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Catch up on all the latest news from across the county with Chloe Brewster.
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00:25Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight live here on KMTV.
00:29I'm Chloe Brewster and here are your top stories on Thursday the 20th of August.
00:34Celebrating next steps, GCC results day in a secondary school in Ebsfleet.
00:39Without God, without my family, without the Ebsfleet family supporting me, I couldn't
00:43have done it today.
00:44This is for you Joe.
00:46Football charity match hosted in Maidstone in memory of a schoolboy.
00:50So emotional with the love that's still been shown to Joe, seven years on from when
00:56he died.
00:56And buried bones, we see the ancient Anglo-Saxon remains laid to rest in Y ceremony.
01:03It felt like an important or a special thing to actually say, you know, let's connect
01:10ourselves with the past.
01:11And as you can see, quite a lot of people have come out, there's a bit of interest.
01:24First tonight, students from across the county collected their GCSE and BTEC results today.
01:30The exams, which were sat by year 11 students, will determine which post-16 courses, colleges
01:35and apprenticeships they go on to pursue.
01:38I caught up with some students at Lee Academy in Ebsfleet to see how they were feeling.
01:43School sports halls across the county were set up again today, eagerly awaiting the arrival
01:48of year 11's collecting their results.
01:51And as the students open their envelopes, the celebrations or commiserations begin.
01:58Today is the day that students here at Lee Academy Ebsfleet will see their GCSE results
02:03for the first time after months and months of waiting and revising.
02:07Now this is one of the best results Lee Academy Ebsfleet have ever received.
02:11And you can hear just behind me in the hall, some of the loud shouts from people who are
02:15getting the grades that they've been hoping for.
02:17It's a breath of relief.
02:19It is a relief to see such brilliant results in front of me.
02:22I've been waiting for years, two years of my life for this.
02:26I've prepared.
02:27So, yeah, it's incredible.
02:29It is very incredible.
02:30I'm feeling astonished.
02:31I'm so grateful.
02:33And as I've said in every other interview, alhamdulillah, all praise be to God, I'm a
02:38Muslim.
02:39And without God, without my family, without the absolute family supporting me, I couldn't
02:43have done it today.
02:44So, I'm absolutely astonished.
02:47It was a lot.
02:48It was a lot.
02:48I was staying off, like, I had all-nighters.
02:51I was staying up for so long.
02:52And yeah, I guess it all paid off, sort of, yeah, so yeah.
02:55It was so hard.
02:56It used to be so naughty.
02:57I really, really tried.
02:59Year 10 and year 11, I really tried it.
03:01It really paid off.
03:02I'm so happy.
03:03I'm so happy I've passed.
03:04I think with college, it wasn't something I'd want to do.
03:08I didn't think I'd get anywhere personally doing it myself.
03:11I think, personally, with apprenticeship, I would get somewhere with it.
03:13For English, I'd go on eight.
03:15Fire, I'd go on eight.
03:16Chemistry, I'd go on eight.
03:17Physics, I'd go on seven.
03:18English, I'd go on seven.
03:19Spanish, I'd go on seven.
03:21History, I'd go on eight, which is crazy.
03:25Maths, I'd go on eight.
03:26And further maths, I'd go on seven.
03:28While the GCSE pass rate nationally is down from 2025, Lee Academy is celebrating a bumper
03:35year.
03:35I mean, this is what we work for.
03:37This is all those blood, sweat and tears over the five years for all of those young people.
03:42It's all about today.
03:44And this is such a big milestone for them.
03:47And to be able to celebrate with them and their families is what it's all about.
03:51This is why we do the job that we do.
03:53Here's to whatever comes next.
03:55Chloe Brewster for KMTV in Herbsfleet.
03:59Well, congratulations to anyone receiving results today.
04:02Now, a major crackdown on illegal waste dumping has been announced by the government today, with
04:08three of the country's worst sites being assessed for cleanup.
04:11One of them is right here in Kent, a 1,500 tonne waste dump on Power Station Road in Minster.
04:18Nayla Mohammed joins me in the studio to tell us more.
04:21So, what is actually being proposed here and what does it mean for the site?
04:25I mean, what you've just said there's 1,500 pound, like, tonne worth of waste, which you
04:31can see right here, and that's in Minster.
04:34And the Environment Agency had already shut the site down prior to this announcement being
04:40made, because, like, you see a huge mound of waste have just accumulated on site.
04:46If you go to the site now, you'll just be met with blocked walls.
04:50There's concrete everywhere blocking the site.
04:52There's warning signs as well saying not to go anywhere near it.
04:55And it's also a locked game.
04:56You do not want to be anywhere near the site, or they don't want you to be anywhere near the
05:00site.
05:01The Environment Agency also say that an investigation is ongoing at the moment into who is responsible
05:09for this, which is a big issue at the moment, which is what Andy Burnham is kind of on about
05:17when he's talking about this illegal waste.
05:19He says that communities have been blighted.
05:21I mean, you can see him on screen there.
05:23But he says communities have been blighted by illegal waste dumping for far too long.
05:28And he wants local authorities to target criminal gangs and any gangs making money from it especially.
05:35And his kind of plans to target this will be to use drones, to have more Environment Agency officers
05:42on ground and also get the National Crime Agency involved a bit more as well.
05:46He's also planning on increasing the fines for waste dumping from £300 to £5,000.
05:53And just quickly, Nayla, what have reactions been like?
05:55Because, you know, he only announced these three places that he's earmarked already.
05:59Why Kent and what have people been saying about that?
06:02Well, everyone's kind of in support for it really.
06:04I mean, it's an eyesore.
06:05Local communities, they don't want it there.
06:08The local MP said this is really a big step forward for Sheppi.
06:13The Environment Agency director for Kent and Sussex, she welcomes this because she says that communities
06:19have suffered for far too long. So everyone is very much welcoming the plans.
06:23Perfect. Thank you so much for joining us, Nayla.
06:25It'll be interesting to see how the story unfolds as we go through the rest of the year
06:30and Andy Burnham's prime ministership.
06:33Now, early this morning, a large emergency response was seen near Rochester Bridge
06:38following concerns an object or person had fallen into the River Medway.
06:43Four police cars and a Coast Guard helicopter could be seen following a police report
06:47from a member of the public. However, a few hours later, thankfully at 2.30,
06:53the Coast Guard confirmed it was a false alarm and stood down.
06:56A spokesperson from Kent Fire and Rescue also confirmed this, saying
07:00following a search of the area, crews found no signs of anyone in the water.
07:06Plans to introduce ANPR cameras at a town centre have been slammed,
07:11with councillors comparing it to London. Last week, the green light was given for the technology
07:15to be installed in Maidstone along King Street and the High Street.
07:19Kent County Council says the cameras will improve safety and tackle congestion
07:23by enforcing traffic restrictions. But Conservative councillors Stan Forkast
07:28and Tom Cannon say they oppose them.
07:31John Halsell, South East Water's new chief executive, has agreed to meet with
07:36Whitstable residents following repeated supply issues. This weekend, more than 7,000 homes
07:42and businesses in Whitstable and hundreds more in Hearn Bay went without water.
07:46A large number of bottled supplies were distributed while tankers were drafted in to top up the main supply.
07:52And on Tuesday morning, South East Water said supplies had finally been restored.
07:57Mr Halsell has accepted an invitation from the campaign group SOS Whitstable and will hold a Q&A session
08:03at the Horsebridge Centre in the town on September 1st.
08:08An increase in your water bill is the last thing many of us want to see.
08:12But when Mick Foy from Ditton got the call to say his had gone up to £7,000,
08:18he says he was just confused. After checking his meter, he found it recorded
08:22more than a million litres of additional water in just three weeks.
08:26That's enough to fill 6,700 baths. I spoke to him over the phone last week.
08:32Come off the phone. I went up to the top of my drive, took the cover off the water meter
08:37that's out on the pavement.
08:39It's spinning around like there's no tomorrow. It's just going in a complete frenzy.
08:44So I took a photo of the numbers and then I thought, well, this is weird.
08:4824 hours passed. I took another meter reading, done the calculations.
08:54And in the 24 hours, we would have appeared to have used 54,000 litres in that 24 hour period.
09:02Initially, when we got the first phone call, obviously, when you get a phone call with Luke, your bill's gone
09:06up £7,000.
09:07I mean, wow. It does sort of like phase you a little bit, especially when the timeframe is now,
09:13like we're now almost a month on, or three weeks on, four weeks on from it and nothing's happened.
09:19The meter is still spinning. I checked it again yesterday. It's still going crazy up the top of the drive.
09:26And I don't know what they classed as an emergency.
09:32Next, the NHS has found that around one in four who are hospitalised with self-harm injuries will return within
09:4018 months.
09:41However, Start Afresh, developed by Kenton Medway Mental Health NHS Trust,
09:46will provide cognitive behavioural therapy, that's CBT, for adults who have repeatedly harmed themselves.
09:52The service hopes to improve support for people following a mental health crisis.
09:57We spoke to Amy Cunningham, who launched the initiative to find out more.
10:01Just a quick warning though, the following report discusses self-harm and mental illness.
10:07We are a liaison service, so we're seeing the patient assessing and then signposting on to other services.
10:13So they wouldn't generally get more intensive support for self-harm in and out in the environment,
10:19which is where this initiative comes in because we're supporting people quite quickly at the point of crisis to have
10:28outpatient support specifically for self-harm.
10:32A lot of the feedback has been that there has been a reduction in self-harm, which is not necessarily
10:38our main focus.
10:39Obviously, that's a really positive outcome, but generally just seeing the improved quality of life and reduced attendances to A
10:46&E,
10:47reduced access to secondary services is what we're seeing.
10:50The feedback from patients has been incredibly positive, that their overall well-being has improved, their risks are improving.
11:00So overall, really positive outcomes that we're seeing.
11:05Well, that's all we have time for for now, but we're bringing you much more news from across the county
11:11after this very short break.
11:13We'll be taking a look at a memorial football match played in the name of 16-year-old Joe Marquitz,
11:20who passed away from a brain hemorrhage in 2019.
11:24His parents have been hosting the tradition ever since.
11:27The match also raised over £2,500 for air ambulance charity Kent Surrey Sussex.
11:35We'll also be taking a quick look at the weather.
11:37I mean, it was a pretty rainy night for us all around Medway.
11:41I don't know about you, but following a slightly wet week, we'll be taking a look at the weather for
11:45the rest of the next few days.
11:48See you after this very short break.
12:21Bye.
12:22Bye.
12:50Bye.
12:52Bye.
13:20Bye.
13:21Bye.
13:50Bye.
13:52Bye.
14:21Bye.
14:23Bye.
15:15Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight Live here on KMTV.
15:18Now, a domestic abuser who strangled a woman until she was unconscious has been imprisoned.
15:24Officers received an emergency call in January from a woman in distress,
15:28calling for help from her Canterbury flat.
15:31Benjamin Knowles fled the scene by jumping out of the window,
15:34but was caught shortly later by police.
15:37Knowles was charged with three crimes, including non-fatal strangulation
15:41and occasioning actual bodily harm.
15:43He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison at Canterbury Crown Court today.
15:50Housing developers are funding a £4 million upgrade to Badsell Road Junction in Paddock Wood.
15:56The upgrade comes following three large housing developments in the area,
16:01which has seen almost 100 new homes in total.
16:04The three developers have been obliged jointly to pay for the road scheme
16:07via Section 106 payments with Kent County Council acting as the manager for the project.
16:12Councillor Peter Osborne said these improvements will help reduce future traffic impacts
16:17and improve flood resilience in the area.
16:19Work is expected to begin on September 7th and is expected to continue until next spring.
16:26Next, Medway Council officers have recommended the refusal of plans
16:30for 100 homes on a commercial pear orchard near Eternal Lake Nature Reserve.
16:36The Gleeson land proposals were submitted back in February,
16:39but received strong opposition from locals.
16:41A quarter of the homes are being designed as affordable housing,
16:45but Medway Council says the development would harm quality of life for existing residents
16:49and impact working farms nearby.
16:52Members of the town's planning committee will have the final say at their meeting,
16:56which is due to be held on 26th August.
16:59Now, a memorial football match has taken place to remember the life of a 16-year-old
17:04and the charity that tried to save his life.
17:07Joe Markievicz passed away from a brain hemorrhage in 2019
17:11when his parents have been hosting the tradition at Gallagher Stadium ever since
17:15to raise money for the air ambulance charity Kent Surrey Sussex.
17:19The match between Aylesford School and Barming Youth Football Club raised over £2,500.
17:25Our community reporter Henry Luck has more.
17:28Aylesford School played against Barming Youth Football Club
17:32to remember a student who passed away far too soon.
17:36Joe Markievicz was just 16 years old when he collapsed in his mother's arms at home
17:42and was airlifted to King's College Hospital by air ambulance charity Kent Surrey Sussex.
17:50Joe died from a brain hemorrhage back in 2019
17:54and events like this are important for remembering him
17:59and giving funds to air ambulance charity Kent Surrey Sussex.
18:05So, of course, there's something more important to the captains and players here than victory.
18:10Tonight means the absolute world to me.
18:13Joe was a lovely boy growing up.
18:16We used to play cricket together.
18:17He was a very, very lovely kid.
18:20Obviously, this is in remembrance of Joe
18:22and obviously he's raised a lot of money as well for KSS Kent Sursex Air Ambulance.
18:26So, tonight means a lot to me and especially to his parents over there
18:30who obviously loved him dearly.
18:33Yeah, it's massively important.
18:34I mean, the Kent Air Ambulance is a vital part of trying to get Joe
18:38as much help as possible before we unfortunately pass.
18:45So, we sort of really thank and respect their efforts.
18:49So, that's why we do it, you know.
18:51The charity's efforts and Joe's goodwill have gone on to save lives.
18:56It's always emotional this time of year
18:59and being that this is the fifth one that we've done for KSS since Joe died.
19:06We've raised nearly, hopefully, after tonight, over £20,000 for them in Joe's memory.
19:12But it's so emotional with the love that's still being shown to Joe
19:15seven years on from when he died.
19:18Yes, very important.
19:20I mean, we've probably saved eight or nine lives, I think.
19:23What, with the donor?
19:23With the donations.
19:25Yeah.
19:25You know, so he's living on somewhere in the country
19:29with his eyes, lungs, was it?
19:32Lungs, eyes, heart.
19:34No, the liver failed.
19:35Yeah, no, liver carried.
19:37Liver carried.
19:38Yeah, liver, heart, lungs, kidney and eyes.
19:42He's donated.
19:42Just giving the chance for people to live on.
19:45It's just incredible, really.
19:47Farming Youth Football Club took the win 9-2
19:51but everyone here smashed the £1,000 target
19:55raising just under £2,600.
19:59Keep flying high, Joe.
20:02Henry Luck for KMTV in Maidstone.
20:07Now don't forget you can keep up to date with all your latest stories across Kent
20:10by logging on to our website kmtv.co.uk
20:13There you'll find all of our reports, including this one,
20:15about how heatwaves may have impacted Kent's vineyards.
20:18For Binden, there's more positives than there are negatives.
20:21In July, England and Wales look set to have been the driest on record,
20:26leaving some areas without rain for weeks.
20:29In Kent, the Garden of England, the effects have been particularly felt.
20:33But is it all bad?
20:34Something that the weather does benefit is winemaking.
20:37So I went to Bidden and Vineyards and spoke to the owner, Tom.
20:40Tom says that there hasn't been any rain on the vineyard in two months,
20:43which is reflected in the very dry ground that I'm stood on.
20:46While this sounds extreme and does bring negatives,
20:49he says that it's actually beneficial for the grapes.
20:52Phenolically ripe, I think, would be a good way to describe it.
20:54And by that, I mean, you know, the grapes are, you know,
20:57we're not making the wine in the winery.
20:59You know, we're able to let the vine, the sun, the times,
21:03the cool evenings, the cool mornings, you know,
21:05develop those natural flavours rather than having to use a yeast
21:09or ways to help express that.
21:13Bordeaux has long been recognised as the wine capital of the world.
21:16But as climate change brings more frequent droughts and wildfires to the region,
21:20could Kent's vineyards one day rival its reputation?
21:24What it does highlight is probably that there is a shift
21:28in cooler winemaking, you know, climates.
21:33And, you know, rather than Bordeaux, that southern,
21:35moving slightly more northern.
21:37And obviously the UK is a really, really good point to capitalise on that.
21:42I think that will possibly, hopefully for the industry,
21:45shift some ideas on, you know, the fact that the UK is a good place to invest.
21:49It's even got business owners thinking differently.
21:52The co-owner of Gaga's Sauces is exploring whether Kent wine
21:55could become part of his business.
21:57But he says the changing climate has already affected
21:59the ingredients that he works with.
22:01We produce nine different types of sauces,
22:04ranging from chilli to sweet barbecue, tomato, mango
22:08and Indian cooking curry paste as well.
22:11Sourcing some of the ingredients for our sauces
22:13can prove to be difficult.
22:15And extreme weather, heat like this
22:19also poses a threat on how we store our cheese,
22:23i.e., you know, the cost of electricity.
22:26You know, as a business, you will have to try and find
22:29ways of having a steady cash flow.
22:31And sometimes acquisitions, mergers, buying other businesses
22:37or collaborating with other businesses like what we are doing now
22:41might be the way forward.
22:43So while a warmer climate could help out Kent's wines on the world stage,
22:47it's a silver lining to a much bigger challenge.
22:50Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV, Bitterden.
22:55Bones dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period have been laid to rest
22:59after being found beneath a patio in Wye.
23:02The remains were discovered by a local couple back in 2019,
23:06which caused a bit of a stir in the local community.
23:09Well, Finn McDermid has the story.
23:16Back in 2019, the small village of Wye was turned upside down
23:20when one local couple discovered human bones
23:23underneath their back garden.
23:25Fast forward seven years and one pandemic,
23:27we now know the bones are ancient Anglo-Saxon remains
23:30and are being buried in a ceremony at Wye's churchyard.
23:33We know that they're ancient remains
23:35and it's important that they are laid to rest,
23:38well, relayed to rest correctly.
23:41The whole process just got a bit delayed
23:43because this happened just before lockdown.
23:48So this is why it's taken so long to do.
23:51But now we've done it.
23:52I think it's fair to say that aside from the weather,
23:55today went off without a hitch.
23:57It's taken seven years for these two bodies
23:59to be read their last rites properly.
24:01And while today might have been a shorter service,
24:04it's fair to say that the actual finding of the two bodies
24:07was a bit more of a dramatic discovery,
24:09especially here in a small village like Wye.
24:12Well, our builder was obviously doing our foundations
24:14for our extension and I was at work
24:16and he rang me up and said,
24:19found some bones and said, oh, right.
24:21Was it a pet or something?
24:23And I said, well, is it someone's pet?
24:24That's what I assumed.
24:25He said, no.
24:27I mean, what's going on?
24:29And he's...
24:30That's when I sent you the photo of the...
24:32Our builder had found several different bones
24:34but it was when he found an actual femur
24:38which you could tell it was a human femur.
24:41And, yeah, I came back
24:42and there was a policeman waiting on the doorstep
24:44going, OK, we need to investigate this.
24:47And that's what went from then.
24:48Then next day, one policeman,
24:51another one, and then another one, another one.
24:53And it wasn't just Ross and Claire
24:54who were interested in knowing more about the ancient remains
24:57with Wye's local history society also in attendance.
25:00Bones have been found on the Boats Hill site
25:02over many years.
25:05And in the 1930s,
25:06when the present row of houses were built,
25:09a number of skeletons were found,
25:11one of which was in a stone cyst.
25:15If you know, this is a grave which is lined by stones.
25:21While Wye is a small village,
25:22its history is far larger,
25:24with buildings in the town
25:25having been commissioned by archbishops,
25:27and vicars dating back to 1171,
25:29when they would have been burying bones
25:31that are now as ancient as the ones buried in 2026.
25:35Finn McDermott for KMTV in Wye.
25:39And let's take a look at the weather for the coming days.
25:46It will be warm and cloudy across the county tonight
25:48with temperatures peaking at 17 degrees in Margate
25:51and lows of 15 in Royal Tunbridge Wells and Ashford.
25:54Going into tomorrow morning,
25:55it will also be partly sunny for Kent
25:57with temperatures keeping in the mid to high tens
25:59in many areas.
26:00Into the afternoon, however,
26:01Canterbury and Margate will see some light rain.
26:03Warm Maidstone and Dartford reach as high as 20 degrees.
26:06Going into the weekend,
26:08Saturday will be cloudy with temperatures reaching 21.
26:11Sunday will see a little bit more sun there,
26:1323 degrees,
26:14and Monday sun again,
26:1523 degrees.
26:23You've been watching Kent Tonight live here on KMTV.
26:27There's more news made just for Kent throughout the evening.
26:29Don't forget,
26:30you can always keep us up to date with your latest,
26:33you can always keep,
26:34you can always keep up to date with your latest news
26:35from across the county
26:36by logging on to kmtv.co.uk.
26:39You can also follow us on Facebook,
26:41TikTok and Instagram.
26:42Thank you so much for watching.
26:44Goodbye.
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