A dad has criticised bosses at the East Kent Hospitals Trust after his sick son was forced to wait 18 hours for a bed.
19-year-old university student Daniel Hebditch was taken to A&E in Ashford last week. Hear more from our reporter Liane Castle.
Also in today's podcast, the government's flagship Rwanda policy has been delayed until after Easter.
The House of Lords has voted to make seven changes to the draft legislation. Rainham and Gillingham MP Rehman Chishti has been speaking about it.
The Kent Wildlife Trust is appealing for information following the death of four goats who were chased by dogs.
The animals were part of the Wilder Grazing program at Bigbury Camp Nature Reserve near Canterbury.
A Sheppey man who was told he may have just months to live after being diagnosed with a brain tumour has thanked everyone who's been supporting his family.
Rick Smith started to complain of headaches in February before a CT scan revealed a glioblastoma. Now, tens of thousands of pounds has been raised to support his family.
A Kent theatre that was forced to close after potentially dangerous concrete was found, could re-open this autumn.
Plans have been put in to replace the roof of the Orchard in Dartford which had to shut last September.
Council leader Jeremy Kite says it's vital for the local economy to get it fixed as soon as possible.
Forty-thousand pounds worth of wedding dresses have been donated to a charity shop in Tunbridge Wells.
Staff at the Oxfam branch say they were 'overwhelmed' to receive the gowns, veils and shoes from the owner of a nearby bridal studio which was closing down.
A new school has been officially opened in Medway.
Rochester Riverside Primary has been built as part of a multi-million pound housing development near the town's railway station.
The Bishop of Rochester and Mayor of Medway carried out the honours.
on line 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 Thursday, March the 21st, our top story today. Dad has criticized bosses at the East Kent hospitals trust after his six son was forced to wait 18 hours for a bed. Now 19 year old University student Daniel Habditch was taken to A&E in Ashford last week. Lee Ann joins me now with more on this story. So Leanne, firstly, can you talk us through what happened? So Daniel arrived at the William Harvey Hospital on Wednesday. He was sent there by doctors at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital after showing symptoms of stomach pain, digestive issues and a really high fever. When he arrived at the Harvey, doctors were concerned about him and said that he needed to be admitted for further tests. But the hospital was so busy, there was no beds available for him at all, not even a spare bed in the corridor. So he had to spend 18 hours in a lot of pain, sitting on a hard chair in the waiting room. It wasn't until 48 hours after he first arrived at the hospital that he was finally admitted on to award. So he had an extremely long wait. Understand you've spoken to his family. What did they say? His dad, Tim, who works in healthcare himself has told us that he's never seen anything like it and described the whole situation as shameful. He was extremely concerned about the fact that Daniel had to wait in a chair for so long, but also that he went almost a full day without being seen by a doctor at all, despite being in a lot of pain and even showing signs of sepsis. And he's not the only one experiencing long waiting times, is he? Sadly, the latest statistics show that Daniel's experiences becoming quite common. Last month, there were 2006 patients in Kent as a whole, left waiting 12 hours or more for a hospital bed. But there are signs of improvement as the total for January this year was 405 people more than February. However, just to give you a bit of context for this, in the same month, three years ago, there were just 13 so called corridor weights of 12 hours or more. And in May of the same year, there were none. Finally, Liam would have health bosses said in response to this situation. The hospital trust has apologized for Daniel's way and even admitted that it did fall short of their standards that they expect of themselves. However, they did say that staff are doing all they can to reduce weights where they can, considering how extremely busy and overstretched their services are. They have also recently spent 30 million pounds upgrading hospitals across the trust to help them cope with the huge demand that they've been seeing. Leanne, thank you ever so much. You can read this story in full today by heading to Kent online. Perhaps you've had an experience recently at hospital. We'd like to know your story. You can leave a comment on Kent online or on our socials. Kent online news. Other top stories for you today and an asylum seeker has reportedly been stamped after crossing the channel to Kent in a small boat. Police say they were called to Dover's western docks yesterday lunchtime. The man was taken to hospital with injuries which are not described as life threatening. The home office says it was an isolated incident elsewhere. Six men accused of bringing 100 asylum seekers to Kent from France in Lawrence have been arrested. The suspect's age 29 to 51 are thought to be Moroccan and Algerian nationals and part of a smuggling gang. They were detained at various addresses in North London yesterday plans to build an immigration removal center in Kent have been scrapped. The home office had wanted to put the facility next to a processing center at Manston, North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gail had been among those calling for the idea to be dropped and says he's pleased with the home secretary's decision. This all comes as the government's flagship Rwanda policy has been delayed until after Easter. The House of Lords has voted to make seven changes to the draft legislation. Conservative MP for Rainham and Gillingham Raymond Chisti says removing people from the country is the only way to stop the smugglers. We put the Navy in there, but that didn't work. We had a joint coordination center with France. That didn't quite work. We've got the return scheme with Albania. That has worked, you know, with 93% of individuals being sent back to Albania. Rishi Tsunak says he wants to get flights to Rwanda off the ground. This spring, Josh Simmons is from the Labour Together think tank. The court of appeal was very clear that even if the scheme works, it's in the hundreds, it will not make a meaningful difference to the small boats problem. So I actually think the flights off the ground. We've slightly overdone the significance of that moment. It'll be debated in the Commons again next month. Kent online reports. Failings within the probation servicing Kent have been highlighted today by inspectors. The units in the east and west of the county have been rated inadequate and requires improvement in new reports out today. Issues raised include staff shortages in experienced workers and insufficient work to reduce reoffending and harm plans have been resubmitted to turn land near Maidstone into permanent traveller pitches. An application has been sent to Maidstone Council to repurpose the site in Cox Heath and provide space for 10 static caravan pitches. Proposals for 14 were rejected in January. Now we mentioned this briefly in yesterday's podcast and we've now spoken to the Kent wildlife trust, who are appealing for information following the death of four goats who were chased by dogs. The animals were part of the wilder grazing program at Bigbury Camp Nature Reserve near Canterbury. They were found to have suffered dislocated joints, heart and lung damage. Sunny Smith is from the trust. We've got a reserve Bigbury camp, which is just on the outskirts of Canterbury. And we've got a lovely herd of goats there that are there as part about wild initiative grazing and changing the habitats for their natural behaviour. And they've been there for about four years now. And during that time, we've not really had any problems and they've been happily going about their business. But unfortunately, since the 22nd of February, there have been a number of repeat incidents involving dogs on the site, which has resulted in the death of four of those goats. They've suffered multiple injuries from dislocated limbs, from limbs, from dogs, to panic attacks and heart and lung problems to died on site, which is the result of those incidents. And for the two, sadly, have to be put to sleep. And just to clarify, so the dog attacks didn't bite the goats or anything like that. The injuries they sustained, as you said, panic, stress, you're running so fast to get away that they dislocate their limbs. Is that right? Absolutely. So, so in these incidents, the dog hasn't actually bitten or taken any bites out of the livestock. What's happened is they've been repeatedly chased. And in running away from, from the dogs, they've sustained those injuries. So we've had heart heart incidents and lung incidents, where they've literally been panicked to death. And unfortunately, two also suffered limb dislocations, which we couldn't rectify and they had to be put to sleep. So we know that four, four of the goats died with for the out of the animals that are still living there. And they showing any signs of being under stress at all. We're keeping a very, very close eye on the 11 remaining goats. They seem quite well at the moment. But our fear is there is a dog locally that might be repeatedly getting out and chasing them. So it's really crucial that we ask people if they know anything to come forward and report it to us. We want to stop this from happening. You know, not these 11 goats to be able to live out their lives there, doing their wilding thing and in peace. It's a particular concern now that we are getting into spring and then some of the warmer months, you might find that people around walking their dogs a little bit more. Is it more concerning that this time of year? Yeah, we do generally tend to put out a warning at this time of year asking people to keep their dogs on a lead around livestock. We have over 800 grazing animals across 90 of our reserves, wild and then changing the habitats. And we do find at this time of year that we see a spike in those incidents of those animals being targeted by dogs. I think people going out there, they're not realizing the harm that their pet can do, especially those with smaller dogs because they feel they're just nipping around chasing. It's all very playful. But actually, their dog is wearing these animals to death. So we really, really want to stress, please, please, please put your dog on a lead around livestock. It comes as farmers here in the Southeast say they're worried about an increase in dog attacks this Easter. Figures from the NFU Mutual show the regional cost of livestock worrying reached an estimated 114,000 pounds last year. Newborn lambs and pregnant news are particularly vulnerable at this time of year. Ken's online reports. Eight people have been arrested after a series of raids were carried out in Rainham and Gillingham. Officers from the county lines and gangs team were investigating the supply of cocaine across Medway. 80,000 pounds worth of drugs were seized. The suspects have all been released on bail ahead of court appearances next month. A teenager has been arrested after armed police were called to reports of a gunman on Sheppy. Officers went to a house on Burridge Road in Cheerness yesterday morning and a boy was taken into custody. Several items, including an air rifle, were recovered from a nearby property. Elsewhere a Sheppy woman found with neglected cats, dogs and a canary has avoided prison despite previously being banned from owning animals. Janet Oxlade admitted having the pets at her home on Darlington Drive in minster. The 73 year old was given a suspended sentence and now must do 20 rehab sessions and a Margate man's appeared in court accused of causing serious injury by dangerous driving following a crashing Ramsgate. It happened on the A299 Hengis way during the morning rushing August 2022 and left a man in hospital for several weeks. Now a Sheppy man who was told he may have just months to live after being diagnosed with a brain tumour has thanked everyone who's been supporting his family. Rick Smith started to complain of headaches in February and it's a story we previously mentioned on the podcast while the 39 year old went for an eye test and was sent for a CT scan which revealed a butterfly glioblastoma on the left side of his brain. A fundraising page was set up to help the dad of three who also has a teenage stepson. Tens of thousands of pounds has been donated within days. Well, Rick has been speaking along with his partner Katrina Binfield. I've heard all my family here from Southampton. From the day we found out all the day after we found out. Feeding all the good stuff. Feeding all the good stuff. Even though you've learned about it. Smoothies. Smoothies, green tea. That's been interesting. Doing everything we can and ways to try and help. Thought's been amazing. Thought's been amazing. And it keeps making you upset today. I haven't really ever seen. I don't get upset until I start talking about this. Yeah, I think we're is quite overwhelmed with how amazing people have been. The guy from me has just been incredible. I mean, last time we checked today it was 71 and a half thousand. It's just incredible. The support, the donations, the messages, everything has just been absolutely incredible. And yeah, we've just so grateful, so grateful. So he's had the barks on Friday. Then this Friday they'll meet. Kings will meet and discuss the results. And then we'll be on a video call with them early part of next week. So by Tuesday, and then we can see what they say. And then we can get on track to our kind of health care consultants that are looking to find the best treatment in Germany for Ricky. We can't really move forward until we've got those results. So yeah, then we can move forward with it. Yeah, just I just want to say we're grateful to everybody. We look at the messages and we sit here and talk about them and have a cry. And yeah, it's just the support has been insane. And it keeps us going. It keeps us going. It keeps us on track. And knowing that everyone's behind us is just amazing. So we just want to say thank you. Thank you and thank you to all the support and the messages. We do try and get through them. But as you can imagine, there's quite a lot back. Yeah, we just want to say thank you. Kent Online News against theatre that was forced to close after potentially dangerous concrete was found could reopen this autumn. Plans have been put in to replace the roof of the orchard in Darford, which had to shut last September. Council leader Jeremy Kite says it's vital for the local economy to get it fixed as soon as possible. He's been speaking to Dan Essen on the latest episode of the Kent Politics podcast. The day that they told me that the roof was not secure based on the new regulations that came in when rack starts broke out, which I think was in August of last year, something like that, was probably one of the worst days I've had because the orchard theatres are so intrinsic and so vital to local people and so much love that we knew immediately. The first thing we said was we can't let it close. This isn't going to be the end of it. It's not closing on my watch. And we knew we would have to do the repairs. The second thing, which you haven't quite mentioned, Dan, is that we've obviously decided to put something into him in its place. And that's not been without controversy because it's a lot of money to spend on a year's worth of temporary theatre. But the truth is we've spent around two million on it, and depending on how you measure it, but the thing contributes nearly five million pounds in terms of local revenue and local economy. So on the diet collapsed and not collapsed on the diet, so we were told that the theatre had to shut. I went to see a couple of restaurants and pubs right opposite, and they were bereft and they said, "Look, this is going to be the final straw for us." So building the temporary one has enabled us to reassure those businesses and get that economy rolling again. And I think they're very grateful. And also, artistically, we've managed to maintain the jobs of people at the orchard. We've managed to maintain the program. We've kept people entertained, put the pan so on. And in terms of where the work is, it's right opposite my window at the office. So I see it every day. The scaffolding's up. They're up there every day working. And we're heading towards an August or September reopening. I'll probably get my knuckles wrapped for putting a month on it. But we're aiming for August or September, certainly to have it open by the pan so. And you can hear the Kent Politics Podcast in full tomorrow. Just head to Kent online or I am hyphen listening, or you can search wherever you get your podcasts. Official plans for a two and a half thousand home development with Royal Connections in Kent have been revealed. The idea is for houses, a primary school cricket ground and hotel on land next to Brenley Corner in Favisham. The site is owned by the Dutchee of Cornwall, which is headed up by Prince William. Plans have been announced to increase parking charges in Medway. From April the 8th, pay and display charges for both off street and on street parking will go up by 60p. The changes are expected to earn. Medway Council are next to £1 million over the next 12 months. And they're set to be more strike action affecting the trains in Kent. Drivers who are members of the Azleth Union will hold rolling one day walkouts over four days next month in their long running dispute of overpaying conditions. It'll mean disruption to southeastern services on Monday the 8th of April. Kent online reports. An incredible story next. £40,000 worth of wedding dresses have been donated to a charity shop in Tumbridge Wells. Staff at the Oxfam branch say they were overwhelmed to receive the gowns, veils and shoes from the owner of a nearby bridle studio, which was closing down. It's thought they'll raise a huge amount for the charity. And you can see pictures of them today by heading to the story at Kent online. Well, store manager Sally Lewis has been speaking to reporter Ellie Hodgson. I wasn't here on the day, but my colleagues are very, very excited and I got very excited. I think I've got a message of what's that message and notes. So yeah, I think they couldn't believe the quality of the goods she was bringing in. And just giving them to us. And for someone that can't see, we're listening. How much stuff is brought in? About, I would say, 20 wedding dresses, about 10 little bologues and then a really good selection of mother of the bride, shoes, dresses, jewelry. So thousands of pounds worth of goods. So what's gone into getting this whole area ready then? So we had to clear a way, we had a sale in neff january. So we had to take away the sale, obviously had to scrub everything down because you don't want wedding dresses to get dirty, take out the window and then it took us a whole, it took two of us a whole day to merchandise it all and make, we wanted it to look like a wedding shop because we wanted people to get a wedding shop experience, even if they were buying a wedding dress in the charity shop. Have you noticed more interest since having this display up? Yes, we've had a lot of people coming in. I had a lady this morning saying, "Is this a new shop?" Oh no, I can hear since about 1972, but the reaction has been, everyone says it looks very beautiful and they can't believe that it's a charity shop when they come and see that. So it's nice that it's a really positive reaction, yes. And what was it that Judy said when she came and you know what her support was worth giving it to her? Well, apparently she obviously she supports Oxfam and wanted to raise money for Oxfam, but she also felt that we would give her dresses the respect that they deserved and we would display them beautifully because she felt that this was a lovely shop and she wanted her goods in here as well. That's really nice. Oh definitely, because we work very hard to make this shop a really lovely environment shop in and give the service that you get in all other shops. Why shouldn't you? And obviously the key is to make money for the charity. Absolutely, it's always, the stock must be worth only the £20,000. Yes, and I think we'll raise a lot for Oxfam from this stock. It'll take time because they're not fast summers, but from now on we will always have a small wedding section in this shop because words getting out that we have this beautiful donation and it means people are now donating their pre-loved wedding dresses because they can see we're going to treat them nicely because wedding dresses are special to a lot of people. Bosses at a micro bar near Folkston say they could be forced to close if they lose their outdoor seating. Unit one is next to the Royal Military Canal in West Hythe and has appealed for retrospective permission to serve food and drinks outside. Some neighbours have complained about the noise, but hundreds of others have written in support of the business. Elsewhere, plans to turn a derelict pub in Swanscombe into a pizza takeaway have resurfaced four years after they were initially refused. The Georgian Dragon on London Road has been empty since 2019 and plans have also been unveiled for luxury homes at the site of a former school in Broadstairs. Developers want to turn the old Leyland Gap in South Cliff Parade, which closed in 2016 into properties with front-line sea views. You can see what they would look like today on the website. And finally for today's episode, a new school has been officially opened in Medway. Rochester Riverside Primary has been built as part of a multi-million pound housing development near to the town's railway station. The Bishop of Rochester and there of Medway carried out the owners yesterday. Our reporter Ellie Hodgson was there and has been chatting to head teacher Ali Mepstedt. So what has the journey been like to opening and what has the reaction been since you have opened in September? Well it's been quite a journey and we've had I think since 2016 is when we first applied for this school and the potential to develop it in the area. It's been an amazing opportunity. Lots of blessings on the way, lots of challenges as well, but I think just to be here and see the children and see the progress they're already making, the enjoyment they have with their new school has made it all worthwhile. And what has the reaction been like for the opening today? Are you pleased with how it's gone? Yeah I am, yes. It's lovely to see actually. It's a strange feeling to see so many people that we've seen partly along this journey at different stages coming together. So there were people that haven't met each other before, people we haven't seen for a long time, whether it's the designers, the builders, the diocese that have been involved. It's great to have everybody together. Somebody said earlier it's a bit like being a wedding where something you've got your whole family together so that's been a real joy to see. And last question you talked today about the vision for the school, what is that going forward now then? I think you know our inspiration is to ensure that these children are having life in all its fullness. It's the first from the Bible that we use within our vision and we really want to make sure that children every day are experiencing that within the learning that they're having, that they're having opportunities to be aspirational and actually to be very proud of the area that we're in, we want to celebrate the historic side of the area that we're in and also give chance for the children to learn and explore more about their futures in this amazing place that we are. The school will eventually have more than 400 children, Rochester and Strewdon P. Kelly Tolhurst says it's brilliant for the community. The new school here, Rochester Riverside School has been an ambition long in the making when the plans for the development of the Rochester Riverside were first, first came forward. We wanted the school here and it has been a long road but it's absolutely great that it's finally opened. Children are in the school, they're happy, the facilities are great and everyone's just sort of really pleased to be at this point. It's going to make a difference for the community that are living in Rochester close by who need to put their children into a local primary school. It's a great environment but it's also helping with the school place needs across Rochester, not just at Rochester Riverside so it's really good that we're here and hopefully the school will obviously increase the number of pupils that are attending as we develop over the coming years. Ellie's also been chatting to a mum and her two boys who go to the school. I'm Lydia. I love you. And this is Lucas. And so what's it like being at this school? Yeah. Do you like about that? Take your friend? That's good, make your friends what else? I just love the community and the Christian ethos and just the fact they've been made to really settle in really easily and play some really good friends and the teaching staff here absolutely amazing. Well that's all from us for today. Thank you 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. And whilst you're on the site today, you can check out the latest Eat My Words food review. Our reporter's been along too. The Ripparo lounge in the format Debanums at Westwood Cross. News you can trust. This is the Kent Online podcast.
