An exotic animal is on the loose after escaping from its zoo enclosure - and we're being warned not to approach her.
The Tayra - a weasel-like mammal from Central America - was discovered missing from the Hemsley Conservation Centre on Sunday.
Also in today's podcast, drivers have had their say on a new £650k turbo roundabout as work comes to an end.
Some claim the redesign of the Running Horse Roundabout in Maidstone is a waste of money, while others believe it has significantly reduced queues.
The KentOnline Podcast has heard from an Ashford man who lost his father and uncles after they were given contaminated blood products.
He's reacted to the release of yesterday's report which found the infected blood scandal was no accident, and successive governments have tried to cover it up.
A Walderslade dad-of-two has been told he has weeks to live following a three-year fight with cancer.
He was first diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2021 before it spread to his stomach and lungs - he's now been told the cancer is too aggressive to try further treatment.
And an ex-convict says she has been given a “second chance” after a plant project in Cranbrook helped her get a bank account and roof over her head.
She was released this year and has since been working for The Glasshouse - they have an exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Kent Online News. News You Can Trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. Kate Faulkner. Hello. Hope you're okay. Thank you for downloading today's podcast on Tuesday, May 21st. Coming up, we have an update on a £600,000 roundabout redevelopment and the latest for a hunt for an exotic animal that's escaped from a zoo in Seven Oaks. But first taking a look at our top story. We're continuing to hear from the victims of the infected blood scandal as they react to the release of yesterday's podcast. The release of yesterday's report, the inquiry into the scandal, found it was no accident with catastrophic failures at the hand of successive governments and the NHS. It found 30,000 people were knowingly infected with HIV or hepatitis C because those in authority didn't put patient safety first. Tim Raton is from Ashford. He lost his dad and uncles after they were given contaminated blood products. He spoke to the Kent Online podcast yesterday after the report was released. This morning, I was angry. I was cross and then myself and it's been, it's been really emotional tears in your eyes, upset and just just now sort of frustrated that this didn't need to happen. And, you know, obviously even the government now accepting that this didn't need to happen. And it shouldn't have and it hasn't just really blown down now thinking why else, why do we get caught up in this scandal, but relieved that obviously it's there and we can say it's going to go down in history and they haven't covered out forever. So happy on that boundary. Do you feel vindicated at all because your your fight has been a very long one. Do you feel that now you have finally been heard and the truth has really been exposed. Yeah, because obviously for me, I've been fighting 13 years and ever since my dad died and I've seen my uncles obviously it's just been a fight, fight, fight. But now for me, I finally feel we can basically have our own time and we can get over this, start rebuilding lives, but I'm really glad that now we have a document. So if anyone ever says, no, you're lying. It's like, there's a document, read the document, read the news, read the history. It's there. You know, so now we can have our time back and just stop fighting because we should be looking at the photographs of the good memories, not photographs of us on the press always fight, fight, fight, it's just tiring. We heard a thing perhaps most shockingly about the huge cover up by not just the NHS by governments. How did that make you feel when you heard that particular bit today from from the report. That's really what just we knew all of that there was such a cover up because of medical records that we couldn't get there and we could get, you know, even at one stage I had to pay the medical records myself. And then at one point, the government said, Oh, actually, you know, the medical records are free. And I said, don't get refund. It's like, no. So when it, when it comes out and says, you know, this is a major cover up, I was just. And what about the compensation, Tim, because that's been another ongoing issue, how, how far, or how close are you now to, to getting the compensation. We are so close to getting there. But obviously today was about, you know, families infected affected. So tomorrow in the coming days. I'm sure we're starting little grips and graphs of what the government plan to do that. I know they said today they now need to look at obviously the report, go for it. But I'm pretty sure we will. But for me, yet the compensation for what you've been through will be lovely about the report for me will have pride of place. And obviously, just knowing that I've got that just to say, this is a story, it wasn't a lie. But I obviously on the conversation, but at the moment, I don't numbers, facts, figures, I'm not, you know, I'm not interested today. Kent online news, a woman is still in a critical condition a week after a serious collision in Broadstairs. Emergency crews were called to Westwood Road after a van collided with a pedestrian, a 38-year-old man from Ailesford. It's been arrested. A court's herd, how a man fled to Kent following a crash that left two people seriously injured. Girash Kojar tried to leave the country via the port of Dover following the 93 Marpehauer collision in Wolverhampton in February. The 29-year-old from Worsash Close has been jailed for four years and banned from driving for seven. A man's been arrested following a suspected burglary in St. Nodland. The home in Ponton's walk was broken into in the early hours of Monday. A silver VW transporter was stolen and stopped by police a short time later. A 30-year-old has been arrested on bail. A second suspect is still on the run. Three people have been arrested after a teenage girl was reportedly attacked in a park in Ashford. Police were called to Bank Street last night. A 42-year-old man believed to be armed with a round as bat, was detained along with another man and a teenage boy. Police investigating a stabbing and robbery in Ramsgate have charged a man. Officers were called to an address in Camden Square in the early hours of last Thursday and found a victim in his 40s. An area of boundary park was also sealed off. A 46-year-old is due in court, while four other people have been released on bail. A man's been arrested just 17 minutes after a motorbike was reported stolen in Gillingham. Police were called to hutsford close last Friday night. The vehicle was then involved in a crash in Lord's Wood. A 20-year-old from Chatham has been questioned. An investigation has been launched after children reportedly beat a wild rat to death in Ramsgate. They were allegedly seen kicking and attacking the rat with a stick in observatory way. They only stopped when a good Samaritan stepped in. The RSPCA is appealing for witnesses. A search has been carried out for a light aircraft that was reportedly seen in trouble near Ashford. Police and firefighters used drones to try and locate it in Woodland off Pluckley Road in Charing. Yesterday evening, crews were stood down and no aircraft was found. It's been revealed 18-10 cases of petrol theft in Kent over the last five years have ended up with no suspect being identified. 971 reports were made to police in the county last year and only 26 resulted in a charge or court summons. Some petrol stations say they're losing thousands of pounds a month. Police say they will always investigate when there's evidence to show someone else. Someone's taken steps to intentionally avoid payment. This has been one of our most read stories online today. An exotic animal is on the loose after escaping from its zoo enclosure near Seven Oaks. The Tayra went missing from Hemsley Conservation Centre on Sunday and has been spotted four miles away in West Kingsdown. They look similar to Weasels and come from Central America. We're being urged to keep an eye out but not to approach her. Henry Wieden is Operations Manager at the centre. On routine checks our keepers noticed she was missing and subsequently found broken mesh. The damage was unusual and not saying the species could typically cause so we suspect foul play. This also aligns with us having kept Tayra at the centre for six years and encountering no incidents. Tayra are omnivores and the majority of their diet consists of fruits. They're also a diurnal species meaning they are active during the day and not at night. They're semi-arborial too meaning they can climb. The last confirmed sighting was at 3.30pm outside Brown's Hatch Race Circuit and she was heading towards Barningham. If people see her they should immediately call 0.712.734.556 and if possible keep her with insight whilst our team travel to the location. Members of the public should not attempt to capture. We have our equipment and team ready to mobilise immediately. We do ask that the number on our social media posts are only used for confirmed sightings. We appreciate the time messages and well wishes from members of the public but unfortunately we are unable to reply to each individually. Kent Online News. The MP for Ashford says he's trying to reach out to potential new constituents after a change in voting boundaries. Conservative Rep Damien Green will be campaigning in the new areas including Cellinge and Hawkinge at the next general election but he's lost to other areas like Tentaton to a new seat called the Wheel of Kent. Speaking on the Kent Politics podcast he says there's a lot of work to do. You've obviously got the reasonably safe seat of Ashford back in 1997. Obviously that was the new Labour landslide. Given the state of the polls at the minute do you see this same or what's happening again this time run? You can't tell I can read the polls like everyone else and clearly it's going to be a tough election for us but as you say I thought in 1997 which everyone is comparing this with and we had a majority of five and a half thousand at the end of that. I'm working very hard to retain the seat at this time. Your own seat has always been pretty safe. I mean you've got a majority of 24,000 which is big even by Conservative terms. But in the recent binary changes it's kind of altered its makeup. You've lost some of the vintage years I think you lost Tentaton in a part of it. You must be worried you're going to lose though. Well I've always fought it hard so in a sense it doesn't make any difference. As you say all the areas the villages and Tentaton to the west of Ashford have moved to a new seat called the wheels of Kent. But I gain a lot of rural areas to the east of Ashford. The villages like Selinge and Elam and Liminge and go as far as Hawking. So there's quite a lot of new territory to cover and that's one of my key aims over the next few months. Indeed I've been doing it for the last few months of getting to know people and getting to know those areas which I've not had much to do with before. Well Electoral Calculus and there's only a guide has you only on a 30% chance of winning whereas Labour are on 68. And you have in the makes you have obviously the greens which are strong in Ashford and you also have the reform party. I mean where do you think those fringy parties might sort of end up affecting the overall result? I think all experience tells us that at a general election people tend to vote far less for the smaller parties than they do in local elections because I mean for start twice as many people vote in a general election as do in a typical local election so you have a different and much bigger electorate and people get the point that although obviously they're voting for the individual candidate they're also helping select the government of the day. And in all elections that tends to mean that the smaller parties do less well at a general election than they do at local elections. A new report into a Kent Young Offenders Institution has found boys are not getting enough time outside their cells. Inspectors have visited Cookham Wood in Rochester which recently announced it would soon become an adult only prison. Concerns have been raised about a lack of progress in tackling violence and poor access to education. We're being advised not to go in the water at a Kent beach because of pollution from harmful algae. The Environment Agency is reporting an abnormal situation at Minnes Bay in Birchington. Thousands of dead ragworms and lugworms have been reported on the shore. Kent County Council bosses have been accused of caring more about potholes than future generations after cuts to youth services. The Mayor of Hive has announced a petition to restore funding after KCC decided to create family hubs instead to save money. It's left-use centres having to make up thousands of pounds worth of shortfall and some have had to close. Kent Online News There's been a mixed response to a so-called "turbo" roundabout in Nate Stone as work comes to an end. 650,000 pounds has been spent on the running horse junction in a bid to reduce congestion and cut the number of crashes. The redesign is an idea from the Netherlands and stops drivers switching lanes by using colours on the road and cat's eyes. I've been speaking to reporter Cara Simmons who has the details on this one. Cara, why were the changes necessary in the first place? Kent County Council decided to change the running horse into a turbo roundabout to reduce the number of road accidents and congestion in the area. They said in the past three years 13 crashes had been reported to them and they said the junction was a key priority. And what is a turbo roundabout? The turbo roundabout actually originates from the Netherlands and it's quite a clever design where the layout prevents drivers from switching lanes. There's these colour coded segments and cat's eyes on the roundabout so it forces motorists to sort of pick their chosen exit before they even enter the roundabout to start with. How have drivers taken to the new layout? I managed to speak to a number of drivers who actually use the old version of the roundabout as well as the new version and drivers have had plenty of time to get used to the new layout. It's been about two weeks since its completion. It is brand new and it is one of the first of its kind in Kent but it was a very mixed response that I found from people. So what do people like it? Some people were saying that the queues heading up to the roundabout, especially from Bluebell Hill or from the Maidstone direction, they used to have to wait half an hour to even get onto the roundabout. That's been cut in half now and even the new signage helps direct motorists into the right lane. It's very clear, it's very easy to understand. It's certainly helped during rush hour and people are getting used to it. And what have people said against it? I think a lot of motorists are quite unhappy that it's cost £650,000 to install. A lot of them were saying that could have gone to potholes or used elsewhere. They didn't think it was necessary and I think a lot of people were saying that there's already been quite a few number of near misses, people not using the roundabout as instructed, people cutting across and people going over the cat's eyes and cutting people up. And that is something that the Council wanted to reduce. They wanted to reduce the number of crashes, but people were saying that's not the case. Thanks, Cara. You can let us know what you think by taking part in our poll at Kent Online. Plans to impose parking restrictions on a Kent High Street look to be scrapped. Traders in Chirritant Field would have had a negative impact on their businesses. People living in several other nearby streets would have needed permits, however, Council papers suggest the idea will be ditched at a meeting next week. A dad from Walderslade has been told he only has weeks to live following a three-year cancer battle. Spencer Reed was first diagnosed with testicular cancer in December of 2021 with a disease spreading to his lungs and stomach. The 35-year-old spent more than a year in remission following chemotherapy, but has now been told by medics that it's returned. A friend has set up a fundraising page to help the family continue making memories. Kent Online News. A plans project from Cranbrook that aims to give prisoners a second chance at life is featuring at the Chelsea Flowers Show. The Glasshouse was founded after empty glasshouses in HMP East Sutton Park were turned into a place where inmates could learn new skills and have the chance of a job in hall to culture when they were released. Now their exhibit called the Glasshouse Effect is at the event and shows bird cages decorated with items representing the dreams and hopes of the women currently in custody. Callie Hamilton-Stove is one of the founders. So it was my co-founder Melissa who had the idea which I thought was completely insane at first, but she had visited the women's prison here in Kent called HMP East Sutton Park. And she had learned about some of the challenges they were facing that women were being released homeless and they weren't able to find work and safe living facilities after leaving prison. And that was really leading to reoffending. And so she learned about that and was visiting the prison and saw the glasshouses, the greenhouses there that were empty at the time. And she thought they would make an amazing kind of work facility for people to kind of look at horticultural employment and maybe help address some of those issues with helping women find employment and a real second chance after prison. Quickly talking about Chelsea Flower Show. When did you find out that you were sort of picked to be in it? We were picked. It was Arlie. So for Chelsea we got a call from Malvern Garden buildings and they are the sponsor of the house plant area at Chelsea and have been since the beginning five years ago. They have heard about us and they called us and they asked us if we would like to have a house plant studio there. And to be fair we have a lot of work here generally and our focus is not on things like Chelsea. So we really had to think about it because our corporate work takes a lot of time and plus we have our retail website and sending out plant orders and our shop. And we really had to think about it actually bizarrely but they gave us sponsorship for that and they've offered us an amazing beautiful greenhouse. And it was in January so it wasn't very long ago, maybe February even, it might have been February I think it was that they first called us and we first had a meeting. And we just thought we really want to share our story and we really want to grow our impact. And we felt like looking at this opportunity of them giving us the greenhouse and the sponsorship gave us the opportunity to really reach more people and hopefully help more women really has taken part in the program. I didn't realize that I would actually love house plants as much as I do. It's just the fact that I think when you're in prison, everything from nature is removed from you. So suddenly when you have access to it again, it suddenly has a new life. It's you see things that you never saw before, you smell things that you never smelled before. And I can even now know that I've made the compost right just by the feel or the smell of it. And so again, the skills that have developed because it was removed from me. And how has this sort of scheme helped you after your your sentence was served? How does it sort of helped the transition in sort of real life as you could call it since joining the glasses project. I was serving and that was massive for me because it allowed me to redevelop skills that I'd forgotten like using public transport. Just having the confidence to be out amongst people. And I also think that when women go to prison, it's often not the lack of freedom that affects them the most. It's the lack of privacy, dignity and value and being able to be part of the glass house gave me dignity because I was a commuter like everybody else. It gave me privacy because I could come down to the grown facility and I could maybe play a song that I haven't been able to play because it was too emotional. And I had the privacy to do that and the value. I'm keeping things alive. So, if initially the only value was to the plants, that was good enough. And now obviously I have value because I have transferable skills, which have been identified all of this from joining the program. They work with you towards release. So everything that you do is building up to release and the confidence that that gives you and the fact that you're back in society, you're a productive person within society. And I think that because of our clients in London are so supportive, we can have normal conversations, just those normal interactions that perhaps we haven't been able to have whilst in prison. It'll be on display until next Saturday. Kent Online News. A Kent Holiday Park has been given a five-star hygiene rating two months after inspectors found a multi-fridge and raw meat next to ready-to-eat food. Parked in Resorts, Romney Sands Holiday Village was previously given two stars following a visit in March. Inspectors have since been back and acknowledged improvements. A Kent-based campaign group has been awarded £50,000 for their work to stop animal testing. It's estimated more than 100 million animals worldwide are still used in lab experiments every day. Animal aid and tonbridge are helping to raise awareness and find alternative testing methods. A Kent Aqua Park has been given the go-ahead to build an artificial lake and camping area so they can host international events. Bosses at white mills in sandwich say they want to host wake borders from all over the world and your training lake will be created along with space for tents, caravans and campsite facilities. And a repair cafe in Folkestone has been awarded funding so it can continue supporting the community. A group of volunteers meets once a month to help fix items like hovers and garden trimmers to reduce waste and save local families' money. They'll receive £1,300 from Infinium so they can buy new equipment and expand the range of things they can fix. Kent Online Sports. Football now in three of Gilliam's youth scholars have been handed professional contracts. Goalkeeper Tate Holtem, midfielder's dance giver and forward Josh Bayless have all signed with the League 2 club. Gilliam Director of Football Kenny Jackett said over the last two years they've been consistent performers in the youth team and will be working hard over the next 12 months so they can be ready for first team consideration. And briefly in cricket Kent have lost to Somerset in their latest county championship match. It was an eight-weeket defeat at Taunton which has left them second from the bottom in the Division 1 table. Kent have only had one victory out of six matches so far this season. 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. [BLANK_AUDIO]
