A mystery buyer has snapped up plots of land in Medway, leading to fears it'll affect resident's privacy and the value of their homes.
The plots of land vary in size from less the an acre to more than seven acres, and some are within feet of people's properties.
Also in today's podcast, a man's been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman in her 80s was stabbed to death near Tunbridge Wells.
Police were called to a disturbance in Bright Ridge in Southborough on Saturday night.
The prisons watchdog says HMP Rochester needs urgent improvement after a decade of decline resulting in a "shocking level of neglect".
Inspectors visited last month and found squalid conditions, rising violence and widespread drug use. Hear from Charlie Taylor who is HM Chief Inspector of Prisons.
The Kent MP hoping to be the next Tory leader has revealed he'd bring back something similar to the Rwanda scheme if he ever becomes Prime Minister.
Labour promised to scrap the policy and have set up a Border Security Command to try and stop asylum seekers crossing the Channel. Tonbridge rep Tom Tugendhat has been speaking on the latest episode of the Kent Politics Podcast.
As new research suggests more than a fifth of customers are asking for the service charge to be removed from restaurant bills, we've been finding out what you think.
Rather than leave a tip on the table, it's becoming more and more common for eateries to add a bit extra onto the bill instead. Reporter Millie Bowles has been chatting to diners in Canterbury.
It's claimed donations have been left to rot inside a charity shop in Maidstone, after it closed during the pandemic but never reopened.
Save the Children in Union Street still has a full window display at the front and is overgrown with brambles at the back.
And in sport, Gillingham remain unbeaten in league two this season after a 1-0 win over Chesterfield.
Robbie McKenzie scored the only goal of the game at Priestfield on Saturday and we've been getting the thoughts of manager Mark Bonner.
This is the Kenton Line Podcast. Hello, hope you're okay and had a good weekend. Thanks ever so much for downloading today's podcast on Monday, September the 2nd and a man's been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman in her 80s was stabbed to death near Tumbridge Wells. Police were called to a disturbance in Bright Ridge in Southborough on Saturday night. The suspect who's in his 20s also suffered stab wounds and is in serious condition in hospital. It's understood the pair were known to each other. The dart for MP says he's very concerned after three people were stabbed in the town center. Jim Dixon has posted on X after emergency crews were called to Spital Street on Saturday night. Three people were taken to hospital is not thought their injuries are life threatening. Next and the prisons watchdog says HMP Rochester needs urgent improvement after a decade of decline resulting in a shocking level of neglect. Now inspectors visited last month and found squalid conditions, rising violence and widespread drug use. Fewer than a third of inmates were engaged in education work or training. It's the first category C jail to receive an urgent notification. Lucy has been speaking to Charlie Taylor who's the HM chief inspector of prisons. This is a really concerning report. One of the sole purposes of HMP Rochester is about preparing people for release, about prisoners becoming safer, less risky to the public when they come out at the end of their sentences. What we found is that the offense related work, the sort of work that helps people to become less risky wasn't happening in anything like the right way. But also the access to the sorts of training, education work, skills that you would expect people to be gaining while they're in prison in order that they can get a job when they come out. That wasn't happening well as well. But also the men at the jail were being held in often pretty filthy conditions. Parts of the jail are overcrowded. There are vermin rats mice crawling in under the doors of cells. We were told that by staff, by prisoners. What a huge concern that was. And also levels of violence have increased also at the jail too. So overall, this was a jail that was just failing to do its job properly as a category C prison. And one of the things that stood out for me reading the report is the abundance of drugs that people are getting hold of. I mean, in the testing, 42% of prisoners tested positive for drugs. How concerning is that? Well, it's enormously concerning because where drugs are getting into prison, that means that there's organised crime within that prison. Where you have drugs, you have debts and debts in prison are usually sorted out by violence. So if you don't pay up or your family don't pay up on the outside, then the debt is paid off by someone getting beaten up. That explains why levels of violence have gone up. But also if you've got prisoners, 42% who are testing positive for drugs. These are not people who are in a state of mind to be working, going to education, getting the sorts of skills they're going to need if they've got a chance of being successful when they come out. We've seen an increase in the amount of drugs getting into prisons across the country recently. But 42% is one of the highest that I've seen since I've been Chief Inspector. And just finally, what's the response being from the prison and what are the next steps to making sure these improvements are made? Well, look, there's some good stuff happening at Rochester as well. And there's many great staff in the jail. The governor is fairly new in post and we hope that she will stay there and she'll get the opportunity to be able to really get a grit. But we also need to see the prison service and the government to invest in the jail as well. This is a prison that was slated for closure a few years ago and has been allowed to deteriorate. And it needs money spending on it to bring it up to a reasonable standard. So look, we'll be back at the jail within a year. We'll want to see some substantive improvements. We'll want to see the jail is going in the right direction. They won't be able to turn it round overnight because there are so many issues there. But we want to see things better when we go back to the jail. And online news, police have released a picture of two men that hunting after another man suffered serious facial injuries in Canterbury. The victim was discovered in gravel walk in July shortly after a fight on the high street. You can see the image at Kent online. A thief who threatened to bite his shop worker has been banned from a number of stores in Ashford for three years. Jesse Barton stole products from supermarkets last month and was identified on CCTV. The 36 year old who doesn't have a permanent address has also been jailed for six months. The Kent MP, hoping to be the next Tory leader, has revealed he'd bring back something similar to the Rwanda scheme if he ever becomes prime minister. Labour promised to scrap the policy and have set up a border security command instead to try and stop asylum seekers crossing the channel. What Umbridge rep, Tom Tugenhatt says that won't work on its own. He's been speaking to local democracy reporter Simon Finley on the latest episode of the Kent Politics podcast. Why do you think the Conservatives managed to fail to stop the boat crossings? I know that the Labour Party's got this sort of smash the gangs, but you know success of governments in the last 30 years have put the best brains of white hole up against this and still fail too to solve it. Why is it proving to me that's not that's not true. That's just not true. The reality is that the first really serious attempt to stop the small boat crossings was really begun only a few years ago and that was with the deterrence scheme. Now I'm not going to pretend for a second that any of us are particularly pleased about the Rwanda scheme. We're not, but we need a deterrence that makes sure that people aren't putting the lives of many others at risk by trying to smuggle them over the channel. Now we need to be absolutely clear that a deterrent is incredibly important and what Labour have just done is they've just dropped the deterrence. Okay, they've rebranded the small boats operational command that we've had in place for a number of years. But as we know the difference, you know, the reason that that isn't enough on its own is because the channel is very narrow and because you go straight from French waters to British waters without a single millimetre between them. And so what you need to do is you need to have a deterrent and that's why the Rwanda scheme or whatever it will now have to become in five years time when we're looking to reset it. It is so important and we're not alone in saying that the Danes do it, the Italians do it, the Spanish do it, many other countries do it. In fact, we are now going to be an outlier for a country that is not looking to do it. And I think that's extremely concerning because effectively what Keir Starmer has done is he's changed the incentive structure and he's made it clear that it is going to be profitable to smuggle people into the United Kingdom. And I think that's very worrying. I mean, you were very well thought of in the security sector when you were serving as the minister and you must have known what the security threats were within this particular problem about the small boats. I mean, did you get a valuable insight into why this has persisted? Yes, and an awful lot of this is to do with the drivers and many of those drivers is to do with the economics of it. It is a very profitable business and that's why the deterrent is so important because the reality is there's only so much you can do with the small boats operational command. We know that and that's why despite having had it for I think it's now six or seven years, it's quite a long time that it's been going. We knew that we needed a deterrent as well. Now, sadly, all that Labor have done is they've rebranded the small boats operational command and they've scrapped the deterrent. More than 1,700 people have arrived in Kent on small boats in the past week. Kent's online reports. A court said how a Cox Heath man pushed his wife, who has Parkinson's disease to the floor and kicked her in the face. John Carr had been drinking when he lost his temper and attacked his partner of 50 years during an argument. The 81-year-old who now lives on Union Street in Maidstone has been placed on a 12-month conditional discharge and been ordered to pay more than 100 pounds. A graves then man's been ordered to pay compensation meantime to a student after stealing their backpack, which contained a laptop. A court heard the theft from Thamesgate Shopping Centre had a big impact on the victim's ability to study for his A-levels. 24-year-old Brendan O'Brien from Rutan Road tried to claim he thought the bag had been left for him by a friend but admitted a theft. A family of a young girl from Hyde say they're devastated after being told her rare cancer has returned for a third time. Mayor Nash was first diagnosed with neuroblastoma when she was three and travelled to New York for a clinical trial. The 11-year-old is due to have chemotherapy which could enable her to have another trial designed to prevent the disease from coming back. This is one of our most read stories on the website today. A mystery buyer has snapped up plots of land in Medway, leading to fear it'll affect residents' privacy and the value of their homes. Lucy joins me now with more on this for the podcast. Lucy, where are the sites? Well they're in Rainham, Gillingham and Chatham and have all been sold at auction without any form of consultation. The plots of land vary in size from less than an acre to more than seven acres and summer within feet of people's properties. They had a guide price of £1,000 each but went for much more with one fetching £20,000 at the sale in London last month. How come the land was made available? Interestingly, these plots are not owned by the council even though the authority has maintained them for years. We've discovered they were actually owned by a real estate company called Deadwood Enterprises which is based in Cookston. They don't have planning permission but Medway Council has taken further action to make sure they're not built on. Emergency tree preservation orders have been put on grassy glade and Kennerworth Gardens, which are two of the sites sold off. The Gillingham and Rainham MP, Nashaba Khan has also visited the area and says she's listening to residents' concerns. And do we know anything about the new owner? Not really. It is quite a mystery. All we know is they're called Mr P and so far no planning applications have been submitted to the council. Lucy, thank you ever so much. Ken's online reports. Her mum's been told to remove tributes from her daughter's grave near Folkston. Cody Hobman created the memorial to 16-year-old Elissa Ponder after she died in crash in February but has been told it needs to be cleared for grounds maintenance. They've been given until March to carry out the work but say it will have a huge impact on the family and have started a petition. Blue badge holders will no longer be able to park for free as part of changes to areas of Tumbridge and Moreling. The council are introducing an AMPR system at Hastings Country Park and Western Road in Borough Green for a 12-month trial. The cameras, which have been brought into raise revenue, cannot distinguish between regular parkers and those with a blue badge. Meantime cameras are being switched on in Ashford to catch drivers using bus lanes. Finds will be issued to anyone travelling on parts of Beaver Road and Sackville Crescent which are only meant for public transport. AMPR cameras have been installed there too and anyone breaking the rules will be sent a £70 bill. Now as new research suggests more than a fifth of customers are asking for the service charge to be removed from restaurant bills. We've been finding out what you think. Rather than leave a tip on the table it's becoming more and more common for eateries to add a bit extra onto the bill instead. Perhaps you've been out to dinner and noticed that or maybe you haven't noticed it before. What do you think our reporter Millie Bowles has been finding out what people in Canterbury have to say. What's your opinion on service charges? Well I'm quite happy with it. I think it's a good idea. And you know so they're discretionary often and you can choose to take them off. If the service was bad in a restaurant would you take it off or do you feel awkward about asking for it to be taken off? I would take it off if it was that bad. Yeah definitely. And why do you think that they're a good idea? Just because I think it makes life a lot easier. I think you don't have to worry at the end of the ticket. You don't have to worry about working out the service charge and all that kind of thing. So yeah I think it's just simpler. And I think everyone deserves a ticket so I'm more than happy with it. I'm happy to pay the waiter or the waitress direct. I don't have any issues with it. There comes a point where embarrassment comes in if you have a situation perhaps where it's on the bill itself and you don't know and then you have to ask what is the service charge. So like I actually think the best way around this is for me is either a strategy as America do 20% which is quite how I actually but I actually do think that I'm very happy to tip waiters or waitresses there on the table and I would like to think that that money is going to go to them not to be to the establishment. So my opinion is that I'm very happy to pay it. They do a good job. It's all part of life these days to do that. So basically I think that cut out the stuff where it's just comes automatically on the chill roll. Because I do find that I mean I've just recently been to a petrol station in Canterbury and you have to do all these things and press this thing for you know no charity or anything. I don't want my money to go to a charity. My money goes to other charities. So it's one of those things where you're having a meal and you think to yourself that could occur. What do I do? No restaurant. How does this work? So basically I just think basically just tip what you want. You can get involved in the debate today by posting a comment on the story or on our socials. Kent Online News. It's claimed donations have been left to rot inside a charity shop in Maidstone after it closed during the pandemic but never reopened. Save the children in Union Street still has a full window display at the front and is overgrown with brambles at the back. Where people are also continuing to leave donations outside which then gets scattered across the road. Property developer Gary Peters would like to take the building on. It's been empty for three years or not moved for three years. People keep chucking all their charity stuff out so I didn't get spreadled over the road and because we've done this one we decided we wouldn't mind that one to do the same thing as we've done here. We're still waiting to hear that now they're on about maybe putting it in auction. Who knows if they do that we've been looking at the auctions every day to see if it's on and it's not yet. But we are after it. We've been after it for months. I would start work on that tomorrow and put it back to our house. That's what it was originally. The house which older than down here. The charity have told us all sellable donations have been moved to other stores and Good News for drivers Operation Brock has been removed from the M20. The contraflow system was in force between Maidstone and Ashford over the summer holidays to minimise the impact of delays at the border. Highways bosses say it was used to cute Laurie's nine times. Ken's online sport. For ball Angelina remain unbeaten in league two this season after a 1-0 win over Chesterfield. Robbie McKenzie scored the only goal of the game at Prussfield on Saturday and the Jules held on for all three points despite being down to 10 men for the final half an hour after Captain Max Emer was sent off. His manager Mark Bonner. It was really hard at the second half obviously when the sending off happened it's just they've done the wrong. They didn't create huge amount of chances for our work ethic to stop them doing that was amazing and we defended our box well enough enough times and they've come close a few times today. It would work three times I think the one at the end where we jump when we shouldn't and everyone's running out of the box and they look over it's the crossbar lines back in the melee shads over a kick in it I mean it's just carnage but a bit of drama for the rain event so it was a nice way to finish it's a massive massive result to take 10 points from the first four games and three clean sheets on the bounce with the circumstances I've said that so many times I wonder when I'll stop saying it but yet again huge character two wins here got really really good from us today and everyone just used to have that winning mentality you're not getting through so you're not scoring we want to hold on to these three quests everyone two have managed it up to the challenge yeah we have to because they're good sides you know you can see we did think a bit different our first half we had some really good bits more comfortable in certain moments with the ball high pressure that turned the ball over well we had a horrible start the first few minutes we were honking and then after that we got going a little bit scored the goal super goal brilliant fair play but Darren and Pete worked those things all the time set plays but the execution from Jack and Robbie and everybody else was was very good Hazy's done some great work with the lads this week on our pressing and high upper pitch and we did something a bit different today to try and stop them getting total control of the game we did it relatively well in the first half brilliantly on a few occasions and had a bit more of the ball as a consequence of that so it's an everybody win really Marcus Wiley lapo first starts like brilliant Marcus first start in the FL brilliant and then like get through it get through it come on make an impact why you have to do just yeah it's a brilliant win for us and in cricket Kent have suffered another defeat in the county championship they lost by an innings and 21 runs to Warwick's year in three days to leave them bottom of the league one table and 35 points from safety that's all from us for today thanks ever so much for listening don't forget you can follow us on Facebook X Instagram tick tock and threads you can also get details on the top stories direct your email each morning via the briefing to sign up to that you just need to head to kentonline.co.uk news you can trust this is the kent online podcast
