The company behind a £30 million regeneration project in Canterbury has been put into administration.
It means the development of the former Nasons department store in the city is now in doubt.
As the fall out from the election betting scandal continues, the KentOnline Podcast has been hearing your thoughts about those involved.
Earlier this week the Conservatives withdrew support for two candidates under investigation for betting on the timing of the election - Labour has also made one suspension.
Meantime, With the general election just a week away, we've been speaking to a local pub boss about what the hospitality sector wants from the new government.
Hear from Phil Thorley who's from Thorley Taverns in Thanet.
People in Larkfield are being asked what they think about plans for new community sports hub.
The area's been left with a lack of facilities since the K Sports site in Ditton closed last week. The chairman of Larkfield and New Hythe Football Club says the development would be huge for the club.
A newsagents in Sevenoaks that's been derelict for 30 years has been transformed into a sweet shop.
Zoe Barnes has been telling the podcast it's been a lifelong ambition to open her own store.
And in sport, a Kent athlete's been named in the Team GB bouldering squad for this summer's Olympics.
Erin McNeice from Sittingbourne secured her place after finishing third in the finals of the qualifying series in Budapest.
We will see you in a few minutes. Can't online 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 on Thursday, the 27th of June and first up today, the company behind a 30 million pound regeneration project in Canterbury has been put into administration. It means the development of the former nation's department store in the city is now in doubt. Well, Lucy joins me on the podcast with more on this story. So Lucy, tell us a bit about the background of the project. Well, the idea was to create a retail arcade, food hall, open space and flats in the format nation's department store on the high street. So that Canterbury is leading the plans, but the firm is now under the control of administrators after defaulting on a loan taken out to buy the plot and work up the scheme. The site has also been put up for sale. And I understand Kent online has spoken to the boss of the company. Yes, that's right. Manuel Alsoni still hopes he can salvage his vision by refinancing the debt with a new lender and pushing forward with the project known as Biggleston Yard. They were given planning permission in 2022 after proposing a solution to concern about sewage. But Mr Alsoni says that's no longer viable and they would need a cheaper way to comply with guidelines from natural England. So where does the project go from here? Well, it's hoped there could be the potential to open up the ground floor of the building as a London Borough Market style venue while they resolve other issues. Canterbury City Council say they recognize the importance of redeveloping the nation's site for the health and vitality of the city centre. As spokesman says, they're working to find an answer to this sewage problem, which centres around protecting the Stodmarsh nature reserve. They've been given £10 million from central government as delays are also blocking more than 7,000 homes from being built. Thank you ever so much. Kent Online News. An inquest jury has found failures across multiple agencies contributed to the death of a woman as she walked home from a night out in East London. Zara Alina was murdered by Jordan McSweeney from Rochester exactly two years ago. It had been released on licence from prison just nine days earlier. Police had been unable to contact him, but probation waited five days before issuing a recall. A man's in a serious condition in hospital and a 21-year-old's been arrested on suspicion of drink driving following a crash in Ashford. A key a Rio collided with a lamppost on Forge Lane on Tuesday night. Elsewhere a person's been flown to a London hospital after a crash involving two cars near Dim Church. The 8259 High Road was closed in both directions following the collision between Burmosh Road and Marine Avenue yesterday afternoon. A second person was taken to a local hospital for treatment. That was the fallout from the election betting scandal continues. Kent Online's been hearing your thoughts about those involved earlier this week. The Conservatives withdrew support for two candidates under investigation for betting on the timing of the election. Labour has also made one suspension. We've been speaking to people in Rochester. It should be I think something that's like with football list. They're not allowed to bet. It should be somewhere within their contracts to say that they're not allowed to do that. They've got to do something, but I still feel like even if they were to throw them out it will probably still go on. They're all a bit corrupt I think. I think I have absolutely no trust in the forthcoming election. I'm just like whatever happens will happen because I don't trust any of them to look after us properly. Betting itself is legal, but betting when you've got inside a knowledge is I mean I thought that was a criminal offense. I certainly think it's just another example of one rule for politicians, one rule for the rest of us. I'm just relieved there's a general election so that we can have our chance to vote out the people who are basically cheating and yet kind of pretending they're on a higher moral ground. They're the people who have power. They have influence on making these massive decisions for the country and yet seem to have very little moral compass themselves. Yeah, just another layer of mistrust on top of everything else. No, from the Brexit parties to the, I mean, when Boris Johnson was prime minister he didn't seem to think rules were important at all and yet they're the people making the rules, expecting us to follow them often for good reason. So yeah, absolutely. I think trust is completely shattered in this government. I think they shouldn't be allowed to stand if they've been found to be doing that quite frankly. I don't say it makes my trust any less because I don't have a lot of trust in politicians. I think it just reinforces that they're only in it for themselves. They just want to make money for themselves and they're prepared to cheat and lie to do that. Lib Demleader Ed Davie has called for a review of the regulations and with the general election just a week away now we've been hearing from a local pub boss and what the hospitality sector wants from the new government. Many venues are still recovering from the pandemic while others have reported a slow start to the year following what seemed like an incredibly long winter. Phil Thorley is from Thorley Taverns in Thunned and he wants a review of business rates. I think for us to be perfectly honest it's more about what we do than what colour government or what style of government is in. Our company's been going for 50 years and I think it's more to do with the decisions that we make, how hard we work, how well we serve our general public than who's in power and who's in number 10. I think it may be around the edges will affect how much tax one pays on certain things but both of their tax schemes almost were identical. You could have listened about and they seemed very, very similar to me so I think that to be honest about it there seems as though there is a groundswear of the general public wanting a change of whoever's in number 10 and it looks like that's going to be kierstama. To us I think it's about what we do. What are the asks that we'd like I think probably number one I'd like a revision of business rates. I think business rates is completely outdated and unfair. When you look at ourselves on the high street we're targeted at left right and centre and you look at the comparison between bricks and clicks. We are a sitting target and so therefore that they come and tax us non-stop time after time but you look at the amazons and the online businesses. Multi, multi-billionaires pay no tax whatsoever. That cannot be right. That's number one. Number two I think there's a special case for hospitality with having a lower rate of VAT. We paid a highest VAT in the whole of the European Union for hospitality. We work extremely hard. Ours is very much a labour-based business and a lot of entry level. In the last two years we've seen 10% rise in the national minimum wage. Those are rises which just eat in a profit which means it's going to really stop reinvestment and stop jobs going round. I think there's a special case for that to be perfectly honest. Our hospitality business is extremely important to the UK. We want it valued and we would like you to recognise the sacrifices that we've put through in the last couple of years, not least of which in Covid where we were forcibly shut by the government which we understood but we were forcibly shut. The likes of the supermarkets absolutely add it off. They took cream and cream and cream and cream and cream because nobody else could spend the money anywhere else. Guess what? They don't pay our DNA tax and they don't pay the business rates we pay. We then have to go and pay for that. I don't want to make it a sub-story because actually we do what we do because we enjoy it. We love the hospitality industry. It's everything I've ever done. I started working beyond the bar for a mile a day and then I was a DJ down with running a pub with my wife when I was 18 and the rest is history as they say. We love our industry. It's great fun but it's really challenging and it is valued by the public. Not seen. Probably the most time when that was shown was when we immediately came out of Covid and it was rule of six people couldn't wait to get to the pub and have a social time. I'm not just talking about drinking alcohol. Soft drinks and coffee and just having a meal in a social environment with other human beings is extremely valuable and so we want the new incoming government who whatever colour or whatever it is to value what we do. Kent Online reports. A Chinese restaurant in Chatham could lose its license after five people were found working there illegally. The home office visited Jade Garden on the High Street last December and arrested members of staff. There are concerns about modern day slavery and exploitation. As some said, they were helping out in exchange for food and accommodation and licensing reviews due to be held next month and a business could be fined £60,000 for each illegal worker. Plans to put flats behind a bakery in Sittingborne have been turned down partly because of the smell new residents would be subjected to. The owner of AE Barrow and Sons on the High Street have wanted to demolish part of the site to make way for the properties. He said it would have given him the income needed to keep the business running and has described the decision as disappointing. Now people in Larkfield are being asked what they think about plans for a new community sports hub. The area has been left with a lack of facilities since the K sports site in nearby Disson closed last week. What developers want to create a clubhouse, two 3G football pitches, a driving range and paddle courts on the former most part golf course at Burling. We're looking to move from our current stadium. We have been here a long time but basically we just can't survive staying here anymore. The costs of running the facility are shot up in the last three years and we just basically need to move where we can get a 3G facility and be renting that out and get any income in. What we've done is we've working with a developer. They found a new site for us which is pretty close less than a mile away and we're going to get a brand new stadium. We have a state-of-the-art 3G pitch, a 3G training pitch, a new stadium with 250 seats in there, brand new clubhouse facilities and car parking. It's all going to be a really exciting transformation for us as a club and a fantastic opportunity. I was going to say how much would it mean to the club and is it essentially you need to do this to survive? Absolutely. At the minute like a lot of clubs there's a lot of people, volunteers that are doing work and it's always running quite a tight shoestring and with all these costs going up we just can't basically afford to carry on doing that and then what's happening is because we don't have any training facilities where forever just paying money out to other places for the training so just more money goes out of the club and the 3G is the only way to go in terms of club surviving and getting money in. Why is that? Is that because it's hard-wearing you'll be able to have more people playing on it more times of the week? Is that the idea? Yes, fundamentally the 3G you can play on in theory 24/7 but yeah you can play on every day, you can have training on it every night, you can have repeat matches on Saturdays at the weekends and you basically can hire it out. Our grass pitch we've got here is pretty good but this season we had 18 games postponed because of the weather. The rain we've had this year I've never known anything like in my 30 years we've never had the deluge of rain we've had and this many cancellations it just seemed to be getting worse and so when you don't get a game played you've planned for it any income you're going to get you suddenly don't get as well so yeah I think you've got to go through it and all the local clubs in Kent the bigger clubs they're all getting 3G facilities loads of them are doing it right now. What would the demand be if you get this new facility built presumably you're going to be inundated with requests from people to be able to use that facility then? Yeah absolutely we're going to you know obviously our own teams will go on there first of all and they're all left somewhere to train but there's like label doesn't have anywhere to train their football club so there's going to be lots of the local community in this area that will now have somewhere else to train and a top notch facility in what is currently a disused old golf course it's been shut for seven years it's like a weight land over there so it's a massive opportunity for the whole community to you know really really make make this area so much so much better for everybody because we're going to get our full stage in but they're going to put a drive range in as well and Patrick Dennis is going to be a fantastic facility over there for everybody. A consultation event is being held today and there'll be another on Saturday. It's on line reports. Health bosses in Kent a warning of significant disruption to services its junior doctors begin another five day strike it's the 11th time they've taken industrial action in a dispute over pay NHS Kent and Medway say they're prioritizing urgent care we're being told to think carefully about what services we're using as a yellow heat health alert remains in force today there will be more overnight closures on the 8249 as the new stop we fly over is due to open next month national highways have confirmed one lane will open made stone bound on the 10th of july with a lane heading towards sitting born opening the following morning overnight closures start next friday so the final bits of work can be carried out and a news agents in seven oaks that's been derelict for 30 years has been transformed into a sweet shop Zoe Barnes says it's been a lifelong ambition to open her own store before covid she was a beauty therapist but couldn't work during the pandemic so in 2022 she started an online sweet business then a unit in st john's hill became available and she says it still feels like a dream i still walk in some days and turn the lights on and just sort of stand and look around thinking oh like i actually fulfilled my dream of having a sweet shop so it's it's yeah because it's kind of five weeks or so it still feels very you know and very surreal and but lovely especially when i get the older generation coming and they're still local and that you know they've been there their whole life too and they'll talk about the chocolate box and you know you have a little chat with them and you think oh it's really nice like a community feel that's what i like so i've got i've got like my regulars that i call them now all the children and my regulars and they'll come in after school some of them and then at the weekends or on the saturday normally fridays and saturday are busiest but you've got children coming in because they're allowed a friday tree which i love because that's what i was allowed and then on a saturday you've got parents bringing them in and grandparents bringing them in and what i like is you know the parents will say right this is your amount of money and they're giving them the money and they're making you know in their sense of their child okay you've got that amount of money so it's totally up to you what you choose so it's it's teaching the children the value of money really they know they've got the money in their hands you know they know exactly how much they can spend and they get to just walk around the shop and choose what they want and then they come to me and i bag it up and they give me their money and it i suppose the smaller children make some feel a little bit more grown up. Ken's online sports. Ken's athlete's been named in the team GB bouldering squad for this summer's Olympics. Erin McNeese from sitting born secured her place after finishing third in the finals of the qualifying series in Budapest. The 20-year-old previously told us about her training facilities at home. I'm Erin McNeese. I'm 17 years old. I remember a third junior and senior GB climbing team. I'm in my final years of eight levels and trained six days a week on the wall and in the gym. I have a slightly downsized climbing wall in my summer house. It's about six foot five in height and we built it before Covid and it became a lot bigger during Covid and I trained all that most days. I don't know why it's still surreal even though I work so hard for it and everything that comes with that like World Cups and Olympic selection doesn't feel real but it's something that I've worked for for the past five or six years and dreamed about three watch every day so very happy. While competitive climbing made its debut as an Olympic sport at the 2020 Tokyo Games elsewhere at Kent Olympian will get the chance to defend her title in Paris this summer. Kate French has been named in the team GB squad to compete in the modern Pentathlon. The 33 year old athlete from Mepam took gold in the delayed Tokyo Games three years ago and in tennis kens Emma Rajikanu had to fight to reach the quarter-finals of the Eastbourne International. She came from a set down to beat America's Jessica Pergula for six, seven, six, seven, five. The 21-year-old from Orpington will take on Darrier Kazatkeena this afternoon. Fellow Brits Katie Boulter and Harriet Darter are also through to the last eight. 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 just head to kentonline.co.uk and to watch on the site today you can check out our latest Eat My Words food review. News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast.
