People living near Sittingbourne are worried sewage leaks could get worse as plans for nearly 300 new homes have been approved.
Residents of Frognal Lane in Teynham say waste water regularly runs down the street and into their gardens. Our reporter Joe Crossley's been chatting to Wayne Kennett who lives there.
Also in today's podcast, a survey's being sent out to 75,000 households in Kent to find out how you want police to deal with crime and anti-social behaviour.
The police and crime commissioner's office has identified 25 known 'hot spots' and they want to see if targeted local patrolling can drive down offences.
A man who's hoping to build an eco-home near Ashford says he's disappointed with the lack of local support.
David Marks has plans for a five-bed single-storey property with solar panels behind The Bell pub in Smarden.
A dance teacher in Kent who trained professionals and celebrities on Strictly is retiring.
Margaret Preedy has run studios in Maidstone for 24 years and was involved in the series for its first five seasons.
A silent disco is going to be taking to the streets of Canterbury later this year to mark 40 years of the city's festival.
The two week event in October includes theatre, music, comedy, talks and family shows.
In sport, we've been chatting to a former Olympian from Kent who thinks both Team GB hockey squads could get a medal.
Mel Clewlow competed at the 2000 and 2008 Games - and is now director of sport at the University of Kent.
And in football, Gillingham remain undefeated in their pre-season friendlies.
It finished 3-1 at Southend United on Saturday and we've got reaction from manager Mark Bonner.
Kent online news news you can trust. This is the Kent online podcast. Nicola Everett. Hello, hope you're okay and had a good weekend in the sunshine. We've got more on the weather coming up in today's episode. But thanks ever so much for downloading the podcast on Monday, July, the 29th. And our top story today is that people living near sitting born are worried. Sewage leaks could get worse as plans for nearly 300 new homes have been approved. Residents of Froggnolane in Tennham say well, we're going to be here today. But in Tennham say waste regularly runs down the street and into their gardens. Our reporter Joe Kosley has been chatting to Wayne Kennett, who lives there. I was aware of it. People used to tell me, but until it actually happened, it sort of opened your eyes and it's like living in the third world country. There's a man I'll cover in the road up 100 yards, 200 yards. Some reason it just keeps overflowing constantly. I've recorded it for three days solid. So basically raw sewage and whatever extra toilet roll and other things have been floating down the road. Going into people's driveways, it's been backing up on my drain in the garden. Charlie's next door is at the same problem. There's people further up who've had it backing up in their bath. I'm sure they'll be willing to sort of explain more if you wanted. It's down their driveways. This day and age, it just should not happen, is disgusting. I've got grandchildren, myself, I've got animals. I just can't believe it's happening. What do you think is causing the sewage? It could be like, say, the sewage plant in tandem is so old and outdated, it just cannot cope with what's been added to it now. And with the thought of that in another 288 houses, I can't see it taking it because some water openly setting coal or the planet that they could only accommodate 48 more houses on this plant. So to put 298 on top of that, it's going to be a disaster. Now, Council bosses say developers behind the newest state will be making a £4 million contribution to local infrastructure while southern water say they're investigating the cause of the leaks. Kent Online News. Other top stories for you today and the French border control zone at the Port of Dover is going to be expanded to reduce the risk of congestion when new EU rules come into force. Biometric checks will need to be carried out as part of the entry exit system from this autumn, a change in the laws needed to create more space at the port and minimise disruption. A survey is being sent out to 75,000 households in Kent to find out how you want police to deal with crime and antisocial behaviour. Now, the Police and Crime Commissioners Office has identified 25 known so-called hotspots and they want to see if targeted local patrolling can drive down offences. PC Laura Day is from the force. We will increase patrols over the school holidays and we also now have child centre police officers in every area in Kent police. So they will be out on patrol in the town centres and areas where we do have sort of ASB hotspots. But unless we're getting the reports, we don't know where else it is so we need to know about it and then we can go and deal with it. Residents will be asked how safe they feel and to rate their trust in Kent police. Crime figures from the force show there have been 98 so-called dine and dash crimes in the county during the first six months of this year, one in 20 people have reportedly walked out of a restaurant without paying. Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott says it's most likely down to greed and opportunism rather than the cost of living crisis. 25 headteachers have signed a letter questioning changes to the way special needs places are going to be offered in Kent. The county council want to only give spaces at specialised schools to those with the most complex needs in a bid to save money, where the Kent special needs educational trust has raised concerns that it won't improve outcomes for children. This is one of our most read stories on the website today. A swimmer claims to have contracted eye and ear infections after going into the sea in Deal. Ian Callaway says he takes a dip every morning but no longer puts his head under water because of concerns about the quality. The area currently has a sufficient rating according to the environment agency. Kent online reports. Lifeboat crews have been involved in two rescues in Thanet over the weekend. R&L live were called to help a swimmer in difficulty off Margate's main sands on Saturday. They also assisted the Coast Guard after someone got stranded on a cliff face at Kingsgate. This all comes as a heat health alert comes into force in Kent. We're being urged to keep an eye on those who are particularly vulnerable as temperatures are expected to top 30 degrees. The yellow alert lasts until late Wednesday night. A man who's hoping to build an eco home near Ashford has told the podcast he's disappointed with the lack of local support. David Marks has plans for a five bed single story property with solar panels behind the bell pub in Smarden. Now it would be entirely self-sufficient but the parish council have described it as an unsuitable overdevelopment of the rural area. David's been telling the podcast more about it. The plan is for a completely off-grid brand new development, all one level. And it's off-grid with everything recycled, generated electricity, water processing and everything. There's nothing that's going to come from off-site or so. It's completely carbon free. And yeah, it's something that is very exciting. We think it's unique in this country, certainly in the southeast of England. And really I hope that it's something that we can use as a bit of a blueprint in terms of that sort of development for other things we might want to do. But this is too good an opportunity to miss and we think this is a perfect site. But the site originally, this where we're standing and where this new development is going to be, is all part of what was something used to be called church farm. But it's a site which included industrial units. The industrial units we converted into eight residential units, which we're very proud of because we think they're very attractive and we hope that people are very happy. And the two and a half acres that wasn't built on, which is this, obviously, which is why we always wanted to do something like this on it, which is why we've come now. So we finished the development at the back, the eight units. And this is the site or part of the site that we now want to develop. The planning regulations and planning permissions, et cetera, take time. If we got permission later on this year, we would then have to go for the pre-start conditions. There will be lots of those and they will take some time. So the program we have is to actually hopefully start building late spring next year. That's our program. Elsewhere residents in a part of Medway have teamed up to fight plans for a new winery. The guardians of the Cuckston countryside want to save land on the North Kent Downs from development. Plans for a new wine processing facility, visitor center and restaurant in Upper Bush were previously rejected, but now revised proposals have been submitted. Meantime new figures show which parts of Kent have seen the biggest drops in house prices. This is another one of our most read stories on the website today. According to Purple Bricks, the average cost of a property has gone down by 2% over the last 12 months to around £338,000. The biggest declines have been in fun, followed by Dover and Canterbury. We can read Chris Bridcher's report in full at Kent Online and share your thoughts in the comments or via our socials. A ballot's being held today to see if refuse collectors in parts of Kent want to go on strike. The GMB Union claims sewer workers in Swale and Ashford are being paid less than staff in Maidstone. It follows months of complaints about missed Bing collections. And historic pubs have been damaged after being hit by car in Darford. A black minicupa crashed into the 15th century Wat Tyler building on the high street. You can see pictures today by heading to the website. Kent Online reports. Part of a churchyard in Swanscombe's Bing Cordon Doth after an inspection revealed a risk of falling stones. People have been urged to stay away from the unstable brickwork at St Peter and St Paul's. Emergency repairs were expected to cost around £3000. There are plans to knock down an historic convent in Deal to make way for a new care home and bungalow. The sister of our Lady of the Missions in Rectory Road has been sold to a company which wants to create an 83 bed facility. Bosses insist the new three-story building will not impact the character of the area despite concerns from neighbours. Now, a dance teacher in Kent who trained professionals and celebrities on Strictly is retiring. Margaret Preedy has run Studios in Maidstone for 24 years and was involved in the series for the first five seasons, which she's been telling the podcast a bit about it. I worked on Strictly Come Dancing when it first started. I used to do a lot of the group choreography and help train in the professionals who were new to teaching and some of the celebrities. They did numerous rehearsals were done down here. I've trained many of the pupils that have come through the school have gone on to make their living and dancing. It's been a great asset for a lot of them. I've also did a lot of Strictly Come Dancing for about the first four or five years and then it got to stage where I was getting so busy here. I thought it's more important to look after my own stuff rather than, and I did my time there and I enjoyed it. It didn't quite a few other TV shows where I've taught Australian Princess and lots of children's programs. We've done dancing and other things. I can't really think of those loads of them. When I sit down and think about it, we've done loads of charity work. I got involved with a big company up in London that used to do big charity things to take groups along to do demonstrations and everything there, sort of all for charity and everything, which is very interesting. And then sort of, you know, go from there and I've done so much and I'm so proud of what I've done. And so many people know the name preteen, it's made stone. And the older generation from my father and then the younger generation from me. Staying with the dancing theme and a silent disco is going to be taking to the streets of Canterbury later this year to mark 40 years of the City's Festival. A two-week event in October includes theatre, music, comedy, talks and family shows. I've been chatting to Interim Festival Director Amanda McKeen. We have this, which I'm really excited about. It's called Fury Due Due Silent Disco of Canterbury. And we've got three sessions on Saturday, the 26th and 3 on Sunday, the 27th. And 50 people will meet the choreographer, I guess you call him, at a certain venue. He'll give you headphones, you'll do on your headphones, you can do dance moves and then off into the streets of Canterbury to just go through. I did it in Edinburgh and it's so much fun and people just look and think, what are these people coming down the road? So 50 people singing and dancing, it's really fun. It should be prescribed in the National Health, I think, it's just that much. It's very good for your wellbeing. It's taking a flash mob to a whole new level. Exactly, exactly, yes it is. That's brilliant, I must admit I haven't heard of that before. Obviously there have been silent discoes in Canterbury, which were a little bit controversial, but that's a whole different thing. It's a whole different thing, it is. I mean it's been to lots of different cities of things, it's never been to Canterbury, so it's just a great thing. It's a great thing to get people moving in the city and people will see them and think, what's that? Well it's part of the country festival, so it's a great sort of motion ring I think, and just a lot of fun. Would you encourage anyone to do that? Have you got to be pretty confident and, you know, who should get involved? Everyone should get involved. I did it in Edinburgh last year on my own and as I was going up to it, I was thinking, how will I like this? Because there's groups that do it, it doesn't matter, you just leave all your inhibitions at the door and just put your headphones on and off you go, sing and dance, it's so much fun. I can see that it's going to be quite a storm on socials, isn't it, when people spot that going on in Canterbury? Exactly, yes, but anyway to come, when I did it in Edinburgh there was a hen party, there was a birthday party, there was a group of rock choir women, so it's just good, good, clean fun. Canterbury, you're incredibly lucky aren't you with the venues that you've got around the city, so it really brings the acts and performances to life as well. It really does, we're very lucky, we take over the Westgate Hall which is the centre of Canterbury and we give it a festival makeover and it's the Festival Club, so we have a lot of different performances in there, we have the family programme in there, our evening performances and some community dance and a day of bands, and young bands in competition on the first week, we use the Great Hall at Kent College which is a 540 seat venue which is beautiful, and we use the Multthouse Theatre as well which is the King's venue, that's beautiful too, and the Cathedral. And this year we're using Augustin Hall which is part of Christchurch for our talk series so we're moving the talks up there this year so, yes we have a lot of different venues, we're going to the Quality Service in which is a beautiful building, and we're going to have a beautiful venue and we've got a performance in St. Gregory's Centre for Music as well which is a duo piano performance, last new performance in the Saturday of the 26th, so yeah we are very lucky to have such great venues. Priority tickets go on sale today, we've got the full details on the What's On pages of Kent Online, and a Kent artist has covered a train carriage in doodles as part of a railway line's 50th anniversary celebrations. Sam Cox who's also known as Mr. Doodle was invited to transform part of the locomotive at the Kenton East Sussex Railway. The doodles always kind of come naturally really, I just kind of draw a line and it kind of leads into a character and then that follows onto something else, and usually I don't really think about it too much, unless I'm including specific things, like here there's a few trains, or there's like a picture of myself and stuff, and so sometimes I think a little bit about that, but 95% of the time it's just like, oh this is going to be a jellyfish and now this looks like a bird and it just kind of flows out and it's a really organic process and I really like it that way because it's not forced, it's not kind of sketched out and it just feels really true to instinct. And on your kind of journey, your artistic journey, what does it feel like to have this train in your hometown especially? It's awesome to do something here, you know, it's not often that I actually get to do a project so close to home, you know, in-home really, and to see local people and the kids and stuff, who've seen my work on the schools and things like that, then it's really cool to come and perform for them and say hi and do photos and things, and yeah it's a lovely feeling really, I love the town, I love Tenson and I love Kent and you know love where I live and it's great to be able to do this and be a part of the community. The doodle carriage will be transporting passengers during the summer holidays. Ken's online sport. First up to Paris and Kent Roer Emily Craig is through to the semi-finals of her event at the Olympics. The 31-year-old from Pembury is competing in the women's lightweight double skulls with partner imaging grant, they won the heat comfortably and will go again on Wednesday. Elsewhere, Seven Oaks swimmer Eva Ocaro has described her first Olympics experience as mind-blowing. The 17-year-old made her debut in the 4x100m freestyle relay in Paris over the weekend. She's the first black female to represent Britain in the pool at an Olympics, the team finished seventh in the final. And we've been chatting to a former Olympian from Kent who thinks both Team GB hockey squads could get a medal. Mel Clullo competed at the 2000 and 2008 Games and is now Director of Sport at the University of Kent. Both teams got their campaigns underway over the weekend and Mel is hopeful. I think it's the men's best chance of meddling. Having seen them at the recent Pro League, I've been and sort of tournaments prior to that. I've been really, really impressed with their growth under sort of Paul Revington. And obviously Kwame Brown's just joined Holcomb as well as a coach after Paris. So, you know, I think they're a really, really exciting team. I think they've got some genuinely world-class players on the books. And I think it's probably going to be the closest men's competition we've seen for a while. So, you know, I would say I think GB have a real, real chance of hitting the podium. And, you know, what colour that medal is or boils down to that one-off game when you get to the pressure games. I think for the women, you know, Maddie retiring and joining the USA field hockey set up will probably be a bonus for the USA. That's, for me, will be the crucial game in the pool. I think it's the fourth one. But again, I think there's a lot of experience in that women's side. Obviously Laura Roper's gone to her fourth Olympics and she's looking for a fourth medal. Holly Pern Webb is captain. My concern slightly is that there are a few players that have been injured in the build-up to the Olympics. And with it being a squad of 16, you just never know what could happen. But on their day, GB, the women can pull any team apart. And I wasn't sure, if I'm honest, if they would, meddling Tokyo or not. And when they walked away with the bronze medal, you know, I was pleasantly surprised. And it wouldn't surprise me again if they ended up on the podium because it's become a habit for them. I think that's the key part is a lot of those players now are used to winning medals and they understand the pressure associated with those matches. Onto cricket now and Kent have beaten Lancashire in their latest one-day cut match. The Spitfires batted first and scored 209 in Blackpool with the hosts falling. Just five runs short of the target. Kent currently fifth in the A table and hosts Hampshire, a Beckham on Wednesday. And in football, Gillingham remain undefeated in their preseason friendlies. It finished 3-1 at Southampton United on Saturday. Let's get reaction from Gillingham manager Mark Bonner. Well split when it's 60 minutes for lots of the more senior ones and then 30 was really young team really. So the last 30 minutes was a bit different. They were probably the same really. They made a lot of their changes around 70-75. So the game become a bit of a non-event really. But in the first hour, we looked good when it was counter-attacking phases, but we spent too long without the ball and didn't use the ball well enough. They played well, played in a nice structure. They've got a team there that's been together a while and they were good. And then it was sort of like three minutes of action where all the goals happened over the side of half time. I'm not even sure the first one was a goal. The second one is a brilliant counter-attack from us and the third one is hopeless from us. So yeah, strange few moments. Good minutes for people, like big minutes for lots of them that need that. On a very long slow pitch, which I won't equality game, there was a lot of technical errors from us. But there's a few bits to liken it. I think our best bits are in counter-attacking phases at the moment, but we've got a lot of work to do in other areas. We've always working hard. We've got lots to improve on. We won't have covered everything by the 10th of August because it's impossible to. These next couple of weeks, we've got a lot of work to do on our restarts and set plays. A lot better detail on that and a lot more around just different ways in which we can progress the game when we need to be direct, when we can progress the game through the pitch and not be slow or get stuck in areas, which we've done a little bit too much this week. And then our defensive structure just needs a little bit more understanding of how we get higher to press and how we do it against different shapes and systems. So that's where the next couple of weeks will spend a lot of time. Hopefully a few of the injured ones can get back because in the end you see the team that's on in the second half of the second half. Yeah, there's a lot of younger ones in there, so we need a few more of the senior ones back to make sure we get the squad up to the strength and the depth that we need. But everybody's working well and hopefully, yeah, this week will be a busy one. We'll have sort of two games stimulatory. We've got Southampton on Tuesday behind closed doors, welcome next Saturday. So I'll give everyone, you know, some more minutes and more time playing together on self-hamped to be a lovely surface. So that'll be good. We've got to challenge ourselves to be good with the ball in that game. And then we'll have a blank week going into Carlisle, so yeah. And the girls get their league two season underway against Carlisle at Pricefield on August the 10th. That's all from us for today. Thanks ever so much for listening. Don't forget, you can follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and threads. You can also get details on the top stories, direct to your email each morning via the briefing. To sign up to that, just head to kentonline.co.uk News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. (dramatic music)
