The Kent candidates for the general election have been confirmed.
Nominations had be in by Friday and they've now been checked and verified and published for each constituency.
This time around there are 18 seats up for grabs in the county - hear from our local democracy reporter Dan Esson.
Also in today's podcast, the head teacher of a Kent grammar school has branded Ofsted inspections "tick-box exercises" after it was stripped of its 'outstanding' status.
Folkestone School for Girls has held the top rating for the last 12 years - but has now been downgraded to 'good' by the education watchdog.
The boss of a tourist attraction near Sittingbourne says he's losing tens of thousands of pounds because of water works.
Bill Best has been speaking to reporter Joe Crossley and says people have been put off coming to the Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway because of nearby "road closed" signs.
A gardening group on the Kent coast is stepping up their campaign to tackle food and fuel poverty by creating a community kitchen.
Herne Bay in Bloom are already tending the garden in the memorial park that provides free produce.
And, a Gravesend shop owner's told KentOnline how rising rents and the end of the Tilbury ferry are among the reasons she's closed.
Forget-Me-Not Vintage and Dollshouse on the high street shut for the final time over the weekend - hear from Sarah Cheshire.
10 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 Tuesday, June the 11th and the Kent candidates for the general election have been confirmed. Now, nominations had to be in by last Friday. They've now been checked and verified and published for each constituency. This time around, there are 18 seats up for grabs in the county following changes to boundaries. Well, Dan Essen is our local democracy reporter and he's been speaking to Lucy. So there are 122 candidates total across all of Kent in 18 seats, all five of the major parties, conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green and the Reformed Party, all have managed to put up candidates in every single one. A couple of them have changed a little bit. A couple of Reformed Party candidates changed and in some places it would appear there might be a bit of a rush to get candidates in before the deadline for nominations last Friday. But every major party has got people in for every seat, which is up for grabs in Kent. But even if every major party was contested in all 18 of the seats, that only brings you to something like 90 prospective candidates. But there's quite a few more than that. There's a litany of independents, a few people from very small parties such as George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain. There's a group called the Christian People's Alliance, which feels in a couple of candidates in Medway. And obviously, there's independents who are running with no banner in some places. So there's an awful lot of choice available. And there are some changes to some constituencies in Kent this year. Why is that? Boundary Commission redraws parliamentary seat boundaries every few years, with the aim of doing that being to maintain a broadly equal number of voters in every constituency, usually about 60 to 80,000. And Kent has changed a reasonable amount. Like I said earlier, that there are now 18 seats, whereas previously there were 17. And those changes have come in a low different form. So some that changed your very little, like Dover constituency, the only real change there was that one village was moved into another constituency to the north. Ashford's changed quite a significant amount, losing a load of villages and extending all the way out towards Folkestone. Thanet has changed an awful lot. It used to be split into North Thanet and South Thanet. But now it's been broken up into East Thanet and the whole new constituency of Humbay and Sandwich. But both are the biggest changes. The creation of the entirely new constituency, the wield of Kent, which is a, if you look at it on a map, it's this absolutely sprawling constituency, which covers a huge number of villages. I mean, it's very rural if you get one idea of it. The biggest settlements in that entire new constituency are going to be Tenston and Cranbrook. So it covers hundreds of villages in Hamlet. It's all across Kent and all the way up to the border with Sussex. And we'll definitely be getting some new MPs this year. So obviously there'll definitely be a new MP for the new seat, a wield of Kent one way or another, as nobody's have been elected to that seat before. But there's also a few areas where the incumbent MP is standing down. So no matter what happens, there will be a new member. In Dover, Natalie Elfick, formerly a Tory, recently defected to Labour, she's standing down. Tracy Crouch, MP for Chatham and Ailesford, she's stepping down as well. Gordon Henderson, stepping down from his seat in Sittingborne and Sheppy. Greg Clark isn't standing for Tumbra's Wells either. And in Fannick, Craig McKinley, he originally intended to stand again and be said because of health problems. He simply wouldn't be able to campaign. So he's so he's not standing either. So basically no matter what happens in the general election, there'll be at least six new members of Parliament for Kent. And other than the ones mentioned, all of the incumbent MPs, almost all of which, except one in Canterbury, a conservative are trying again for their seats. And you can find details on all of the candidates standing in the constituency where you live at kentonline.co.uk. Just click on the general election tab and head to the interactive map. We've detailed the main issues in each area and asked the candidates why they think you should vote for them. A reminder polling day is on July 4th. Kent Online News. This is one of our most read stories on the website today. The head teacher of a Kent grammar school has branded off-stud inspections tick box exercises. After his school was stripped of its outstanding status, folks didn't score for girls, has held the top rating for the last 12 years, but has now been downgraded to good by the education watchdog. Or Kate has been following this story for the Kent Online Podcast. Kate, what did Offstead find after their two-day visit in April? Well, the report heaped praise on the school, which is considered to be one of the best in the county. Inspectors noted the impressive curriculum writing that pupils feel 10 feet tall and develop into articulate and confident young women, exceptional student behaviour, glowing six form results and the range of extracurricular options are also highlighted, but issues in the maths department where it found pupils are not learning as well as they could and a lack of experience among trustees saw the school lose its outstanding rating. Head Mark Lester says the school is better now than it was when it was first rated as outstanding in 2012 and the recent judgment has left him saddened and staff disheartened. What are his thoughts on Offstead's criticism then? Well, he's written to parents. He's acknowledged there are staffing issues in the maths department, which follows the disruption of the pandemic. He's also agreed there are a number of trustees who are new to the post and they haven't had the experience or training of their predecessors, but he did say inspectors were well aware of those challenges before the visit and agreed that plans put in place to address both were robust, workable and will secure rapid improvement. Despite all that, they couldn't achieve the overall outstanding rating because they couldn't tick every box at every point in the process. Thanks ever so much, Kate Mark Lester says overall, they've received positive support from parents who agree the school did not receive the rating they deserve. Police investigating a suspicious fire in Margate have released a picture of a man they want to speak to. The place is thought to have been started outside of property in Westbrook Avenue between 10 and 11 on Sunday night. It was put out quickly and there were no reported injuries, but we have shared those pictures for you on our socials. There are calls for improvements to one of the most dangerous junctions in Kent amid fears more people could be killed if nothing's done. More than 1200 people have signed a petition urging roads bosses to do something about the Sean Crossroads near Graves End. It follows the death of a man in a crash in February and residents want a lower speed limit and traffic lights. CCTV footage at Kent Online meantime shows the moment a man was almost hit by a speeding car as it overtook another vehicle in lit. The Audi ends up on the wrong side of the road and narrowly avoids a pedestrian who'd been shopping on the high street. It has been reported to police who were investigating the boss of a tourist attraction near Cituenborns says he's losing tens of thousands of pounds because of waterworks. Bill Best says people have been put off coming to the bread gear and worms hill light railway because of nearby road closed signs. The railway is off Swanton Street which has been closed for more than 100 days in the last four years. Bill has been speaking to our reporter Joe Crossley. This business has been based in 1975 and we're primarily involved with recovering and saving and displaying and educating people about our engineering heritage. The primary issue is the amount of closures that we've had on the road between bread gear and or between sitting born and holling born. The fact that we understand that there's burst pipes happen and roads get closed for all sorts of reasons but the volume and frequency of those closures is really awful. It's now over 10% of the time and the fact that the signage is often put out miles, seven, eight miles away from where it is actually closed. That's if it is closed because very often the signage is there the several days before or several days after the road closure is actually happening and it has a terrible effect on us and other local businesses. With this signage it's like you mentioned it's sort of days there before and days after. It's also not telling them that you guys are still open. No, we have a situation where you'll have a it'll say road closed ahead but it doesn't tell you where. The recent example it said road closed ahead it was just under seven miles from where it was actually closed. Now I understand that you really want to try and help HDVs not get caught up but in doing so you're deterring people visiting the local pubs, us, our cafe, other cafes and farms, businesses in the area and it causes mayhem. And just talk to me a little bit about the financial side of the area. We're definitely not for profit. We don't even come close. So in effect any money we get is we're on a knife edge the whole time to try and get money. So we get quite a lot of donations and so on but if the road signage says it's closed and the access is denied even though it's technically not closed or not denied to where we are our revenue drops off a cliff as does other businesses. We're not alone by a long way and the result of that is when you're only just making do just getting by that's a critical amount of money to lose and it runs into tens of thousands. It's not just a small amount and in effect we have to put things on hold. So we've got locomotives for example that are being restored. We've got one in particular, I know it's going to cost a reason we've had to stop that and even with that we're struggling to keep things going. It's a difficult task and the road closures are a very major part of that problem. Now southeast water's regional network manager Andy Besten has sent us this statement. It says we're sorry to customers and residents affected by the vital road works to repair burst water mains in Hollingbourne and Bredget. We understand that traffic management can be frustrating and we ensure we work as quickly and safely as possible to fix leaks while coursing minimal disruption. We monitor all pipelines along our 9,000 mile network to assess, calculate and prioritize when they need replacing. Swanton Street is in our program for replacement but we are not yet able to say when this will happen. Kent online reports. A witsable man who served time in prison for shoplifting and anti-social behaviour is back behind bars. Shortly after Gerard McGinnis was released officers found him drinking and in possession of a knife in the high street breaching his criminal protection notice. The 30 year old who has no fixed address has been sentenced to another 328 days. A woman's been taken to hospital after being found in the sea at Herm Bay emergency crews including the Coast Guard and RNLI were called out just after 10 on Sunday night. We're told she was discovered in the water near Neptune's arm and taken for checks as a precaution plans to build a house within the grounds of the late Paul O'Grady's estate near Ashford have been rejected. The proposal was to transform a disused security office at the site in Aldington into a two bed property three times the size. The council have turned it down though saying it would be an intrusive feature. Elsewhere plans for dozens of new homes in part of Medway have been approved but only on the condition there are no cats or children. The 25 properties are set to be built on the edge of Cliff Woods which is not far from the site of a special scientific interest where nightingales nest. Councillors gave the development the go ahead but some have questioned how the policies would be enforced. A gardening group on the Kent coast is stepping up their campaign to tackle food and fuel poverty by creating a community kitchen. Herm Bay in bloom are already tending the garden in the memorial park that provides free produce. It's also become a space that helps vulnerable people overcome social isolation and gives them a sense of purpose. Or Kate's been chatting to Stafford Taylor and Lucy Platelle who are co-founders of the roots to resistance programme. The roots resistance is going to be integrated with our next design because our community garden is called the Herm Bay Memorial Park community kitchen garden and I know it's a bit of a mouthful but the important part is the kitchen which hasn't yet been completed and it's always been a plan Lucy's plan from the start was to integrate a kitchen into the garden there that uses the produce that we make so the garlics, the kale and everything else that we can be making our own stews and stuff and we've had like a makeshift like gas stove but the idea is we're going to have a complicated thing in there and we're going to we've just been talking to a guy today so we're going to be digging out the foundation soon. We're going to be getting ground workers in and we do need volunteers we do need donations because the idea is this is going to be basically like a community calf but in theory everything's going to be free so you want to pop in for a cup of tea you want to pop in for when we have like a lunch session you know you'll be welcome to have it for free and we obviously we will take donations and we may have specified like a recommended donation but everything will be free so you know if you are low income it's fighting you know poverty you can come there have a free hot meal it's also going to be fighting mental health and isolation because it's a place where you can come and you don't have to pay anything just come sit down have a cup of tea with us have a nice hot stew with us and yeah it really is it's really going to be good on all them levels fighting food poverty fighting fuel poverty and fighting the crisis of isolation and what i believe is like a hyper individualized society and rebuilding community around this kitchen it's it's it's not a cafe it's a canteen yeah it's a kitchen and a canteen and the centerpiece will be a beautiful oven that will be built on really core appropriate technology won't go into that boring stuff at the moment well it's not actually really it's not boring at all it's um you know i would tell them that will be it's we built on the oven itself will be built on what they call rocket oven so it's a really efficient way to get an oven to heat so we can use things like small twigs and kindling rather than large expensive pieces of timber or coal so there's some really yes so there's some really cool sustainable skills to pick up there you know so developing our livelihoods essentially you know in in areas where um you know jobs um and and and what have you will will be or will be needed so that's really exciting there's some cool design challenges for people that are techy and like to get their head into something engineering which we we have um yeah yeah uh obviously one of the big things you want to do is we want to integrate all kinds of systems that are ecologically friendly so obviously Lucy ments and the oven which will use like wood and little bits of tinder and stuff but also we'll be grabbing like um any ideas if anyone's got any ideas about like uh uh like a gray water system so basically recycled water so we're doing washing up and where we use that water for the the plants and the garden because why not uh and also obviously like solar panels and stuff like that so anyone with any knowledge of these things is really more than welcome to come down the garden and come and give us ideas inspiration and a helping hand because we really do need it can online reports figures out today show another drop in unemployment in Kent 39,415 people were claiming out of work benefits in the county in April as down by 860 compared to the previous month people were living close to a shopping center near Maidstone to say their roads have become overcrowded since charges were introduced at the car park workers at the mid Kent center in Allington have had to pay for a permit to park there since December it's be it bin lorries and even emergency vehicles are being prevented from getting down nearby residential streets now a graves end shop owners told Kent online how rising rents and the end of the Tilbury ferry are among the reasons she's closed forget me not vintage and dole's house on the high street shop for the final time over the weekend Sarah Cheshire says football's been dropping over the past 12 months to be honest with you I've been milling in over for well probably in all honesty probably the last year because I actually took on the second job like a year ago because I was noticing that the football was getting quite low and it wasn't worth me like I'm not very good at being bored so I was finding my days here were quite boring and I thought I needed to do something else so that's when I changed the hours of the shop to like three days a week that was the start of it really and that was like a year ago and I think I suppose since then I've just noticed the steady decline really of um I suppose customers coming in uh football and also just people's shopping habits have changed a lot and I think then with the cost of living growing up um it's just had to weigh it up really in the end and it just wasn't viable anymore and then so it's probably interested in giving it over a year so why was it kind of now that you've decided to know what did you give it up? I think probably I always thought to myself as long as it um can sort of keep itself running um then that's fine I'll keep it going because I've never really been in it to make money I've done it because I've enjoyed it and you know I like meeting people and all of that really it's been a pain hobby really I suppose and I thought as soon as it's not sort of meeting its own needs and I have to give it up and that's basically what's happened um the rents have gone up the ferry stopped I mean that was probably the last now in the coffin for me and something had to go out because um yeah it's just not viable and I can't subsidize it as much as I love it I can't I've got you know I have bills to pay I'm a single mum as well I've got a daughter so um you know somebody had to go and that's why but it is what Sarah's decided to rent studio space in North Fleet and will run the business online instead a bridge over the m20 is going to be shut overnight for more than two weeks engineers will need to be inspecting and repairing new hive lane bridge in larkfield starting this Wednesday for details of those dates and times of the closure are on the website today a free summer holiday bus is going to start in folkston next month it'll run every half an hour between folkston west railway station and the harbor arm from july the 20th until the first of september it's hoped it'll boost businesses by helping people get to the seafront and some showbiz news kent's mia mckenna bruce is going to star alongside hella no bottom car set and martin freeman in a new agatha christie adaptation filming for the seven dials mystery will begin this summer the 26 year old bafter winner who grew up in made stone will play a young sleuth who tries to solve a murder kent's online sport one but a sports news for you tenison kent's emma rajikani will play her first match since april today a 21 year old from orping to miss the french open to focus on preparations for the grass court season she's taking on the inner shabar hera in the first round of the knottingham open where that's all from us for today thanks ever so much for listening don't forget you can follow us on facebook x instagram tick tock and threads it can also get details on the top stories direct to your email each morning via the briefing to sign up to that you just need to head to kentonline.co.uk news you can trust this is the kent online podcast
