A boat owner's told the podcast how he was left stranded after vandals stole his generator and damaged the vessel.
Philip Tucker had moored the boat on the River Medway in Maidstone to visit a nearby beer festival.
He's calling for more patrols in the area to improve safety and has been speaking to reporter Elli Hodgson.
Also on today's podcast, figures seen by KentOnline show more than 3,500 children in Kent are living temporary accommodation.
Dartford has the highest rate as one in every 58 youngsters doesn't have a permanent home according to data compiled by Shelter. Hear from Deborah Garvie from the charity.
We've learnt today that Sheppey's going to get a new banking hub after a number of branches there closed.
HSBC, Barclays, Halifax and Natwest have all gone in Sheerness with TSB also due shut. The town wasn't initially recommended for a hub but is among 15 areas to get one.
A Tunbridge Wells mum has told the podcast that new "Teen Accounts" being introduced on Instagram don't do enough to protect children.
The social media platform's confirmed profiles will limit who can contact young people and what content they see. We've also got reaction from a Medway based social media consultant.
The boss of a Dover gym is blaming parking chaos in the town for losing more than a third of his members in just four months.
Darren Fuller owns a facility in Elizabeth Street and says customers have been left with nowhere to leave their cars.
And, on the website today you can see pictures of a stunning property in Tunbridge Wells that's gone on the market.
Dunorlan House has five bedrooms, a leisure complex, cinema room and views over a house.
Can't online news news. You can trust. This is the Kent online podcast, Nicola Everett. Hello. Hope you're okay. Thanks ever so much for downloading today's podcast. It's Wednesday, September the 18th. And first up today, figures seen by Kent online show that more than three and a half thousand children in Kent are living in temporary accommodation. Now, Dartford has the highest rate as one in every 58 youngsters doesn't have a permanent home. Dover and Gravesham are next on the list with Folkestone at the bottom of the table. I've been speaking to Deborah Garvey from Shelter, the charity that's compiled the data. The first thing to say is it's very insecure. Families are moved frequently, often at 24, 48 hours notice, sometimes miles away, which is very difficult when you've got children to be at school and nursery. And then the second thing to say, which the Doll's House shows is that it's extremely cramped. Quite often families having to live in one room where they're having to eat, sleep, children playing, studying, etc. And that's often in really grotty bed and breakfast hotels and hostels. And then also it's very likely now that you'll be accommodated out of area, which could be miles and miles from the children's school. Families often having to commute for a good couple of hours on various public transport to get their kids to school and get themselves to work. And also it means they're very isolated from extended family and friends in an area that they don't know. And the final thing to say is that, again, as the Doll's House shows, the conditions are often very unhealthy and unsafe. So problems like faulty electric, stamp and mold, structural problems and infestations as well, quite common to have rats or mice in the accommodation. And do we know what sort of impacts this can have on young people and long-term impacts as well that it can have on them? Work we've done with families in temporary accommodation shows that children or their parents say they're often feeling very unhappy or depressed as a result of being homeless in the temporary accommodation. It makes children feel very insecure or we all know that children need a lot of security and stability. But when they might have to move again at short notice, it's very destabilizing. Then they're also often isolated from school and family and friends. It's not possible to stay at school in after school clubs and you certainly can't invite anyone round. Lots of temporary accommodation. You're not allowed to have visitors, even if you wanted friends to come and see how you're having to live. And then there's the impact on schooling as well, which is so important, those long commutes to school and also the sleeping arrangements with having to share beds, etc. Children can end up arriving at school extremely tired and it's also very difficult to study. Often temporary accommodation has no Wi-Fi, which for secondary aged children, it's essential for getting homework and school work done. And also lots of children have to end up moving schools as well, because if they're moved so far away that it's impossible to commute to school every day, then they might miss a lot of school waiting for a school place to come up in the new area, only to then have to move school again. Nationally, they tell us that numbers are at a record high and they're urging the government to commit to more house building. We've had a response from Dartford Council. This is what they had to say. There are a myriad of reasons why families become homeless, including landlords wanting their rental properties back increases in rent or properties in disrepair to name a few. The reality is that we home those that come to us and that includes families with children. They go on to say, preventing any form of homelessness is a priority for Dartford Borough Council, but sometimes that simply is not possible and we therefore find suitable temporary accommodation for those families presenting to us. Now in that interview with Deborah Garvey, you may have heard her mention IKEA. It's because shelter have teamed up with IKEA to raise awareness of this issue. They've got a really large doll's house within some of their stores across the country to show what temporary accommodation can look like. And if you want to know what the stats are like for where you live in Kent today, just follow us on socials. Kent Online News. We've got some crime news next. And a man's gone on trial accused of murdering another man outside a pub near Faversham. A court's been told Adam Pritchard died after a foam row escalated and a weapon was grabbed from the kitchen of the Queen's head in Borton under Blaine. 34 year old William Cozier from Well Lane in Canterbury denies murder and the trial continues. A man's been charged by police investigating reports of someone with a handgun in Maidstone. Officers were called to Knight Rider Street on Monday night. A 32 year old from Fair Meadow in the town is doing court today. What's thought to be an air weapon was found in a bush. A shop in Tentedon has been targeted by Vandals who used wooden sticks to smash through windows. The damage to kitchens unlimited just off the high street was done just before 10 on Monday night. But nothing was reported stolen. The owners are still waiting to hear how much it will cost and police have told us they're investigating. If you head to Kent online you can see a shoplifter who was caught on CCTV just moments before a car crash in Swanley. The footage shows the man at the premier shop on the Broadway at around two o'clock on Monday afternoon. He takes alcohol from the shelf and thanks staff as he walks out without paying. Moments later a car drove into a block of flats on the same road. It's unclear at the moment if the two incidents are linked. Now we've learned today that Sheppy is going to get a new banking hub after a number of branches there closed. HSBC, Barclays, Halifax and that West have all gone in She and S with TSB also due to shut. The town wasn't initially recommended for a hub but is now among 15 areas to get one. Adrian Roberts is from Link and they are looking to create even more. Today is a really important day for everyone who values access to cash. It means we're going to see lots more banking hubs opening on high streets up and down the country and we could easily have three to 400 of these in a few years time. It also means that the banks are no longer going to be able to close their branches until the new banking hubs have opened. Really good news for consumers and communities everywhere. Banking hub is basically a shared branch. It's one building on the high street one shop and customers of all of the big banks can go into that banking hub. They can go to the counter, pay money in, take money out. There's also a private space where they can meet with representatives from their own banks in a private room. We look at access to cash in communities. We look at things like how many people live there, how many shops there are, what levels of deprivation there are. In those areas where there is insufficient access to cash, we can either recommend banking hubs or we can recommend free to use ATMs just to make sure that every community has got the right access to cash that they need. The way that we pay is changing and I think today only about one in ten payments are actually made in cash. Cash is still hugely important to a lot of people. People use it to budget. People use it because they just prefer not to use digital payments. So actually maintaining access to cash is really important. We're told it's going to be run by post office staff and should open in a year's time. Kent Online reports. We can hear now from Tumbridge Wells mum who's told the podcast that new teen accounts being introduced on Instagram don't do enough to protect children. The social media platforms confirmed profiles will limit who can contact young people and what content they see. Now they'll be automatically applied to 13 to 17 year olds or Kate has been speaking to Arabella Skinner who's part of the Safe Screens campaign. This is a relatively new phenomenon. It's been going since 2013 as such but actually it's got faster and faster and faster over time. So the very fact that you can have unlimited data you have 5G means you can get into things better and you've got it in your pocket to find it. But what we do know is that a massive great piece of work by Sapien's lab was done last year looking across longitudinal data and it showed that the earlier you get the smartphone the worse your mental health is in the long term and we know that the age of first smartphone ownership has a real connection with how long your problems long term with mental health. And this is partly because you're spending more time on it so you're spending less time doing younger things and being out and about and being engaged in other things. And you get caught into a sort of vortex of knowing through the problems of being obsessed with what's happening in social media but also just being involved in something that's in your pocket and on all the time and connected all the time and it's really not healthy. Now I know that Instagram introduced new teen accounts for young people I think age between sort of 13 to 17 it's going to I think do things like limit who can contact them who can message them who they can send messages to sort of restrict what sort of content they're able to see. Are these measures enough? Are we moving in the right direction? I think as a positive the Instagram are recognizing that there is an issue with teens which they haven't really in the past or said there's a problem so so that's a huge positive but it's not going even touching the the size of the problem. The first problem is how are they actually going to monitor this how are they going to get the right age groups we know that 13 is the age you're not you're meant to be able to access Instagram we know millions of children have Instagram accounts below 13 and they do that because they just sign up with a fake date of birth and ticker box and and look at that and yes they can migrate those children now who already have an account which says they're over 13 and under 17 and they can move that across easily but actually if you're a child and you just put a new Instagram date in and you go well actually I'm 18 who's going to stop them because there is no real age verification it's just you say you're going to do this and your age until we get proper age verification this is not going to be solvable and children will find a way way around it and age verification is a real problem. Of course have actually said earlier in the summer looking at the online safety act that they can't actually see any any age verification that will work for children under 18 at the moment so so yes it's great that they're actually starting to to look at this but practically is it actually going to work and even if it does work it doesn't solve the more detailed problems of just being sucked in to something where you're constantly sharing your life constantly sharing information and pulling in loads of information that may not be quite as harmful as the violent staff and the the self harm but it's still not good for growing minds. So Arabella clearly welcomes it but does have some concerns we've also been getting reaction from Zoey Kens who's a social media consultant based in Midway. I think it could really change the system if there are team accounts you know many of the platforms have been criticized for not doing enough to really filter that content away from young people and there's content even on there that affects you know adults and older generations but definitely for us protecting our younger people this this might be a really great initiative to really make sure that you know that the accounts are much safer for younger people to be on. I definitely think more filtering aspects could be put in place but I've always said this that we need to make sure that the platforms eventually have identification that when you set up an account online that you're asked for your ID to actually verify how old you are on there so then it can actually then start restricting some of that content that is coming through such an important thing because at the moment it's not there you know youngsters can really go on there those younger audiences can go on there set an account up and lie about their age and then they're then seeing that content coming from their feeds that that may be inappropriate and so therefore I think the measures that can be put in place is more filtering which is down to the platforms to really put that in place but also you know looking at verification as well which also helped when you know people were actually being bullied online you know trolled online because the platforms would be able to identify who those people are. Parents need to be able to monitor what their young people and teenagers are doing online you know have conversations with their young people and teenagers to make sure that they understand you know how to keep safe online and if anything does come up that they can talk about it it's nothing to be ashamed of nothing to be embarrassed about or you know nothing to shy away from and it's definitely not going to get them into trouble you know speaking about it is so important and speaking to a guardian or a parent is so key and I think parents need to make their young people aware of that they can talk about it they can reach out to people but also parents need to be aware of what they are all going on and have conversations with teenagers and young people about this also. Ken's online reports. A strudewoman says her home has been left in a terrible mess after a number of water leaks Jean Armou says faulty pipers but three times this year leaving water pouring into her third floor flat where she's lived for 13 years the property and evening closes owned by orbit homes who say they offered to move the 71 year old's belongings carry out repairs and provide temporary accommodation. A boat owner has told the podcast how he was left stranded after Vandals stole his generator and damaged the vessel. Philip Tucker had moored the boat on the river medway in Maidstone to visit a nearby beer festival. He's calling for more patrols in the area to improve safety and has been speaking to reporter Ellie Hodgson. It's a little scary being a drift in the middle of the river and not having any means to actually go anywhere and that's why I called the police at that point in time if they'd had a patrol nearby they might have been able to help but no they once they knew that there's some lads that had actually thrown me a rope and got me to shore that was it they weren't interested anymore. The way your boat was moored is that somewhere that has quite a lot of foot forward is it near anywhere that might have a CCTV? I've no idea whether this CCTV I haven't actually looked but yeah there's traffic there's I mean it's literally right next to the junction for Elle Street in the town centre so there's a flight of steps up to where the traffic lights are at the bottom of Elle Street and I was parked right at the bottom of those steps that's the first time I've actually left it in town without other than river festival when there's lots of people about anyway you know then you can sort of walk away from it and you can't expect that the other boat people will sort of keep an eye on it and not you know no one's going to touch it because it's you know it's what it is at this river festival you know and it's a boat quite secure usually. Well there's not much by way of security there's a little tiny padlock for the cabin but somehow they managed to get through that without breaking it so they must have picked a lock or something I don't know but yeah there's not much you know the canopy doesn't that is not secure obviously and that's my toolbox was there my generator was on the bow but yeah they got in the cabin and they vandalized my computer system and my my clock you know and they used my toilet and didn't flush it. They did yeah there was that deep in blooming urine in the bowl of the porter loo and paper and you know and so what is your message to a festival of the vandals and also the police? Well I mean the the vandals are kind of um well they are people who haven't been properly taught how to live really they've been just abandoned to their own ways whatever and just you know they've got no direction they've no self-control no any anything of any value because no one's ever taught them how to have that. Police have told us they are continuing to investigate. A cafe near Ashford that closed after receiving a poor hygiene rating is set to reopen following a major revamp. Thousands have been spent on the blue and white cafe on the A20 in smith the venue shut last November after rat droppings were found in the kitchen it's also being renamed to overhaul its image. Gold coins that were found in a field in Kent are going under the hammer at auction today. The horde was discovered by a metal detectorist in Lenham two years ago and dates back to 55 BC. It's thought they'll sell for around £20,000. Kent online news. Now this is one of our most red stories today the boss of a Dover gym is blaming parking chaos in the town for losing more than a third of his members in just four months. Darren Fuller owns a facility in Elizabeth Street and says customers have simply been left with nowhere to leave their cars. He thinks the vehicles belong to contractors working at the nearby western docks. Well Ian is from EB cargo global forwarding limited which is near the gym. Basically we've got four members to start with cars you know work from nine till six each day and when it's like really busy and you can't get any parking spaces they're down here at all. In fact one day I'm not going to drive back home and just walk back in as soon as it's absolutely nowhere to park. The council say they're regularly checking the area the contractors have been asked for a response. A cultural centering Kent is celebrating after winning a prestigious award the Amelia Scott in Tumbridge Wells runs programs for families, schools and community groups and provides study space. They've been given the Sanford Award which recognizes excellence in heritage education. Conservationists are calling on the government today to declare a nature emergency as data shows a drop in butterfly numbers. A big count over the summer found a third of species have had their worst year on record butterfly conservation charity once ministers to ban a certain type of toxic pesticide before it's too late. On the website today you can see pictures of a stunning property in Tumbridge Wells that's gone on the market done all on house has five bedrooms a leisure complex cinema room and views over a park. It's been put up for sale for just under four million pounds and the world premiere of a new light show will take place in Rochester next month. Scriptorium the illuminated histories will see legends, dragons, knights and biblical scenes come to life across the cathedral walls it'll run from the first to the fifth of October. But that's all from us for today. Thanks ever so much for listening. Don't forget you can follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and threads. You can also get details on the top stories direct to your email each morning. That's via the briefing to sign up to that just head to kentonline.co.uk News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast.
