We'll hear about a new secure score that's opening up for young offenders in Medway, and we'll also hear about a visit from Joe Wicks, who's been at a school in Dover. But first, taking a look at our top story today, and NHS Trust has admitted mistakes in the care of a six-year-old girl from Margate, who died just days after being sent home from A&E. An inquest concluded Maya Siek died from suspected sepsis at QEQM. The hearing was told how she'd been discharged with antibiotics for tonsilitis, but re-admitted after her condition deteriorated. Frankie Rhodes is the family's legal representative. I think from my perspective, it was really close to in fact the coroner found multiple sailings and she identified these in detail, and that's included in the record of the inquest. She couldn't quite go far enough to make any findings in terms of causation, and we understand why. If she had proceeded to restore Santa care, she hadn't been admitted on the 90s. If treatment had been started, I think the coroner said, perhaps 18 hours earlier, your war and pack workers have had, and this needs to be explored with the appropriate experts in QEQM. The staff didn't communicate to Rajamantar how severely ill Maya was, and they didn't even mention sepsis, which is what she's seen me had. There was a lack of communication, which is obviously a major cobbler, and we hope that moving forwards parents are listened to and made a priority when it comes to their child's care. Another of our top stories today, a drug supply chain in West Kent has been dismantled after officers seized footage of a dealer weighing cocaine and making threats to an associate. That's Aaron Little, the videos of him were found on phones seized by officers investigating the supply of drugs in Tundbridge, Tundbridge Wells, Seven Oaks and Moreling. The 32-year-old who lives in Garden Road in Tundbridge Wells has been sentenced to three years and two months in prison. The footage also helped convict Jonathan Fulick, whose arrest was also captured by body-worn police cameras. Mr Fulick, are you under arrest? What's the position of being concerned to supply a class of drugs? Keep your hands still, keep your hands still. I think I'm going to call you drugs. I think my home defense, if you do not mention my question, I'm going to call and you can do something maybe good if you understand. The 23-year-old who lives in Dombrel Drive in Paddick Wood was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison. Kent Online News. The Kent Online podcast has been hearing how the county's first secure school opening in Medway will benefit young offenders. The school is operated by Oasis, which is the same educational provider that runs two secondary schools on Sheppy. They set up Oasis Restore in Rochester. Children's sentence there will be given rehabilitation and training to prepare them for the outside world. Founder Steve Chork has been speaking to Oliver from our colleagues at KMTV. Young offenders will be sentenced to us by a judge and a jury, so they will come here because they have committed crime, serious crime. You won't come here because you stealth food out of a supermarket. You'll come here most of the time because you've been involved in violent crime, sometimes very violent crime. You'll come here traumatized as well. You'll often come here because you feel that you've never fitted in. The reality is that the vast majority of young people in the criminal justice system today, anywhere, are young people who are neurodiverse. They don't learn the same way in the same styles as others. They never felt that they fitted in. A huge number of young people in the system are young people who are what we call looked after. They often mean shunted from pillar to post. They don't know where they belong. They've never felt security. And it's those kind of circumstances that produce what we feel is anti-social behavior. One of the principles we now understand is that you cannot deal with behavior unless you deal with its drivers. And so this place, Oasis Restore, is set up to work with young people as they begin to understand what triggers them so that they can begin to address their own restoration. So it's called a secure school. But actually the first thing it is is a home, a secure home. There are no cells here. There are student flats. There are bedrooms. There are no bars. There are windows. There are no keys janking and steel doors. We have youth work. Workers and teachers. It's set up and designed to be a therapeutic environment. Living quarters, living in small student flats. And then we're standing in one of the education blocks in a classroom. It's about vocational studies. This one, academic and vocational studies is in the school that's part of the complex here. And there's also a health center, not that health or any of these things are self-contained. They're all integrated. So in life we learn from the moment we get up in the morning and the conversations we have over breakfast. In life, our health has to do with our social interaction and how secure we feel emotionally and not just when we sit down with the doctor. And here we aim to do all of those things. And this wonderful, that reputically informed and designed environment enables us to do that work. MP Edward Arger is the Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation. We are in the final stages of getting this new secure school ready to open to young people and children being sent here. This is the first of its kind in this country. At the moment we have young offenders, institutions, training centers and secure children's faith. This adopts a different approach. They were often prisons with some education. What this is, is this is a school, but a secure school with custody. With a core focus on, yes, children, young people who've been sent here will have committed some pretty bad crimes and pretty unpleasant crimes. So it's right there sentence to custody and they pay their debt back to society. But it's also important that while they're here in our custody, we do everything we can to equip them for the outside world to give them the skills and opportunities to actually live life in bounds to make a positive choice and not to reaffirm when they're outside. The facility is due to open in the coming weeks. The Catch On My podcast has been hearing about the shocking scale of homophobia in Kent as a new support group is set up to help victims. It's been founded by three men who want to provide a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community. One of the founders of the group, Lucas and Eddie Springitt, has been telling us about a time he suffered homophobic abuse. I was at a local pub just down the road from here. My husband and I were there and I was sitting at the bar and there's a local person that was there that has been going there for many years. And for some reason one night he decided to start picking on me, innocently picking on me, just asking me really inappropriate questions and whatnot and telling me he didn't like me and that I wasn't educated and saying things like my father didn't put me through education and what just random stuff. And he just started getting a little bit more louder and louder and louder. And then my husband stepped in and he was like you know just like just go away, stop it. And then altercations happened and I think he said something to me really really nasty and my husband kind of knocked his Guinness over on his lap and he turned around and he said yeah I hope you die of AIDS and things like that. It was pretty harsh and I've got thick skin, you know, I'm a pretty kind of tough person. But things like that, for the people in the community that have passed away from HIV and AIDS, that's not fair. I mean I can take it but for the ones, the loved ones that have lost people that was wrong on so many levels, it didn't just disrespect me, it just respected not only the LGBTQIA community but even the heterosexual community that you know passed away from AIDS. And that was pretty harsh, it was horrible. And not everybody has homophobic encounters but it happens more than you think. And even if it's just someone shouting from the other side of the road, you know, it can hit hard for certain people that are because you know that saying that you never know what someone's going through and a smile can change your day. It's very, it's practically on that kind of line. One small comment can mean something so big. Christopher Peter also helped set up the group and shed his experience of being attacked. It was the day after Christmas day, I went to blue water and I was shopping and I felt an arm go in my back. So as I turned around, it was a man holding a nine month year old. It's like child and he headbutted me and as he headbutted me, he obviously called me a puff. I instantly fell to the floor, I was on my own, I was shocked. Luckily enough a lady rang the police and lucky enough blue water had the police there on in their kind of complex. They came, his wife was actually downstairs in the shop, stopping. The police actually tried to arrest me at first. They said that I was harassing him and then I asked them to look at the video cameras and then obviously it came into fruition and apparently from the moment I walked into the store and went upstairs, he was actually stalking me the whole way around the shop so he was actually choosing his opportunity to attack me. He then got arrested and he got thrown into jowl full, I don't know 24 hours and yeah, I didn't press charges. I just wanted to drop it. It was very traumatic. So yeah, it is important that we create this group for these types of reasons and it's important that people don't feel lonely because it can be quite a lonely life. The group's been launched at candy bar in Tundridge Wells offering help to people across West Kent. A new team of specialist officers has been set up to tackle anti-social behaviour in smaller towns and villages around Tundridge and Morelake. I'll be out on patrol during the daytime and at night and they have the power to take down people's details, issues, fines and confiscate alcohol. Oliver from KMTV has been speaking to Councillor Des Keyers who's the cabinet lead for communities. This team is set up to support Kent police and not to replace Kent police. Kent police have a really, really difficult job in being everywhere at the right time and what this gives us is mainly an influence to be visible, to familiarise ourselves and be accessible to those members of the public that may not see police officers. The crime and disorder act quite clearly states that it's not just down to the police to fight crime and local disorder, it's down to local authorities to do so as well. So what we're doing is we're not paying lip service to that. We're actually doing something about it and putting these people out far and wide so that everyone sees a uniform and someone they can talk to if they've got any issues. So perhaps let's talk about perhaps what the scheme is in a bit more detail. He might give me a quick run through of what this scheme is designed to do, what this pilot is designed to do, what officers will be doing day in, day out. Yeah, absolutely. So what we wanted and set up to do is we want these officers to be part of a community safety partnership so they can patrol, be highly visible in areas where there's particularly antisocial behaviour taking place. What they're engaged to do is to talk to people, reassure people, make people more confident in the whole community safety partnership and bring that reassurance that the public need and ultimately success looks like a reduction in antisocial behaviour. And what are some of the issues they're facing somewhere like snorkeling, some of the smaller towns and areas around that these officers are designing to target to immerse themselves? Yeah, well every year we consult with the public and we ask them where are the areas of concern for them in relation to antisocial behaviour and we have something that's called a public safety protection order. And that protection order is written based upon where the public say that problems are taking place. And so these officers will be fundamentally patrolled in those areas listening to the communities, listening to the public and where they say that problems are taking place. Now they do have powers, they have powers under the community safety accreditation scheme so that they can stop people take names and addresses, they can remove alcohol from people if they're causing problems with alcohol and they can also issue fines if they're breaching any of those issues within the public safety protection order. So there's lots of things they can do, they want to do, my personal thought, I want them to be a visible presence so that we're Kent police, we have other law enforcement agencies, can't be there. These officers are resourced solely by Tumbridger Morning Barre Council and they can be there and they can gather information, they can gather intelligence so that we can put the resources into the right places at the right time. One of the day team leaders Stephen Jenner has also been chatting to Oliver. What does your team do every single week, what does a regular shift look for you? We've been allocated at the moment areas obviously the council have collated information where they need us, they're hotspots so we go to these areas, we liaise with the shops, we liaise with people which we try and gather intel and then if we come across things like we've got some intel, we went in the woods, we came across some drugs, we came across graffiti, vandalism and flight tipping and we will pass that back to the council because we do reports for them, they go back to their units. And what are you on the lookout for? When you were out and about what sort of behavior are you keeping an eye out for? Whatever can be classified as social behaviour, whether it is children, catapulting animals, whether it is drugs or reports of people underage drinking, whatever the council have asked us to account for, like flight tipping, unfortunately it seems the big one we're coming across in some of the boroughs. Anything that can make it easier for everybody in the community, we're there for the community to make life better for them. Because people may say that we already have a police force here in Kent, why is it actually sort of to have a team like yours out and about in this district? I think unfortunately the police are stretched, they have a lot of work to do so it's beneficial with this extra bit of security for the public. We do operations with the police as it is, we do join operations with the police and I just think the more people out there that can reassure the community and take the pressure off the police, the better. Kent Online News It's emerged a candidate that's been elected to a parish council in Kent despite coming last in the vote. Kaz McLean's name was read out by mistake following the count for the local elections. It's understood she intends to serve her term in Boxley and the only way to remove her would involve a high court challenge. Plads have been revealed to build 115 new homes and a secondary school in Hearne Bay. Local bosses of E-mark the land between Thornton Wood Road and the old fannet way for the development as they look to meet housing targets, designs will be released in the coming months and a formal application is expected to be made in the summer. People in part of Kent have resorted to paying private contractors to clear their rubbish as issues continue with bin collections. A company called Suez took on the contract covering Swae or Maidstone and Ashford in March but Waste has been piling up. They've previously apologized and have taken on more stuff but now an emergency council meeting has been called to discuss it. It's emerged Paul Hollywood and his wife who've spent £80,000 of their own money trying to save her family's pub near Ashford. The checkers is a great two-listed building and smarted but they're now plans to turn it into a house. The celebrity baker supported his partner at a planning meeting where the committee voted to defer its decision. Our reminder for drivers, a slip road off the M2 is going to be closed for around a month as work continues on the Stockbury roundabout improvements. You won't be able to leave the motorway at Junction 5 is sitting born coastbound until the 10th of June. A diversion is via Bluebell Hill, the M20 and A249. Kent Online News The man behind Kent's first car drifting school says he'll continue to run the track despite being told he doesn't have planning permission. Council bosses say there have been complaints about noise from revving engines and screeching tires at the site at Manston Airport. Warren Lees from Sandwich created the track after previously getting in trouble by doing Stanson local roads. He was caught filming a YouTube video while power sliding on the A256, speaking in 2023 after losing his licence three times, Warren explains why the track is needed. 'If we had a truck locally to us that we would have 100% taken it there. But obviously there is nothing like that around here and that is the biggest concern that we've got, is we have nowhere to go, nowhere to go and enjoy our cars and we're happy, I know it's not right, but we're happy to use the public roads.' 'I'm not going to stand here and deny, you know, deny that the fact that it's not right, you know, at the end of the day it's not right and we would prefer 100% to be on a track. But we do pick our times, you know, normally late evenings, away from, you know, public, to be able to go and enjoy our cars. 'And you would argue you're in control of the vehicle.' 'Totally in control of the vehicle.' 'But it wouldn't appear necessarily like that to remember the public perhaps.' 'Absolutely not, from the outside view it looks very out of control, but I can assure you very, very in control, you know, to the point that, well, you just have to be, you have to be in control of the car, you're putting the car, making the car do something it's not designed to do. Obviously we are now building track day cars, so they are capable of doing it. But still a car wants to be very stable on all four wheels and we're pushing in boundaries and so you have to be fully in control of that car.' 'But all this happens at quite a slow speed.' 'It does. On an average, average size roundabout, you're doing between 25 and 30 miles an hour, you know, we're not, we're not doing, you know, 100 miles an hour round about far from it.' 'But this is costing in the past because I think you've lost your licence a few times.' 'I have lost my licence a few times because of lack of places to go. And yeah, it's costing me dearly.' 'Is it a price worth paying to highlight this?' '100% to be honest, that's kind of why I'm trying to push this, is that something needs to be done, not blaming it's all to do with the cancel, but something needs to happen, someone needs to be, you know, someone needs to organise something that we can, that we have got somewhere to go and enjoy our car.' 'Because this is a, is it a particularly big scene, is it a car?' 'It's huge, it's a huge scene and it's growing, it's only going to get worse, unfortunately.' Kent Online News. Joe Wicks has been visiting a school in Kent today, the body coach who got us all active during lockdown, headed to Charlton Church of England Primary in Dover this morning, he put the whole school through a workout and sat for a Q&A with staff, pupils and parents. [Music] Sally Ann Pederson, he's the school's head, she's been on the KMFM breakfast show explaining how the visit came to be. 'There's an online sort of application process, because he does lots of school visits, as you know, he's all about promoting healthy living, exercise, eating, so he gets around to as many schools as he can and you apply online and then you get selected based on your application. My wonderful deputy, Amy, puts in the application and focusing on the fact that, you know, we're in Dover, Dover sometimes gets a bit overlooked, the press isn't always particularly positive about our lovely town and we just, and we focused on our healthy living and healthy, healthy lifestyle, which is something that we are really passionate about at Charlton. It comes as the Council Online podcast has been hearing how exercise can help improve the mental health of children at a Kent school. Pupils at Herm Bay Juniors are taking part in a range of activities to raise awareness and money for charity. I've been speaking to Holly Edwards, who's the school's director of mental health and wellbeing. This week's mental health awareness week is about movement, so moving for our mental health. So they'll be doing some things out in our forest area, they will be doing some dancing activities, they'll be visits to the park, they'll be beach trips, dancing, there's a scavenger hunt, so but we have a lot planned with our outdoor lead as well, so he's planned some great forest sessions where they'll be doing some ground in activities, every class will be taking part, children and adults and we will also be doing a bigger organised event, next Wednesday afternoon, and that will be running activity. Well I say running, some will be running, some will just be moving going in with that theme, so it might be sort of, we've said you can walk, you can jump, you can hop, you can skip, but every child and adult will be invited to join Mr Hobbs, our outdoor lead, running around the school field for, well he will be running for three hours straight, they will be joining him for 15 minutes and parents and carers will be invited to come in and run with their child. So if you've had these sessions in the morning, whether that does translate to a better, I suppose attitude in the classroom, would you say the children, so they're more focused, they're more willing to engage with what the teacher's saying? Yeah I mean we do, yes, certainly for not all children, but some children in school have brain breaks, time where they maybe perhaps need five or ten minutes out of class and they might go out and kick a ball, they might play basketball, they might run around the playground and that's for all different reasons, but it's really beneficial because actually for whatever reason, whatever's going on for that child, they're finding the classroom overwhelming or just need a bit of time out and actually just going around, it's a reset, you know, it gives them that opportunity to get out and then come back fresh and reset and the engagement is definitely improved, a lot of our forest time is in the afternoon, so it'll be interesting to see when they have their forest session in the morning for their grounding activity, how that then links with them going back into the classroom after, it'll be really interesting to see how that impacts, but I mean the children here really engage with it well, really enjoy it, it's really positive and actually also to say not just the children, the adults as well. Ken's online, sports. Briefly to cricket, Kent had to Somerset for their latest game in the county championship today, it follows their draw against Worcestershire, last time out, Matt Walker side are still with just one win so far this season, meanwhile Kent have confirmed their opening T20 game at Canterbury will be this year's Pride match, the Spitfires take on Somerset under the lights on Friday, June 7th, the head of the city's Pride festival over the weekend, the club will also be supporting the BU project to help LGBTQ+ people feel included. 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 your email each morning via the briefing to sign up, just head to kentonline.co.uk and while you're on the website, why not check out the latest review from The Secret Drinker. News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. It's nearly time for fun at Causington Park Sports Centre, the family-friendly inclusive pool and sports centre from Medway, opening on Wednesday the 17th of July, with a brand new fun pool, weight machine and flume, four lane swimming pool and splash pool for little ones, multi-purpose dance and fitness studio with children's party area and their state-of-the-art gym. The Countdown is on, sign up to a membership and find out more at medway.gov.uk/causingtonpark.
