A Chatham woman who hid a sawn-off shotgun in her garden has avoided being sent to prison - after waiting eight years for the case to come to court.
Police were called to 47-year-old Wendy Allen's home on Weeds Wood Road in April 2016 after an anonymous tip-off.
Also in today's podcast, figures seen by the KentOnline podcast show a 45% rise in drug offences in Kent over the last four years.
Around 3,600 were were recorded in the county in 2019 - that went up to more than 5,200 in 2022. Reporter Louis Walker speaks to a former addict who says cocaine is a particular problem in the county.
With less than two weeks until the General Election, a leading Kent doctor is urging whoever forms the next government to have a cross-party long term plan for the NHS.
Hear from Medway GP Dr Julian Spinks.
In further health news, we're being urged to look out for vulnerable people as a heat health alert comes into force in Kent.
Summer's finally arrived with temperatures hitting up to 27c over the next few days.
A disused train carriage has had an amazing transformation into a café at a special needs school in Maidstone.
The project at Five Acre Wood will also see pupils trained in hospitality skills - reporter Cara Simmonds has been along to have a look around.
You can also hear today from a Sheppey man who's through to the final of Mr Gay Great Britain and is hoping to use the platform to raise awareness.
Jordan Chan from Halfway already volunteers with Swale Pride, but says he entered the national competition to drive more positive change in the community.
And finally, the owner of a popular corner shop plans to keep working 'for as long as her body allows' as she celebrates 40 years in business.
Bella Patel took over Savers Newsagents in Faversham Road, Kennington, with her late husband John in June 1984.
We'll have more on the weather in just a bit, but first up today, a chat and woman who hid a sawn-off shotgun in her garden has avoided being sent to prison after waiting eight years for the case to come to court. Lucy has more on this for today's episode. Yes, so police found the weapon at Wendy Allen's home in 2016, and the mandatory minimum term for this crime is five years in prison, but because it's taken so long to get before a judge, she's been given a suspended sentence instead. And let's just go back, Lucy, to 2016. How was the gun discovered? Police were called to the 47-year-old's home on Weeds Wood Road in April of that year, after an anonymous tip-off, Allen told officers a man who she knew handed over a package and told her to hide it. She didn't know a gun was inside, but took it home and buried it. So importantly, why did it take so long for the case to come to court? Allen entered a guilty plea around 16 months after being arrested, but her case was then delayed due to the trial of the man who'd given it to her. In turn, his case was delayed for six years and only ended in March last year when he was acquitted. And finally, what did the judge say? Well, Judge Lazarus told Allen, "The reality is you have waited well over eight years since you confessed. I'm not going to make you wait any longer. You are not going to prison today." He went on to stress it was a serious crime, but gave her credit for confessing so quickly. She was given a two-year sentence, suspended for two years, and must do 200 hours of unpaid work. You see, thanks ever so much. Kent Online News Next today, and figures seen by the Kent Online podcast, show a 45% rise in drug offenses in Kent over the last four years. Around 3,600 were recorded in the county in 2019. That went up to more than 5,200 in 2022. Now, police say the increase is largely down to their proactive approach in tackling drug dealers. But former addict Peter Foynes from Deal says cocaine in particular is rife across the county. Now, he's been speaking to our reporter, Louis Walker. I dug her up in quite a rough part of London, northwest London. There's a lot of gang crime and stuff like that. At the age of 14 years old, I started using cannabis, started drinking, just doing teenage things, getting in trouble with the police most weekends, and then just from there, gradually, gradually, gradually got worse. Up to, I think, about lockdown is when it really hit hard. So, yeah, 2020 was that March, yeah. So, I started drinking lea bottle of vodka most nights as I was off work. Then the cocaine started slowly slipping back in, and then by the back end of 2022, I'd say, is when the addiction proper hit home, it just started to get worse. It was coming every single day, 7 o'clock in the morning, up until bedtime, that's if I did sleep. Bad psychosis, hearing things. In August, 23 last year, on August the 9th, I got so bad I wanted to take my own life. Luckily, I failed at that. We touched on a bit yesterday about drugs in general, but also cocaine, and the prominence of it, the opinion of it. What do you think the current state is with cocaine, again? Yeah, it's right. It's bad. It's everywhere, like they say, in London, there's always a rat 100 feet away from you. There's always cocaine. You either know someone that takes it or sells it or whatever. But, yeah, it's getting bad. Yeah, very bad. And what do you think the sort of opinion is towards the drug currently? Well, it's been glorified. People think it's called to take cocaine, you know, like on the weekend, blah, blah, blah, but there's so many downsides to it mentally. Do you know what I mean? Who can take you to some dark places and do some stupid things, lose family? Yeah, it's not good. Do you think that sort of side to it is publicized enough, or do you think people are aware of it, but it's just something that they ignore, because they enjoy it? Yeah, I think, yeah, it could be. It could be their friends are getting on it, so they want to get on it. I see a lot of TikTok videos where people are glorifying it on there. I'm on TikTok myself and tried to spread awareness, and I only seem to get a few thousand likes or whatever, but they're getting them within the millions, but they're promoting drugs, you know what I mean, which is the youngsters are looking up to that, and it's terrible. And so, yeah, you touched on the TikTok there. Yeah. So, when did this start, what made you want to start the TikTok, and what are you trying to do with the platform? So basically, I went into rehab on the 28th of September last year, called the Carpenters Arms. So, thanks to them, they saved my life. Basically, I've done eight weeks in there, and I thought while I was in there, I said, "I want to do something when I get out and try and just spread awareness or help someone in some sort of way." So, then I'll come up with a TikTok idea, started doing videos on there, started getting a lot of likes and people reaching out saying, "You're like, basically, you're giving me motivation to stop drinking." And yeah, it was just a good feeling, man, and it's good to be able to give back rather than take, take, take, which is what I was doing in my act of addiction. A man's in a serious condition in hospital after an attack near Maidstone. Police, ambulance crews and forensic teams were called to the Great Threads area of Staplehurst on Saturday night. The victims suffered head injuries and a 31-year-old man's been arrested. A teenage boy's in a serious condition after being found in the scene near Margate's Stone Pier. Emergency crews were called to reports of someone in difficulty in the water yesterday lunchtime. He's been flown to a London hospital for treatment. A man's been arrested by police investigating a sex attack in an alleyway in Dover. It's thought to have happened in the early hours of Saturday on Penn Sester Road. The street was cordoned off and a 59-year-old was later detained. He's been questioned in connection with the incident. And a fannet district council workers been banned from the road after admitting drink driving. Shane Malloy had drunk three cans of beer before he crashed his car into the back of another vehicle in Bertington earlier this month. The 44-year-old from Farah Road has been banned from driving for 16 months and given a fine. Kent Online Reports Now a leading Kent doctor is urging whoever forms the next government to have a cross-party long-term plan for the NHS. In their manifestos, the Conservatives say they'll deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030 while Labour promised to cut waiting time lists. Elsewhere, the Lib Dems and reforms say they'll increase the number of GPs while the Greens want to boost pay for NHS staff. Well, Medway's doctor Julian Spinks says the health service is a huge issue and I've been speaking to him. The health services always being a very political service to be honest with you as far back as I can think. And it's because everybody uses it. Everybody uses it all the time. And so they're very aware of the problems. It's not like a theoretical tax increase or anything like that. They can see it. And the NHS is really in trouble at the moment. We've got very large waiting lists hovering between about 7 and 7.5 million. People are struggling to get GP appointments. A&E is getting jammed up, not because more people are going there, but because they can't get people out of there into hospital and from hospital home because we do not have the care to back up things. And whatever government gets in is going to face major challenges trying to turn something around because the NHS is massive and it's rather like trying to turn a super tanker. You can't just turn the wheel and it will turn suddenly. Do you think there is one particular priority that the new government would have to look at or do they have to try and fix a multitude of things? I think it absolutely the several things that need to happen. And the biggest problem is that we've had a loads of underinvestment for well over a decade, which has meant that you've allowed waiting lists to build up, but also things like the buildings are deteriorating. There's been very little investment in things like UGP premises, which means that even if we had more GPs at the moment, there aren't the rooms to actually put them in and we have new developments happening, which means that that doesn't have a GP practice for patients to go to. Obviously, UC funding within the NHS is hugely important and something you'd like to see the next government act on. From what you've read so far, you convince that whoever gets elected, whether that would happen or not? I've remained to be convinced that there will be lots of extra funding going into the NHS. The difficulty is if you're going to recover things like waiting lists, you've got to do more work than is coming in. And that means that actually you've got to spend more money because you cannot do additional operations without funding to actually do the work. But some of the suggestions they're coming up with, for example, the Conservatives have suggested that they will reduce the number of NHS managers by five and a half thousand and use that money. It isn't very realistic because those managers are the ones who will be put in charge of implementing their plans to try and improve things. So it's not going to go very far. I think that what we've got to do is make sure that we spend the money wisely. And that means investing more actually out in the community as well because a lot of the jams that are happening in the NHS are because we cannot get people out into the community or people can't get treatment either from general practice or from community services. We've got a planned junior doctor strike just ahead of the vote. How important is it to resolve that dispute and how quickly do you think that needs to be done? I think it's something that should have been resolved a long time ago and whoever gets in will need to resolve it very rapidly. If we don't do that, then we're going to continue having industrial disputes. And although the overall impact on the mind waiting list is not as much as you might imagine, it is having an upwards effect on it. Is there, I know you've been having a look through the manifesto. So is there anything that particularly jumped out at you from an NHS or healthcare point of view that you were quite interested to read and you kind of thought, OK, that's a new approach. That would sound like a good way of doing things. There's a fair number of new approaches that have come not necessarily from the Conservatives. I've tended to stick to things they've already announced. But though I suspect that if they did announce lots of new things, people would say, why do you do it before? The Labour Party is talking about the return of the family doctor and having neighbourhood health centres and so on. The Conservatives are going to move ahead with more community diagnostic centres. The Liberal Democrats talk about 8,000 more GPs, half of which from retaining seriousness. So there's quite a lot in there. There are big themes. Some things I think are less likely to happen. Reform have suggested that they will effectively eliminate waiting lists within two years. And simply, I cannot see how they'd be able to achieve that. There's a lot about using additional private sector capacity to try and help. But again, if you look at the private sector in the UK, it is very small compared with the NHS. So it's only going to help a little bit around the edges. It's not going to fix the problem. Staying with a bit of health news and we're being urged to look out for vulnerable people as a heat health alert comes into forcing Kent, summer has finally arrived with temperatures hitting up to 27 degrees over the next few days. While many of us might welcome the sunshine, it can cause some issues as well. Dr Chloe Brumacoom is a climate scientist and a heat wave researcher. The public should be taking heat health seriously. I know that it's not been very warm in the UK recently. However, in the globe, it's been the hottest period of 12 bumps in baseline temperature warming. On record, what this means is that overall our climate is the warmest it's been since pre-industrial levels. So this is the 1800s. And this means that we see more of these extremes, whether this is heat waves, periods of hot weather or flooding. We've also seen across Europe and the globe recently. In the UK, you will see lots of pictures of people at the beach enjoying themselves, having barbecues and you'll have adverts for those sorts of things. However, we know that people that are over the age of 65, infants and children, pregnant women and outdoor workers often see an increase in those people going to a hospital. Can's online reports. There are calls for lorry drivers to stop parking overnight on a road near Darford. After bags, a few human waste were found dumped there, not nice. People living near the 8226 London road in stone say it's also dangerous for other drivers and pedestrians. Logistics UK, which represents the freight industry, says a shortage of lorry parks is a well-known problem. Students on Sheppy, who were told they wouldn't get a qualification after their course was scrapped, will get to sit their exams after all. You may recall that we've mentioned this story on a previous episode of the Kent Online podcast with the hair and beauty betek at Oasis Academy is being axed so pupils can spend more time on English maths and science GCSEs. However, 40 pupils in year 10 have now been told they can continue into year 11 after an agreement was reached with nearby Sheppy College. In more education news, a disused train carriage has had an amazing transformation into a cafe and a special need school in Maidstone. The project at five acre wood will also see pupils trained in hospitality skills. Tim Williams is the head teacher there and he's been speaking to reporter Cara Simmons. It's been absolutely transformed. It's a different train carriage now and, you know, this is what's possible. I am beyond excited. What sort of stage are you at now then? What's the final steps that you're putting in? I know you're doing the curriculum and stuff like that. Yeah, so we're working on the curriculum. We're working on, I guess, the key skills and roles. We're working closely with our friends at Costa to be trained and for our cafe manager to be trained in barista skills and so on. In terms of being operational, we're not that far away, but we don't want to compromise and go too quickly and rush things towards the end. What has it been like watching it be renovated step by step? I know you've seen it the whole way through coming in and something new but going in it a different day. Amazing. Yeah, just be able to see the little changes all the time. Yeah, I'm incredibly proud of what we've achieved and that's only been possible through amazing partnerships, amazing support across our community. I'd like to thank everybody that's been involved in this project. What's it like to have something that people are talking about because it's so different, isn't it? As we've always said, we'd like to do things differently and we'd like to achieve new possibles and the purpose of this space is to train our young people in hospitality skills to get them into the world of work. So if we can do that, mission accomplished. And, you know, staff and students come in and have you got kids going, "Oh, I can see that the train's coming out at the point you've been telling." Yeah, absolutely. The pupils have all been following its progress. You know, eagerly parents have been coming away and I think just as your reaction, they've loved it and been blown away by the quality of the finish. And I guess the fact that we've realised our dream. So September is going to be a big reveal. Are you going to have a ribbon-cutting ice room and get in everyone down? Yeah, absolutely. So we'll have, you know, the key people that've been involved throughout the support it has here to open it officially towards the end of September. And we have talked about who should do the opening and there's been so many people that have been involved. But I think most important people are our pupils. So they will open it and we will carefully select who will be involved. But what better people to open it than our pupils? So it's due to open in September. You can go and see pictures and video of the inside of the train carriage at Kent Online. Kent Online News. This is one of our most read stories on the website today. The cost of parking at one of Kent's most iconic landmarks is going up. The National Trust is increasing daily fees that their car park at the White Cliffs of Dover from £5 to £6 from the 1st of July. Some have described it as ludicrous, but bosses say it's the first hike in five years and the cash is vital for the work they do to protect the area. Perhaps you've got a view, you can let us know what you think by clicking onto the story and leaving a comment or having a say on our socials. A shetty man who's through to the final of Mr Gay Great Britain is hoping to use the platform to raise awareness. Jordan Chan from Halfway already volunteers with Swaele Pride that says he entered the national competition to drive more positive change in the community. The 31-year-old is the only finalist from here in the southeast and he's been telling us why he got involved. Mr Gay Great Britain isn't just like a beauty pageant or anything like Miss Congeniality that you see on the film. It's basically an opportunity to be the voice or one of the voices of the LGBTQ+ community. So the winner doesn't win any fantasy prize, there's no cash or car or holiday. It's something much more important which is to be able to attend and address the UK Parliament around LGBTQ+ issues and be an advisor to the Equality's Minister for up to 12 months. So it's a big deal, it's an opportunity to drive positive change with a community and be a voice and a role model as well. In terms of you entering yourself, what made you want to put yourself forward for this? So I volunteer for my local pride in Swaele on the committee and coordinate all their fundraisers and different events and look after their social pages and volunteer at the events as well. So just to create safe spaces for the queer community basically, which wasn't accessible or as common when I was growing up. So it's really important to have the work that we do and I've really enjoyed helping the local community and volunteering and I just wanted to make a difference on a bigger scale. You know, there's not for many as well, you know, I think I can do more, I know I should do more so I just went out there and started doing it. And so obviously you're the only finalist in Kent and the Southeast, were you expecting that? No, not at all. I know that a lot of people applied and then the process to end stuff was to send in some photos and basically complete an application form of what you could bring to the competition, why you were entering and what you would do if you won and anything that you've done for the community in the meantime as well. So I submitted all of that and I think it was about six months before I heard back. So it was a very painstaking weight, but they contacted me in January to let me know. But it wasn't, I wasn't allowed to say anything until March when it was publicly announced. So I had to keep it under wraps and top secret for two, well, two, three months. Oh, wow, God, that was a long time to weigh. I mean, what does it mean to be a finalist, like the only finalist down here? It's overwhelming, but in a good way, I've got a sense of responsibility. You know, I don't take it lightly. I want to be a good role model and I want to be the person that I wish I had when I was growing up. So it's really important to me that I give the right message that people know that they can book to me personally for my reach out through social media. I just want to do what's right. And I want to be on the right side of history. The winner will be decided in August. Bosses are being urged to reject plans for new homes in Whitstable Town Centre. Amid fears, they would impact the privacy of people with mental health issues. The proposals for the High Street are close to the Revival Cafe that supports those who are vulnerable. But developers say the properties will improve the area. Councillors are due to make a decision later this year. The man who created two underwater sculptures in the river that runs through Canterbury has promised to replace them. A recent inspection found the statues near the Westgate Towers were badly broken and couldn't be repaired. Jason D'Acaire's tailor is famous for his creations, including the world's first underwater sculpture park. And the owner of a popular corner shop plans to keep working. She says for as long as her body allows as she celebrates 40 years in business. Nell Bella Patel took over Savors news agents on Favishan Road in Kennington with her late husband John back in June 1984 and to celebrate the anniversary. She's been speaking to reporter Leanne Castle. I'm quite grateful all the customers kept me going. If it wasn't for customers, obviously I wouldn't be here and I'm always helpful to customers whenever they want help. I'm always there for them. All my staff's helpful to them as well. And we're all working at Tim with customers and customers. Some of the customers are not like customers. They're like friends. I mean, if I'm unloading the car, they'll help me to unlock the car, everything. So they're like great friends there. And we're all getting very well around here. Does it feel like it's been 40 years? It doesn't feel like I've been here 40 years. I feel old. I don't feel old, yes. I must say that. But it doesn't feel like I've been here 40 years. Everybody tells me I'll look the same, so I don't know. You can't look yourself, can you? We can't look ourselves, can we? And tell me how things have changed over the years. Because when you first started, it must have been very different. You must have maybe stopped a few different things and prices would have been a lot cheaper back then. Yeah. Well, the trying to at the moment is a bit slow because as everything's going up, people can't afford it. And it's trade is very difficult, but we're still going by. And our normal regular customer, low customers are still staying loyal, which is I'm very pleased about that. So that's one good thing about it. So they're keeping me going and my staff. So that's all I can say. What else can I say? Again, when you first started, what kind of things did you stop? Have you had to change things over the years to adapt to the times? I haven't changed only what product comes new in the market. Then you do it. Other than that, a lot of things has not changed. But eating heavy for people is changed. A lot of people are not cooking. So the grocery and all that is a like a dying trade. Cards are dying trade. But everything new comes in. People go for new stuff. So that what keeps us going. So we go with upmarket, whatever's in the market. And then it's how the trade keeps on going. Hopefully, I'll carry on. All the time, body carries, works. I'll carry on. So I've got no intention of retiring yet. But it depends on, like I said, on the body. See how it goes. And the trade, see how it goes because trade is a changing trade now at the moment. Everything changes. And then youngsters, you know that, they're a different style, aren't they? They're not old school. They don't read papers. They don't do these. They don't do that. So that's another thing. So do you think that perhaps over the next 10 years or whatever your things are going to change? There'll be a lot of changes. There'll be a lot of changes in the next 10 years, or just the next five years with a lot of changes. There will be a lot of changes. Cans online, sports. Cricket first up and after a disappointing run in the T20 blast at Kent are back in championship action at the moment. They're taking on Lancashire at Canterbury. The weather's perfect for it, isn't it? They were bowled out yesterday for 244 in their first innings. Do head to the sports pages for updates at the end of each day's play. And Maidstone gymnast James Hall has sadly missed out on a place at the Paris Olympics. The 28 year old who trains at Pegasus Club in Maidstone has been named on the reserve list instead. Now he's posted on Insta that the lads selected will do an incredible job. The games start on July the 27th. 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. And don't forget, with less than two weeks to go until the general election, you can find out exactly which candidates are standing where you live in the county. Just click on the general election pages at kentonline and use our interactive map. News you can trust. This is the kentonline podcast.
