People living in a village between Folkestone and Dover say plans to build 90 more homes is "concreting over countryside and will spoil views".
Developers have lodged plans to transform farmland in Capel-le-Ferne - and it's already raised more than 100 letters of objection.
Also in today's podcast, a woman's described the moment a car crashed into her house in a village near Ashford.
Jenny Garrad was upstairs in the property when it happened on Chequer Tree Farm Road in Mersham - she's now calling for improvements to the junction with Colliers Hill.
With just three days until the general election, a first time voter in Kent admits he still hasn't decided where to put his cross.
At the start of the campaigning, Luca Fasulo had a clear idea who he was going to vote for - but that changed after watching a hustings.
A disabled woman from Sevenoaks has accused a company of discrimination after she apparently wasn't allowed on a bus because of her mobility scooter.
Amanda King says the driver of the Number 8 Go Coach from the town centre was shaking his head as she used the ramp, despite the disabled bay being free - he reportedly then closed the door on her.
Three school boys from Tonbridge have helped set a new tug of war world record...
Owen, Freddie and Otis used a 540 meter long rope at the town's race course - with 500 other children taking part.
And in sport, Gillingham are back in training for the new season today.
They've had nine weeks off since finishing outside the play-off places in league 2.
# # KENTONLINE NEWS News You Can Trust This is the KENTONLINE Podcast. Nicola Everett. Hello, hope you're OK and had a good weekend. Thanks so much for downloading today's podcast on Monday, July 1st. This is the most read story on the website today. People living in a village between Folkestone and Dover say plans to build 90 more homes is concreting over countryside and will spoil views. Now, developers have launched plans to transform farmland in Capel Affern and it's already raised more than 100 letters of objection where these villages have been telling the KENTONLINE podcast why they're fighting the proposals. There's a big problem with the amenities in the village as a whole. The roads around here, as you would have seen when you drive up, it's a single track road and we get problems quite frequently, particularly in the summer, when the lorries are coming through to go to the farm for the harvest and the rest of it. You've got combine harvesters, tractors, all sorts going up and down. Even silly things like the water pressure here is right on the minimum that's allowed. More houses here, more problems with water pressure. There's another 31 houses planned up this line as well, so you're talking not just 90 houses over there, you're talking 120 houses and all. As the plans stand at the moment, I'm not too happy. There's 90 houses, they're all two story and they're coming very close to the boundary. I think housing is necessary, but I think they haven't taken into account the local area and what it will do to all the people who live along, call them lane and even some of those in Capel Street. What we did do to them? Well, most of us along this road bought our houses because of the view. We will have 90 houses behind us, many of which will look over our gardens and into our houses. It's not ideal. The planning department have missed the fact that there are several other developments being planned at the same time and they don't seem to be aware of all of them in total because a number of cars that will add to this area, there's a great problem with drainage in this field behind me that it would make it very difficult and those houses will probably be prone to flooding. There's problems with water pressure up here, so you can imagine all of that extra burden and then that's not allowing for the fact of the traffic, as I say, going out to the main road. There's great problems with accidents that happen at the entrances to this area. However, not all of the feedback has been negative. Some neighbours say the scheme is well placed for people looking to downsize and want to give up driving. We can see exactly where we're talking about. We've got pictures of what the properties could look like if you head to the story today at Kent Online. Kent Online News. Police are investigating the death of a 17 year old girl following a festival in Margate. It's understood she was taken to hospital after attending a drum and bass event at Dreamland on Saturday. A spokesperson for the venue says they're deeply saddened and are working with the girl's family and detectives. An inquest has been told a motorcyclist could have hit a meter long pothole moments before he died in a crash. Liam Dixon lost control of his bike as he travelled home from work along Rochester Road in Chatham in January. An investigation found no defects with the vehicle and he wasn't speeding. A 10 year old boy is in hospital with serious injuries after being hit by a bus near Folkston. The ambulance landed on the beach after police, paramedics and a fire engine were called to Sangate, Esplanade yesterday evening. Meantime, a fundraiser has been set up after a teenage girl was hit by a car in Broadstairs. Macy Standing was flown to a London hospital after it happened near Charles Dickens School on Friday. An 83 year old man who was arrested has been released on bail. Next and a woman has described the moment a car crashed into her house in a village near Ashford. Jenny Garrard was upstairs in the property when it happened on Checka Tree Farm Road in Merzam. She's now calling for improvements to the junction with Collier's Hill as it's the second time it's happened in six months. The car driver was taken to hospital or Jenny has been speaking to reporter Chantal Wellai. It just sounded like an explosion and I didn't really twig where it had come from and as soon as I came downstairs I could see the car had entered the house from not stopping at the junction opposite of my house. So tell me a bit about this junction. This junction has no signage up the road to say that there is a junction ahead. There is no stop sign, there is no give way sign. In the last six months this is a second car that has come into my property. The first car came through my fence into my garden so quite a lot of damage was done there. Again the driver didn't stop. There is no clear signage to say there is a junction. So what do you think needs to be done and also tell me about how you've gone about raising it in case you haven't used it for. So I have spoken to the local counsellor. She agreed that something needed to be done. She approached highways who said there was not enough money to pay for the signage and the roads, the painting of the roads. They have painted each side of the hamlets slow on the road because it is a national speed limit and people do go 60 round these blindbends. So she approached highways and they came back saying absolutely no, nothing could be done. How about leaving feeling? Obviously it must be really upsetting because it's your house which is getting damaged and it's your livelihood isn't it? At the end of the day it's very simple to sort out. Paint the road with a thick white line, a sign saying stop and change the speed limit because yesterday there could have been fatalities, there weren't but the next time there might and we don't want to get to a stage where this is going to happen. And I need to be safe within my own property. Tell me about how that leaves you feeling. It must be really, really memorable because it could happen at any time and now because I'm only boarded up and have no pillars outside the house, it's even worse because it's wood. It's not very thick brickwork. So anyone could now drive in. Well, King County Council have sent us a statement. It says that in the event of serious or fatal road crash police, we'll put together a report on the details of the incident and carry out false investigations to understand possible causes. That report and the results of their investigations are then shared with KCC so that they can complete details of the incident. It says we will subsequently undertake further site investigations to establish if there are any highway safety concerns that need to be addressed and it concludes that they have not yet received a report from the police for this particular incident. And online reports, a Margate man has been sent to prison for behaving inappropriately to a woman while she was waiting for a training Canterbury. Damien Olegbeck repeatedly asked for hugs and kisses before performing a lewd act. The 21 year old who lives in the high street tried to avoid being identified by police by giving the wrong name. He's been sentenced to 41 weeks. A Raina mum says she doesn't know where to turn after her autistic son was rejected by 30 secondary schools. Kelly Adams says her 10 year old Harley has an E-H-C-P that they've applied to schools from Broadstairs to Swanley who say they simply cannot meet his needs. She's calling for local bosses to do more to increase special needs provision when subway councils say they're working to ensure there are sufficient places with the right provisions. Now with just three days until the general election, a first time voter in Kent admits he still hasn't decided where to put his cross. At the start of the campaign, Luca Fusulo had a clear idea who he was going to vote for but that changed after watching a hostings. The 18 year old who studies in Canterbury doesn't think he's the only one who's unsure. It is difficult to decide whether you want to vote with your heart or whether you want to vote tactically and that is a really difficult decision for lots of young people. So I think originally when we first spoke I said I was absolutely firm in where I was going to vote. I don't think that's the case anymore. I think I'm swaying a little bit so it's going to be interesting on election day to see what cross I put in that box. Do you think it will come down to next Thursday that you'll literally decide as you walk into your polling station, you'll have to make a decision there and then you wouldn't have decided beforehand. I believe so because as much as I wish it was otherwise it is still down to two parties in this seat. So it's really whether I feel that one party is safe enough to be symbolically voting or whatever I feel actually they're probably going to need that boost and so I'd have to vote for them. So it probably will come down to the day of it. What would you like to say to young people who perhaps haven't decided who they want to vote for? They're not sure if they are going to vote. What would your message be to them? Turn up is the first thing. Make sure you go. If you don't think that you want to put yourself behind a candidate you can spoil your ballot. You can write on it. I don't agree. You can write on it. You haven't given enough to young people and just not tick any of those boxes. And if you do that you are boosting the voter statistics. You're saying that young people came out and you're not putting your support behind any party. That is the best way we can make sure that they know that we still care even if we don't agree. Just explain why the candidates will end up knowing about that because some people might not understand how a spoiled ballot works. They might just think someone who's counting it sees it and essentially chucks it in a bin because they've not put a cross for a particular party. So the great thing with a spoiled ballot is that in order to decide it is spoiled all the candidates will have to agree. So that means that when the count is happening all the spoiled ballots will be taken out of the count. They will be placed in front of the candidates and they'll all go through them reading what they say making sure that that person hasn't actually indicated they want to vote for one person. Do you think that would have an impact on a candidate? If there were a lot of spoiled ballots and they did have messages like you've not prioritised young people. I don't believe in any of your policies. Do you think that would resonate with them? Absolutely, because when they're not putting in the time and the effort nationally to come and speak to us, come and see us, if we still show up and we still lay out all these messages in front of them and say, look, we've taken time out of our day to go to a polling station to do something that we've not been asked to do because you don't want to hear from us and we're still saying, we don't trust you, we don't think you've done enough for us. That's immensely powerful to turn up and still say something. And you can head to the general election pages of Kent Online. Click on the interactive map to find details of the candidates where you live. Kent Online reports. Kent Reliance say they're bucking the Trent by opening a new branch in Graveser and while other banks abandon their shops, bosses say the move to the town centre is vital to keep it in the heart of the community. It comes as banks like Barclays and Nat West have closed branches in Kent due to more people taking their business online. Security guards at the job centre in Margate are starting six days of strike action. They're among hundreds of G4s employees demanding better pay. GMB Union says many are suffering attacks and abuse while only getting the minimum wage. It's thought the disappearance of a vicar in Kent 25 years ago will remain a mystery. Michael Aikman was 35 when he disappeared from his family home in Wistable just 18 months after taking over at St Alford's Church. His car was later found in Dover Police say they've had no new information but periodically reviewed cases. A disabled woman from Seven Oaks says accused a company of discrimination after she apparently wasn't allowed on a bus because of her mobility scooter. Amanda King says the driver of the number eight go coach from the town centre was shaking his head as she used the ramp despite the disabled bay being free. She claims he then closed the door on her while she's lodged a formal complaint and Amanda has been speaking to reporter Cara Simmons. Yeah, I was really upset and got everyone was looking at me from a mad woman when I wasn't. And like all inside it was just turning me up. And what sort of, I know you've had an operation in your leg, what's the pain like having to go through that? It hurts really hurts when I walk. That's why I'm in that scooter thing. I can't walk far. And obviously imagining luckily with you at the time, imagine if that was say some older older lady that didn't have anyone. I mean, it wouldn't be a good experience for them either to have that. So no, because maybe if they're older that they wouldn't have kicked up a fast like I did. They would have just accepted it and then that bit there would be stranded. Yeah. And you put a complaint in and what was their response to that? They haven't responded to me. No, not at all. And what are you looking to get out of this? You just want an apology or what would you like? Well, I would like them to let me on the buses because why was it just one driver that wouldn't let me on and all the other drivers do? So in the future I would like to be let on by older drivers. And also not just me, it's not all the disabled people out there. It's not about me. It's about all the disabled people. It's getting the word out and maybe it should be a bit educated, a bit more in what it's like to be disabled. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A spokesman for Go Coach has confirmed the company is aware of the complaint, but due to driver absence, it's still investigating the alleged incident. He said they will respond to Miss King when their investigations are complete. Kent Online News. Queen Camille has hosted a special Buckingham Palace Garden party for a Kenboy who's raised millions for charity. Tony Hodgel had to have both legs amputated after being abused as a baby. But the nine-year-old from Westmoreling missed the official event in May because of bad traffic and has now had a more private tea party in the grounds of the palace. And finally, three schoolboys from Tumbrech have helped set a new tug-of-war world record Owen Freddie and Otis used 540 metre long rope at the town's racecourse with 500 other children taking part. It was all to raise money for charity and Glenn Calvert, who is Owen's dad, was on KM FM breakfast earlier. How was your day in Tumbrech Park yesterday? Three o'clock you were there, the rope 542 metres long, the ambition to get more than 500 people on the roped tug-of-warring. Glenn, what happened? We had 495 kids there and it was the best of five, the red team won three now but it's not about who wins, it's about beating the record and we did it. That's it, so you've had, wow, have the official Guinness people been there to note it or have you got to send stuff off and they've got to check through and see it's bona fide? We've got to send everything off today, all of the official measurements, all the footage from both ends, you've got to prove the ropes off the ground for the entire duration, the bunch of other stuff that we've got to send in, so you've officially done it. Hopefully we hear back in three to four weeks and when we get that confirmation through, we can send all of the kids their certificates to say they're well record breakers. There are so many kids all turning up as well, just under 500 kids turning up to like absolutely smashed life on a Sunday. So you are the official, what's the actual record precisely? 558 metres. And that is the most people in a tug-of-war ever in the world. So it's the longest ever? The longest ever? The longest ever. A tug-of-war. And right here in test. Amazing. Well Glenn and the boys and all the 500 kids who got involved. Every single one of them. We absolutely salute you. We really do. Ken's online sports. For both first up and chilling in the back in training for the new season today, they've had nine weeks off since finishing outside the playoffs in league two. Mark Bonner has taken over as manager and says he's focusing on fitness, structure and organization. He's already made four new signings onto tennis and Kent's Emma Rajikhanu's in action on the first day of Wimbledon today. And Kent's sprinter, Deena Asher Smith will represent Team GB at this summer's Olympics. She won the 200 metres at the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester over the weekend to confirm her place in the squad for Paris. It was a championship record of 22.18 seconds. 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 to that. You just need to head to kentonline.co.uk news. You can trust this is the Kent online podcast. (dramatic music)
