The boss of a shop in Dover has blamed new EU border rules for the closure of his store - just months after another trader quit for the same reason.
He’s told the podcast repeated delays mean customers already struggle to reach his business because of long queues blocking the roads and it will only get worse when new Entry/Exit System (EES) checks come into force in November.
Also in today’s podcast, you can hear from a leading asylum charity who says more people will die in the Channel unless safe routes are set up.
It follows the death of at least 13 people who lost their lives when a small boat capsized yesterday.
There are calls for compensation to be given to those affected by a major internet outage which sparked chaos over the weekend.
The blackout in Dartford hit more than 6000 people for as long as 33 hours.
Fans have been left disappointed after a band set to perform at Dreamland this week have cancelled their gig following the death of a crew member.
Scooter have posted on social media to say they're "devastated" and have made the decision to reschedule.
And, people living in Folkestone have been left baffled following a bid to bring back public phone boxes.
Plans have been revealed to introduce futuristic, touch-screen boxes - but it raises the question of who will actually use them?
This is the Kent Online Podcast. Kate Faulkner. Hello. Hi, if you're OK. Thank you for downloading today's podcast on Wednesday, the 4th of September. Coming up today, we'll hear from a business owner from Dover, who's worried the town will become a no-go zone where the new entry exit system comes into force, but also get reaction from the Jills Manager after last night's loss in the EFL trophy. But first, our top story today, a pregnant woman and six children are among those who have died after a boat carrying asylum seekers sank in the channel. At least 12 people were killed off the coast of France yesterday. Steve Smith is the CEO of Care for Calais. He spoke to Nicola shortly after the news emerged. An absolute tragedy up there amongst some of the worst that we've seen in the channel by the sounds of it, from what I'm hearing so far. But unfortunately, I'm not surprised as we continue these mechanisms of deterrence rather than safe routes, this will continue to happen. We heard that this vessel capsized may be completely fell apart. I mean, as you say, we don't know the exact details yet, but I guess that just kind of reiterates how flimsy and dangerous these vessels are that an awful lot of people are getting on board. Yeah. Flimsy and dangerous. And what we're seeing is that people are taking greater risks each time. So stacking more individuals on boats, the boats leaving from places that it wouldn't previously have left from, which are slightly more dangerous in terms of the length of the crossing, the duration of the crossing, that sort of thing. Yeah. So unfortunately, this is just a pattern that's continuing. Yeah, because we've heard that this crossing left from slightly further around the coast, a bit further south of Calais, and it's quite difficult to get to, I understand. Yeah. It doesn't surprise me at all. What's happening is that people are being driven to more and more desperate measures. And this is what deterrence does. I always liken this to the situation in the States when alcohol was banned in the 1920s. What did it do? It created situations where alcohol went underground, there was speed keys, there was an alcopone, there was gangsterism and so on, and that's what desperate people do. When they're that desperate, when they're fleeing the most awful circumstances, anyone can imagine in their life, they will take these desperate measures like crossing the channel in an overloaded boat to try to get to safety. Obviously, the Conservatives had the Rwanda policy, which was incredibly controversial. That's now been scrapped by Labour. They're wanting to set up a border security command. Is that going to work? Well, I guess they've got to do something, haven't they? Because they've scrapped the Rwanda policy, and so being politicians, they have to offer some sort of fig leaf as an alternative. Personally, I don't think it stands much chance of working in the way they wanted to. Why? Because we've left the European Union, therefore we are out of Europe. We no longer have the European arrest warrant. We no longer take part in the border security measures that track people crossing borders within Europe. So for all those reasons, I can't see why it would work. Having said that, why not introduce safe routes? Safe routes take away the pressures. They mean that screening can be done outside the UK. So those coming in are doing it through a controlled mechanism. We already know who's coming. We don't know that with people coming by boats at the moment, and that's what's done with Ukrainians. You don't hear of Ukrainians dying in the channel or paying people smugglers because they have safe routes. The latest casualties mean more than 30 people have died in channel crossing so far this year. Home Secretary of Vancouver described the incident as "horrifying and deeply tragic" and says "vital efforts to dismantle dangerous and criminal smuggler gangs must proceed at pace." Kent online news. Halisa hunting a man who sexually assaulted a woman near the River Medway in Maidstone. She was sitting in an area near the Lok meadow leisure complex when she was approached by a stranger who tried to talk to her before launching the attack on Monday night. As a keen to speak to anyone with dashcam, doorbell or CCTV footage, a man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after three people were stabbed in Dartford. A woman and two men were taken to hospital after being attacked in Spital Street on Saturday. A 29-year-old who's thought to be known to the victims was detained in Scotland. A man arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman at a house near Tunbridge Wells has died in hospital. Police were called to Bright Ridge in Southborough on Saturday and discovered an 82-year-old who had been stabbed. A 24-year-old man who was arrested and also suffered injuries passed away this morning. Police say they're not looking for anyone else over what happened. Kimberly Godsell has lived in Bright Ridge for the past year and spoke to reporter Ellie Hodgson. "I think there were 13 emergency vehicles, police, ambulance and fire engine walled out there. But the number of people and the time that they all took and since then the police presence has been really reassuring and I've been really impressed with how they've been and they've made everyone feel very safe with what's going on." "And if you had to describe how the community is feeling, how would you sort of sum that?" "Shocked, I think. Shocked is not something that we would expect to happen round here. And sad for the family involved. Obviously you don't want something like that to happen to anyone. I don't know the family personally, but it's a very small community round here. And so yeah, everyone just feels a bit kind of shocked by it all." Kent Online News An 18-year-old has been charged with attempted murder after a man was stabbed in Maidstone. Police were called to a disturbance at a property in Fair Meadow. In the early hours of Sunday, the victim is in a serious but stable condition in hospital. A man has been flown to a London hospital after a digger overturned in Snotland. Emergency crews were called to a field in Lad's Lane on Monday afternoon. It's been confirmed he suffered serious injuries. There are calls for compensation for people affected by a major electricity outage in North Kent over the weekend. 6,000 homes in businesses were without power for up to 29 hours in Greenhive, Stone and Swanscomb. Staff at a co-op store say they lost 4,500 pounds in sales. It's understood fiber cables were damaged during work on Gallyhill Road following last year's landslide. Adiver business owner Fierz the town will become a no-go zone when the new entry exit system for passengers heading to Europe comes into force. Roman Burkhardt has decided to close his antique shop on Snargate Street because of the traffic disruption when there are delays at the nearby port. He's been speaking to reporters Sam Lennon. It's a combination of things. It's the fact of the EES coming in which is going to actually decimate our town and we have enough problems with the A20 as it is. I mean, when it goes wrong, it goes really wrong. And we are always affected the worst on Snargate Street. I mean, in the Kent County Council, I see no way prepared to compensate the traders on Snargate Street. We are the worst affected street in the town and we get nothing at all. But also we've got a cost of living problems at the moment and I don't think that's going to get any better. To be honest, the way it's looking in this country, we're heading in austerity again. So the two things together is a perfect storm as far as I'm concerned. I just can't keep going. You can't keep going, but where will you go? That's a good question. I haven't got clue. The only thing I can do is going back to fares and things, but it's more summer months, so I really don't know what I'm going to do. It wouldn't be better to try to prepare you due to before you gave up on what you have here. Well, you could sign the sign about the country, couldn't you? And the fact of the year, yes. Nothing's been prepared for that. I mean, we've been given false promises all the way through, including Kent's resilience forum. We've told us all sorts of things and now it's all come into fruition. It was all a load of rubbish. We are going to get stuff and I can't fall to take the hit again. How many times do you get, on average, do you get clogged up and snagged at the street because of the poor traffic? Well, during the summer months, quite often, very, very often, it's absolutely ridiculous. We do get the occasional days where, for no particular reason whatsoever, it just clogs up. But yeah, I mean, on a semi-regular basis, but mainly during the holiday times, when we should be making money during the summer months or bank holidays or whatever it might be, that's when the last time it really clogged up I was out, jet washing the pavement outside my shop because no one could get him. Earlier this week, it was reported cars may have to park in fields if there are problems crossing the channel when the EES starts operating in November. Kent's online news. There are concerns with the safety of food bank volunteers after a man was attacked in Medway. He was delivering supplies to a site that was closed when he was approached on Sunday. Oliver, from our colleagues at KMTV, has been speaking to Neil Charlek, who's chief exec of Gillingham Street Angels. One of our drivers was delivering food to the food bank. Food bank was closed. He had the door open, the van reversed up and was passing food in. A guy came along and asked if the food bank was open, said no, it's shut. The guy looked at him, just walked straight into the food bank and started to take stuff off the shelves. The driver explained it was shut and needed to leave. The guy then became very, very aggressive. It didn't take much to do this, so he just started swinging punches. The driver used a crate, one of the crates to defend himself. It's not the youngest of people. The guy was punching into the crate. He managed to get him out of the premises using the crate. Got him outside, which then luckily we had two witnesses. Two witnesses saw what had gone on. They then filmed it, got some pictures that have been passed by the witnesses to the police. But these guys volunteer with a lot of people in this community. They shouldn't have to deal with that kind of illicit, increasing problem. This is not just a one-off occurrence. The verbal abuse, the abuse that goes on towards food banks and other organisations are there to help is appalling. When did you start to notice that this trend was increasing? Was it always like this or has it gotten worse than recent years? I think COVID was the big change for us. So COVID, when COVID struck, a lot of people were willing to support charities. A lot of supermarkets were giving a lot of food out. That's now dwindled off. People are as tight in the purse strings. It's harder. So it's harder for us to be able to get food. And we're needing a lot more food. We're feeding around 25,000 people a month. That's a lot of people that use our services to get that amount of food. It's very difficult. What I've found is when we haven't got what some people come along and they want things that are just not possible to get, they want joints of beef. You get people that are just, you know, they're not grateful of just food. They're starting to kind of abuse the fact that it's free food. And they want stuff that's just not possible to get donated. So is it that thing that's causing the increase? Or do you think you are getting more desperate as well? Or is it kind of a mix? You're a myriad of factors here in Medway. I think people are desperate. I think people are desperate. They're desperate to feed their children. They're desperate to clothe their children, keep them warm. I think we're getting to the point, it's kind of a breaking point. People are desperate people and they'll do desperate stuff to get that. And it's not that doesn't help, you know, my staff and my volunteers being safe. But people are, I think the shock is being crime in general is on the up. As people are desperate, they need to look up to their families. So do your volunteers and staff no longer feel safe? Are they genuinely concerned when they go out and volunteer to help the community that they could be in danger? We have to now carefully plan what we're doing, soup kitchens, food bank. We've had to buy body cameras. We've had to have CCTV. This is all stuff we're spending money on. But we shouldn't be spending money on. Those body cameras are 200 pound a piece to make sure that they feel, and why volunteers feel a bit of safety that when somebody does go wrong, we've got one of the volunteers got leukemia. She's been spat in her face. People are just rude. There's some rude people out there. And it's not a great deal. We can do, you know, we can't afford to have security guards out of food bank that's trying to help people. We're trying to give stuff out for free. It's bad that we should be even looking at that kind of thing. How many body cameras have you had to buy because to keep your staff safe? Like what's that level of investment in regard to protecting your staff? So they're 200 pound each. So that's 600 pound. We've had to spend on that. The CCTV took beef. It was over 1000 pound. And that's all purely because of safety, safety for the staff. You know, people are not willing to go out unless they've got some kind of level of safety. Witnesses managed to take a picture and video of the incident which has been given to police elsewhere today. There are calls for a protest at County Hall in Maidstone over changes to disability payments. People will have to contribute a lot more to the cost of care or accommodation as council bosses look to balance their budget. There are concerns about the impact it'll have on those who are vulnerable. A demonstration is expected to be held during a meeting next Thursday. Now, fans have been left disappointed after a band scheduled to appear at Dreamland cancelled following the death of a crew member scooter which has sold more than 30 million records were due to appear at the Margate venue on Friday as part of the summer series. They posted on social media to say they've been devastated by the loss of their backliner Seb who was just 40 years old. The show has been rescheduled to next June and all tickets will be valid for in the new date. I can't mom who credits a children's centre with saving her life has shared her story in a bid to prevent it from closing. Seashells in Sheerness is at risk because of funding issues. Amy Watkins was diagnosed with a severe mental illness after the birth of her second child and says staff at the facility helped get her life back on track. We can read Amy's story in full on the website. A consultation on the future of the site ends later this month. Kent online news. Thousands of pounds worth of equipment has been stolen from an archery club near Seven Oaks. Storage containers at Fox archers in Oxford were broken into on Saturday night, meaning the tournament the following day had to be cancelled as a warning as the 40 bows and 500 arrows are weapons. A peer near Gravesenders partially collapsed after being damaged in a fire. The walkway indention has been taped off and an investigation is under way. Conservative MPs are due to start voting for who they want to be the next leader of the party. Tundbridge rep Tom Tugenhart is one of six candidates hoping to replace Rishi Sunak. He officially lodged his campaign yesterday by apologising for his party's performance in the last government. I witnessed the recent political trauma with a combination of depression and anger. I witnessed the failed coups and the successful ones and I saw Juicy give way to ego. That's why I'm standing before you today because this country can change. We must change and Britain deserves better. The former soldier vowed to win back younger voters and address defence spending for candidates will make it through to the next stage and get the chance to address the party conference later in the month. Developers are hoping to bring a church in Dover that's been closed for more than 20 years back into use as homes. The building on the high street was also damaged in a fire in 2007. Revised plans have been put into the council by those behind the idea to convert it into 16 flats. Now there's a warning in place for heavy raiding Kent tonight which could cause some flash flooding. The Met officers issued a yellow alert and say up to 40 millimetres could fall within just a couple of hours. The warning comes into force at nine this evening. Phone boxes could be returning to a Kent town centre. New world pay phones as announced plans to install seven of their touchscreen versions in Folkston that is described as multi-communication hubs. A lifeline for anyone without a working phone. You can see what they look like in the story on our website. And while you're there, check out some behind the scenes pictures of the latest Marvel movie being filmed at an historic fort in Kent. The cast and crew of Craven the Hunter took over the Citadel in Dover for five months. It stars Aaron Taylor Johnson and Russell Crowe. Ken's online sport. For one hour in Gillingham have lost their opening group match in the EFL trophy. They were beaten to one by Peterborough United at Priestfield last night. It was a chance to help some players coming back from injury and give others much needed minutes. Gill's manager Mark Bonnet spoke to reporters after the match. I thought it was a really good game and I thought we played really well. Having looked statistics at anything but felt like we had a lot more control of that game. So in the first half that we've had of many so far, thought we played with a good confidence with the ball and connected the game quite nicely. Our frustration is that we've lost it despite the fact that there have had some good chances in the game and they'll be delighted with their finishes. We're really frustrated with the goals we've conceded because we think they're preventable on our part and in the first sort of 12 minutes we've had real control of that game and given a moment away one pass beats us and they get a run off of us and can't allow that against athletic players, really athletic players. But we ended up behind the mission to really be behind at half time I don't think at worst. That should have been a level game. We didn't have quite enough threat to get beyond Josh. Wide players involved and build up a little bit too much at times but yeah we have used that game clearly tonight to save some, to get some minutes into others. Some younger players get opportunities but I have to say I really liked what we were tonight. I really liked it and I think it shows the bags of potential in what's possible for us. Against a brilliant team by the way, holders in the competition, so many athletic players and then they're bringing on some very, very good league one players and I thought we were a real match for them. I really enjoyed watching us, I really enjoyed the level and yeah I like the potential in the team because I know there's lots more to come and as players some of those get fitter and whatever. Yeah lots to like of them. What's your overriding motion after that game when you go home tonight what's the main thought in your brain box? I think the lads are proper frustrated because we feel like we've given them a couple of goals and the game was there for us to get more out of than we got. I love the fact we're chasing it. I love the fact that we're fuming with the referee for blowing up so quick at the end and we want to chase and try and get another goal. There's a good mentality building in the team. These games can often not look like that. I've taken and seen plenty where it doesn't look like that but what I like is we're trying to build something, we're trying to develop as a team, we're trying to test ourselves against very good opponents and this group's given us these and Steven it. Johnny Williams playing in midfield, I'm only playing a bit of a six when he comes on, he's from Coleman back on the pitch, loved seeing it and so on. So yeah loads to take out of it so there's a frustration because we don't want to celebrate losing games ever and at all but that aside really that's about we've used the game in the right way, we've got loads out of it and I think we've seen a glimmer of the potential so overriding a motion excited. They're back in league two action this weekend as they travel to Doncaster Rovers. 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 Kenton Line podcast. (dramatic music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
