40And after her second Keir Sportage was taken in under a year, she's spoken about the emotional distress that it's
02:46caused her.
02:46Finn McDermott has her story.
02:49The likelihood that you know someone who's been affected by a car theft isn't that far-fetched.
02:54It's a large crime across the country.
02:56And although across the past few years it has been decreasing slightly,
03:00it still does affect people in key hotspots, like Jen, who lives in Maidstone and had her car stolen not
03:06once,
03:06but twice out of her own driveway.
03:08On the 6th of March last year, I popped outside about 11 o'clock in the evening to get my
03:18purse out of the car,
03:20and the car wasn't there.
03:21Since Jen delivers hot meals for the elderly for a living, she had to buy another car,
03:26this time fitted with more protection.
03:29So I bought this vehicle and a police-approved steering lock, expensive, recommended by the police.
03:39And then on the 17th of November, at 9.30 in the evening, I got a notification on my app,
03:47my car app,
03:48to say the doors on my car had been unlocked.
03:51I flew out the front door and this had been stolen.
03:56Luckily, the second Sportage was found and she was able to collect it,
04:00but the whole experience left her scared that a third theft could happen.
04:04Still, all these months on, every night I'm checking the app to make sure the car is showing locks.
04:14Now, Jen says she has a lot of anxiety about her car getting stolen again.
04:19In fact, she still has the keys to the blue one, just in case it's ever returned.
04:22Now, she has this new grey one and it was fitted with a ghost immobiliser.
04:26And she says that in her mind, it's now completely unstealable.
04:31But for drivers here in Kent, what kind of protections can they use?
04:36It's all about the layers, really.
04:37Like anything, the more layers you've got, the better protected you are.
04:40So we've got alarms, immobilisers, trackers.
04:43Alarms will obviously alert people to a potential breach.
04:47So if somebody breaks into your car, triggers an alarm, alerts people nearby that there's a breach.
04:54Immobilisers should help stop them taking your car, so driving it away.
05:00And a tracker, if they do take your car away, you're more likely to get it back if you've got
05:05a decent tracker on the car.
05:07While the statistics show that cases of car theft are decreasing,
05:10with a drop of more than 500 offences between 2024 and 2025 here in Kent, they do still happen.
05:17Like Jen's double theft.
05:19And while physical and mechanical protections do help, for those who are affected,
05:23it's the paranoia about their own property being taken that can hurt the most.
05:27Finn McDermott for KMTV in Maidstone.
05:31So Finn, are incidents like Jen's all that common?
05:34Well, I wouldn't go as far to say that having your car stolen twice is something that happens particularly often.
05:40But car theft and vehicle crime on a wider scale around the country is still a big problem.
05:46Here in Kent, it has actually decreased a little bit, as I showed there.
05:49Less than, I think it was, sorry, slightly more than 500 incidents between 2024 and 2025.
05:56And if we have a look at this map that we've got here, we can see that there are certain
06:00hotspots across Kent.
06:02The red indicates there being a significantly higher amount of vehicle crimes above the national average.
06:08Now, vehicle crimes constitute the actual theft of a vehicle, like what happened to Jen.
06:12Theft from a vehicle, so stealing parts of cars or motorbikes like wheels, catalytic converters,
06:19or even some items that may have been in the car and even attempted theft or vandalism of a vehicle.
06:24So it's not just car theft, but it is a problem that has been highlighted in isolated incidents in certain
06:31areas.
06:32Dartford, Gravesham, Chatham and Maidstone are particularly, they come up as being particularly high above the national average in terms
06:41of these statistics.
06:41And when I've been reaching out to people to see who's most affected.
06:45You know, it's clearly going to be concerning for people, anyone with a car, anyone who drives regularly for work.
06:50What is the police advice to try and prevent car thefts?
06:53Well, the police have plenty of different things you can do. The most obvious being lock your car.
06:59They say even when it's parked on your drive or filled up, it could be at risk.
07:04So ensuring that that's the case.
07:05There's also plenty of preventative methods, whether that is having a tracker on your car.
07:10In the case that it does get stolen, having a tracker means it's more likely it'll be able to be
07:14recovered.
07:15And it's not often that stolen cars do get recovered.
07:18It shows in most of the statistics.
07:21They also suggest that you need to keep your keys safe.
07:24In fact, there's a common item used that's a Faraday pouch.
07:29And what that does is it prevents key cloning.
07:31Some thieves will go right up to your door and be able to clone the frequency that your key uses
07:36to open your car.
07:37And then simply use that to open the doors and drive away.
07:40But with the Faraday pouch, you are able to block that.
07:44They also suggest you need to be aware of carjackers.
07:47So in traffic, you need to drive with your doors locked.
07:51Just because you're in the car doesn't mean that it won't be stolen.
07:54And make sure that you're parking in sort of the right safe spot.
07:58Obviously, Jen parked right out front of her driveway, but it was still stolen.
08:03So as long as you keep those things in mind, you can work towards making sure that your car is
08:07as safe as possible here in Kent.
08:09Thank you so much, Finn.
08:12Water supply has been restored to thousands of homes in Kent following an instrument failure at a treatment works.
08:19Homes in Tunbridge Wells, Hawkehurst, Sandhurst and surrounding areas were left without running supply or low pressure.
08:25Southeast Water delivered bottled water to impacted homes and set up water stations after announcing on Saturday that a technical
08:32issue meant it could not pump water in the area.
08:35An update yesterday confirmed an instrument failure and the Tunbridge Wells MP, Mike Martin, has encouraged residents who have not
08:41yet received assistance to get in touch.
08:45Put in traffic lights before someone gets hurt.
08:48That's what locals are calling for to fix longstanding problems along an accident hotspot between Headcorn and Staplehurst.
08:55The Hawkesbury Bridge is already racked with damage from previous accidents.
08:59But Kent County Council, who manage highways in the area, say that Solution is a non-starter.
09:05Local Tomoxie reporter Olly Leder went down to see how dangerous the road is for himself.
09:09It's known locally as an accident black spot between Headcorn and Staplehurst.
09:16But now there are renewed calls for Kent County Council to install traffic lights at Hawkenbury Bridge before any tragedies
09:26take place.
09:27You know, it's been highlighted every time they do a diversion, it's £100,000 it costs them to divert the
09:34traffic and close off the bridge.
09:35You know, if you're getting that two, three, four times a year, that's a significant amount of money.
09:42If you put in traffic lights, that would negate any of that.
09:46If you want to get a sense of how dangerous this bridge and this road actually is, you can see
09:53the damage that has been done from cars colliding in to these brick walls.
10:00It's a single track road, there's low visibility, but cars keep on doing it and locals have had enough.
10:07When I was a youngster, there was never any accidents on that bridge until when they started building all the
10:14houses.
10:16People that don't know this way, they've got faster and faster and that's where the accidents have happened.
10:21The Hawkenbury pub knows firsthand how dangerous this road can be.
10:26Each time the bridge closes for repairs after an accident, takings drop by up to 15%.
10:35We've been here 13 and a half years and when we came here, people used to love to sit.
10:40But here, in this area particularly, because you've got the last of sunshine in the evening, now nobody will sit
10:47here because of the amount of traffic.
10:49Kent County Council say they have explored a number of options including traffic signals.
10:56But due to physical constraints, many options are not feasible.
11:01Instead, the authority is putting forward plans for refreshed road markings and new warning signs.
11:09For the time being, the bridge remains open, but the community here is braced for the worst.
11:16Ollie Leader in Hawkenbury.
11:20Coming up after the break, we'll see a new video following a bus fire near a primary school in Ham
11:25Street.
11:26We'll also be taking a look at a couple living in temporary accommodation who've been told by Ashford Borough Council
11:31that they have to get rid of their beloved service dog or leave their flat.
11:35We'll also take a look at the weather forecast and hear the latest about a riding school for the disabled
11:40that's had an unexpected boost after the police recovered dozens of saddles following a break-in.
11:45All that and more after the break. See you soon.
12:16We'll see you soon.
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