The Kent Morning Show Catch-Up - Tuesday 8th April 2025 - video Dailymotion

KentOnline / KMTV

Join Gabriel Morris and Kristin Hawthorne with all the latest news for Kent, in the morning!

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00:00It was used as an illegal dumping ground with shredded household and builders waste discarded

00:25there, causing it to be closed back in 2023.

00:29Josh McMinn went down to the closed off site to find out more.

00:33We're here at the East Church Gap on the Isle of Sheppey, which became a fly-tipping spot in 2020

00:38after a local house fell into the sea. Shortly afterwards, dozens of lorries a day were seen

00:42dumping rubbish onto the wreckage. You can see here that there's different layers in the pile

00:47of rubbish. That's because when the lorries dumped their trash here, they would dump a layer of earth

00:51on top of it to cover up their tracks. As you look across the beach, you can see different layers of

00:56tyres, of plastic and building rubble, depending which lorries dumped what. Right here, the smell

01:03is terrible from all the rubbish that's been dumped. On my dog walks, I've seen lots of rubbish

01:08and quite regularly here we have regular rubbish cleaning, which is really sad. It used to be like

01:15when I moved back here when I was like three or four, I used to walk up here with my family and

01:19all that and it was just, it was so beautiful, but now it's just completely ruined and it upsets me

01:24a bit. But what's the driving force behind dumping like this? Could the problem be the high cost of

01:29getting rid of waste legitimately? Local farmer Paul Vickery told us that most of the waste dumped

01:34on his land is tipped by licensed waste companies. They're generally licensed tippers but it's still

01:41cheaper not to go to the tip and just chuck it in a gateway. To find out about the high cost of getting

01:48rid of rubbish legally, we spoke to Perry Kemp, who runs Rubbish Master in Herne Bay. Perry told us

01:54that the things you see fly tipped most often are the things the council charges most for at the

01:58local dumps. Tyres, bridges, mattresses and sofas. They're the main things. The licenses Perry

02:09needs to do his job cost around £6,000 a year and yet there are no mandatory checks to make

02:14sure companies like his are operating legitimately. If you is a cab driver, once a year you have to

02:21take your cab to the council and get it inspected. Why can't they do that to people taking rubbish?

02:28How often do they check you at the moment? They don't. Whilst greater oversight could help prevent future

02:33crimes, it would still be too late for the people of Shappie, who've been waiting nearly two years

02:38to see their beach cleaned. Colossus. And if you think I look small next to Gabriel, I would certainly

02:45look minute next to that. Seven foot tall. I mean even Finn's quite a tall bloke and even

02:51he looks small. Viv and Devon cracked the case at Medway's answer to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

02:58Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you'll see into your imagination.

03:15Now there's no Chocolate River and no Oompa Loompas but that doesn't mean this chocolate factory is any less magical.

03:25I'm standing next to a seven foot 300 kilogram egg that boasts the record being the biggest chocolate egg ever in the UK.

03:33Now the Easter Bunny mostly delivers plenty of small eggs, whether it's dark chocolate, milk

03:37chocolate, white chocolate, Hershey's, Kinder, Cadbury or any other type. But they might struggle

03:42to get this one to homes across the world, seeing as it's seven foot tall. It's called the Good Egg

03:48and Kakada in Rochester decided to create the enormous egg after making two and four kilogram

03:53Easter eggs. But when one review challenged them to go big or go home this year to around six or

03:58seven kilos, they instead decided to beat that by nearly 40 times the weight. It's also in fact the

04:03biggest chocolate Easter egg that's ever been made in the UK. So we have a mould made for us

04:09and then we basically normally with an Easter egg you fill the mould with a hollow mould with

04:13chocolate, you put it on a spinning machine and it just like rotates around. Obviously you can't

04:17quite do that with an egg this size so we decided to get a mould made for us which was basically

04:22almost looks like a bathtub is probably the best way to describe it and then just like basically

04:27filling it by hand and using tools to just get the thickness of the chocolate even all the way around.

04:32We made one half then made the other half and then basically glued them together. After Easter the

04:37company realised it might be a bit too much chocolate for one family so instead they'll be

04:41melting it down into limited edition chocolate bars, the proceeds of which will all go to charity.

04:47How are you going to top this next Easter? Are there any plans in the works? Well we need to

04:50look at it we might need a slightly bigger factory, slightly taller factory to go bigger. I think this

04:54is about as large as we can go in here so yeah we'll have to spend the next year planning

04:58planning what we'll do next year. Well for anyone looking for eggs for a particularly easy Easter egg

05:03hunt you found the best one and it's up to Kokobo's chocolate engineers to try and beat

05:08their own record without breaking any more eggs. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Rochester.

05:16It's set to be a time for community spirit with road closure fees waived for those wanting to

05:21host their own street parties. Well joining us now on the line is Councillor Nina Gurung.

05:27Good morning, how are you doing this morning Nina? Why is it so important to mark Medway's

05:3280th anniversary of VE Day? Good morning, really happy to be here on KMTV this morning

05:41and absolutely excited to share some of Medway's list of programmes that we are showcasing to

05:49spotlight Medway as we celebrate with the nation the 80th anniversary of VE Day and it is very

06:00important that here at Medway we celebrate it even further because of our rich naval and military

06:06history and our significant contributions during the world wars. We have really really compelling

06:12reasons to celebrate VE Day here spectacularly and it's going to be an uplifting and very joyous

06:21sort of range of programmes that will be spread throughout Medway and we are very very excited

06:26about that. The other thing is in Medway we believe in collaborating with one another there's

06:32no competition it's all about one Medway approach and the council will be collaborating with the

06:39key stakeholders such as the Royal Engineers and the Historic Dockyard because Medway is home to

06:45both and also the RAE Museum, our Veterans Association as well as the Royal Engineers

06:52and Rochester Cathedral and three POWRR Regiment, the Royal Naval Association, Fort Amherst, Fort Slough,

07:02our cadets and of course the parish councils as well so yeah alongside that we have a range

07:08of programmes that is going to be fully published next week on our Visit Medway page so I would

07:15really encourage everyone in Medway and friends of Medway outside of and beyond to go to our

07:22Visit Medway page and look at all the lists of celebrations you can join in. Definitely I mean

07:28it sounds like a lot is happening and it's a lot to be excited about to celebrate and sort of

07:33commemorate all these things that happened. It's not very often that people are allowed to have

07:37street parties so how have the residents sort of responded to the council's call for

07:41the community involvement and the free road closures and everything I mean that must have

07:45been taken quite well. Yeah it has been taken up really well and thanks to our departments as well

07:53the traffic management and you are right we are waiving the fees as well and it's going to be

07:59it has been a straightforward process for communities to come together and apply for

08:03street parties. There will be 13 big street parties across Medway and across like different

08:10parts of Medway and also there will be other little celebrations at the parish councils as

08:16well which the council has funded and thanks to the administration as well as the full council

08:21approving this special VE 80th anniversary celebrations in February we have been able to

08:29support community events as well as local organizations that are also putting forth their

08:35own like VE celebration events. So it will be bringing the communities together and we will be

08:41raising the VE day flag at our council headquarters. There will be a separate flag raising

08:46ceremony at our museum and our libraries are going to be opening up and the peace commemorative

08:54poetry sort of invite to everyone here in Medway so that all the poems that will be collected from

09:03our residents of all ages will be displayed at our local libraries very proudly and later on

09:11all of them will be commemoration of Medway's tribute and will be accessioned at our archives.

09:19So it will be a really really significant way in which we will be marking this really really

09:24special day for all of us here in Medway. Now in Medway Chatham particularly has a huge naval

09:33connection and 80 years on unfortunately lots of the veterans are no longer with us sadly passed

09:42away so how important is it to reserve these stories for future generations particularly with

09:47this 80th anniversary celebrations that will be held in Medway?

09:52Absolutely I think it is very very important that we join the nation in marking the

10:00commemorating the sacrifices and contributions of our World War II generation and also I think

10:09of especially here in Medway because of our rich connections like I said with the naval as well as

10:16the military we do need to make sure that our stories are actually preserved for the younger

10:24generation because it is also about educating our young through interactive events and so that the

10:30sacrifices and service of the veterans as well as our current serving personnel and our veterans

10:39are always remembered and it is also about promoting community pride because it does

10:45bring us together when we collectively remember the sacrifices and service of the Second World

10:51War generation and it is also about we believe in heritage-based tourism as well so it is also

10:58about boosting our local economy and showcasing Medway's rich heritage. I think you are right

11:04that Medway's wartime importance is most significantly linked to our Chatham Historic

11:09Dockyard as well as Royal Engineers and we are very proud that they are still based here in

11:15Medway and in fact one of the most significant sort of museums of like military engineering

11:24is here in Medway in Gillingham called the Royal Engineers Museum and I would like to invite

11:29actually everybody to come and visit and look at what Medway has to offer. It is going to be

11:36absolutely spectacular but I think the most spectacular sort of celebratory events is

11:42going to be announced through the council's channels next week so please wait for the big news.

11:50So no spoilers.

11:53Not yet. We'll look out for it next week.

The Kent Morning Show Catch-Up - Tuesday 8th April 2025

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