A Thanet man who stabbed a bouncer and another man at a bar in Ramsgate pleaded with a judge not to send him to prison.
A court was told the attack happened at Clique Bar in Ramsgate in January this year - leaving one man with multiple wounds.
Also in today's podcast, Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has quit the Labour party.
She's been a critic of Sir Keir Starmer for some time, but it seems the final straw was his acceptance of tens of thousands of pounds worth of free gifts from donors.
Police have been given £15,000 so more officers can patrol Herne Bay as stats show it's the most dangerous part of the district.
Bosses at Canterbury City Council have been told how the town centre and seafront has become a violent crime hotspot. Hear from our local democracy reporter Dan Esson.
A Gravesend mum's described the terrifying moment she was told about her daughter choking on food at nursery.
Three-year-old Bella had been eating some potato - and thankfully back blows by staff managed to dislodge it. Angela Chapman's now decided to raise money to buy the nursery a LifeVac.
A circus performer left paralysed after breaking her back is going to be performing in Kent his week.
Silke Pan fell from a trapeze in 2007 and spent seven months in hospital. She's been telling us about her remarkable return to the Big Top.
A florist who's been trading in Swanley for more than 60 years is closing, as rising costs have made it impossible to continue
Michelle Avery has worked at Flowerworks since she was 15 and took over the store in 2011 - she's been speaking to reporter Charlotte Phillips.
And in sport, Gillingham are top of league two after another win at the weekend.
They beat fellow promotion hopefuls Barrow 2-0 at Priestfield. We've got reaction from manager Mark Bonner and man of the match Armani Little.
That's all for today's podcast. Kent Online News. News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. Nicola Everett. Hello, hope you're okay and had a good weekend. Thanks so much for downloading today's podcast. It's Monday, the 30th of September. Coming up, why more police are going to be on patrol in Herm Bay? What the officer summarized it as is, the total amount of crime in Herm Bay is going down, the crime moment her daughter had suffered a choking incident at nursery. Getting that phone call was a real eye opener. It was a wake-up almost. And the incredible circus performer, who will be in Kent this week, despite suffering a life-changing injury. From the day of my accident, until now, is a journey I would say, from the height of the trapeze to the depth of despair. First up today, we're going to start with a big story that broke over the weekend. The Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has announced she's quit the Labour Party. Now she's been a critic of secure stama for some time now, but it seems the final straw was his acceptance of tens of thousands of pounds worth of free gifts from donors. Ms Duffield also didn't agree with the scrapping of winter fuel payments for millions of older people. And she made that quite clear at the time of a vote on it. I'll slogan for the general action campaign was change. It's starting to sound a lot as though our slogan should have been the same because we're doing the things that we fought against for so long. There's been plenty of reaction to Rosie Duffield's decision. Former MP Lord Craig McKinley, posted on X over the weekend. He said, "Great decision, Rosie. Huge respect to you and best wishes." And Tory Party leadership candidate Tom Tugenhart said Rosie Duffield is right. In less than three months, Labour's greed and sleaze has been exposed. Here, stama promised a government of service, but he's only serving himself. Now, Ms Duffield has been a Labour MP in Canterbury since 2017, and will now stand as an independent. Here's what people in her constituency think. If he wants to take free gifts, what's the problem with that? Would you take a free gift? I certainly would. To have voted someone in on a Labour standpoint and then to stand independent, I think we probably are due of our election. I mean, I think they do look a bit like hypocrites that night. For me, she's more conservative than Labour. She's very brave. And you can let us know what you think about this situation by heading to the Canterbury pages of Kent Online and commenting on the story. You can also leave a message on our socials. Kent Online News. Other top stories for you today and a Margate man who stabbed two people in a nightclub brawl has told a judge. He wants to prove he can be a better dad. Lucy's got the details for us for the podcast. Well, the attack happens at Clickball in Ramsgate in January this year. A court heard Jaden Cashin lashed out during a fight leaving one man with multiple wounds. He also stabbed a bouncer who needed surgery for an injury to his bowel. Cashin was arrested five weeks later following a Kent police appeal and pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and wounding with intent to cause GBH. He asked to be spared a prison sentence so he could have a chance to turn his life around and look after his eight month old daughter. But the judge described him as a man prone to using violence and said there was no excuse for taking a knife into a bar. The 23-year-old from Beatrice Road has been locked up for four and a half years. Thank you ever so much Lucy. A person's been treated by paramedics after a fire at a flat near Graves End. It broke out on Ebs Fleet Walk in the early hours of Sunday and is thought to have been accidental. Six fire engines were also called to tackle a blaze on North Fleet High Street yesterday evening. Advice to avoid the area has now been lifted. Meantime people living on part of Shepey have been told to keep windows and doors closed because of a barn fire. Crews were called to tackle the blaze on Lays Down Road in East Church on Saturday. And residents have thanked firefighters who saved them from a fire at flats in Tumbridge Wells. People living in the good winds were woken in the early hours of Friday by crews hammering on their doors. Witnesses say an elderly man needed CPR and was taken to hospital by paramedics. Now police have been given £15,000 so more officers can patrol Herm Bay. As stats show, it's the most dangerous part of the district. Bosses at Canterbury City Council have been told how the town centre and seafront in particular has become a violent crime hotspot. The meeting's been held to discuss potential solutions. I've been speaking to our local democracy reporter Dan Essen and started by asking exactly where the details had come from. So basically, meeting us at Canterbury Council the other week, they were talking about the community safety partnership, which basically Canterbury City Council and the police and various other organisations come together regularly to talk about crime. And essentially the police have all these systems of categorising the amount of crime in an area and its relative severity. And basically on their numbers Herm Bay came up as pretty much the district's violent crime hotspot. It has less absolute volume of crime than other parts of Canterbury or other parts of the district rather wards like Westgate in the middle of Canterbury. But it came per crime. There was an average higher harm school, which basically what the officer summarised it as is. The total amount of crime in Herm Bay is going down. But the severity of them is going up is what he said. And as such, Kent police have got another 15 grand to put more bobbies on the beat, so to speak, so have more local police presence there. So when we talk about violent crime, did they give you an idea of what they're actually talking about? Yeah, so even within the same crime, they categorised the harm of it in their ranking system differently. So for example, a small scuffle outside of pub will contribute less to that score than somebody getting stabbed. But something they particularly pointed out is that there are a few quite severe high profile crimes in Herm Bay over the past six months or so, which have contributed to that score being so high. Like in particular, there was a man who was attacked with a machete near the seafront, and it's things like that, which contribute quite a lot to the high harm score they got. Now, Dan, they particularly highlighted Herm Wars. I'm sure if you live in Herm Bay, you know exactly where that is. But for anyone who doesn't, can you describe that part for us? Yes, but Herm War basically covers what you would consider the town centre, the pedestrianised area with shops and businesses and the seafront itself, sort of, and towards the edges. It's a bit more residential, but it's basically the town centre and the main drag at the seafront. And you've been to Herm Bay. What have people said there about, well, firstly crime rates, but also what do they think about more police patrols? I got a mixed response. So speaking to people who live in the area of maybe 20 people, I spoke to out on the street, probably at least half of those. When I said that police had described the area as a crime hotspot compared to the rest of the district, they were very surprised here. A lot of them said, well, that's not been my experience. I spoke to one guy who had lived in Herm Bay for all 74 years of his life and said that he didn't think it was particularly bad at all. On the other hand, I've spoken to some people like local business owners who said they think it's gotten a lot worse over previous years. And on the police presence, I mean, so some people are pretty supportive of it. They think it would be a deterrent, especially in the summer and in the evenings when the town centre and the seafront is a bit busier. But it's quite a few people who said to me that, well, is more police necessarily going to fix things because if people are committing crimes, yeah, there may be broader reasons in the town why, for example, young people are hanging around causing trouble rather than doing other things. So pretty mixed response, basically. But the main thing people said is that, you know, the police openly say that a large part of this why it's considered to be why they have this higher harm score is because of a basically a small minority of repeat offenders, essentially, which begs the question if you know who it is and they're repeat offending, why isn't it easy for the police to do something about it? And a lot of people were disappointed but not surprised here in the last case. Herm Bay relies on tourism. It's one of Kent's seaside towns. Obviously, it's really important to attract people to the area to spend money, especially in the summer. I'm guessing people don't want it to have a bad reputation, do they? No, not till when. It was something that the police officer in the council meeting was at pains to stress. He was like, you know, Herm Bay is not the Wild West by any imagination. It's just a bit worse than the rest of the district or its numbers are skewed by a, you know, a small number of quite high profile crimes. And it was concerned for a few people. I spoke to them like, you know, we don't want our town to be known as, you know, basically as some kind of, you know, crime hotspot because it's not. And to them, they said it doesn't really feel like it. I mean, I spent the whole day walking around and I didn't see any crime, but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but it seemed fine to me. Dan, thank you ever so much. Kent Online Reports. A motorbike rider who wasn't expected to survive a serious crash in Broadsteads is making a miraculous recovery. Jordan Collins went into cardiac arrest and was left with a fractured skull and brain injuries following the collision near St. Peter's Road in July. The 25-year-old is now out of intensive care in a London hospital and working on getting physically stronger. Former Southanate MP, Craig McKinley, has shared footage of his recovery 12 months after losing his hands and feet to sepsis. The video posted on socials shows the bionic politician training in a gym. The 57-year-old is now campaigning for better aftercare for sepsis survivors. A mum says she's disappointed after her adult son with learning disabilities wasn't allowed into a cinema screening for toddlers in Ashford. Jill Brown tried to take 25-year-old William, who has cerebral palsy and is non-verbal, to see the gruff-low's child at the Ashford cinema. They were refused entry. A staff said it was only for children aged five and under. The cinema has been contacted for a comment. Now, a Gravesend mum has described the terrifying moment she was told about her daughter choking on food at nursery. Three-year-old Bella had been eating some potato and, thankfully, back-blows by staff managed to dislodge it. Well, Angela Chapman's now decided to raise money to buy the nursery a life vac. And she's been speaking about it to reporter Keeley Greenwood. I'd heard of the charity obviously and what happened previously in incidents. I kind of was familiar with life vac, but it was only my own incident when I got the call from my daughter Bella's nursery to say that she had a choking incident that it actually really brought home to me. You know, how lucky I was and if it wasn't for Emma's quick reactions, we could have had a very different story. Was that scary? Oh, gosh, yes. I think it was probably more scary for Emma because she was on the receiving end of it. She was probably very blissfully unaware until I got the phone call. So getting that phone call was a real eye-opener. I was like a wake-up call most and I thought actually, you know, it would be really nice for this nursery to be able to have one. So I spoke to Emma and said, "Would you mind if I did a bit of fundraising in your name?" And obviously, just get the funds for one life vac for your nursery. And she was like, "Absolutely, that would be amazing." And then obviously, I've got to speak to Lewis, who I understand is in touch with you guys regularly. You cover the Oliver Secret Foundation. He was really helpful. So yeah, it kind of went up from there. And we said, "If we go above our target, which we already reached, any excess we get, we can either give to another nursery that's local that needs one." Or he can have it because obviously that's what they do. That's what predominantly them guys do. So yeah, it literally, that was how it came about. And so have I got it in the nursery now? Not yet. So I only set this fundraiser up yesterday afternoon. Oh! Yeah, literally yesterday afternoon. And by this evening, we've reached the full amount that we needed, obviously, to cover the life vac, the postage, and then any fees that just give in charge. And then I thought, "Well, actually, let this run a bit more." Just in case there's more awareness than people wants to know, it can either go to the Oliver Secret Foundation or a nursery nearby that also would like one that hasn't got one. Yeah. And you can also buy them, can't you? I didn't know. There's no one for your own home. So I thought one, actually. And that was my very first port of call. I thought, "Do you know what?" And she's been a bit of a pickle bell after shoving too much in her mouth. And I'm terrified. She's done it once at home previously. Thankfully, it was not a proper choking incident, however. It was just a gag. I'm terrified she's going to do that again. And I thought, "Actually, no amount of money is..." Well, you don't put price on it, do you? Yeah. I thought, "I'm getting one." And I already won yesterday. And it arrived this morning. And I've been in touch with Matt, who is the director of life vac. He's been super helpful. Sent me the links of the CPD training. Obviously, a short video to learn how to use this correctly. Obviously, because it's been used alongside initial first aid protocols first. And then this is a backup plan. Should first aid not work. So, yeah, it's really important to be trained on that as well. So, yeah, mine arrived already. I have it in my house. The life vac equipment is promoted by the Oliver Steepert Foundation, named in memory of nine-month-old Oliver from Ashford, who died three years ago. Can't online reports. Work on a controversial one-way system in Canterbury that's been branded absolutely ridiculous. As stalled, again, the redesign on the A28 in Windcheap is still waiting to be rolled out after being delayed twice since 2022. Bosses say it will considerably ease congestion in the area, while critics say it's illogical and won't work. A controversial new slit road on the A299 meantime, which will take traffic through to a newer state, is set to open by the end of the year. The changes will see a new dual-carriage way run through the strode farm development in Herm Bay. And plans have been unveiled to build a solar farm, the size of 78 football pitches on farmland near Canterbury. Green energy firm Renewable Connections has announced it's investigating the potential for a solar farm and energy storage facility near Tyler's Hill. It could provide enough power for more than 15,000 homes. Next today, and a circus performer left paralyzed after breaking her back is going to be performing in Kent this week. Silke Pan fell from a trapeze in 2007 and spent seven months in hospital. After initially taking up power sports, she's now able to perform acrobat tricks again. Kate's been speaking to her. My act, it's a celebration of life for me. It's a testament of the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity. And I do handstands on a podium. I use canes on which I do one arm handstands. I climb on bricks. I work on stairs. So technically that, it is that. And it's just a special hand balance technique because I cannot use my legs. So my legs are attached to that stick, which is on my neck. And everything is made with the force, with the strength that I have in my shoulders and my upper body. So technically it's that. And I hope, I hope to be capable to express also grace with my act. And I work hard on that, not to be pitted. So I don't want to show an act of disabled woman. I want to show an act which is beautiful and which gives a method of hope. The Gravity Circus is at Rochester's Jackson's Field from Wednesday. Kent Online News. Health bosses are concerned about a fall in flu vaccine uptake across the southeast. Only 44% of under 65s with long-term health conditions have had the jab and only 30% of pregnant women. The Get Winter Strong campaign launches next month, reminding people to get their vaccinations. Now at Kent Village is split over plans for a 16 home development, which includes the school drop-off point, next to a road with a so-called nightmare parking. The houses could be built next to Holywell Primary School on Forge Lane in Upchurch, but neighbours say it will only increase congestion. A consultation on the development closes next month. Meantime, an independent special need school has taken over a 19th-century mansion in Mainstone. Serenity School enrolled its first 35 students at Springfield House earlier this month. It was the first time we have been able to make a 15-year-old's capacity for 150 age from 5 to 18. A florist who's been trading in Swanley for more than 60 years is closing after rising costs made it impossible to continue. This is a story we've heard quite regularly. In episodes of the postcast, Michelle Avery has worked at FlowerWorks since she was 15 and actually took over the store in 2011. She says they've never fully recovered to the pandemic and then obviously Brexit, with anything fresh produce, fruit and veg, flowers, everything then comes, obviously it's come over via passports. Then obviously the cop back was more costly. Then obviously that's when crisis started rising then. Obviously we all kind of overcome that one. It was hard, but we all overcome it. And then obviously COVID, I mean a lot of flow shops or businesses went down and they never did recover. I mean we never did fully recover. We were just sort of making names made basically. It's just gone on from there. Yeah, so it was kind of materials that rising costs. Everything, regarding, but it wasn't just flowers. It was the sundries. Anything we needed to get, as opposed to it's like anything, we were part of, like, mobilating with parts and that. It was just trying to get anything through. It was like colossal prices as well. So it wasn't just the flower prices. It was everything you'd done. They'd been down to your ribbons, your spray paints, your bios, you know, anything. It was just, it couldn't get it. It was just so expensive. Yeah, what about kind of things like rent, electric, electricity, that kind of stuff? Did you do that? Yeah. As they're obviously always still rising and they're obviously currently rising now. So then we had the fuel thing as well with the, um, obviously the costs of like heating and stuff. Again, most of our flowers come via a broad black pollen from my majority of my stuff come from. Obviously to heat the greenhouses and things like that was more costly for them. Again, that put the prices up. Yeah. So what was the kind of final straw that made you make the kind of decision? Basically, um, I didn't want it to. Because obviously I put three girls currently with me as well. And it was trying to keep everyone in a job. I like to cut down hours. Um, I'd cut down days to start with. And then it was then cutting down the, the working day. So I was finishing at four rather than five, which helped a little bit. Um, but it still wasn't really, I wasn't, I was getting myself into deep, you know, deep and deep. I've used all of my basically all my, um, so being as I did that, I've just gone into the business. Just to keep me afloat. Um, and it's, I had to make that decision as much as I didn't want to. And it still kills me now that I'm not working. Um, because I've always done it. And do you know what's kind of in the store for your, for your future? Um, are you still going to do forestry? Um, I'm assuming you like, you love it. I've been enjoying having my grand daughter for a couple of days a week. So that's been nice. She's kept me, me going really. Um, but yeah, I'm not going to say it. I'll never go back to it. But at the moment now I just feel that, um, it's hard to go back, I think. Bossy is at a kimp pub that once appeared on TV show, bargain hunt, I've put the property on the market. Ails and antiques in tanketon high street is a popular micro pub that has an antique showroom at the back. The owners are now retiring and say it's not for sale for just over half a million pounds. At the time, the landlord of a pub between Faversham and Canterbury is warning that planned roadworks could kill trade. SGN are planning to dig up parts of Staple Street in Hernhill from early November. Bosses at the three horseshoes say it comes at a crucial time. They've asked the company to delay the work until after the festive season. But SGN say there'll be no change to their schedule. And Ken's JB Gill has survived the first round of voting on strictly the JLS star who owns a farm here in the county. He performed a cha cha with pro partner Amy Dowden at the weekend. Olympic swimmer Tom Dean was eliminated after losing the dance off to singer and actress Toya Wilcox. Ken's online sport. For Bull and Gillingham are top of league two after another win at the weekend. They beat fellow promotion Hopefor's Barrow to nil at Priestfield. Jayden Clark and Robbie McKenzie scoring the goals for the home side. Here's manager Mark Bonner who spoke to us after the final whistle. I just thought the game was average and I thought we were pretty average as well. It was enough today to win but if we want to stay where we are and we want to keep being a team that wins, we can do better than that than the question about it. So I think everybody would know and our players definitely know there's more in us than that. We didn't play enough. We didn't pass them all well enough. We created our own pressure on our goal in certain situations. So miles more to come from us which is good. We've said that all the time. We're going to learn lessons in games where we'll win in and we'll take that. Probably needed to go on and be better in the second half and for the first period they were the team that were on top. We didn't want the game to look like that but fair play to them. They made it more like they wanted it to look than we wanted it to look. That's the battle but we still came out on top of it which is an important skill. I don't really like how we closed the game out. I thought we gave them too much of the ball really and we could have been a little bit more aggressive. I think we could go and score the next goal in that game. We're not playing with 10 men away from home or at home and we're on the ropes. The start to the second half is just us not winning a first contact. Us making a foul, us shanking a ball and then giving away a free kick. It's just like we've caused our own problems against them. So miles more to come, miles better to come from us. We were able to get some players on the pitch which was good and change things around a little bit. Understandably the second goal is a big one in that game. In the context of the game does change. You do get a little bit deeper and you keep them in front and I get that. That's fine. There'll be plenty of games like that. But actually I didn't think it took too much of a dissimilar twist to lots of the other ones. We just lacked a little bit of the intensity that we needed, probably because we ran ourselves into the ground first half making it a game it didn't need to be. But we're fine. We're happy we'll take it and we'll crack on and get ready for the next one. Land of the match, Armani Little agrees. There's plenty more to come from the squad. We started the game strong in the first half and then we grew into the game a bit more than the goal. We leave a bit of pressure and we won't wonder what happened I think. At that time the game in the first half I think we need to calm down a bit and dictate the game more, definitely. So that's things we can work on for the next game. We didn't come up strong at all the second half. We could come up a bit sloppy in the first 10-15 minutes. But the goal come at a good time again and goals change the game. So that certainly went in our favor there and I think after that we went to now. We went to now I think we were under no real threat to Madison. We kept the ball when we needed to but I still think we can punish teams even more. On to cricket and Kent's final championship game in the season against Durham ended in a draw. The match was heavily affected by Reign. Kent already knew that they've been relegated from Division I. And finally in ice hockey Kent's Invicted Inamos have secured their first home win of the season. It was a 6-1 victory over Swindom while Cats 2 in the South Division I at yesterday evening. That's all for us for today. Thanks ever so much for listening. Don't forget you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and threads. You can also get details on the top stories. Direct to your email each morning via the briefing. To sign up to that just head to kentonline.co.uk news you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. Tough. [MUSIC PLAYING]
