An inquest has heard a dad-of-two with an agonising back injury was found dead in bed after unintentionally overdosing on painkillers.
The 31-year-old was discovered unresponsive by his heartbroken partner at their home in Birchington last November.
Also in today's podcast, one year on from a landslide which closed a major road, residents and businesses have been left counting the financial, emotional and physical costs.
The A226 Galley Hill Road in Swanscombe collapsed and people living nearby are desperately demanding action.
An alarming survey has revealed more than half of staff at a Kent NHS trust would not be happy for a loved one to be treated there.
In what bosses admit is a “shocking indictment” of the organisation, just 45% of workers at East Kent Hospitals are content with the “standard of care”.
Controversial ventilation units ruining one of the most iconic views in Britain are set to be moved.
The rooftop equipment was installed as part of a new medical school run by Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) in the city’s North Holmes Road.
And hear from a 75-year-old glass merchant from Rainham celebrating 60 years in the glazing business.
He's worked for the same company since he left school and says he has no plans to retire.
10th Our top story today is a year since a major cliff collapse closed a road in North Kent. Part of the 8226, Galley Hill Road in Swanscombe remains shut after chalk came down onto the Manaway Business Park below. A water leak was initially blamed but Thames Waters says the cause is yet to be determined they're working with the council. Jeremy Kite is leader of Dartford Council. If I'm brutally honest, it does come down to a very, very unusual occurrence and I don't think there's been much dragging of heels on it. Dartford isn't actually any party to this. It's a matter of case you see the water company government highways. We kind of oversee it. We've got a watching brief on behalf of the community of course. But the truth is it is such an unprecedented event and it is such a large-scale solution. The day it happened, or the evening it happened, I remember looking at it and I went on Google Earth to find out exactly where it was and to all insult myself. And I must be honest, I was surprised that the spine road was quite as thin as it was and I'm sure lots of other people when they look at it realise now that that chalk spine is incredibly thin and I won't say that collapse was inevitable but it does seem that once it's happened we have to learn the lessons. What was interesting is that about half a mile up the road, Dartford does own a bit of land, a very similar situation. We spent £5 million putting it up, shoring it up, making it safe for people at Waterstone Park. It's not a very sexy project, nobody sort of thanks you for it but it's the kind of investment that was needed frankly to maintain it. We are where we are and I think this is going to be a very long solution. I must be honest, I mean I'm as a salmon outside, I'm not directly involved in it but my belief is I can't see a simple solution to this and I think if it were me and I'm not technically expertise in this, I have no potential expertise but if it were me I'd be looking at an alternative route I think rather than trying to look at how that can be repaired but as I say please don't think that's a horse's mouth comment, it isn't, it's a very uninformed one from my opinion but it's a very big project to put right. Ronnie Pierce works at Lancebox Demolition which was badly damaged in the collapse he spoke to our reporter at the time. I got a phone call from Nell Mann, said yeah the cliffs give way, I like to rush up here with me, sliders and that came up. First thing I wanted to do is get the gates open and get all the lorries we had out here in but in once I opened the shut up there, I realised I can't salvage nothing in there because that risk, it's coming worse than falling on top of me so. What did it look like when you first, oh it's chaos yeah, the police got us outside, I don't think there was just waiting for the am, fire brigade turn up. So I opened the gates for when I had a look inside and they said yeah it's not safe to be in here, so I mean if you just describe it, literally the cliffs come down on top of the workshop is it? Yeah that's it, yeah and a storage area you can see the water was still like coming down from the cliff and then even when we got, we was here there was a bit still falling down so yeah they asked us to vacate the area and be worried I'm scared at the time, I'm scared but I just thought it's best not to be stacked as under it, you know, best get out of here and just do what they can do and then leave it to the legal side where it was going to happen. Do you have much damage at schools? What I can put a price to in there, especially when we got a lorry sitting in there as it is, you know it's stuck in there, I can put a price on it and do you know what's going to happen going forward? Well no, originally they said we can't be here but you know we've still got businesses to run, we can't, no one's paying us if we're not open so yeah we've got to just carry on as normal and hopefully let's get sorted out you know. Martin Butcher lives close to the cliff collapse and has been speaking to reporter Keeley Greenwood. It's been a complete nightmare, my journey to work is now, like I've got to say it's gone up nearly 40% distance wise and obviously they've got a fuel with that as well but we missed this for the alleyway. It's just too dangerous for it to do anything to give up off of a part-time work. It's got two jobs, so now she's only got one, that's half the income there. How much longer is your mileage? It's an extra three and a half miles longer than what it was. Every day. Yeah, every day. Unless I can try to go through swamps going if I want but then you've got the old Mexican stand off with the cars fighting about who wants to give way and all that but it's just a complete nightmare really. KCC say specialist engineers and contractors have been appointed to carry out the first phase of investigations and stabilisation works. Now another of our top stories today an inquest has heard a dad of two from Thanat died after unintentionally overdosing on pain killers. Oliver Griggs was discovered unresponsive at his home in Birchington in November last year. Abby's been following this story for the Kent Online podcast. What do we know about Oliver's injuries and how was he managing the pain? 31 year old was suffering from a slipped herniated disc in his back and was prescribed the medication just to help him get on top of the pain. His family say the injury was debilitating he was struggling to work and do day to day tasks like getting in and out of the bath. The coroner found it was a mix of large doses of the pain killers that caused the unintended consequences. Were there any concerns at the time about how much or the type of medication he'd been prescribed? Yes well his family did raise concerns about the amount of pain relief he was being prescribed. They also criticised a lack of close monitoring that he received once getting those prescriptions. The hearing into his death found that Oliver was aware of the addictive nature of the drugs. It had discussions about dependency with his GP and at one point doctors offered him advice on how to use the medication correctly and even refused to increase his morphine dose. He had been scheduled for another appointment the day after he died. And the coroner is in no doubt that this was an accident. That's right the fact that Oliver and his partner of almost nine years were planning to get married, visit Disneyland with their children. Those details were enough for the coroner to conclude that he hadn't intended to take his own life. It was found that all of the medications mixed together led to respiratory depression and obesity and an enlarged heart were listed as secondary factors. Thanks Abby. A fundraiser has been set up to help the family cover the cost of the funeral so far it's raised more than £3,000. Kent Online News An inquest has heard the man who firebombed an immigration processing centre in Dover viewed indecent images of children months before the attack. Andrew Lee took his own life after throwing four improvised explosives from his car window at the Western Jet Foil Centre in 2022. Two people reportedly suffered minor injuries in the attack. The 66-year-old's social media pages were found to be littered with far-right content including tirades against asylum seekers, Muslims and the royal family. The hearing was also told Lee had suffered with his mental health which spiralled further out of control after his son's sudden death months before the attack. A graves end woman who helped two teenagers attack a homeless man with a machete has been sent to prison. A court was told Muna Fuggles and her boyfriend arranged to meet the victim before the violent attack in January last year. The 43-year-old from Medhurst Crescent has been locked up for 18 months. Police investigating a £5 million pound gambling investment scam in folks turned of charged two men. At least 130 investors are alleged to have been defrauded over a four-year period from 2017. A 33-year-old from Wingham and a 61-year-old from London are due in court in May accused of fraud offences. A man has been charged following a string of thefts from vehicles in Fannett. Drivers reported that wallets, bank cards and sunglasses had gone missing from their cars. 30-year-old Lewis Teddam of Prestige Avenue in Ramsgate was charged with five counts of theft and a further four counts of vehicle interference. Residents near Woodland in Ashford say they're furious after finding a taunt to shreds and littered with glass. There are also reports the remains of a car have been scattered around grassland at the top of Kingswood Car Park in Cholic. Police say they're investigating the damage there have been calls for CCTV to be installed. Kent Online News Less than half of staff at a Kent NHS Trust would be happy for loved ones to be treated there according to a new survey. Even fewer, at 44%, would recommend the East Kent Trust as a place to work that's the lowest in the country. It's one of the largest trusts with hospitals in Ashford, Dover, Canterbury, Margate and Folkestone. Dan Essen is our local democracy reporter. There's the board of directors of East Kent Hospitals Trust which runs five hospitals across East Kent. It's one of the biggest NHS hospitals trusts in the country and at that meeting they'd discussed in some detail the responses to the NHS staff survey which happens every year at every NHS institution in the country but this time around the results for East Kent NHS were especially bad. Just explain to us some of the main findings from that survey of staff. Sure, so there's a hundred and twenty-two acute NHS trusts and those are NHS trusts which run hospitals. Some of them run one, some of them run loads like I said East Kent runs five. The NHS staff said it happens every year. It measures basically all sorts of metrics for NHS staff satisfaction, how they feel about their job, how they feel about the care provided as a trust they work out, all that sort of thing. But this time around for East Kent Hospitals on some metrics essentially they've got the worst in the entirety of England and on some of them they we know among the worst. For example, only 45% of NHS staff said that they would be happy with the of East Kent Hospitals staff there. So they would be happy with the standard of care provided that if a family member or a relative or friend or anything like that was there. Compare that to for example, you know, only get not too far away in Mesa and Tumbre's Wells are at 74%. So East Kent Hospitals is close to being one of the worst in the country on that and not quite. Only about 60.5% said that care of patients felt like it was the top priority for the trust which is I think the worst in the country compared to for example 80% at Mesa and Tumbre's Wells. So yeah, essentially on a lot of key metrics East Kent Hospitals not doing very well. What was the reaction during the meeting because that can't be easy listening for the bosses there? No, I mean, they were pretty candid about the fact the chair of the board's directors said it's Wordsworth, there's an awful word for it. So they were very open about the fact that they know they have a lot of work to do and that these are quite profoundly terrible results for them. The Chief People Officer who I suppose is essentially head of HR for the whole trust said that, you know, turnout was low, it was only 40% that she knows that the reason turnout was so low because a lot of staff feel like there's no point voice in their opinion so they don't think anything would change. So yeah, essentially everyone in the meeting members of the board's directors made quite clear that they realized how bad the results are for them. They said that they've got a touch base with a few hundred staff already through these like listening events that they're going to be holding but whether or not that will actually lead to any sort of measurable change by the time the next survey happens which is September October this year will remain to be seen. New figures show more than 80% of Kent police officers feel worse off financially than they did five years ago. 15% say they will resign within the next two years. Bosses say cost of living pressures are making recruitment difficult and have asked the government to give officers a 6% pay rise. The director of Human Resources for Kent police says they're doing all they can to support staff including offering access to advice on how to manage bills, budgeting and debt and they'll work closely with officers to understand the issues they're facing. University of Kent staff have voted to go out on strike over cuts to courses. Six subjects are being scrapped in as many as 60 jobs could be lost as the uni looks to save money. It comes as Vice Chancellor Karen Cox who's in charge of the cuts announced she's resigning next month. A former care home in Kent is set to be used to house unaccompanied asylum seeking children. People living near Edward Morehouse and Gravesend have been contacted by the county council about the plans. The facility closed in 2022 and will provide space for up to 36 under 16 from September. Drivers in Folkston are being offered free tamper proof screws to help secure number plates after multiple thefts. Cars in New Romney, Dim Church and Hyth have been targeted, the screws are designed to be harder to remove and can be collected from Folkston police station. Kent Online News A pharmacy has reopened in Gravesend two years after a devastating fire. The blaze actually broke out in a derelict former pub on Milton Road before spreading to the building next door in May 2022. Pender pharmacy was forced to close and relocate but has now returned to the High Street. Stephen Kane is the pharmacist there. It's fantastic. We've been operating our NHS dispensing service from our premises and grades and medical centre which has been good but it's really good to have premises back in the community. I feel we need to be based in the community and get our healthcare message out there directly from the street and we're great to be back doing that. It's been quite a long time coming, hasn't it? I think it's been closed now. It has been two years. We've had a lot of difficulty with finding the correct premises, NHS contracts and things but it's all come together now so we're really happy to be back. And what can people expect in their future? We're looking to promote further services, stop smoking service, vaccination service, the pharmacy first service, possibly supervise services from people on addiction drugs. Everything that pharmacy is now being required to do by the NHS, it's going to be a completely comprehensive service. Now ahead of the local elections next month, Kent has had a visit from a party leader. I'm finding on the doorstep, people are switching to the liberal Democrats for positive reasons but also they really want to send a message to the Conservative government. People are sick and tired of the Conservatives. They don't care, they've taken people granted, they've let people down and so in places like rural Tundridge Wells, indeed across Kent, we think there's a real chance for liberal Democrats to make gains against the Conservatives. That's Lib Dems Sir Ed Davie who's been in Tundridge Wells. It was given a tour around the site of a former cinema that's been derelict for several years but has now been converted into a multi-story housing complex. The party's keen to take overall control of the authority when residents go to the polls on May 2nd. Ben Chappellard is the current council leader. The Liberal Democrats have led a cross-party administration for the last two years. I think we've showed that we've got a real record of delivery for residents. I think we've got a very exciting plan for the next two years which is in our five pledges and hopefully residents will give us their support. The first one is we want to plant a tree for every resident in the borough so to tackle climate change, I think that's gone down very well on the doorstep. That's a really exciting project which I'm really particularly excited about. People have also told us on the doorstep that there's not enough young people in the town so we want to look at delivering six community hubs. We want to make sure we've got the infrastructure in the right place and we've frozen parking charges as well. But what are the other parties promising for the area? Tom Daulings is leader of the local Conservatives. The main thing we want to change is we think there should be more action from the council. The Lib Dems have led the council in coalition now for two years and many of the things that they say they've achieved are actually in the programme that they inherited from the Conservatives. As far as I can see, I've just gone into the slow lane and I think that's disappointing. So we'd want to push on much more with the getting more business into Thomas Wells. We think that investment in Thomas Wells is really important. We think that putting on increasing parking fees is not helpful to encouraging investment. Victoria Jones is hoping to become a Labour councillor for the first time she's standing in Sherwood We've got a list of priorities that we're really clear on and I think they're landing really well on the doorstep in terms of the conversations that I'm having but I think there's a lot of work to do. One of the most common things that comes up on the doorstep is around housing. So we've got lots of residents particularly in Sherwood who are living in overcrowded or poor quality housing and there's just not enough homes, not enough homes for affordable rent for social housing across the borough. Now we know that there is a really good plan in terms of the local plan and how it identifies different areas where we could develop without kind of losing what makes our town so special. So we need to invest in those areas and I believe that a Labour involvement on that on the council will really drive that forward. Local elections will also be happening in Maidstone. We also get to choose who is Kent's police and crime commissioner for the next four years. Kent Online News. Kent Uni is planning to move air conditioning units that have been blocking views of Canterbury's historic cathedral. The rooftop ventilation equipment was part of a new £65 million medical school run by Canterbury Christchurch University but it came under fire when a local historian said it destroyed the view. Historic England has been working on a plan with the Uni to move them to the ground and cover them with sheets. From camping and glamping to business and tourism, four finalists from Kent have made it into Visit England's award for excellence. Kent Wildlife Trust are up for the ethical, responsible and sustainable tourism award while the Battle of Britain Memorial is made it to the top three in new tourism business of the year. Both kids, cottie glamping and boys Hall have also made the cut in their categories and all four finalists are invited to the National Awards Ceremony in Liverpool this summer and a Rainer man is celebrating 60 years working for the same glass merchant. Derek Royder and joined Spooner's glass in drilling him after leaving school when he was 15. He never believed he'd be there six decades later but these days he's there five and a half days a week. He caught up with reporter Ellie Hodgson. I left school in April 1964 when I was 15. I went to the youth employment office because I want to be a bricklayer and I went to the youth employment office. I think it was the first of April 1964. I got the job and I come over and saw Mr. Spooner and he said you can start the next day so that was April 1964, 60 years ago this week. He said I'll give a three-month start so 60 years later I'm still working here. Yeah and I love the job. So is that what's kept you here? What is it you love about the job? I just love coming here. I love doing what I do. I like talking to people. Some people come in the shop for a little bit of glass. They say how much is a bit of picture glass I say all four pounds you know and their standard talk you know and they ask me how long I've been here and they're quite happy. I've only taken four pounds off them but they're quite happy that I've you know and they might stand in there for half an hour or so. They're just talking about well things in general really yeah. What does your wife think about it in general then? My wife's quite happy that I come up working for a day. She never mounds about me coming to work. She never mounds about me coming to work because she knows her work five and a half days. I go off about quarter past seven in the morning. I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings. So you're at 60 years. How much longer do you see yourself? Are you going to be celebrating 70 years? I like the thought of it yeah. My wife said I probably won't pack up till I'm 80. I don't like the thought of it. I don't really know. But yeah but I just like getting out of bed and coming to work if it's just part of my life for well 60 years yeah. Would you say you're a work pilot? I do enjoy work yeah yeah I like working yeah and I do I like what I do and I do like working yeah. Because we do do a lot of manual work after load to skip unload lorries, load sheets of glass double glows unit which are some of them are quite heavy. So in healthy yeah yeah I don't take no tablets no medication I've even got no feelings in my mouth. I've got all my own teeth I've even got any feelings. I've got all my own teeth I've even got any feelings in my mouth. Yeah. Can online sports briefly to football England's women have earned their first win of Euro 2025 qualifying with the victory over Ireland. Maidstones Alessi Russo was part of the starting lineup as they secured the two nil result in Dublin. Their campaign continues with a home game against France next month. That's all from us 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 the details on the top stories direct to your email each morning via the briefing to sign up just head to Kentonline.co.uk news you can trust. This is the Kent online podcast. (dramatic music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
