More than 10,000 parking fines have been issued at country parks in Kent in the last year, according to figures seen by KentOnline.
The data also reals how thousands of people have appealed the penalty, claiming to have legitimately paid for a ticket.
Reporter Elli Hodgson joins the podcast to explain more.
Also in today's episode, we're still expecting to hear a decision on whether or not the new road tunnel linking Kent and Essex will finally be built.
The future of the Lower Thames Crossing is being considered by the Labour government and an announcement that was due on Friday was delayed.
It's been confirmed a contraflow that's been causing delays for drivers between Whitstable and Herne Bay will be lifted later this month.
Jet fans that clear fumes or smoke from the Chestfield Tunnel are being repaired - but will eventually need replacing.
Work's been going on since June and it regularly causes traffic on the A299 Thanet Way.
New parking restrictions could come into force of Medway City Estate, in a bid to ease congestions and improve safety.
Single and double yellow lines could be painted around the site in Strood to stop HGVs parking along main routes and effectively turning two lanes into single lane traffic. We've been finding out what local traders think.
A gala in Kent aimed at bringing different cultures together is returning this month for a second year.
It's the brain child of an Ashford mum who wanted to celebrate the county's diversity.
In sport, the Gillingham manager says his team lacked quality in their match against Crewe Alexandra at the weekend.
The Gills lost 2-0 and dropped to second in the league two table.
It was a mixed weekend for Kent's Invicta Dynamos in ice hockey's south division one - and in motorsport, hear from Kent's Jake Hill after he won the British Touring Car Championship.
The 30-year-old from Tunbridge Wells claimed the trophy after the final race of the season at Brands Hatch yesterday.
We'll see you in the next one. Can't online news news you can trust. This is the can't online podcast. Nicola Everett. Hello. Hope you're OK and had a good weekend. Thanks so much for downloading today's podcast on Monday, October 7th. Coming up, good news for drivers as a contraflow is set to be removed. Everyone using the road knows there aren't any options if the other tunnel were to have any problems. So it's essential that if there are breakdowns of someone there, seven days a week to be able to get them out, get the road back, moving. We should finally find out if the low attempts crossing is going to be going ahead. The scale of habitat loss isn't just restricted to the ancient woodland. It would see the loss of hundreds of hectares of habitats which haven't appropriately been mitigated or compensated. And it was a disappointing weekend for the chills. We didn't create enough, not enough quality in our attacking half play at all when we're chasing the game or in other moments. But first up today, more than 10,000 parking finds have been issued at Country Parks in Kent in the last year, according to figures seen by Kent Online. Now, this is one of our most read stories on the website today. Reporter Ellie Hodgson joins me now. Ellie, you put in a request for the data. Can you tell us a bit more about what it showed? When I took a look at the council's country parks for the most parking finds, it revealed that Graves N with Johnwood's Country Park had the highest amount of tickets issued at 2,176 tickets. This was closely followed by Lullingstone Country Park in Ainsford, which had 1,822 tickets issued in a one-year period from August 2023 to August 2024. And in third place was Pegwell Bay Country Park in Sandwich with 1,459 parking tickets. In comparison, the three at the bottom of the table were Troscely Country Park in Mepam, which had 896 tickets issued in the one-year period, followed by Brock Hill Country Park in Huythe, which had 559 tickets. Finally, Whitehorsewood Country Park in Maidstone only had one ticket in total. And quite a few people have been appealing those finds, haven't they? In total for that one-year period, there were 10,361 finds issued with 3,924 people appealing in total. Now, I spoke to three people that had received parking finds from Lullingstone Country Park and also Shawn Wood's Country Parking Grove's End. And their stories were interesting because what they were saying is their experiences were all the same. So what they said is that they'd gone to the park, they'd pay for parking despite having issues with the machine. So, apparently, there was a keying issue where when they tried to type in their registration plate, there was either no registration coming up or it was going slow and you couldn't see on screen whether you were keying in your registration correctly. Despite this, all three of them were able to pay for a ticket and a ticket was printed at the machine. Of course, after buying a ticket and seeing it printed, you just assume that you've paid and there's no issue. But not long after that, they received a find telling them they hadn't paid for their parking ticket. And, as you can imagine, as a result of these circumstances, all three of them appealed their ticket, expecting by showing a proof of payment that it would just be nulled. But, unfortunately, this wasn't the case and Eurocar parks said that the person had carried out a major keying issue and, therefore, because their registration plate wasn't on the system, despite that they could see the proof of payment, that they would need to pay a £20 administration fee. Now, all three people I spoke to still think this is a equally outrageous charge. They said that they shouldn't have to pay this because they've got proof that they paid for their parking ticket on the day. So, finally, Ellie, what response have you had from the company that makes the metres and indeed the counter-counsel that runs the parks? So, although all three face similar issues when trying to pay for their parking at the country parks, the council has said it has no ongoing faults with any keypads on its machines at their country parks and that they are checked every morning and evening. A council spokesperson also said they receive a percentage of the income from parking enforcement, but that it's reinvested into the upkeep of the country park car parks. And, although every complaint is thoroughly investigated, any faults are identified with the pay and display machines are quickly remedied. And, as for the company Euro car parks that runs the car park, well, we yet to hear anything from them on this issue. Ellie, thank you ever so much. Kent Online News. The trial of a made-stone man accused of attempting to murder a police officer with a pair of scissors due to get underway later. The victim suffered stab wounds and had to be flown to a London hospital after being called to a disturbance at a property in June. 48-year-old Robert Jenner from Albion Place in the town denies the charge. The home secretary says she's been in touch with the French Interior Minister after another tragedy in the channel. A two-year-old boy was among four people who died over the weekend. On Saturday, 973 asylum seekers made the dangerous journey to Kent the highest number for a single day so far this year. A former boxer from Chatham has appeared in court, accused of sending threatening messages to the mother of his children. Wesley Hamill became aggressive and abusive towards his ex before threatening to kill her after his latest partner ended their relationship. The 45-year-old from Meadow Bank Road has a previous conviction for an assault on a woman at Sittingborne Railway Station. He's due to be sentenced next month. Now, this might sound a bit like Deja Vu, but we are expecting to hear a decision later on whether or not a new road tunnel linking Kent and Essex will finally be built. The future of the Lower Thames Crossing is being considered by the Labour government. We were due to get some kind of announcement on Friday, but that was delayed. However, if the construction does go ahead, there are huge concerns. The route from the east of Gravesend to Thorek would mean the loss of green space. Kate has been speaking to Emma Waller, who's from the Kent Wildlife Trust. One of our main concerns is around the loss of ancient woodland, which is woodland that has existed since the 1600s, making it an irrepastable habitat as it takes hundreds of years to establish. And many of the woodlands threatened by the Lower Thames Crossing scheme are also sites of special scientific interest, such as Sean and Ash and Bangbirds. And these habitats are home to numerous rare wildlife, which are going to be displaced through habitat fragmentation, which means they will struggle to move freely across the landscape. And with less than 2.5% of the UK's landmass covered in ancient woodland, it's a habitat that we really can't afford to lose any more of. It's obviously concerned that currently there are discrepancies within the DCO about exactly how much ancient woodland is being lost. So at the moment, the DCO states different figures of around six to eight hectares, which doesn't sound like a lot. But when you take into consideration that one hectare is roughly two and a half football pitches, you can then start to imagine the scale of destruction. And it's also not only ancient woodland. The scheme would also result in the loss of other habitats, such as broadleaf, non- ancient woodland, hedgerows, coastal and floodplain, grazing marsh. So the scale of habitat loss isn't just restricted to the ancient woodland, it would see the loss of hundreds of hectares of habitats, which haven't appropriately been mitigated or compensated. So currently there isn't really that new area of habitat that's going to be created for wildlife. And what about the inclusion of green bridges? I know in some of the plans there were these ideas of green bridges, corridors and things for wildlife. Are they not enough to sort of mitigate the loss of the ancient woodland? Yeah, so we understand that green bridges are proposed to try and provide that connectivity between habitats and either side of the new road. However, good one to see these green bridges designed specifically for wildlife, which currently we don't feel is the case as these green bridges will be mixed use and will essentially be your usual car bridge. But with some semi-natural habitats like hedgerow and a bit of tree planting, ultimately they provide very limited mitigation for the scale of the project. And likewise, to build some of the green bridges, we'd actually result in the loss of ancient woodland. And so the purpose of green bridges is to particularly enhance wildlife connectivity and mitigate habitat fragmentation. However, if the construction of these green bridges is what causes some of the habitat fragmentation and loss of ancient woodland, then it's extremely counterproductive as the mitigation efforts which contribute to the environmental damage they are meant to alleviate. Now, supporters say the link is essential to easing congestion at the current dart for crossing, which of course is the tunnels and the bridge. If there is any announcement today, you'll get the very latest at Kent Online with reaction, so do head there for any updates. Kent Online reports. It's been revealed restrictions on takeaway opening hours near schools in Medway has failed to reduce childhood obesity rates. The council introduced new rules in 2014, which banned certain fast food outlets from opening at lunch times and at the end of the school day. What 10 years on, data from public health England shows rates have actually increased with 22% of reception children and 37% of those in year six said to be overweight or obese. A shopkeeper who converted a hemp hub into a shop and takeaway has been accused of not sticking to planning permission. Residents in yielding near Maidstone understood the George would be turned into a farm shop, a restaurant selling locally sourced ingredients. Instead, they say they've got a bog standard convenience store and fish and chip shop. The owner says the changes are minor and has applied for retrospective planning permission. There are calls for more safety measures on a road in sitting born after a crash involving three vehicles. Police and paramedics were called to Chalkwell Road on Friday evening after a Nissan cash-kai hit a parked car, pushing into another vehicle. It's understood no one was hurt, but neighbors say it's the third accident since last year. They want speed cameras to be installed to slow down drivers. Now it's been confirmed. A controversial contraflow that's been causing delays for drivers between Whisteball and Herm Bay will be lifted later this month. Jet fans that clear smoke and fumes from the Chesfield Tunnel are being repaired, but will eventually need replacing. Well, work's been going on since June, and it regularly causes traffic on the A299th fannet way. Well, Finland from our colleagues at KMTV has been speaking to Councillor Neil Baker, who's in charge of highways at the County Council. The fans are essential for the safety of the public. They have seen main purposes. One is to vent the exhaust from all of the tunnel, and to act as the primary fire control mechanism in the event of the fire inside the tunnel, so that the fire rescue service can safely evacuate people. It's clearly a significant amount of money that was unexpected. The fans itself, their repair work, will cost several thousand pounds. One of the main costs is the ongoing contraflow, the maintenance of that, ensuring we have crews available through there are any breakdowns on the contraflow, because as everyone using the road knows, there aren't any options if the other tunnel were to have any problems. So it's essential that if there are breakdowns, there's someone there 24 hours a day, seven days a week to be able to get them out, get the road back moving. That's one of the large costs of traffic management. It's a 24/7 operation, and then, of course, the fans themselves. They're not things you can buy off the shelf, and even the repair work we're doing, we have source those spare parts from all over the place, just to get the system working for a little bit longer before a new system gets designed and put in place. So the 50 mile per hour speed limit is likely to stay in place permanently when the tunnel reopens. How will that be enforced, and why is it important that that speed limit is introduced? I think these days, the 50 mile per hour limit within tunnels is a fairly standard practice. It comes down again to public safety. If there is an incident inside the tunnel at 70 mile an hour, the repercussions are a lot more severe, more likely to be fatal than at 50. Said that at 70 mile an hour, people likely had to be cut out of their vehicles. At 50, they might be able to walk out. Other tunnels in the area across Kent and beyond do tend to have that 50 limit. This is a little bit of an outlier taking back to when it was first built at being at national speed levels. In June, it was said that it would take three months, or potentially three months, to manufacture, deliver and instill all the fans. It was later said you'd be refurbishing the existing fans by replacing parts themselves during some of the existing ones. How is the three-month contraflow to fit new fans turned into one last-in-a-wise five months with more repairs than the placements? No, absolutely. It's been a delay, and we don't like delaying the public. Reality is, this isn't a set of equipment. You can get off the shelf, you have to go out there, you have to find out where the parts are, what would be possible, and then look at the best options going forward. There are not many places that you can get fans. You can't walk into a DIY store. These are incredibly large bits of equipment. The decision was then made actually, having looked at it, having got the consultants in and seen what could be done. If we were to get a brand new set of kit-in up to modern regulations that would involve having the contraflow in place for a significantly longer amount of period, perhaps 18 months, perhaps longer, whereas the decision was made actually by a lot of the hard work of the crew here and team, we could refurbish what we've got, get enough fans back open and running, get a little bit more out of their life so that in the background in parallel, that new system can be designed, all aimed really at the least inconvenience over what has been a problem and convenience time for a lot of people travelling. Can't online reports? New parking restrictions could come into force on the Medway City Estate in a bid to ease congestion and improve safety. Single and double yellow lines could be painted around the site in Strew to stop HDVs parking along main routes and effectively turning two lanes into single lane traffic. It's hope the new measures will also make it easier to get off the estate during rush hour. The Council are now considering their options, where we've been getting reaction. Ollie Nichols is a tattooist at Box City. It's only bad enough as it is, without that main road or place of the park. Now, don't you move the Box City, everywhere around here is really going to struggle. If you get to that stage, you'll probably get the training and say to my clients that do the same or they're going to have to walk down, which is going to massively impact, you know, obviously clients and me. Emma Hartley and Lou Foreman also work on the industrial estate and say something needs to be done about parking. It's shocking, it's always busy, it's chaos. It's really dangerous, especially Lowrie's Park along here. They're always bibbing. Yeah, and the cars try and pull out and then accidents nearly up near all the time. But they're worried yellow lines won't solve the issue. We drive around in this cars on double or online as well. So, yeah, it's not going to help here. Councillor Alex Paterson has defended the measures. It's the choice between making things slightly less convenient for individual businesses or individuals who have previously been able to park really pleased versus making things safer for all road users. I will always err on the side of safety. Ollie, Emma, Lou and Alex were all speaking to the local democracy reporting service will keep you updated on the results of any consultation. The bosses of a nursery in Ashford say they're struggling to find a new home after they were forced to leave their current one of 30 years. Little Acorns will leave King's North Recreation Centre at the end of the year after the building was taken over by a church. It's feared they'll have to move out of the local area if they can't find anything suitable. Residents near Canterbury say plans for just 17 homes could turn their village into the dumping estate of the UK. Developers want to build on land in the heart of Wingham, but there have been more than 200 objections. The plans are due to be discussed by the Council on Thursday. Kent Online News. A galler in Kent aimed at bringing different cultures together is returning this month for a second year. It's the brainchild of an Ashford mum who wanted to celebrate the county's diversity. Blessing Enochimio says it's a chance for people from all walks of life to be recognised for the work they do. A galler is a celebration of culture, achievement and leadership really. It's a landmark event that unites the private sector, public sector and charity sector, coming together to honour Kent's high achievers, overcomers, contributors and the game changes really. It's a focus on cultural inclusion, you know, and it's an opportunity to showcase differences, bringing it together to celebrate all that we have in common, which is Kent. And obviously, this happens during Black History Month. Was it part of the reason that you held it in October was because of that, it all fits in really nicely to that, as you say, that celebration of different cultures, different ethnicities and getting everyone together in one place? I suppose it was a coincidence that it fell in October. Let's put it that way because we have explored looking during it in September but there's so many things going on in everyone's diary really through the year. But it's important to highlight that it's not a black thing, so to speak, because if we do it that way, we end up, again, excluding other people from the table. So it isn't, it's about the whole community in Kent, like I said earlier, and making sure we create space at the table for everyone to come as the authentic self. So come, as you are, the fashion of Wakanda is a dress code. So we want to see what your culture looks like. We want you to come and celebrate with others. I guess in the world at the moment, things are very well people said, volatile, fragile. How important is it that we do get together as different cultures and appreciate each other and kind of have that mutual respect when perhaps a global situation is a little bit volatile? So the thing is, we generally are afraid of what we're unsure of. You know, when you don't know what it is, it's easy to just put up fear as a barrier. And that's why on a micro level here in Kent, we're looking to use this as an opportunity to bring people together, people who you would normally not meet with, maybe someone who is in a charity sector, versus someone in a professional sector or someone of a different community, different ethnic background, who might never cross paths? But bringing this level playing field asks those questions that are difficult to ask, helps you see people face to face to understand a little bit more about stuff you probably never thought of. So it is doing a little bit to help make an impact on a global scale. We still have tickets available, so you can go to the website, www.blagloboe.co.uk/empowergala to get your tickets. If you would want to participate as well, maybe highlight your brand. As a sponsor, we're open to that as well. It's going to be staged at the Ashford International Hotel and will also feature young achievers and trailblazers. There's been tribute today to a horse in Dover, who's died after spending the last 30 years grazing on a nature reserve. Kaira has been admired by walkers as they pass through windless downs and has even been known to mingle with cattle. In her latter years, she became deaf and suffered from arthritis. And Ken's JB Gill has survived movie week on Strictly, the former JLS star who has a farm in the county, dance in American smooth to imagination from Wonka. He was third on the leaderboard singer, Toya Wilcox, became the latest celebrity to be eliminated. Ken's online sport. Football and the Jillingham manager says his team lacked quality in their match against Crew Alexandra at the weekend. The Jills lost 2-0 with Crew winger Shiloh Tracy scoring in each half. Speaking after the match, Mark Bonner wasn't happy with his side's performance. We shouldn't lose the game 2-0, but we come away from home and get beat on two counter attacking moments. At the moment, we haven't got the quality that they've got to finish their ones off like that. Like we didn't create enough, not enough quality in our attacking half play at all. When we're chasing the game or in other moments, we had lots of it. We had lots of probably last 10-15 minutes, particularly. We need to play with that urgency more often, and we've got to find miles more quality to make more situations of them, because in the games that we've played this week, we've just seen a bit of a lack of sharpness in our play, a bit of a lack of creativity and invention in our play, and a lack of an ability to create really good chances and test the goalkeeper. So it's like half and half, but nothing to blow the door down. So, yeah, I'm fuming, really, because I just don't think it's a game that you should come and lose 2-0. And we give ourselves problems in the game. Individual error that gets punished in the first moment of a counter-attack, and then a second-half counter-attack where absolute electric pace does us, but the finish is a very, very good one from Tracey. We're not in a position where we're taking those moments, or making enough of those moments ourselves. So, yeah, despite changing lots around a little bit, some necessity, some try and chase the game with lots of attacking players on the pitch. There's a few out there at the moment that could go up with desperate for some training weeks to get them up to the level of the tempo in the game first, but also to work on the things that we need to offer back this week. The result means the Jules dropped two-second in the league, two-table. Onto cricket now, and Kent Zach Crawley's back in action for England. The batters had some time out to recover from a broken finger, but is in the squad for their tour of Pakistan. Play in the first test is underway. Onto ice hockey, and it was a mixed weekend for Kent's Invictor Dynamos in South Division 1. They lost 4-3 to Romford Buccaneers on Saturday, but beat Milton Kings Thunder 12-1 yesterday evening. And finally, in motorsport, Kent's Jake Hill has thanked everyone for their support after he won the British Touring Car Championships. The 30-year-old from Tumbridge Wells took home the trophy after the final race of the season at Brandt's hatch yesterday, and he posted a video on socials last night. Well, there's no other way to say this. I am a 2020 football British Touring Car Champion. I cannot believe it. Thank you all so much for the support. The love, the messages, everything. I'm honestly blown away. I've got no words for the emotions right now. However, then it's going to have some beers with the boys because they all deserve it as well. But thank you, everyone. We did it. Well, 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 via the briefing. To sign up to that, just head to kentonline.co.uk. News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. (dramatic music)
