A Kent mum and her two young sons have to sleep in their living room because rats have infested the upstairs bedrooms and loft.
Ebonie Evans has told the KentOnline Podcast how the vermin have “destroyed everything” at the house near Folkestone, including her £200 trainers.
Also in today’s podcast, drivers say they’re facing "absolute mayhem" at a controversial new junction as traffic lights have failed four times in as many months.
Contractors spent more than a year ripping out a roundabout in Ashford and replacing it – but angry motorists say it is “lucky nobody has been killed”.
An amphibian and reptile club has hit back at claims made by a welfare charity that it does not look after its animals correctly at its exhibitions.
The Amphibian and Reptile Club, which holds meet-ups in venues across Kent, is refuting allegations including animals are kept and sold in plastic takeaway tubs and refused water.
It’s been called the “end of an era” – a family-run Kent company has closed after almost 50 years.
The bus business has been transporting residents and pupils across the county since it was founded in the mid-1970s.
And you can hear from the Gillingham manager ahead of their Carabao Cup clash later.
Swansea away in the first round wasn’t a draw many fans will have welcomed but Mark Bonner says he’s picked a team to give it their best shot.
We'll see you in the next one. Can't online news news you can trust this is the Kent online podcast Kate Faulkner. Hello. Hope you're okay. Thank you for downloading today's podcast on Tuesday the 13th of August. Coming up today, we have more details on that fatal house fire in Famisham over the weekend. We'll also hear from the Jillingen manager ahead of tonight's clash with Swansea in the Carabao Cup. But first, taking a look at our top story, a Kent mom says she and her two young sons are being forced to sleep in their living room because of a rat infestation. Ebony Evans says the rodents have destroyed everything at their house in Hawkins and she even contracted Bales disease, which is spread by the urine of infected rats. She's been speaking to Sam Lennon. I don't really know where to go next. I've looked at, I've contacted Environmental Health, the MP, the Health and Safety Executive, our own housing, trades, executive and I still met with nothing. I've been sleeping on a sofa for nearly 40 days, you know, I've recovered from Wales disease on a sofa. My bedroom's sealed off because it's so badly contaminated and now infested with mites because they left my loft hatch for so long. The loft is full of feces, full of feces, I've had to cover it up myself after I don't know where else to turn. I'm so done. We've actually seen a new rat here. Yeah, I've seen some outside and before they decanted me we could literally hear them day and night up in our loft, scratching in the loft, fighting in the loft, I've put my own traps up in the loft, I thought they were fighting but a parent, one must have actually got caught in my trap, it chewed its own leg off to get away. My loft is still full of feces, the house next door was finished long before mine and it remains empty. Why? Do you think they came from the derelict trap? Yes, they definitely came. Places for people have confirmed that mid-terris properties don't get rat infestations like this. They have to come from an outside source. Right. And what are the house structures and say things there? Well, at first they decanted us to 30 weeks and now we're back here with no electrical stupica, exposed raised parts and food cupboards everywhere and I love rat. I've nearly lost my fingers to rat traps so many times, it's just... You've done it but you've hurt your fingers. Nearly, I've nearly lost my fingers a few times, picking through the mess that they've just clubbed together and left behind for us. They've destroyed everything, we were decanted for 30 weeks to come back and it's just the same, it's, it's, it's unsanitational, it's disgusting, whatever rat's done in your house. Peed, it's feces everywhere, they've chewed through our belongings, I've got to replace carpets, I've actually placed sofis. Property management group Places for People has apologised for how long it's taken to get the problem sorted and that they are working with the family to find temporary accommodation. Kent Online News. A man who died in a house fire in Fevisham over the weekend has been named, well known bus get James Renein was killed when the blaze broke out at the HMO Insultors Lane in the early hours of Saturday, the 44-year-old had been living there, the fire is thought to have been started by an e-scooter, a woman's been taken to hospital with facial injuries after a serious attack in Folkston. It happened in Underhill Road on Saturday morning, a 26-year-old from Hive who was known to the victim, has been charged and will appear at Crown Court next month. Fundraisers are urging thieves to return items stolen from a sale set up in Medway to make money for charity. Barbara and Graham Hatton have managed to give around £100,000 to good causes over the years, they regularly sell items from the driveway of their home, but say many are being taken without a donation being left, Barbara says it's heartbreaking. Well I set up in my driveway, all the goods that I have, as best as I can, I have plenty of signage up to say that my goods are for sale, and yet people are still stealing from me which isn't right. I get very upset, I would like to know how upset I am and that from the stuff that was stolen from me on Saturday, just after one o'clock on that date, to do the right thing, bring me up the money for the chairs that they stole, there is a need out there for the charities that we raise money for, and without people like me or we've got other friends that raise money, then these charities would be the poorer. They have a great need of the money that I personally raise along with my husband Graham here, when we do it in my driveway just for those charities. I have a lot of good people and I get all my goods from people who know what I'm doing and really enjoy coming here and talking to me about the money that we raise, where it goes, and they supply me with a lot of goods, and without that I couldn't do it. So I just like to thank all those that gives me all these goods, because that money goes where it's saying it's going, every penny. I get very upset and annoyed more than anything, because there's enough signage in my garden for anybody to read, it's big enough, bold enough to say that my goods are for sale, not to be stolen, and when stuff is stolen for me, I can get really cross and put a signage up which I would rather not put up in my driveway, to the people who are stealing, to call them thieves, because that is exactly what they are. Scheduling a man has been sent to prison after using social media to stalk his ex-girlfriend. Matthew Rental was subject to a court order, which banned him from contacting his victim, but he sent her persistent messages on TikTok and WhatsApp, the 39-year-old who lives on Marlborough Road has been locked up for 14 months. Drivers in Ashford say they're facing absolute mayhem as traffic lights at a controversial new junction have failed four times in as many months. The full-way signal-controlled system on Bad Monster Rifle Road has been in place since last spring, in the hopes of improving traffic flow. Those who use the road say they can't understand why bosses ripped out a perfectly good round about. The operator of an amphibian and reptile club, which holds fares across Kent, has hit back its suggestions, the animals are unfairly treated. The animal protection agency claims welfare cannot be safeguarded in temporary makeshift environments and has accused such clubs of having animals displayed and sold in small plastic takeaway tubs where they had denied basic welfare requirements. Mark Elber set up his exhibitions in 2023 as a way of uniting fellow reptile lovers and to give them an opportunity to share knowledge. By far the best pet that you could have here with me now is a Burmese python native to Burmese. We haven't been very creative with her name. Amazing animals. As you can see here, I am handling Burmese, she is in shed. She is a very, very intelligent animal. She will tell me when she's had enough by hissing. And they are mostly all bark and no bite. These animals are misrepresented typically as being aggressive premises. In captivity however, they are intelligent enough as well, which we don't often give them credit. They're intelligent enough to understand between prey and handler and race correctly with the right equipment, with the right knowledge. They can be absolutely amazing animals. He recognises that historically these events have been mismanaged, but he says his events are nothing like the reptile markets of the past and that they go to great lengths to ensure animal welfare. Kent Online News A teenage boy has been targeted by five men in an attempted robbery in Gilliam. They approached him and his friends in Wood Street and demanded he hand over his phone, bag and shoes, one of the group reportedly had their mobile stolen. A controversial speed limit change on the A20, which led to thousands of drivers being fined, is set to be scrapped. The stretch of road between Sid Cup and the Swadley interchange was reduced to 40 miles per hour last October because of safety concerns over surface water flooding. It's understood more than 60,000 fines have been issued. The limits due to be lifted after works carried out later this month. We're being urged not to leave any mess behind when we visit nature reserves during the warmer weather. Kent Wildlife Trust says they've seen a rise in litter and vandalism at some of their sites over the past few days. Lucy's been chatting to area manager Steve Weeks. During this lovely weather, we want people to be able to come and enjoy Kent Wildlife's nature reserves. The problem is when we get more people on site, there's always a few people that spoil it for everyone else. We've seen an uptick in rubbish being left, dog mess, disposable barbecues, all the sorts of things. How does that feel for you having to go to those sites and see all of that? Yeah, it's a problem because not only does it detract from start time to be doing their jobs to actually manage the nature reserves, it also poses a risk to wildlife as well. Wildlife can become entangled in the strings on the balloons, we often find hanging around. Insects get trapped in old discarded bottles and when they build up in there, they attract in other things like bowls and because glass is very smooth, if the bottle's at the wrong angle, it can form a trap and you end up with finding lots of dead bowls and mice within these bottles. So it can be a real problem because the weather's so dry at the moment, anything that's discarded that could light it, starts a fire, is a particular issue. We don't allow barbecues on our nature so it's just because of that risk really. You can just discard a few members, can set the whole place alight and we ask people to be responsible about discarding cigarette butts and again, glass bottles in this really strong sunlight, all it can take is the sun shining through this broken bit of glass, it can be enough to ignite very dry grass. And of course in Kent we've got such beautiful countryside and it's such a privilege to be able to go out and enjoy these nature reserves, why do you think some people aren't respecting that? I don't know really, it's a difficult one, sometimes a lot of our reserves don't have little bins just because we are a charity and we don't have the resources to regularly go and empty them. So maybe people think they don't need to take their rubbish home with them but we'd always ask people to do that and if some of the sites that do have bins, if you find the bins are actually full, then again, please take your rubbish home. And what would your message be to perhaps families who are out enjoying the summer holidays at the moment? We've got this lovely weather at the moment going out to some of these nature reserves and they might think a bit of litter, that doesn't matter but it does, doesn't it? It does, yeah so we'd encourage everybody to get out and enjoy our nature reserves but if you do, please follow the simple rules of if you bring your stuff along, take your rubbish home with you or use the bins that are provided on site. If you have a dog with you, please keep it under close control or on a lead and please pick up after your dog. Figures out today show another drop in unemployment in Kent, 39,100 people were claiming out of work benefits in the county in June, that's down by 210 compared to the previous month. They're sent to be closures on the 8249 as work on a multi-million pound improvement project continues. The road will be closed in both directions while a new bridge is installed at the Grove Hearst roundabout development between iWade and Kemsley. It'll shut at 8pm and August 30 for three days, you can find more details at Kent online. A beach access road in Folkster has closed for three days for investigations into a series of landslides, huge cracks appeared in the promenade at the Warren in April and part of the town has been affected by ground movement, network rail, say they're looking for a permanent solution. A major milestone has been reached in the construction of a well-being centre at Eleanor Hospice in North Kent. The site on cold harbor road in North Fleet is expanding to help more people. Alex Langrich has been speaking to operational lead for well-being at Eleanor Andrew Loudon. So here is quite an auspicious occasion, this is the topping out ceremony for the new well-being centre that's being built at Eleanor. It's been a long time coming, this has been a project that started several years ago and the building works themselves have been in place for coming up to kind of 18 or 19 months. Fingers crossed to be finished in November but this tile on the roof that's been placed today is the final tile that makes the building watertight and then it's just the internal works to be finished. And obviously it's been a long time coming so how does it feel to kind of, I guess, be new at the end? We're really excited. So the well-being services that I oversee, we had a decision a couple of years ago, what would we do? We could close our services for the years that it would take for the building or we could find somewhere else to be based. We were lucky enough to work in partnership with the Manor Hotel down at Heaver Court Road who have given us their premises to utilise and we were able to deliver our groups and services to the best of our abilities there. What this new well-being centre allows us to do is do more groups, different groups, groups that will meet the needs of our community and so much better and so my team is chomping at the bit to get back on site and equally to be back on site and working with the teams collaboratively, communicating which is one of the things that kind of separates hospices from other healthcare areas is that we're able to communicate so easily with one another and work so closely together. The work is set to cost more than £5 million, £2 million of which was donated by the Collier Ferguson Charitable Trust, Nicholas Fisher is Chairman of Trustees at the non-profit organisation. About 30 years ago, maybe a bit more, James Collier Ferguson said James donated the land on which the hospice was built as part of the project, the hospice was built, I don't know whether or not we contributed in those days I wasn't a trustee and we over the years who supported the hospice and very pleased to do so and then when we had our 50th anniversary in 2019 ahead of that we wanted to do some capital projects, we put the word out and Eleanor wanted to build this incredible wellbeing centre to extend the services they could offer to the local community which is one that we as Collier Ferguson are very involved with because a lot of our original land holdings came from this area and all the building around us so we wanted to put something back and we determined that we would give a substantial donation to Kickstart the project and the hope that other donors would come in which clearly they had and we also donated the rest of the land freehold to the hospice so it owns absolutely everything on which it sits which is wonderful and we're absolutely thrilled to be doing that. We're all about communities and community projects at Collier Ferguson and because this community is a very important part of our background it's wonderful that so many people have been helped over the years and we want to keep that going with the outreach in fact I was talking to somebody yesterday completely random who I'm working on a matter with nothing to do with the trust and mentioned that her great heart had come here last year for her last few days and had very fond memories of visiting there and it's so extraordinary and everyone you taught to in this part can nose Eleanor extremely well so we're delighted to be part of the story but Eleanor's the story not us. The well-being center will feature new counseling rooms as well as upgraded play therapy spaces for children. It'll also serve as an educational hub for health and social care professionals offering specialized training in end of life care. Kent online news. Lifeboat crews in Sheness have been called to help a boat that was reportedly being harassed by jet skiers. The RNLI say two people on board were left shaken and wet after being targeted in the swale on Sunday evening. They were later sent to rescue two jet skiers after a machinery failure the Coast Guard helicopter lifted them to safety. It's understood the two incidents were unrelated. A family run bus operator based in Ashford has closed after nearly 50 years. Kent coach to us has been transporting residents and pupils across the county since it was founded in the mid 70s. The company's been shut down following the retirement of its directors. A home in West Kingsdown has been left with a half finished extension after neighbors made a complaint to council. The work on the bungalow in London road was stopped after it was 70 centimetres higher than expected and blocking out sunlight. Sevenoats Council has since refused to propose changes and the latest application has been deferred by planners. And to get in line to see the garden turned mini rainforest need over. What was once a regular garden consisting of no more than a patch of grass and a dated patio has been transformed by two brothers, Amazon style plants and a koi cart pond are just two of the new features. Chris Bowers and brother Oliver have been speaking to the podcast. Yes we bought the house five years ago it was nothing but lawn not one plant. We had ducks from the last place and they were just trashing everything I put in there so they ended up getting rehomed which meant I could stop planting. And yeah the rest is history. Me being me which upset the other half at the time, the garden came first and the house was rack and rooming but it was kind of left we did the bare essentials just to keep our happy. But yeah I was in the garden and we bought it in June so it was the height of the summer. Yeah most of my time was spent out here brainstorming I think and just yeah it's pretty much how it was. There wasn't a lot to work with if anything. So yeah. I think you've taught yourself so much as well haven't you from watching the channels of other people doing similar things maybe bigger versions and you've kind of just built on your own knowledge haven't you and taught yourself a lot as well. The influencers from our grandparents definitely wasn't I think obviously parents as well but definitely our grandparents and its photos of us as small children isn't there of holding frogs and doing garden and Nan's garden and grandma's garden and we've just always been into it so obviously Chris done just an insane job with this. And this is the end product. Relatively small gardeners just turned it literally into a jungle. And while you're on the main page of our website you can see our reporters reviews of the UK's most photographed beach. You can find out what Millie thought of the car park refreshments and toilets. Ken's online sports. Football now and Gilliam are taking on championship side Swansea in the Carabao Cup later they'll be hoping to build on a good start to the season after beating Carlisle United for one in league two at the weekend. Jills manager Mark Bonner says he'll be mixing up the squad to give other players a chance. In one sense it's an extension of pre-season for us to get those players fit and up to speed because we need them but it's a tough game we know that it's also an opportunity for us to go and test ourselves in an unbelievable stadium against a top top team so yeah it will be what it will be we're going to have a right good go at it we're going to see how much of all we can have we're going to see how difficult we can make it for them when they've got it and use it as a sensible day's work for some in terms of trying to maybe get 45 into a few definitely be a five sub game for us and we'll try and make sure everyone's in as best health possible for next Saturday but but we'll have a go at trying to get through in the cup as well. Johnny Williams scored one of the goals in Saturday's match is excited about the team they're building under the new boss. We've got a great group of boys down there some real characters and we've all bonded really well and it's important when you want to achieve something as a team you want to get on as a group and look forward to coming in every day and you know work hard when the time is right but also enjoy being in Chavez company and it's been it's been great and I think we've got that blend here so yeah I'm looking forward to the rest of the season and also the new lads have offered that freshness that hunger, that desire, pace, energy and it's sliding really well so they'll just be starting as well it's just a stop. That's all from us 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 the details on the top stories direct to your email each morning via the briefing to sign up just head to kentonline.co.uk news you can trust this is the kent online podcast (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
