A woman who attacked her sister-in-law at a family gathering in Deal has avoided being sent to prison.
A court was told the defendant had drunk prosecco and half a bottle of Baileys before punching and kicking her victim on Boxing Day in 2021.
Also in today's podcast, investigations are continuing following a huge fire at a listed house near Maidstone.
At its height, 50 firefighters were tackling the blaze in Hunton after it broke out on Friday night. We've spoken to one of the residents.
From today, parents dropping off their children to schools in parts of Medway will face a fine if they drive on roads right outside.
It's part of plans to improve congestion and pupil safety - we've been speaking to one of the headteachers at a school involved.
People living on a new build estate have told the podcast they're prepared to fight what they say are 'extortionate' service charges.
Some residents of Peters Village in Wouldham say their fees have doubled. Reporter Keely Greenwood has been following this story and went along to the first meeting of the newly formed residents' association.
A Kent woman's urging others to know the signs of ovarian cancer after being given laxatives for her symptoms.
Louise Hutchins from Folkestone was suffering from severe bloating, constipation and struggling to eat.
She eventually went back to a walk-in centre and was sent to A&E. The 44 year-old has been sharing her story as part of ovarian cancer awareness month.
An expert believes climate change is likely to be the reason for dramatic landslides in Folkestone.
The Road of Remembrance in the town has been closed since the end of January after soil and trees crashed onto the tarmac.
And in sport, it was a point for Gillingham at the weekend.
They came from a goal down to draw 1-1 with Tranmere Rovers at Priestfield - hear reaction from head coach Stephen Clemence who thinks a decision by officials cost them the game.
10 - KENTON LINE NEWS This is the KENTON LINE Podcast. Nicola Everett. Hello, hope you're okay. Thanks ever so much for downloading today's podcast this Monday, March the 11th. Hope you had a good weekend. Our top story today is that a woman who attacked her sister-in-law at a family gathering in Deal has avoided being sent to prison. Well, Lucy joins me now on the podcast, with more on this one. Well, Nicola, a court was told Emma Varrell had drunk Prosecco and half a bottle of Bailey's before punching and kicking her victim on Boxing Day in 2021. Pictures at Kenton line showed Debbie Hook with severe bruising to her face and she was attacked so viciously. There's an imprint of a shoe on her back. The two women had actually known each other for 30 years, but the court also heard how the unprovoked attack has torn the family apart. And Lucy, do we know what led to the attack? The family had gathered in the afternoon for Boxing Day celebrations and were told the atmosphere was initially happy. However, at around 8pm, Mrs Hook had found her sister-in-law shouting with her daughter and her son then got involved. Mrs Hook intervened and ended up being punched, pushed to the floor and stamped on. She read a victim impact statement to the court, saying she thought she was going to die. Finally, what sentence was handed down? 49-year-old Varrell from Wilson Avenue was given a 20-month jail term that's suspended for two years. She's also been put on a six-month curfew between 6pm and 6am in order to pay £1,000 in compensation. Lucy, thank you ever so much. Kenton line news. Investigations are continuing today following a huge fire at a listed house near Maidstone at its height. 50 firefighters were tackling the blaze in Huntington after it broke out late on Friday night. A drone picture at Kenton line shows how the flames have damaged the first floor and roof space of the three-story property of West Street. It had been split into two homes. Andrew Lawrence lives in one of them and has been speaking to our reporter, Ellie Hodgson. Friday we were in the house and about 9 o'clock, a smoke alarm went off and we thought, well, that might be a flat battery smoke alarm like you normally do, and then next thing we walk outside and there's flames coming out of the top of the house and we call a fire brigade who turned out very quickly and the rest as you see it's history, it's all gone. And what are the arrangements now for you? What's the plan? Well, the plan is to rebuild it. It's a listed grade two building and yeah, it's going to take a long time, many years, probably. Have you got any sense of how much damage has been done? Oh yeah, it's completely wrecked, you know, all the floors all fall onto each other and the ground floor is just full of everything that's above it. And how long has this been your home? 37 years. Oh wow, and so how are your family coping at the moment? Yeah, okay, everyone's a little bit living in like a shell shock at the moment, but you know, yeah, it's happened, isn't it, nothing you do about it? And how's the response from the fire service has been very good, excellent. Got some more crime news next and a Graves M man who was found four times over the drink drive limit and slumped in a car has been ordered to do unpaid work. Darren Williams was spotted by a police in a car park in January, the 56 year old whose homeless had been living in the vehicle and has also been given a 12 month driving ban. Firefighters have confirmed a blaze that a former cinema in Canterbury was started deliberately. Robbish was set alight at the old Odeon site in St George's place yesterday, crews were called to put out the blaze and no one was hurt. Now from today, parents dropping off their children to school in parts of Medway will face a fine if they drive on roads right outside the school. It's part of plans to improve congestion and pupil safety. That means cars will be banned from the street around the school drop off time at eight and nine o'clock in the morning and then pick up at three and four in the afternoon. Joseph Pomeroy is interim head at St Mary School in Gillingham, which is one of those affected. It's hoped that the new school streets program will reduce congestion on our school road, Greenfield Road, which is a dead end. So actually that will make the street much safer for our children. It will also reduce pollution around the school gates, which I think are real plus points for our pupils here. I recognise that this is going to change our habits during drop off and collection times and it will add time to journeys and I recognise that that is a bit of an inconvenience, but actually overall when you look at the improved safety for our pupils, I think that we, you know, I look favourably upon this scheme. I know that local residents, I hope the scheme they see an improvement in the congestion on Greenfield Road as well, so that it makes the street safer for everyone to use. That's not the only school to be covered by the new school street scheme. The others are burnt oak primary, Greenvale primary, Mearscourt primary, Phoenix primary. As you just heard, St Mary's Catholic primary, St Peter's infant school and St Thomas Moore Catholic primary school. As we mentioned, actually in Friday's podcast, if you want to listen back, in the first six months of this project, warnings will be issued to anyone breaking the rules rather than fines. We'd love to know what you think about the scheme though, and if you do live near one of those roads, how is it affecting you in the morning and in the afternoon? It can drop us a message. The email is news@thekmgroup.co.uk. In the meantime, drivers are being warned to expect disruption as a three-month road closure begins in Stroud, a 250-metre stretch of Princebury Hill will be closed from today until June 21. It's part of ongoing work to build the new Maritime Academy School. Kent Online Reports An underpassed endeavor is being transformed in memory of a teenager who died while trying to cross the road. My allowance was knocked down on Whitfield Hill in October 2021. The 13-year-old's family have campaigned for more safety measures in the area. The walkway is being painted in the hope more people will use it. There's been a significant drop in the number of children at private schools passing the Kent Test. In 2019, 655 pupils from private schools sat the exam with just under 60 percent passing that had fallen to a quarter of 610 pupils last year. The Kent Test, as you may know, determines which pupils can apply for a place at a grammar. The Independent Schools Council haven't responded yet to requests for a comment. People living on a new build estate have told the Kent Online podcast that prepare to fight what they say are extortionate surface charges. Some residents of Peters Village in Walden say their fees have doubled. Now they formed a residence association in a bid to try and negotiate a better deal where reporter Keeley Greenwood has been covering this story. She went along to the first meeting of the residence association and caught up with Emma Walk and Natalie Dodd. Up until now, my service charge has been around the £500 mark, but that's inclusive of the estate management fee, the other service charges and building insurance. But the estate management fee itself, I was paying £28 a month and next month they want to put it up to £80, and I'm part by part rent, so the rent side of things has also gone up 10%. So when I first moved in, which was three years ago, up until now, I'm now paying an extra £300 a month to live in my house. So has it gone up gradually, I think it's just now? It's gone up gradually, but considering all the eligibility criteria and everything that I had to go through, to make sure I could afford to live there, and now they've put it up to basically it's about £1,200 a month. So if I'd actually bought the house outright at the time, I probably could have got a mortgage for that amount, and then obviously everything else is going up and then you get a pay rise at work and think, oh lovely, and then you get that letter through the door and you think, oh, so that's not going anywhere. When I first moved in, the service charges were estimated at about £1,200. I got a letter through the post last week, and my latest charge is now £2,500. So in three years it's gone up by more than 100%, which is absolutely extortionate. Now I found out from other people in my flat that they've also had the same charge and the same inflated service charge for this year, and everybody's disputing it, but in talking to my neighbours, I actually discovered that last year I paid £100 more than someone that lives in the exact same building as me, which is a bit ridiculous. I don't know every time I open my letterbox if I'm going to get another letter asking for more money from them, legally, there's nothing we can actually do to stop them legally. I don't understand how they can keep asking for additional money like this, and it's not illegal. With Artford MP Gareth Johnson is currently taking a bill through Parliament which is designed to give extra powers to residents if you head to this story on Kent Online, you can also click on our explainer, telling you all about these fees and how they work. Kent Online reports against women's urging others to know the signs of ovarian cancer after being given laxatives for her symptoms. Louise Hutchins from Folkestone was suffering from severe bloating, constipation, and she was struggling to eat. She eventually went back to a walk-in centre and was sent to A&E, with a 44-year-old fears of disease, isn't being taught about enough among younger women. They say it mainly affects women who have gone through the menopause, who are slightly older. But I joined a Facebook support group, and there are so many women, you know, sort of my age, and they're getting there. And a lot of the time the doctors are sending them away with, if they haven't gone through the menopause, doctors are sending them away, saying it's menopause, because the symptoms are so vague, you know, doctors just, they're not doing the blood tests and you know, because it could be anything, they're just not taking it seriously. Some of them, yeah, a lot of them, a lot of the women on there said that they got sent away because the doctors were saying it was menopause. And that's why it gets diagnosed so late, late stage. When it gets to stage three, it's, they don't consider it a curable cancer, they consider it one that's treatable. And you know, you could have a recurrence. If you're lucky you might not, you know, you might go five to ten years without one. But as it stands, statistics will suggest that stage three C and above maybe stage three A3B, I'm not too sure that the statistics at the moment show a lifespan of between five and ten years. And it's quite interesting that you said that in the support group on Facebook, a lot of the women were saying that GPs were suggesting menopause as well, because there has been a lot of awareness around menopause more, but it seems that we need even more awareness of various symptoms linked to women's health to make sure that we are making clear decisions because as you said, they felt a little bit fobbed off. They've just been told, oh, it's menopause, you know, kind of get on with it sort of thing. Some of that diagnosis was delayed for at least, you know, for a good year because they just didn't have a clue what it could be, you know, they weren't aware of the symptoms, so they just, you know, they'd come away from the GP and they'd, you know, start taking their hurtful supplements and that they knew deep down that someone wasn't right, because, you know, you do know your body, you know, when something gets that point where you just think, you know, this isn't right, get going to their GP, a lot of them actually did get diagnosed by going to A&E. This month is specifically all about raising awareness for ovarian cancer, isn't it? And I know you're fundraising as well, aren't you? Well, I have created a Facebook account which I really want people to, you know, follow or some friend requests and I want to post videos on there to talk about all the effects of chemotherapy, the treatment that you'll go through, you know, a bit about the stomach drainage, pick lines, which you, you know, have this treatment through just general things and I want people to be able to ask me questions as well, you know, if they sit in there and think, you know, actually, I've got those symptoms that you know, to just reach out and ask a question if they want to. Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common among women with seven and a half thousand new cases in the UK each year. Kent Online News. We'll finally find out this week if Aldi will be allowed to build another store in Ashford, a supermarket giant first announced plans for the store on the A28 Canterbury Road in 2021, but residents criticised the location. Now the Council's Planning Committee will decide if it can go ahead, it's been recommended for approval by officers. The former debonums in Graves End look set to be turned into a pound land. The unit on New Road has been empty for the past three years. The budget retailer has applied to the Council to install new signage and a decision should be made by mid-April. Homes could be built on the site of a science parking Kent, bosses at Discovery Park in Sandwich want to develop land that's currently a car park. The idea is for 112 properties, but there are concerns about a lack of green space and children's play areas and if you head to Kent Online on social you can see how an abandoned hospital in Ashford has been transformed into flats. This is one of our most read stories today. The building in Kings Avenue fell into disrepair in 2009 when services were moved to the current William Harvey site. It's now been restored with the project due to be finished later this month. Kent Online Reports An expert believes climate change is likely to be the reason for dramatic landslides in Folkestone. The road of remembrance in the town has been closed since the end of January after soil and trees crashed onto the tarmac. It's set to be shot for another three months as work is done to reduce further slips. Well, Professor Samma Bhager Ian from the University of Kent has been speaking to our reporter, Louis Walker. The main reason behind some of the recent falls that you would have seen, I suspect just looking at both the geology and the hydrology of the makeup of the cliffs, I think is just too much rain. We have had one of the warmest febries on record, but we've also had one of the wettest febries on record. I'm definitely sure that there is something in there that's actually causing a lot of the recent falls that you have seen. Like you say, with the additional warmth and the additional rain, is this something that we should be talking about in the climate change conversation? I think we definitely should, because there are parallel situations where a lot of people will have seen this play out in their day-to-day lives. Obviously, this is playing on a bigger scale in terms of the falls, but it's other people like myself, for example, will have had children's football games canceled just because the pitches are either too wet or too soggy or too dangerous to play on. This is one of those really parallel situations where it is dangerous, so keep away. It is soggy. Something will happen and it will fall, so just be mindful of all of this and just find a way of navigating around that. If we say that we have had a warmer than usual febry because of climate change, we have had a wetter than usual febry because of climate change, then I think one of the natural conclusions is there are things that are going to happen to some of the very fragile, I think, cliffs in and around the county, and this, I'm afraid, is just one of those things that will happen and will probably continue to happen at an accelerating rate. Like you just touched on there with an accelerated rate, so obviously it will continue, and do you think this could impact maybe the scale of the landslides we're seeing? It could, but I'm sure also that local authorities and the county council, for example, are looking at this in some detail. The one thing I would say to that is what's obviously then needed is the right kind of expertise and capacity to, A, to look at this, to continuously monitor it and to be able to respond quickly. Now, some of these will require skills and technical skills in order to do that, and some of those skills will be already in place. Some of these actions will require further funding. Some of that might be problematic because some of that funding might not be in place, but also the other piece that's needed is the agility of the systems, both within the districts and the county, for example, in order to be able to respond to this very quickly and sometimes even preemptively before it happens. Elsewhere, flood alerts have been issued for a large part of the Kent coast ahead of high tide later, areas near the River Thames and Medway could be affected this afternoon. We're being urged to take extra care on low-lying land and coastal footpaths, meantime, and urgent clean-ups been organised following reports of oil, tar and dead sea birds washing up on parts of the Kent coast. We're being urged to keep children and pets away from the area between Kingsdown and Sandwich. Officials say they're investigating where exactly the oil has come from. Despite recent opinion polls, the Medway Council leader says it's not a guarantee that labour will form the next government. Vince Maple has been speaking on the latest edition of the Kent Politics Podcast. There are a number of examples across the world where if you look at polling, polling can change very, very quickly. So I don't presume there will be a Labour government. I'll be working hard for it every single day and Medway, we've got two brilliant candidates for Gilliam and Raymond and Rochester and Strude, both of whom happen to be in my cabinet and are doing great work that they have done since May 4th, but actually we've got to make sure that we get those two individuals in the Sharba and Lauren, along with others across the county elected. That's not a given and to use one of the ultimate political clichés, there is only one poll that counts and that's when people go to the poll whenever that general election is called. That's the latest YouGov poll show, Sakeer Starmas party on 47% compared with 20% for the Tories and there has been speculation, the election could be held as early as May. Well, you can head to IAM-listening to listen to that episode of the Kent Politics Podcast in full or you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Ken's Online Sports For more and it was a point for Gilliam at the weekend. They came from a goal down to draw one or we're trying their rovers at Priestfield on Saturday. The Yang thought it scored a winner late on in added time, but it was ruled handball. Head coach Stephen Clemens says the call from the officials costs them the game. From my point of view, I was, as soon as I see it land, I thought, go on something, put it in, but I looked straight away at the Lionsman and referee. Not because I thought there was a handball, I thought, is there an offside? And I see the Lionsman start flagging straight away. But then to be told it was for a handball, I think the referee is a lot closer than the Lionsman and it's a big decision for a Lionsman to make that and it's that far away in my opinion. It was disappointing. Again, the way we started the first half and it probably happened on too many occasions for my liking and we've definitely got to improve in that area. But the second half was good, we had to change the shape and I thought the boys executed that very, very well and all the boys that come on contributed and made a difference. So that's good, gives me some problems for picking a team for choosing that. Obviously I come here today and I really thought we could win the game and I think on another day we probably do. It's not meant to be, but we've got to look at it that maybe it's a point nearer to where we want to be and I've said to you before on many occasions, I do believe the team can be anyone. Now we have to be consistent with our performances to do that and we look even in the game today we're probably not good enough in the first half, but we're very good in the second. So we can even be inconsistent in games which we've got to improve on and as I've always said to you, I can never fault the boys effort but sometimes we have what we've better on the ball than what we were in the first half and yeah but we did put it right in the second half so fair play to him with that. But we take the point, we move on and we look forward to choosing this game now. The result leaves the Jills seventh in the league two table that is in the playoff places, it's the final spot. They're back in action tomorrow night, they travel to take on AFC Wimbledon who are just one place below them and in tennis, Kent's Emma Rajikarnu is in action in the third round of the Indian Wells tournament in California later. She progressed after her second round opponent retired injured from Saturday's match. 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 plus you can 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. [MUSIC PLAYING]
