A man's been charged with attempted murder after a soldier was stabbed near an Army base in Medway.
24-year-old Anthony Esan from Mooring Road in Rochester is due in court accused of carrying out the attack near Brompton Barracks on Tuesday evening.
Also in today's podcast, every council leader in Kent has signed a letter calling on the government to reduce the risk of disruption when the new EU entry exit system is introduced this autumn.
There are concerns the biometric checks at the port of Dover and Eurotunnel at Folkestone will cause traffic congestion in the county. We've been speaking to Kent County Council leader Roger Gough.
If you regularly travel from the mainland to Sheppey, you're probably well aware the Kingsferry Bridge has been closed recently for major repair work.
The steel ropes that help the bridge move up and down need replacing. Reporter Joe Crossley has been to the site to see how work is progressing.
Tonbridge MP Tom Tugendhat has put name forward to replace Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party.
The shadow security minister says he wants to be the next Tory Prime Minister.
More than 19,000 children in Medway are already signed up to activities in the Towns this summer.
MedwayGo kicks off on Monday and will run for four weeks of the school holidays. Hear from Councillor Teresa Murray who is the deputy leader at Medway Council.
And, and the Gillingham boss has praised their new signing Marcus Wyllie.
The 25-year-old gave up a job teaching in a special needs school to join the Gills from non-league Enfield Town.
So thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next video. Kent Online News. News, you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. Nicola Everett. Hello, hope you're okay. Thanks ever so much for downloading today's podcast on Thursday, July 25th, and our top story is that a man's been charged with attempted murder. After a soldier was stabbed near an army base in Medway, 24-year-old Anthony Essen from Maureen Road in Rochester is due in court today, accused of carrying out the attack near Brompton Barracks on Tuesday evening. The victim, who's in his 40s, is still in a serious but stable condition in hospital. Local counsellor and veteran Chris Balding has been speaking to Bartholomew from our colleagues at KMTV. My thoughts are with the victim's family and very much the close-knit military community around. There will be very, very close friends that have served and worked with this soldier who will be suffering a bit this morning and taking it all in. It's a very close community because those that serve, quite often, you live in each other's pockets. You're 24/7, eating, sleeping, working together, you go on tour, go on operations, go to war zones. It is very much that extended close family. I think Medway is known for its long historical link with the armed forces. Do you think that adds to kind of why this has been such a big reaction here, especially really? Very much so. We do have, as you say, this massive military heritage, not just Army, but also the Navy side of everything else. You've got a massive veterans community as well. Lots of people that have served here end up with their service here and they often stay here as they settle here. We even had Councilor Grungh last year, wife of a gurker, first Nepalese mayor. That's the sort of community we have. It's very, very military-oriented, but it's not the only community in Medway. We are a very diverse and it's a great place to live, work and effectively grow up. Also, at a day in Albania, nationals been jailed for nearly 10 years for arranging channel crossings to the UK in small boats, the 24-year-old is likely to have been responsible for transporting hundreds of people in 2022 by brokering spaces on boats. Police say each asylum seeker was charged thousands of pals. He'll be deported once his sentence is over. Dreamland will be allowed to keep their license despite serious concerns being raised following the death of a teenager at a drum and bass event. 17-year-old Emily Stokes collapsed after a suspected MDMA overdose last month. The theme park in Margate can continue to hold big events with some conditions, they include more stringent drugs checks, further training for staff and a higher number of paramedics at some shows. Now every Council leader in Kent has signed a letter calling on the government to reduce the risk of disruption when the new EU entry exit system is introduced. This autumn that concerns the biometric checks at the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel at Folkestone will cause traffic congestion in the county. Leaders are now wanting urgent action to prevent an impact on the food supply chain, local businesses and tourist attractions. I've been speaking to Roger Gough, who's the leader of Kent County Council. What it sets out is both our assessment of the situation in relation to the entry exit system and the implications once it's implemented. And then also a series of our asks as to what it is that we believe government needs to do or we need to do together. And some of that is around sharing of information, and it's fair to say these asks have been around for a while. I don't think we're saying anything different here from what we've been saying for many, many months if not years. So it's around sharing information, what the government calls its reasonable worst-case scenario. So we understand or have a shared understanding between national bodies and local bodies as to what the challenges and the risks we all think are. There's also, I think, a need to take a lot of the pressure wherever we can off particularly the eastern docks in Dover. That's a very constrained site. Dover Harbor Ward is working. The Port of Dover is working to address issues there, but it is very constrained in terms of its physical capacity. There are changes on the way in terms of how the port works and is configured, which we've been supportive of, but they are several years away. So we need to take some of the pressure off that site, because the biggest single risk is that if problems overflow at any point of exit, then they're going to spill back onto the highway. And once they spill back onto the highway, we have a knock-on effect, particularly straight away through Dover, but then rapidly, actually through many other parts of Kent as well. There's also a lot that government is seeking to do, we know, but we're urging them to continue it and accelerate it in terms of working with the French authorities and also with the European Commission, because there's partly a question of how this is implemented. We now believe it's like what we know it's like to be in the autumn. There was a date set of October the 6th. Some reports suggesting it may get pushed back a little bit, but not absolutely confirmed yet. But either way, we know it's coming. But there is a question of how it's implemented, how it gives some space for acting differently when pressures arise, because as I say, we know from past experience, it takes very, very little for everything in East Kent and indeed for Kent as a whole to fall over when there are problems in and around the ports, and this could be a very, very big issue indeed. They were also asking about funding, because there are many actions that not only we, but have a number of other partners are taking to ensure that our highways are in the right state, a whole number of things to deal with, you know, what arises from these issues. Yeah, so those are, I think, some of the big ones. I mean, we are emphasizing that, as I say, taking the pressure off the port involves looking, for instance, at some other sites, which can actually take some parts of the overall process. The trouble with that is, even if government made some of the necessary decisions now, that's probably not going to come into effect until next summer, but still the sooner the better. So those are some of the things that we've been raising. As you mentioned, this certainly isn't anything new. We've been talking about EES for a very long time, but obviously now you're talking to a new government. Does that change things at all? Well, clearly ministers have come to this fresh. It's good to see that they are taking it very seriously. We had the Rhodes Minister down in Kent last week. I think it was her first visit to any area of the country, so I think a very welcome sign of the priority this is given. We worked a lot with the previous administration, and clearly we worked throughout out with the civil servants who were there and who serve whichever administration. So clearly, there is an opportunity with the new government, and they're going to seek to, we hope, address the issue. But we work with whatever administration there is in Whitehall and seek to make the case for Kent and for Kent's needs. It's thought the system will come into force in November. Kent Online News. Two men have been arrested following an attack in Maidstone Police were called to Knightriders Street, and the victim was taken to hospital, a 27 and 32-year-old remain in custody. A pensioner has been pushed to the floor by burglars who stole money and a watch from his home in Longfield. The thieves posed as delivery drivers and knocked on his door in Brickfield Farm Close on Monday night. Investigators are asking for CCTV images of a suspicious silver or gold Renault Clio that was seen in the area at the time. It's emerged a medway man died after falling into a river basin when he suffered an epileptic seizure while walking his dog. William Britain was found in the water near St Mary's Island in May. The 54-year-old's family have since raised more than £3,500 for an epilepsy charity in his memory. If you regularly travel from the mainland to Shepey, you're probably well aware. The Kingsbury Bridge has been closed recently for major repair work. Of the two bridges connecting the island, this is the one that moves up and down for boats to go underneath, and it also carries the railway. Now, the steel ropes that make that whole mechanism work need to be replaced. Our reporter, Joe Crosley, has visited the site to see how work's going, and he's been speaking to David Davidson, who's the route director for Kent at Network Rail. We had originally intended this in two years' time, and that was a plan that would allow us to battle a little bit better, but we've been checking the ropes and we've been using a paid victory, and the ropes have actually degraded at a much higher rate than we expected, which means that if we don't do the work, the bridge will fail, and if it fails, what will happen is we won't be able to have to close the bridge because we won't be able to lift it for shipping, and then we'll have to mobilise a project team, which will be really difficult. It will mean that the structure will be much higher, the bridge will be closed for a much longer period of time and cause a lot more disruption, so it's really critical for us to get an hour into the work. Sure. And what sort of problems have you faced while doing this work, if any? Yeah, so this is a very bespoke bridge. So there isn't any other bridges like this, we don't carry common spares, everything has to be fabricated and designed to do this structure, there's a lot of manual handling on this, so there's behind us on the pillars there's six ropes, and on the end of those we have counterweights, and there's hundreds of counterweights that have to be manually undone, lowered down from the structure, so it's a very piece of work, it's very methodical and takes a lot of time to deliver. And obviously we've got to talk about the bespoke bridge, it's very unique, it must have its own unique challenges. It absolutely does, so this is a bridge that we've used, we've trained so far, we use road transport and we lift, and quite often, you know, normal structures that don't have that lifting mechanism, and that makes it quite different and quite challenging engineering. It is a great piece of British engineering behind us, but it is a difficult structure to maintain and operate. And you can see pictures of that work that's taking place within Joe's story at Kent Online. Kent Online reports, investigations are now underway to find out what caused a huge fire that broke out at a business in Ramsgate. Fire crews have now left K Laundry Ltd in Northwood Road after spending 31 hours tackling the flames, people as far away as Diehl reported seeing the thick black smoke. For a second year in a row, the local authority in Medway is headed for an overspent despite the council's budget increasing to £441m, so on course, to blow that by £16m, largely due to rising costs in children and adult services. This is the first round of budget monitoring, and the council has until February next year to bring spending down. Kent Online's been told work should start on a 4,000 home estate in Canterbury next year. Mountfield Park is to the south of the city and was finally given planning permission in 2022, following a number of delays and objections. While infrastructure should start to be built in January, the whole thing is expected to cost £200m. Minktime, a campaign group opposed to a 5,000 home development in Lenham, has had to abandon its high court legal challenge. Save our Heathlands was hoping to secure a cost protection order, which would cap its liability for costs against the developers. However, it's been refused, and members of the group say they can't risk having to pay tens of thousands of pounds to get the scheme thrown out. Next today, Tumbrich MP Tom Tugenhart has officially put his name forward to replace Rishi Sunak, as leader of the Conservative Party. The shadow security minister says he wants to be the next Tory Prime Minister, indicating he'd be prepared to leave the European Convention on Human Rights if it was necessary to secure UK borders. My pitch is very simple, which is that we have, as we've seen over the last few years, lost the trust of the British people, because we failed to deliver. We need to focus on delivering for the British people, and over the last few years, in fact over the last 20 or so years, I've demonstrated that I'm able to deliver on operations in the military in Afghanistan and Iraq, I'm able to deliver standing up, as you very kindly interviewed me, about standing up to authoritarian dictators, whether in Russia or China or Iran, which as you know got me sanctioned, or whether it's as security minister here in the United Kingdom, at Cabinet, making sure that we keep the British people safe, and that track record of delivery is absolutely essential to rebuilding trust, to make sure that we're in a position to offer the British people a real choice at the next election, and a choice between a Conservative government's able to prioritise the interests of the British people, and whatever it is that Labour decide to offer. James Cleverley is currently the only other person to enter the race, the winner will be announced in November. Concerns have been raised for the safety of rough sleepers, who've pitched their tents next to a busy, dual-carriage way in Canterbury. Several people have been camping out along the Ring Road at Pin Hill and station roadies for the last few weeks. Homelessness charity Catching Lives says it shows how desperate people are as numbers increase. It's claimed there have been several near misses as some drivers go on the wrong way down a one-way straight in Maidstone to try and avoid a ten-foot-deep sinkhole. A diversion was set up after it appeared in Hackney Road earlier this month, while southern water say work is underway to assess the scale of a collapsed sewer before repairs can begin. More than 19,000 children in Medway have already signed up to activities in the towns this summer. Medwaygo kicks off on Monday and will run for four weeks of the school holidays. It's aimed at five to sixteen-year-olds and parents of youngsters who normally get free school meals won't be charged. Councillor Theresa Murray is the deputy leader in Medway. She's been telling me more about it. Medwaygo is a programme that's specifically designed for those with special needs and families on low-income, but other people can join in the programme as well for a small fee. So it's free to our target groups and there's a small fee for activities for other people. And give us an idea about some of the things that young people could be getting up to. Well, we've already got 19,000 places taken up and the programme runs from the 29th of July until 23rd of August. So there are four weeks of exciting things going on. We've got arts and crafts, we've got sports, we've got special takeover days like at Ninja Warrior where the whole facility is given over to children and families from Medway. There are things like swimming and don't forget some of that will be taking place in our lovely new sports centre. We've got camping activities, we've got performing arts activities and even computed coding. So I hope that there's something for everyone. We often hear young people say, "Oh, there's nothing to do and I'm bored." But I mean, that can't really be an excuse in Medway this summer, can it? No, I don't think so. And remember lots of those facilities are open to everybody who are not part of the programme as well and we'll be promoting the events and things that we've got going on and including things that go on through our youth service where we've got the computer bus coming through and doing lots of things where people can go at gaming bus, people can go on and do lots of games. And we've got all of our lovely green spaces for people and families to go out into at low costs to enjoy a healthy walk and a picnic. So I really want people to have fun. I want them to do that at low cost as possible because I know that this is a tough time for families and I want people to feel that the council is there for them, wanting them to have a good time. Now speaking specifically about cost, obviously, for an awful lot of families, as you mentioned there, it is a struggle at the moment and one thing that could be a particular worry is food over the summer holidays, particularly if their children normally get free school meals, just tell us what the deal is with MedwayGo as far as food provision is concerned. We're really pleased to say that for every activity there's a hot meal provided every day and we have a hot meal, a hot healthy meal because the nutritional values of hot meals is often higher and we can ensure that it's really balanced. So everybody that comes along will get a free hot meal and so as you say those who have been entitled to free school meals will be prioritised for these activities and that would be there for them to have them and actually some of the activities are cooking activities as well so people can learn about food and healthy cooking and they can do that as a family. One of the things that was said to me when I was talking to parents and carers about the program that we had over Easter was that they'd like more things that whole families can do so we have tried to accommodate that as much as possible because I understand that perhaps for some people it's a bit of a struggle taking one child to one activity and one to another so so we have tried to make that possible and get some sort of all age fun mixed in with the other stuff that we're doing as well and to get some subsidised bus travel so hopefully we've covered all the bases as much as we can. Meantime our sister radio station KMFM is continuing to collect food as part of our tons of tins campaign to ease food poverty across the whole of Kent this summer go.medway.gov.uk is where you can find out more information about the events in Medway and if you've booked a place but can't make it your advice to let bosses know. A replica of an historic Spanish ship it's going to be Dr. Tim Runescape for the next few days. The galleon is based on vessels that sailed between the 16th and 18th centuries. Drag Queen River Medway is getting an honoree degree from the University of Greenwich today. She became famous after dressing up as a Thomas Wackhorn statue in Chatham on the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race. She since become a local LGBTQ+ advocate. Five restaurants in Kent have been named by the Good Food Guide as some of the country's best. You can find the full list by heading to the website today. And finally this is one of our most read stories. A royal helicopter landed on a playing field as a Duke of Kent visited the county's Hornby Hobbies factory. The late Queen's cousin was invited to the Margate Base firm which includes the brand Scalextric, Airfix and Corgi in its portfolio as the company celebrates its 70th anniversary. Ken's online sport. The ball and the Gillingham boss has praised their new signing Marcus Wiley, the 25 year old who's given up a job teaching in a special need school to join the Jills from Non-League Enfield Town where he played in Tuesday night's friendly against Darkford which the Jills won four-nil. Let's hear then from Mark Bonner. Well everyone loves him to be fair. He's one that I don't know so well but Kenny has spent a lot of time obviously scouring games and leagues. He's goal record last year was excellent. His story is a good one. He's late into football. We've found a little pattern of that so far. So there's a real hunger about him and it's a big jump isn't it going from quit's job last week and joined us. He trained yesterday in a bit of a small little session and he's gone and played a game for us leading the game as a number nine with zero really idea of how we play and what we do and everything else so great for him to just play in us to see him in this environment. I think it'll be a bigger adjustment for him to go in full time big step for him to take but he's got speed he can run he's sharp in around the box he can score different types of goals so certainly one that we we think's got lots of potential and looking forward to seeing how much we can help him. Well that's all from us for today thanks ever so much for listening don't forget you can follow us on Facebook X Instagram tick tock and threads you can also get details on the top stories direct your email each morning via the briefing to sign up to that you just need to head to kentonline.co.uk and whilst you're on the site today don't forget to check out our latest eat my words food review news you can trust this is the kent online podcast
