This is the Kenton Line podcast. Kate Faulkner. Hello. Happy Friday. Thank you for downloading today's podcast on September 6th. Coming up today, we'll hear about a shop in Dartford that could have its license reviewed after an alleged shoplifter says he was trapped inside and assaulted and also will hear from the Jills Boss as they look to continue their unbeaten running league to this weekend. But first, taking a look at our top story today. Police, investigations are underway after a body was found on railway tracks near the port of Dover in the early hours of this morning. Nicola has been following this story for the podcast. She joins me now. Nicola, what do we know so far? Well, police were first called to the tracks between Dover Priory and Folkston Central at about 1.45 this morning to reports of a casualty on the tracks. Paramedics were also called, but the person was pronounced dead. Pictures at Kenton Line today show three police fans in attendance. The spokesperson for the British Transport Police has said they're in the process of making inquiries to establish the circumstances leading up to the death and investigations are ongoing. At the time of recording today, it's unclear whether the death is being treated as suspicious. It's also not clear if the victim was killed before they were left on the tracks or if they died at the scene. And how has it disrupted travel today? Well, it's had a major impact on southeastern services with cancellations throughout the morning and buses replacing trains between Dover Priory and Folkston Central. It was first anticipated actually that the line would be closed right up until six o'clock tonight, but it has been able to reopen reopened around mid morning and services have resumed. The closure also impacted the lines to both Ramsgate and into London. Thanks, Nicola. While recording today's podcast, a second body was also found on the train line near Canterbury East Railway Station. Police were called at 9.19 AM following reports of a casualty on the tracks. It's unclear if the two deaths are linked. At this stage, the second death is not being treated as suspicious. Taking a look at another of our top stories today, just days after 12 people lost their lives while trying to cross the channel. The home secretary is leading a summit aimed at disrupting smuggling gangs, bringing people to the UK. Yvette Cooper says it's a moral imperative to tackle the illegal business, which is exploiting vulnerable people. It becomes as more than 22,000 people have so far made the dangerous journey this year. Rishan previously came to the UK as an asylum seeker and now works for the Kent Refugee Action Network. She says the only answer is to create safe and legal routes into the country. Who's dying? Who's the people who we're losing? Is the innocent people? Like obviously, it's stopping the criminals from like all the smugglers, all these things. Okay, that's a good idea to kind of stop that from allowing people to risk their life. But then the idea is like, why we don't present other like policy? Why we don't do a safe route for people those to apply? Because the majority who comes to here, they are from Eritrea, from Afghanistan, from Syria, from Iraq, from all these countries that we completely understand and we know that they are like granted, leave the 98% they granted like a refugee status. So why we don't like just allow that for him returning visas for them to apply and then come to here? Okay, it's a good idea to stop the smugglers. It's a good idea to kind of punish whole people that putting other lives in danger. But what we're seeing at the moment is like the punishment goes towards those innocent people who's losing their life. I haven't seen even like any smugglers has been like dying in anything that is most of the innocent people and children and lives. So many lives are dying. How many more that we need in order for us to understand like, you know, only just the government for how long they need to understand for that need to be a call for action like completely an action that can stop people from going to this, the boat or dying and that kind of strategy, why we don't present like the government need to must not even just do but must present humanitarian visas for people to apply so they can say safety. And as I mentioned, most of them 98% they are like from countries that well known that they are like granted for refugee status. So why is this not presented? Why similar to any like looking to the Ukrainian scheme, we saw like family reunion. We saw other schemes that people could apply to come to the UK safely but why is this not being presented? How many times, how long that we have to just sit in one place and then looking to people who are dying, continuously dying and dying and there's people like have so much potential to the UK and giving my story like if that could be me that could be any other like a refugee who comes to hear the who now contributing to the society to the UK society, why is this not being dealt with? I guess it's emphasizing the humanitarian visa that the government must do because that's the only can be sorted out this problem. We saw so many options as being presented, none of them has stopped a life, a one life not to die but continuously the numbers is going up and up and up and the idea all to stop the smugglers haven't seen anything, this has been sorted, most is the innocent people who die and I guess emphasizing the idea, not the idea, emphasizing the solution of humanitarian visas that needs to be presented, that's the government must do for people like to stop people lifestyle. The Conservative Party has criticized the government's plans for border control and say they aren't strong enough. Kent online news. A man's been charged with attempted murder after three people were stabbed in Dartford, emergency crews were called to Spital Street on Saturday night and a woman and two men remain in hospital. Eric de Silva saws, who's 29 and from Wolfside, closing eerith was detained in Scotland on Monday. The GNS man who abused a girl has been jailed for 13 years. Steve Adams was arrested after his victim reported him to authorities in 2020, the 67-year-old from Marine Parade denied the allegations but was found guilty by a jury following a trial. As suspended, Labour Councillor from Dartford is due in court accused of encouraging violent disorder at counter demonstrations following riots over the Southport stabbings. Prosecutors say Ricky Jones appeared to encourage attacks on far-right protesters at a rallying wolf on Stowe last month. The 57-year-old is expected to appear at Crown Court later. Police investigating reports of a masked burglary at a home in Maidstone have charged two men and a teenage boy. Officers were called to the Shepway part of town in the early hours of Monday after residents said they were threatened. A 20-year-old from Hertfordshire has appeared in court along with a 21 and 17-year-old from Bedfordshire. Kent online news. An elderly man has been rescued by lifeboat crews after going out in the Medway estuary in a confused state. He left in his boat from Whomarena and was found by the Sheerness RNLI team in the Swale. The 76-year-old was winched into a helicopter and brought to shore before being looked after by paramedics. Now, a decision on plans for 1,600 new homes near Margate has been delayed. Protesters have been fighting proposals to build the estate on farmland in Birchington. These people turned up last night to protest. "I've just changed my doctor's surgery from Birchington because it's bad enough as it is now. So what the hell is it going to be like when this all comes into play?" "We've got such a good community spirit in the village. You know, we've got people go roundly to pick in, people do, the flowers in the communal areas. You know, it's a real community and we're going to lose that." Peter Dowling from developer Tamagan Lan say the investment into the development would benefit not just the new estate but all residents. "At new to four-century primary school, nearly eight million pounds towards a secondary school. One point four million pounds towards a future expansion of Birchington Medical Centre. Another two million pounds towards the upgrade of local facilities. These are all facilities that will benefit not just the residents in this development but all the residents in Birchington too." Ian Livingston is from Thanat District Council. "Any refusal has to significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of providing development. We do consider those benefits outweigh the harm in this instance resulting from the development in terms of the identified impact on heritage as well as the additional loss of agricultural land and the landscape visual impact of that." It was recommended for approval but council bosses have deferred their decision as they want the developer to include more affordable housing. Conservative councillor, Rhys Pugh, spoke to Gabriel Morris from our colleagues at KMTV after the decision. "I think that residents will be relieved. I think us as councillors, we're relieved and I think the committee made the right decision tonight." Has there been so much opposition to this nearly 2,000 objections? "Well, I think residents are rightly concerned. I think that not only does the application, it isn't policy compliant and it's not delivering the amount of affordable homes that we as a councillor set in policy. Residents are concerned about the relevant infrastructure improvements that we need as well as the associated difficulties that we have with doctors, surgeries and open spaces and school places and the liking in the local area so there's very valid reasons that residents have raised. And of course, there's been more objections to this than there are going to be proposed houses on the site." Charity donations have been stolen during a break-in at Chatham Football Club. This site in Bournville Road was targeted on Wednesday night. An office building in the nearby cemetery was also burgled CCTV footage has been given to police. There are calls for a shop in Dartford to have its license reviewed after a staff member was accused of assaulting an alleged shop lifter and trapping them inside. Reporter Dad Essen has been following this story for the podcast and he's got some details for us. Dan, what can you tell us about the alleged shoplifting and assault? So, Kent Police write in a report to Dartford by a council that, essentially in May this year, they were called to Ace Express Corn Shop on Spittles Street in Dartford. Customers saying that there was a shop lifter and that shop lifter was in a fight with staff in the shop. More specifically, what they said is that a member of staff in the shop was hitting the shop lifter with a metal pole. It didn't seem any criminal charges resulted in this, but there's body cam footage showing the pole. And the Kent Police report says that the licensing officer and the officer who responded to the call say that they think that is essentially what happened. However, when CCTV footage was eventually surrendered to the police showing all of this happening, the person was holding, the member of staff was holding a pole. But corbits of the footage were missing, the police say, which didn't show the full extent of what police believed to have happened, which was a violent altercation, basically. And I understand there's been an issue with the CCTV footage. Kent Police asked for CCTV footage of this of this incident because the entire shop is pretty much the entire shop is covered by CCTV. And when they asked for it from a member of staff who was there, he said he wasn't trained to use CCTV system and couldn't get it out, which is a licensing violation in itself. Most licensed premises need to have somebody on, you know, on premises at all times so you can operate the footage. What the police say is that the managers known as a shop ignored requests for the footage for best part two weeks before eventually giving it to them. And when they gave this footage up, core sections of the footage showing the altercation between the member of staff and the shop lifter were missing. And the police allege, basically, that this section of the footage was removed for the purpose of, you know, avoiding a police response to the shop due to the sort of disproportionate force used against a shop lifter. And the lady who gave the CCTV footage to the police before doing so initially claimed that it was in, you know, a metal pole was not in fact used in this altercation, but it was, in fact, a sponge water soaker that they used to sell, though the footage shows and an image that we have from body cam footage shows pretty clearly that, you know, there wasn't a metal pole in someone's hand in the shop. Now it's not the first time police have had a running with this store. I believe there have previously been reports of a sexual assault and illegal workers. Yeah, it definitely isn't the first running police have with the store. This report of the Alpha Barre Council goes into quite some detail about previous interaction can police have with ACEs express firstly, they say that in January last year, the shop refused to cooperate with police in investigation about a sexual assault. There's a bench directly out front of the shopping clear view of a CCTV camera, which is, you know, the shops CCTV. And what they say is that a vulnerable drunk woman was being raped on the bench outside. They received a report about this. They came to investigate the other CCTV once again, the member of staff there said he couldn't give them the CCTV, but he called the manager and the police described the manager as rude, obstructive and unhelpful and told them, oh, yeah, he told them he could give them the footage. He could easily access it from his phone, but refused to do so and question why should you cooperate with the police. And furthermore, also the police has been visited by immigration officials on at least one occasion, where an illegal worker was found and arrested. He was here on the student visa, nominally studying at the University of Nottingham on a business on a project management course, but his student, he'd been here since September 2022, but his student visa had been revoked because he was failing to attend his course in Nottingham and was seemingly working in Dartford for most of that time. So he was arrested as an overstayer and that that's quite common. That's the form a lot of illegal work in this country takes, it's people on student visas who have them revoked or who work too many hours, you know, more than their visa allows. So yeah, the shops got quite record. So what's the process for the license review? All of this has come to light because Kent police have written into Dartford Borough Council looking for a review of the license and the report is available to anyone who wants to read it. Kent police say management of the shop is untrustworthy. They have a record of not cooperating with police and not fulfilling the conditions of their license, so Dartford police, or rather Kent police say they think Dartford Borough Council should consider revoking the license and revoking the license with amount to stripping them of their ability to sell, it wouldn't force them to close though, because regular trading, you know, selling snacks and sweets, that's all stuff you don't need a license for. But that's what Kent police think the council should look into doing and that decision will be made will be made next Thursday at Dartford Borough Council meeting. So yeah, that's unless there's some kind of delay or extraordinary legal challenge, which isn't to be expected, the final call will be made next week. Thanks, Dan. Kent Online News. Bigger seen by Kent Online show, the number of children in Kent who've had the MMR jab remains below the World Health Organization recommended level. 85% of five-year-olds in the county had both jabs by the end of March this year. The numbers even lower in Medway, the who says 95% should be protected against measles, mumps and rubella. A Kent school has been given approval to build a skate park in its grounds despite major concerns from neighbors. The folks at an academy campus near Park Farm Industrial Estate will soon include a shallow bowl, two small ramps, a rail and a ledge, a first for a UK school. Neighbors say no consideration has been given to noise, light levels and toilet facilities, construction is already underway. A 20 mile per hour zone in Seven Oaks has been expanded to include roads around 14 more schools and nurseries. Signs have already been put up and the plan was approved by Council bosses last March. It's hoped it'll reduce accidents and improve air quality. Kent Online News. An event taking place later to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a mosque in Gillingham. Organizers are welcoming schools, MPs and councillors as part of efforts to remove misconceptions people might have about Muslims, Safir Khan is an imam at the Naseer Mosque. Once they see a mosque, it looks like a mosque. People are obviously curious, they want to come and see what it is and I think a lot of the times people are unsure whether they can actually come into a mosque. So what we have focused on a lot is to have a lot of open days during the last 10 years and during those open days we invite our neighbors, community organizations, friends, councillors, other people, media as well, to come and have a look and talk to us and talk about issues that we all face. And obviously, as you know, over the last few years and recently as well, there's been a lot of issues that have created hatred and division among people. And we want as Ahmadiyama Singh community to remove misconceptions people have any kind of anxieties people have. We work towards bringing about peace and justice and kindness in society, I think, which is really important in these difficult, challenging times that we are going through not just as a country but also internationally. So there's a lot of things that people have questions about and I think these kind of events and meeting people and inviting people into the mosque to have those conversations, those tough conversations help remove misconceptions, which I think is really, really important. What do you think are some of the most common misconceptions? Because as you mentioned, there was trouble recently, just a couple of months ago, because of misinformation that was spread online. Yeah, so mostly it's about extremism. It's about Islamophobia. A lot of people are scared. They think Muslims do not integrate into the society. They hold beliefs, which are contrary to British values and that there are many stereotypes like that. So these are the things that we have a focus on and we have seen the positive results of those interactions where people have come to us and they've asked us these difficult questions or what are your beliefs about something that happened, whether it was a terrorist attack or something like that. And we always are able to tell them that look, this is not the Islamic teaching. This is not what Muslims believe in. This is not what the fundamental Islamic teachings are. It's actually quite contrary. It's about peace and love and kindness and living in coexistence with other people. So these are the misconceptions that people have been able to get removed by these conversations, whereas, you know, when people have whatever they read or see in the media, they think that that is the representation of Muslims, whereas, you know, that is essentially not true. And once we are able to talk to people about this, then they get their misconceptions removed. A pub near Dover has been allowed to keep a holiday let and a pizza oven in the garden after they were installed without planning permission. The owners of the lantern in in Martin added the yurt and oven as a way of attracting more business. But some neighbors complained about the noise and parking. Despite concerns, Council has voted unanimously to approve the application. People living along part of the Kent Coast want more to be done to stop illegal cockle pickers. Residents in minster and lays down on Sheppy say every year their beaches are being stripped by teams of people who flock to the seaside, collecting less than five kilos of shellfish a day for personal use is permitted, but collecting for commercial use requires a permit. And another Kent restaurant's been put up for sale by the owners of Premier Inn, Whitbread is looking at selling off French connection table in Ashford as part of plans to expand its hotel business. Kent Online News. And now with a look at what's on in the county this weekend, it's Sam Laurie. With summer having cleared out our bank accounts and Christmas steadily creeping up on the horizon, it's fair to say that lots of us are pinching the pennies right now. If you're looking for something to do this weekend that won't cost the earth, you'll be relieved to hear that the heritage open days are back. The annual festival of history and culture returns with more than 5,000 free events across the country, including exclusive museum and garden tours, talks from the experts and access to places that are usually closed to the public. The events start today and run until next Sunday and there are plenty to choose from right here in Kent, whether it's the county's biggest attractions or some of our lesser-known hidden gems. We've got our top picks listed on Kent Online as well as all the details you need to know about how to find and book your place. Now this weekend is probably your last chance to grab a bite at a food and drink festival before they disappear for the autumn, so we've got some great ones for you to visit. Ironpier Brewery in Northley is hosting its annual beer festival with a selection of cask ails and craft beers from today until Sunday. While cameras East Malling Beer and Sider Festival is boasting the best of local rear lales and sider on Saturday. McNade in Faversham is throwing an end-of-season party at its food village with pop-up stalls selling everything from katsu curry to wood-fired pizzas, as well as bars and live music, while the 7.0 Street Food Fest is at Vine Gardens offering a taste of global cuisine. Both of these events take place on Saturday. If you fancy a bit of music, you can catch some of the biggest pop tunes at Abba Forever, a tribute show recreating the Swedish band's hits at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley on Saturday, and fans of the King won't want to miss Ben Portsmouth, a top tier impersonator who brings his rock and roll "This Is Elvis Show" to the Orchard West Theatre on Sunday. Finally, something to look forward to after the weekend, on Monday, best-selling author Jacqueline Wilson is celebrating the release of her upcoming novel "Think Again" at the Stag Theatre in Seven Oaks. The writer will be sharing the stories behind some of her best-loved characters with fans, as well as giving away a few secrets about the new novel, which follows on from the Girls series of books first published in the 90s. That's just about it for this week. Hopefully you will find some great things to do this weekend without breaking the bank. Thanks Sam. Ken's online, sports. Football now, on top of the table, drilling them head to Doncaster Rovers this weekend. They'll be hoping to continue their unbeaten start to the season in League Two. Manager Mark Bonnet says the opposition will be tough after a strong end to the last campaign. They've started the season well as well, and I think, I don't know this for definite, but their calendar year off the top of my head is pretty impressive. Obviously, they finished last season unbelievably well with the winning runs that they had, and that momentum has probably followed into the season. They've made changes to the team, got some different players in, and they've had a bit of a change, but probably the momentum that they've got and the way in which they work is fairly consistent, and a lot of the remaining players know that, so Grant's got a really good way with his players and the way in which they've developed their style, which is really clear to see, and they've started the season excellently, so I think the openness of this League is so apparent because every week I seem to be saying, you can see why they're one of the fancy teams, and I seem to be saying that quite often, which I think by definition just tells you what this League is about. There's loads of good teams, and it's going to be open for a lot of teams to fight for those places, but they'll be in that same bracket as us, fancied, good starters, and want to have a successful season, and I think back to the end of the last season, and remember Grant after the playoff defeat, basically saying, "If you don't want to come back on win the League in this press, like Don Bovar," so I think that their intent for the season is really clear. They've started as they'd have liked to, and we know that away from home, we've had some tough ones, and this will be the toughest so far, I think. We mentioned momentum, we've got some of our servers, of course, and we forced them to one chance of the weekend because Max Ebert is suspended, the Housekeeper movie, who is available, who isn't. Yeah, Max suspended, so he misses the game. You and Williams is away, he plays Friday, or Northern Ireland's 21s play England, Friday, Ukraine next Tuesday, so we'll see him following Thursday, he'll be back. Max is obviously a one-game ban, other than that, we have got a couple to check in on. Obviously, Tuesday went well for us, we came through that well, so everyone that played is available. Off the back of last weekend, there's one or two that didn't play Tuesday, though we've got to make a bit of a late shout-on, and we're waiting on some news from the physios force. We've not got everyone to pick from, as we get some back, there's one or two other issues, but that's the challenge, obviously Aaron came off last week, so he's unlikely, but we need to see how that is, and one or two others that we need to check on, so we'll put a team together, we've had everyone out on the grass today, walking through some bits, we've done a lot of work in here in the video room, we haven't got a lot of time between games, we can't work so hard at the moment, so we're trying to do our work on the tactics board and on the video, bits and pieces like that, but it's been good, but we'll find a solution and put a team out to try and continue on the momentum that you mentioned, and I think we've got that, we've had that in the league games, I think even like we go into Tuesday and with a different team, we look like a team in a good place, and I don't think the result changes, it's all from performance, just maintains that idea that we're developing team doing well, lots of options, lots of ideas and lots of potential. Kickoff tomorrow, is it three? As I'm excited to use from the Paralympics, 13-year-old Tundridge swimmer Iona Winifredt says she's super happy to have won a silver medal at the games, she beat her own British record in the SB7 100m breaststroke event yesterday evening, she's the youngest member of the GB squad in Paris and says her friends will think it's pretty cool. That's all from us today, and for the week, 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 kentonline podcast. (dramatic music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
