It's nearly time for fun at Cossington 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 a state-of-the-art gym. The Countdown is on! Sign up to a membership and find out more at medway.gov.uk/cosingtonpark. Kent Online News. News, you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. Nicola Everett. Hello, hope you're OK and had a good weekend. Thanks ever so much for downloading today's podcast on Monday, June the 17th in our top story today. It's that seven people have been arrested after protesters stormed a Kent factory that's used to make equipment for the Israeli military. Video footage at Kent Online shows people from Palestine action breaking into the in-stroke-resision site in Sandwich and smashing computers and machinery. That is, Roe, to target the passengers. Roe, we're not hugging it today! The group say they want to stop the genocide in Gaza. While we've been in contact with in-stroke-resision for a comment, meantime, police have told Kent Online they were called to Discovery Park just before half-three this morning. At the time of recording today's podcast, officers were still at the scene and those who've been detained are being held on suspicion of aggravated burglary. Kent Online News. Other top stories for you today and a child's been flown to a London hospital after falling out of a window near Gillingham. Emergency crews were called to gout her road in twiddle yesterday. It's understood the girl felt from her bedroom window, but it's unclear how badly she's injured. A suspect's been charged with murder after the death of a man in his 40s who was allegedly attacked in Thanet. He was taken to hospital after police were called to station road in Birchington in March and passed away the following month. At 31-year-old from Park Avenue in the town is due at Crown Court tomorrow. A court said how a mum and her two children were forced to flee their home near Canterbury after her ex-partner threatened to kill her. Thomas Hunt had already been convicted of assault and stalking when he turned up at the property in Surrey last October. The 43-year-old from Pope's Lane has been jailed for four years. A man's been ordered to pay compensation after smashing the windscreen of a car that turned around on his driveway. A woman pulled her Toyota onto the driveway in Tumbridge last October while collecting her son, who'd been studying nearby. 60-year-old Derek Willard from Three Elm Lane admitted criminal damage. Now, as we mark refugee week, a woman who came to Kent from Eritrea is urging politicians not to treat asylum seekers as criminals. Rishan Sagai was just 17 when she made the dangerous journey through Sudan, Libya and mainland Europe. She's now training to become a nurse in the UK and wants whoever wins the election next month to change the public's attitude. Well, Rishan is a media ambassador at the Kent Refugee Action Network and is calling for safe and legal routes for asylum seekers. The media always presents refugee as criminal, rather than what the contribution they do. And we've got lots of young people here, like being in university. I myself, this is my last year of doing adult nursing. And I'll be finishing by July and I really want to work with NHS. And because now I understand more that there's so many strict around what's happening and there's less stuff and so on and on. But I guess refugee has not been presented as enough of what they do, like in terms of contributing to the society, in terms of what they have and potential for them to provide. And that's upset me in a way that because I'm not here to be a problem. I'm here to solve a problem. I'm here to be part of this society and fix what has been done in terms of other things that has been now, like we go into the election. There are so many things people like they really want to vote for someone, someone to fix this or the taxes housing and issue so many things that was going on here. But I guess as a refugee, I want to be part of that, to find a solution of what things can be done, rather than just being presented as a problem. And even the way that is being presented as a refugee, the only solving problem is if they've gone. And I think it's like a negative narrative that has been presented to the public, whereas it has been shown the full image of what refugees like, rather than just speaking on one side and presenting that side. And I feel like it's unfair, unfair for people, for the public themselves, because they're not having that full image of what thinks is around it. And being as a student and nurse, I always, like I do practice in a hospital and I get to meet the obviously patient, family patient asking me where I am. And I'm always open about my story if somebody wants, obviously, to ask. I'm happy to talk about it because I've never been ashamed of that. And they show up by the how, like, my story is. And I always say to them, not just me, there's other young people, there are other people, a lot of them, they're coming. And obviously, I get some, one of them would be like, "Oh, negative in a way, you've got so much money to come to here." And I was like, "No, I didn't have that much money. Otherwise, I would stay in a safer place if I have that money." But then you've got another side would say, "Oh, thank you for being here. Like, thank you. We've got less stuff. Thank you for you want to be a nurse. And you want to like to help other people." And I'm like, "Yes, that's the idea." And I'm happy for anyone, either negative or negative side or positive side, as long as they get awareness of what things, what refugees like, rather than just one side is being presented. So I guess it'll be unfair for any person, not just refugee, if somebody hears about you, you want to be yourself telling that story from your side, rather than other people telling your story. We hear the loss of a illegal, illegal, illegal, but I guess this what draws people to think of people that are like, refugee, they are criminal, rather than they are people who's taking safety and they are who people who has got life where they used to live, they're in their home country, but because this has been taken from them. There's so many waiting lists now, people that are waiting for the Home Office to send their interview in order to get their status. And that waiting is impact, the whole thing, because you don't have your citizens, you're not able to work. You're not working, you're not getting your education done, and you're not getting your housing done, you're not getting anything that is being done. We part of this public, we part of this society. I'm always presented as a negative, as a criminal, as someone like who always an image of I'm taking, rather than I'm also like contributing to the society. In the meantime, a fuel campaigner who's hoping to be the next MP in Dover in deal has been speaking about the issues he's hearing on the doorstep. Howard Cox set up Fair Fuel UK and ran for London there in the most recent election. He's been speaking on the Kent Politics podcast. Most people are really fed up with the Labour and the fed up with Tories. That's a simple two-party system. A lot of them are saying I can't see much difference between the two. We could argue about semantics of their manifestos. I've heard I've been listening to days when various things are coming out on the airways. Fundamentally, all we're hearing about is actually what they're going to do and spend. And why the Tories particularly haven't done it for the last 14 years? Beggars belief, this is an important thing to get across to your listeners. I voted Tory for the last 50 years. I'm 70 this year, and I voted Tory for the last 50 years, and I feel betrayed. And that's one reason, another reason why I'm standing. And as far as labour is concerned, they are so anti-car, anti-motorist. They're going to put up... they deny they're going to put up certain taxes, but they haven't absolutely firmly said they're not going to put up fuel duty and various other things like that. One of the biggest things, when I ask anyone on the doorstep or walking through the high street, walking to talk to the small business, what's the biggest issues? And there's two or three of them, but at the top of it is immigration. And they don't want... the town is over. And don't get over and deal... it's got... it got warmer, we got some Margaret Spade. There's loads of... and lots of lovely villages in land, et cetera. It's not just Dover. I sometimes think people would think that's all we talk about is Dover. But fundamentally, what people are saying to me is, they can't take any more of people coming in. The message I'm getting across is that we can do this in certain states. My prediction is that I think four to five seats across the country. I don't know whether I... one of them, I want it to be Dover and Deal, and I'm going to be busting my butt off to try and achieve that. At least we're only 22 days away. And there's no doubt about it. Rishi soon acted wrong for all of us. We didn't expect that to happen. And we're contesting over 600 seats across the whole of the UK, which is great news to do that. And you think, you know, 500 quid deposits 600 times over that 300,000 pounds, you know, you're looking at those are the sorts of things. So we had to raise funds, raise money. But we're serious about being... It is a journey, we're to journey to 2029. Labor are going to win by default. They don't have to do anything. You've heard of the Bing Vars story, whether the... you know, Starmer could just walk around with Bing Vars, provided he doesn't drop it. He's going to be OK. The thing is, there are certain seats and Dover and Deal is a target seat for a former UK that we believe we can turn it around, not just collect. You can hear that episode in fall by searching for the Kent Politics Podcast wherever you get your pods. Well, Howard is standing against Labor's mic tap. Stephen James from the Conservatives, Penelope James from the Liberal Democrats, Christine Oliver of the Green Party, Steve Laws, who's standing for the English Democrats, Sylvia Peterson from the Heritage Party, Colin Tasker of the Workers Party, Ash Payne, Jeffrey Lima and Chris Tuff are all independent candidates. And the first of two hustings that will be live streamed on Kent Online Take Place Tonight. Free tickets have been made available for the event in the Pilkington building at the Universities of Medway. Candidates for the Rochester and Strewd constituency will be questioned first, starting at 5.45. After an hour, it'll be the turn of candidates for Gillingham and Rainham to face the voters before the final session at 8.15 for the Chatham and Ailesford seat. Now, if you can't make it, you can watch, as I mentioned, on the website. Plus, we'll have reaction in bulletins over on our sister radio station, KMFM tomorrow morning. Kent Online reports. Two people have been injured in a serious crash between a car and motorbike on the M2 near Favisham. Firefighters were called after the bike caught a light between Johnson's 5 and 6 yesterday. The motorway was blocked for around two hours. The people were looked after by paramedics. Meantime, a motor cyclist has been left seriously injured after a crash in Rochester. The bike he was riding collided with a car on Maidstone Road near the junction with a tight way in the early hours of this morning. He's been taken to a London hospital for treatment. And a man's been arrested after a car crashed into a house in Sheernes. Firefighters cordoned off part of Broad Street on Saturday as the property was left badly damaged. A 57-year-old's been questioned on suspicion of dangerous driving. This is one of our most read stories today. If you head to Kent Online or follow us on socials, you can see footage of a refuse collector who's been caught tipping separated food waste into a wheelie bin. It was filmed on a camera outside homes near Loose Road in Maidstone, which has already been suffering from missed bin collections in recent months. Now we're told the video is being investigated after anger from residents. Kent Online's been told a service designed to ease pressure on GPs is leaving pharmacists at a breaking point. It launched in January means people suffering from seven common illnesses can get treatment at a pharmacy. When it's already saved thousands of hours of GP time, but Amish Patel, who owns Hodgson Pharmacy in Longfield, says it's not all good news. Amish has been speaking to our reporter, Joe Crossley. The NHS pharmacy first services is definitely a great initiative. It frees up GP appointments, and GPS can refer patients directly to the pharmacy to be seen. It's also a great way for us to triage patients in a way. So if we can't treat them, we can escalate it back to their GP in a timely manner. However, it definitely has its shortfalls, and that is severely underfunded. So why that's a great service? I can currently make a loss every time I'm delivering it each month, and I will be deciding whether to continue with the service or whether I have to pull it all together. You mentioned that loss, how much roughly or do you lose a month or are the pharmacies around the United? Yeah, so the pharmacies are already overstretched with the current essential service we do with regards to sourcing or medication, supplying medication, and giving advice in general. So I've had to actually employ another pharmacist to help me manage the pharmacy first service, because I don't have the time to do it at all. Now, that comes at a cost. If I don't receive enough referrals or if enough people don't come through the door, I can't cover his wage that I'm currently laying out. And I am not covering that present. Last month, we did over 150 consultations for pharmacy first, which is a great significant number. Yet, it won't have covered his salary. I guess that's sort of leading onto my next question, is can pharmacies actually handle this no initiative? Yeah, I think it comes down to appropriate funding. With the right funding, pharmacists can definitely help the NHS more, but our core funding is like at a billion pound deficit at present, and that needs sorting out first. Then we can talk about doing these great new services and helping out the GP and the primary care network in general. The primary bulk of our funding comes from dispensing and medication, and currently we dispense significant medications that are lost. I can think of one diabetic drug, which I spent dispensed a couple hundred packets a month. And those couple hundred packets, each packet, I make a two pound loss per packet, which means that all these new initiatives that we're doing are the new service that we deliver. One, we're partly making a loss to deliver that service, while we hope that GPs take them on board and refer people on its own. But equally, I'm making a loss on the essential service as well. So, again, this network is so fragile and at a breaking point, and it really needs looking at as soon as possible. This is a common antibiotic, basically for kids, and you'll see all out of stock. Can't get it for love and money. Yeah, you know, this is a kid, if you've got a kid with an antibiotic that needs a antibiotic, what are you gonna do? And this is the other big issue. The drug shortages are just at another level at the moment, completely at another level. We spend so much time trying to source drugs. Other than the day, I don't get paid on this, I give you the medication. It's as simple as that. So, patients are coming in and getting so angry, so upset. Believe me, we're doing our best to find it, but such common drugs can't get them at all. The future of the pharmacy first service will be decided by the next government. Can't online reports. A Canterbury man says he's worried his house could collapse after being hit by vehicles three times in just 18 months. GP Tom Nichols says it could put lives at risk as the building is right on the carriage way on Old Dover Road. Most recently, it was hit by a bus last Monday. He's calling for improvements to road safety. Thousands has been raised for a deal mum who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer on a World Awareness Day about the disease. 32-year-old Emily Flood had been suffering from bloating, stomach and back pain, tiredness and a loss of appetite. The mum now faces five months of chemo and has set up an insta page to share her story. Three million pound plans to do up an arcade on Sheppy have been turned down. Bosses at Jimmy G's on the promenade in Laysdown wanted to add adventure goal for mentored reality darts and a soft play area, but council bosses have rejected the idea as the building would have overshadowed a home backing onto the site. Staying we're planning news and plans have been put in to convert a former care home in Folkston into a so-called HMO. Developers say up to 24 people could move into Pelham House, but that's led to concerns about parking. It's feared it could also set a precedent for more applications for hostels and Airbnbs in the area. Now a former Gurka soldier from Canterbury who lost both of his legs while serving in Afghanistan has been given an MBE in the King's birthday honours. Harry Buddha Magar became the first double above the knee amputee to climb Mount Everest. He's been recognised for services and disability awareness and has been speaking to Lucy. I was surprised and yeah, I felt overwhelming. So it's a big honour to receive the award. I never worked for any awards or honours, but I'm really, really pleased that my walks has been recognised and I hope I will use this platform to do more work that whatever I'm doing to making awareness of disability and inspiring other people to climb their own mountains, whatever that mountain is. And do you think receiving the MBE will help to get your name out there even more and show even more people what disabled people can do? I think so and I think it will, it puts credibility and recognition that the people who would be able to put a little bit of weight and give me a platform to send messages about making awareness of disability disability people also can do anything as long as we want it. So I hope that the way that more and more disabled people would be able to do whatever they love to do and there's many two things of making awareness of disability. One thing is people with disability like myself, we need to believe that we can do something, but also this is not just our problem, it's a problem of our families, problem for our friends, communities, society and even the authorities in the country that we live in so they can support us right away. And how does getting the MBE compared to your other achievements? I imagine it's a different sort of feeling to climbing Mount Everest, but I mean, how does it compare? I never thought that I would be receiving this awards, honor and awards, you know, it's great to be, you know, getting recognized, but I think for me is to rest of my life, I would like to make awareness of disability. That's my lifetime goal, that I'm missing. And hope doing that, you know, we would able, I would able to, you know, you know, just give you some hope and optimism in some other people. But maybe some, for some other people, ex-solve whatever they are doing, maybe go maybe one step further to Egypt slightly more. And do you know, when you'll be collecting the MBE, will you be back in the UK at some point soon to pick up the honor? Yes, Mike, so at the moment, it's nearly a half past three in the morning, I've just arrived from the UK to do Denali, which is the highest mountain in North America. I'm trying to complete seven summits, which is, you know, high speak in all seven continents. And I'll be back about after four weeks. Hope, it depends on when the expedition finishes. And, yeah, whenever available, I hope that I will, I'll be collecting some point in the future. Others recognised include Margate artist Tracey Emmon, who's been made a Dame and a volunteer police officer from Darfur, who's getting a medal for 25 years of service. Ken's online sport. Plenty of sports news for you, starting off, unsurprisingly, with football and England have won their first group game at Euro 2024, and a man in charge of the Kent FA hopes they'll go on to inspire the next generation. Due Bellingham scored the only goal of the game against Serbia last night, they'll face Denmark on Thursday, then the final group games against Slovenia next Tuesday. Well, I've been speaking to Darryl Hayden, who's the chief exec of the Kent FA. It's a great opportunity to showcase the players that we've got. There's probably lots of youngsters around the county that are all in to be the next Declan Ries or the next Harry Kane or next Bill Voden, and that's fantastic. And I think for us, it's about harnessing that and making sure that we can signpost those players that may be not playing football into a football club, into a local football opportunity for them. And we've seen that growth, we've seen that happen with the female game with the line that is with their win in 2022. And we've got a massive growth in the female game off the back of that, I think, around 45% increase of people playing football in the female game. So that's something we want to kind of replicate in this tomorrow, and if people are, young people want to play football, then great. I think it's also important that it's not just the young people that might have been inspired by England in the year as we know. We offer football for youth, men's football, adult football. But we go into walking football. We've got disability football. We've got veterans football. So there's lots of opportunities for people to play the game, not just to young people, but other people that may feel inspired by England at the Euros. That's fabulous to hear. As far as the grassroots game is concerned, how healthy is it in Kent at the moment, would you say? Really strong. We have around, I think, 4,300 teams. We have 757 clubs, about 70,000 people playing every week. So really, really healthy, really strong. And we just want to continue to offer that opportunity for people that want to play the game, to get involved. There's lots of clubs around the county that will cater for people that want to get involved in the game. Absolutely. Coming back to England, then, if you could choose a final, who would it be? You'd like to be an easy one, but I don't think they'll be an easy one when you get to the final. So I wouldn't be surprised if England, France is the final. I think the French are probably the teams to be. And also, you put your camera off Germany being the host nation. But yeah, England, France final, maybe, and two on England. So I was going to ask for your score prediction. So you're feeling very confident. Because as a nation, we do, I don't know, we just seem to have experienced an awful lot of defeat. But it would be, oh, I can't imagine what it would be like. It would be wonderful. I think as well, you know, for the slightly country at the moment, there's a little bit in there who feel a good brand for England in the championship and England progressing deep into the competition, just raises the feel good factor across the nation. Right. So I think that's that's really important as well, you know, England for good performances. Everybody feels like start waving. Everyone feels a little bit more of a spring in this step, you know. So I think it's important for that aspect as well. 10 years since Emma Radikhan, who's missed out on a chance to play in the final of the Nottingham Open, she was beaten by fellow Brit Katie Balter, who went on to win the tournament yesterday evening. Onto cricket and Kent have suffered a heavy defeat to Gloucestershire in the T20 blast. The Spitfires scored 125 runs at Canterbury yesterday, but the visitors beat them with 50 balls to spare. It's Kent's third loss in a row in the competition. They're currently second from bottom in the South Group table. And in rugby, Kent have made it back to back Division One titles. They beat Yorkshire in a thrilling 31/30 finish in the final of the Bilbo-Monk Cup at Twickenham on Saturday. That's all from us for 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 details on the top stories, direct your email each morning via the briefing. To sign up for that, just head to kentonline.co.uk. News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. [BLANK_AUDIO]
