The son of a Gravesend man who was attacked by an XL Bully says he was one bite from death.
The 69-year-old suffered injuries to his arms, legs, shoulder and upper thigh after being mauled by the animal while on his evening walk.
Also in today’s podcast, police have had to cordon off a town centre street after a man and a woman were found dead.
Emergency services were called to The Butchery in Sandwich after concerns were raised for two pensioners.
Furious residents say housebuilding has spiralled out of control as 1,500 homes are planned across just 1.5 square miles of Ashford.
An application has been submitted for a sixth new development in the area just off the A2070.
A Medway mum who saved a man's life after a motorbike crash, has used her first aid knowledge to help save her own daughter.
Tiffany Smith realised two-year-old Lily Diamond, was seriously ill but had to push doctors to do blood tests.
And a shopkeeper has been ordered to pay hundreds of pounds after piles of rubbish were left outside a former sweet shop in Canterbury.
It’s after residents complained about the “eye sore” which has been left unchecked since November.
10 long 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, July 9th. Coming up today, we'll hear from a midway mum who had to push doctors to do blood tests on her seriously ill two year old daughter. And we'll also hear about plans from midway council to ask us when new houses should be built. But first taking a look at our top story today, a graves and man has been told he might need reconstructive surgery after being bitten in a dog attack. Russian Singh was walking in Lingfield road when he felt a tugging on his leg. Rajdanda is Russian son. He's told the Kent online podcast exactly what happened. My dad has a regular stroll every evening. And you know, this is no different. He'd had his dinner. He went out for a walk. He's gone down Valley Drive and right into Lingfield road. And then he's felt something pulling at his leg initially his calf. And then he's obviously been bitten again, which is when he realized that, you know, he's being attacked by this dog. It came out from essentially where the houses are, right? Because otherwise, my dad would have seen it from like the main road, right? So it's come out of the house. The dog has actually receded then to like bite him on across both legs on calves, upper upper thigh, forearm. It's actually dragged him from one side of the road to the other side of the road. And there was like a pool of blood like that, where he'd been scraped across the floor. And you know, he doesn't know whether it was him yanking at the dog's leg or like, I mean, there were residents there. Obviously that were one of them in particular came out with a mop, you know, in an attempt to sort of scare the dog. But the dog, you know, got startled and sort of ran away basically. And then obviously then the residents that were there were quite quickly at the scene to help my dad. And obviously we're quite grateful to the residents of that road that actually pulled together to support him because what they did is do things like put compression on him and things like that before the ambulance arrived. But you know, he was in quite a bad state because they couldn't even put him straight into the ambulance, because they needed to stabilise his wounds. And obviously the one they were most worried about were the wounds on his arm and on his wrist because of his pulse and all of that sort of thing. So obviously then, you know, yeah, the residents were really sort of kind and sort of helping. And obviously when my mum got there, they were comforting her and stuff ahead of us, children turning up there. He then got sort of put in an ambulance and taken to Medway Hospital where he's sort of been treated since, right? So it's been there since Tuesday. He's, we don't know when he's supposed to come out, but it's going to be probably best part of this week still. We're waiting for a little bit more clarity on that. But I mean, again, that's a long time to be these days to have been in the hospital. And since then, obviously, yeah, I mean, it just takes a mental, like had told them like someone's mental health, you know what I mean, getting that sort of trauma, you know, that sort of age and obviously we're quite worried about him. But obviously one of one of the things that he was keen, keen to stress to the police as well, was that if that was a kid, you know, it would have been over for the child, because at least he had still had a dad still quite fit, you know, he's got still got a bit of an adult man's like worth of fighting him. You know, but that's what he was doing. He was fighting for his life. Police say an Excel bully doc has been seized. Another of our top stories today, a Kent charity says they're writing to the new government in a bid to help tackle the problem of small boat crossings. Labor are planning to set up a new border security command to end the trade in people being smuggled across the channel. As expected, the Tories Rwanda plan has been scrapped. Aaron Wharf is a community inclusion officer at Semfy project that works with refugees. It's great. I think the country was ready for a change. And absolutely we are thrilled that Rwanda plan has scrapped. And we said it from the first day this plan is not going to work and just waste the taxpayers money. Yes. You've said an awful lot that it was never going to work. It was never going to get off the ground. So as soon as you heard that that was that was scrapped, it was not going to happen. What were your feelings? We absolutely, like I said, thrilled. And I hope the new government will work with the people are experienced on a field and also other countries and provide the same legal route and stop the boat and coming old staff, putting people's life in danger. The new home secretary has said straight away that one of her priorities is to set up this new channel command unit. What do you think to that idea? I think without having a safe legal route, any work, it may just be a temporary solution to the problem. If we, a government come up with a safe legal route, that way you can work with the neighbor countries, EU countries, and trying to set up a system that you assess people before they come to here. And that way you don't need, you cut to the middle man, basically. Yeah, because they're very much about tackling the gangs who are behind these smuggling attempts, but you think there needs to be another process as well? Absolutely, because as we know from other criminal gangs, like the drug gangs, you tackle one group and there's another group come. You tackle one area, another area will set up. And this is exactly the same. You can tackle the criminal gangs even all the way back to where they first start on the borders of Italy or back to Greece. But still, we know from a history, when the labor was in charge, where we're in a power, they stopped the glory. They said they're going to stop the glory to criminal gangs, put people in the back of the glory. As we know so many people lost their life in the back of the glory. And they did that, but then they find a boat. So we need to make a push the government. All people are working this field, everyone, all the media, everyone care about human being. You need to push your government to say, without safe legal route, you can tackle the criminal, but the criminal will find a different way to carry on. The government's new unit is expected to have increased counter terrorism powers as well. Kent Online News. A chat and boy left brain damaged after jumping off a Kent Pier is to be brought home to be cared for by his family. 15-year-old Jack Dolan was knocked unconscious after performing a flip off Stone Pier in Margate last month. He still has no brain activity, but doctors say his body is stronger than they thought and he can now be looked after at home. Part of Sandwich Town Centre had to be cordoned off yesterday after two people were found dead. Emergency crews were called to the butchery just after 10 on Monday morning. The pair, who were in their 90s, were found at a property and police say they're not currently looking for anyone else in connection. A bus driver has been charged after a man died in a crash in Folkestone almost two years ago. 70-year-old John Speer Point was killed when a bus crashed through metal railings and into the shelter where he was sitting in August 2022. A 65-year-old man's now been charged with causing death by dangerous driving. A man's been arrested after money was stolen from a business in Fannett. Police were called to reports of a burglary in the Square in Birchington on Saturday afternoon. A 37-year-old from Portsmouth has been questioned. He's also suspected of having class A drugs. A driver has been treated for minor injuries after a car hit a wall and overturned in Favisham. Police paramedics and fire crews were called to the A251 between Ashford and Favisham. Just before 4-30 this morning, the road was closed for a time, but an oil spill has now been cleared away. It's thought a man who's missing from Ireland could have travelled to sitting born. Martin Lambert is thought to have arrived in England on June 14th and may have come to Kent 11 days later. Police say they're increasingly concerned for his welfare. We've shared his picture at Kent Online. Kent Online News. A sheppy dad has passed away just four months after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Rick Smith had seen a GP in February complaining of headaches, but it wasn't until he went for an eye test that he was sent for a CT scan. The 40-year-old's diagnosis led to more than 100,000 pounds being raised to support his family. A medway mum hailed a hero for saving a man's life has now used her first aid knowledge to help save another life, her own daughters. Last June, Tiffany Smith from Chatham used her training to save a motorcyclist, and in the same month this year, that training helped her realise her two-year-old daughter, Lily Diamond, was seriously ill. After numerous GP visits, Tiffany pushed for blood tests, which revealed Lily had dilated cardiomyopathy and needed to be admitted to intensive care. It's basically where the walls of the heart are enlarged. The bottom two chambers, the ventricles, aren't pumping properly. So her organs aren't getting enough. She's not getting enough blood supply, which is why I live her enlarged. She then had some problems with her kidneys because they just weren't getting enough. They've sent all of her bloods off to, you know, the big labs, this is where it takes weeks and weeks. So that takes sort of six weeks to come back. So we still don't know what has caused this and why, and the correct way to treat it, we just don't know. And we might never know. They've sort of said it could be an unknown cause. We might never know, but this is a chronic life-threatening, long-term, incurable condition. And the statistics are heartbreaking. They've said that 50% of kids recover and 25% need intravenous support and help for the rest of their life and 25% need a transplant. Obviously, we're hoping for the 50% of recovery, but the way that she's been, it's looking like she's going to need the help and support for the rest of her life. Lily is now being treated at the Royal Brompton Hospital, although it's not known how long she'll need to stay there. Tiffany says the whole situation is heartbreaking. It's literally just been a nightmare that I don't even think I've got my head around the fact that this is my life now, you know, because it's so surreal and overwhelming. You can't explain to somebody that's not had a child in intensive care just how brutal it is because until you've experienced it, you just can't actually fathom how brutal it is, you know, being around all of these poorly children, trying to normalise it as much as I can for Lily. You know, I've told her that she's not poorly. At one point of I said she's poorly. I've said she's getting her superpowers, and that's it. That's all she's doing. Oh, excuse me. It was one of the other parents that said to me, don't let your baby believe that she's poorly because then her mind will think negatively, and she needs to think positive. She needs to believe that she's just getting some superpowers. So every time the nurses come around and they try and take her blood or they try and give her a medicine and stuff, I just say, you know, come on, we're just getting them superpowers. And before you know it, you'll be zooming off again. A GoFundMe page to support the family has now been set up by family friend Vicki Young, whose own daughter Ruby battled cancer as a toddler. Kent Online News. There are calls for more funding and resources to help bring some of the 7,000 empty properties in Kent back into use. A scheme's been running in the county since 2005 to reduce the number of homes that are unoccupied for more than six months. Lucy's been chatting to Steve Grimshaw from No Use Empty. I don't think No Use Empty can solve the housing problem on its own, but it's making a valuable contribution to help the housing shortage. So we've got examples of projects which have been brought back into use where the owners have made those properties then available to their respective local councils for those in need of housing accommodation. We've also got examples where a district council's purchase to completed No Use Empty project and taken that property into their housing stock and then used that property to make affordable accommodation available for local people. So it's a model that can be replicated. The Welsh government's empty property scheme is very much based on the Kent model. So maybe having a nationwide scheme such as No Use Empty might help bring more properties back into use and help make a more valid contribution to helping with the housing crisis. What are some of the barriers to bringing a property back into use and what kind of issues do you face? Because I know there are some properties that have been empty for a really long time, long periods, maybe even years that they've been sitting empty. Why is that and why is it so difficult to bring them back into use? I think some of the difficulties are around resourcing because not every district council has a dedicated empty property officer. So having that dedicated resources key, sometimes properties are empty because people haven't got the financial resources to bring them back into use and that's where we are helping and sometimes we have to work with banks as well because all of the loans that we provide are secured. So we need to look at the security aspect and the repayment of the loan. Sometimes properties are empty because we're waiting on probate cases to be completed and sometimes people who own an empty property might have inherited it but are so attached to it that they can't bring themselves to actually wanting to take the project forward. There's limited resources within our respective councils but if there's maybe a more targeted approach, not just in Kent but across the country and there could be some dedicated resources put in and some financial resources put in and that might give councils across the country sorry to do more, to bring empty properties back into use. While we're being asked again what we think about where new houses could be built in Medway, the council has to come up with what's known as a local plan to ensure house building is on track with national targets. More than 1,600 homes a year need to be built in the towns, that's 28,000 by the end of 2041. Council assignment Curry is in charge of regeneration. We're going into what we're calling kind of second part of the reg 18, the consultation with the public. We did a bit last year, people remember and the idea is to get it out into the public domain published by the end of 2026, hopefully at the latest, hopefully more before than if we can and really it's a plan for the future of Medway. It's the next 15 years of development right up to 2041 and we're hoping that it'll spell out and show where people were developers going to take place at Medway. Now there were three options, it was the third option which is the preferred option from the council. Tell us a little bit about that, it's a mix of urban regeneration and across other areas. That's right, it's kind of the blended option that we're talking about, it's where we're looking at the town centres and how they're working and how they're not working and where we can regenerate in those areas, but also looking at the wider community, the small villages on the peninsula which do need some housing and other areas around Medway where we feel we've got to grow and expand our boundaries as well. It's kind of the blended option. We've got a sort of large housing allocation on coming our way so we've got to deal with that as well. I don't know that large housing allocation, I did a bit of quick maths there based on average people per household, it blew around about 67, 70,000 people coming to Medway. Do we currently have the infrastructure to meet that huge increase in population? No, I don't think we do actually and that's partly why this plan is needed. The plan isn't just a housing plan, it's a housing about the whole community. It's all based around sustainability and the understanding of sustainability, it's about the economy, it's about community and it's about the environment. So we've got to get all those three elements right when we do this plan properly and that's why we need this new infrastructure coming along inside any developments that take place. So you're absolutely right, we don't have the infrastructure now but the plan is to put that infrastructure in place. A consultation will be discussed by the Cabinet today. Residents in Ashford say there will be chaos if a sixth development in the area is given the green light. If the proposals for the New Estate of the A2070 are approved, it would meet nearly 1,500 homes being built within a space the size of just 240 football pitches in Will's Police. Neighbour say traffic has already become impossible. A decision on the application is due in September. Revised plans have been drawn up to revitalise a rundown part of Rochester Town Centre and improve a dangerous road junction. The new scheme at Bardell Wharf, named Iron Munga Yard, will include 296 flats and plans to improve pedestrian safety and reconnect the high street. The site has been empty for years. Medway are expected to make a decision on the application in autumn. Kent Online News. Kent's new MPs have been called to Westminster as the new government prepares to set out their plans for the next five years. They'll be sworn in today before electing a speaker. Katie Lamb is the Conservative MP for the Wheel of Kent. This seat, the Wheel of Kent, the seat that I live in and the seat that I now represent is a new seat and it's a properly rural seat. It's a countryside constituency and so my big priority is to stand up for the countryside, to stand up for that voice, you know, for better or worse. Labour is broadly an urban party. We're going to see in the government mostly MPs that have very urban seats and the countryside is going to need a champion and so I hope and I plan to do everything that I can to fill that role. Holly Billington is the new Labour MP for East Standard. I think there's some big issues that matter to all of us and because so many of us have got coastal communities, we're going to be particularly concerned about the sewage but all of us have some, I think all of us have southern water as our major water provider so we'll be wanting to hold them to account. We've also, most of us, apart from the Medway seats, have to deal with Kent County Council and we'll be looking to see what they will do, particularly the concerns that we've got about their announcement today about revising the access to special educational need provision and I think we will want to see what we can do to be able to protect our constituents on that. The state opening of Parliament and the King's speech will be next Wednesday. A shopkeeper has been fined after piles of rubbish were left outside her former store in Canterbury. Sweet snacks permanently closed last November and complaints were made to council about the rubbish. The owner has been ordered to pay £360. There'll be more closures on the A249 over the next couple of nights ahead of the new stock brief flyover opening. It's a key feature of the redesigned junction off the M2 near Junction 5 the sitting board tonight and tomorrow it'll be shut southbound towards Maidstone from 8pm with a lane on the flyover due to open on Thursday. Kent Online News The mum of a selectively mute girl from Ashford says playing sensory football has sparked a miracle breakthrough. Seven-year-old Lily Rose can't speak at school and struggles to bond with other children but has made progress talking to her teammates and coaches. The classes at Ashford Sensory Football Club are unweekly at the Stowers Centre with the help of National Disability Charity Sense. That's all from us today. Thanks ever so much for listening. Don't forget you can follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and threads. You can also get the details on the top stories direct to your email each morning via The Briefing. To sign up just head to kentonline.co.uk News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. (dramatic music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
