- 25/04/2025
Catch up with all the latest news from across the county with Oliver Leader de Saxe.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight, live here on KMTV.
00:28I'm Oliver Leader of the Sats and here are your top stories on Thursday the 24th of April.
00:58Emergency roadworks in May have been described as a nightmare as one business lost out on its Easter bank holiday earnings.
01:06The landlord of the Swan Inn on Loose Road says reduced footfall from the roadworks on the A229 has been a major hit to his business.
01:16There's no indication of when the disruption will end. I went down there yesterday.
01:22Empty chairs and emergency repairs.
01:25It was last Friday that gas distributor SGN closed the busy A229 running into Maidstone to carry out essential work.
01:36Before the Swan Inn already reeling from a challenging year for hospitality, diverted routes and reduced footfall over the bank holiday have been a big hit.
01:48It's been a nightmare. You know, you're expecting a good normal bank holiday weekend and basically we've had nothing. We've had nobody. It's been very quiet. We're probably 40% plus down on ourselves.
02:03Things are tight as they are and it's done us no favours whatsoever.
02:07Uncertainty hangs in the air here. While some residents might welcome the peace and quiet, others are concerned about how long all of this is going to last, with no set date for when the gasworks are going to end.
02:25That's what we're getting all day is everybody coming down here, ignoring all the signs that are saying the road's closed and then getting there here and turning round.
02:33I mean, they're forever digging this road up doing some repair or other. Now, it seems to be shut permanently.
02:42It's understood the works are expected to be finished by Monday, but some fear the road could be closed as late as May the 6th.
02:53Oliver, Leader of the Sanks for KMTV in Maidstone.
02:56Now, with less than a week to go until polls open for the Kent County Council elections, political parties are ramping up their campaigns.
03:06But how many people actually know what a county council does and how many services it's responsible for?
03:14Well, our local democracy reporter, Gabriel Morris, went down to a hustings in Canterbury to find out what voters really care about ahead of next Thursday's vote.
03:24They can't do it, it's not the council, but I want to see something done about poverty.
03:28I'm only just really concerned regarding their thoughts regarding the proposed changes, because halfway through their term in office, they're going to change to a unitary authority.
03:39The potholes are really bad, it doesn't matter whether it's city roads or urban roads or rural roads.
03:45All 81 seats are up for grabs in this all-out election.
03:51Kent County Council has been a conservative stronghold for most of its history, but new polling suggests that could all be about to change on May the 1st.
04:00So what does the county council actually do?
04:04It runs a huge range of services, from managing libraries and fixing potholes, to supporting adults in care and children with special educational needs.
04:15And at this, Canterbury Hosting's an option for those issues to be brought up.
04:20There we go, nearly 90 minutes of debate there.
04:22But what I found interesting, very little issues were brought up regarding what Kent County Council could actually do, rather national policies on trans rights and AI.
04:33And I think that's an important reminder that come next week's election, those national policies will play a part.
04:40So what did the audience actually care about most?
04:43So you asked a question about buses, actually probably the only one related to Kent County Council. Why did you ask that?
04:49I think transport, as someone who lives in a rural area, is very, very important to me.
04:53As me and my younger sister, we both commute to school, we take buses, we take trains, and it's been a bit of a struggle in recent years with the prices and the fares of trains and buses especially going up.
05:04I asked, well, it's very relevant to right now because the recent Supreme Court ruling about the 2010 Equality Act has put into question the rights of trans individuals.
05:14And obviously the question you asked, Kent County Council will have little responsibility when it comes to trans rights.
05:20But with that in mind, why do you think it's important that you heard their views tonight?
05:23It's important that they have awareness of the issues that they should be considering in the council
05:28and the citizens that they have a responsibility over and that they ensure that those individuals are prioritised as a marginalised group that's facing a lot of discrimination currently.
05:42You can find a full list of candidates on the Kent County Council website.
05:46But what matters most to you?
05:48And do national policies swear your vote in local elections?
05:52You'll get your say at the ballot box on May 1st.
05:56Gabriel Morris in Canterbury.
06:01Now this week the world has been watching on as Pope Francis lies in state at St. Peter's Basilica following his death at the age of 88.
06:10Tens of thousands of people are expected to travel to the Vatican to pay their respects to the Pontiff who died on Easter Monday.
06:18Catholics and leaders from all parts of the world have been sharing their condolences as they prepare for his funeral on Saturday.
06:27Honorary reader in theology and religious studies Chris Deasy joined Abby and Gabriel on the Kent Morning Show earlier to discuss this more.
06:33It feels a real sense of loss.
06:37It was expected but I think we were expecting the Pope maybe to have passed away when he was in hospital back in February so I think this came as a real surprise on Easter Monday.
06:46A lot of people of no faith particularly here in the UK here in Kent will know who he is, recognize his face but not really know perhaps the purpose he serves and what he does for those of faith, for those in the Vatican, for Catholics across the world.
07:02So what does it actually sort of mean for us?
07:05Well I mean he's the spiritual leader.
07:07I mean there's this direct continuity all the way back to St. Peter and indeed then to Jesus himself.
07:12So what's interesting here is the way such a humble figure, somebody who didn't live in the more resplendent parts of the Vatican, if you've seen the film Conclave you sort of have this sense of all these great sort of trappings of power.
07:26But he was somebody who lived in guest lodgings, he was somebody who in a way didn't fit the kind of aloofness and detachment that has often been a bit of a problem for the Catholic Church as well, with obviously issues around child abuse, so that sort of sense of, you know, is there a real understanding of what's going on, some of the this-worldly problems that are going on.
07:46And he lived his life in a very different way and coming from a part of the world that had never been a Pope before from South America, in his case from Argentina, this all felt very different.
07:55And somebody who came from a part of the world where he was used to, and in his younger days had a, you know, was affected by some of those, you know, military insurgences.
08:04So he was somebody who had a very different background to that of some of the Popes who indeed had come from Europe.
08:10I think there's a famous photo of him on public transport, which is something that Popes never do, and I believe he's carried that on with being, I think, the Pope of the people.
08:20His coffin is made of wood, usually some plush cushions.
08:23Will we ever have a Pope like him?
08:25Has he set the precedent now to change the direction of what it's like to be a Pope?
08:29Well, that's a good question, because around 80% of the Cardinals, who will be voting in the conclave, were appointed by him.
08:37He's been there since, what, 2013?
08:40So it could go to somebody who's also progressive.
08:44But it does often happen that somebody more reactionary takes over.
08:47And we saw that when Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger, took over from Pope John Paul II.
08:53And then we had, of course, Pope Francis, who was a more progressive figure.
08:56So it does sometimes tend to be the case that somebody more orthodox can follow.
09:01Now, don't forget, you can keep up to date with all the, oh, sorry, a bit of a jumbled word there today.
09:08With all your latest stories across, kept by logging on to our website, kmcve.co.uk, you'll find all our reports, including this one.
09:16Can you tell me the story of why you started to grow your hair out?
09:22Because I want to raise it to charity.
09:26Now, it might be hard to believe, but two years ago, Ruben, or as he likes to be called, Roo, became afraid of getting his hair cut.
09:33He has ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, so the sensory overstimulation of being touched, hair falling across his face,
09:40and the sounds of scissors in his ears was too much for him.
09:42Since then, he's grown his hair out, and with the help of his mum, Amy, decided to fundraise and donate his hair towards the Little Princess Trust.
09:49He became fearful of having his hair cut, and it started to grow out, and then it's very long now, and it makes him hot, and it's tangly,
09:59and we said, you know, maybe it's time to think about having it cut off, it's very long.
10:04And in the beginning, he didn't really like the idea, but, you know, we talked to him more,
10:08and then we showed him suggestions of, you know, instead of just throwing his beautiful hair away,
10:15actually that it could be donated to somebody and treasured by somebody.
10:20The fundraised money currently stands at £800, and will go towards the Little Princess Trust as well,
10:26while Roo's hair will be used to make wigs for those who've lost theirs due to cancer treatment or other conditions.
10:31But Roo's former dislike of going to the barbers isn't rare, with many who have additional needs struggling to get their hair cut.
10:38In fact, it's such a big problem that families with neurodivergent children from London, Essex, and all over the country
10:43have come down here to Maidstone, simply because it's that difficult to find an accommodating barber.
10:49The hairy bear does things slightly differently, though, whether that's giving a child goggles so they don't have to feel hair going across their face,
10:55or even giving haircuts at the tops of slides.
10:57I asked Martin, one of the barbers at Hairy Bear, why they started offering longer slots to accommodate those with neurodivergencies.
11:05It's things like pictures on the wall they give me from that young kid who's been with me for a year,
11:11very awkward to start off with, but now enjoys, loves to come and get his haircuts,
11:15and on that one year of anniversary, come to see me, do you mean it or no?
11:18It means immense to them. They find satisfaction that a child's actually getting a haircut rather than a skinhead, to be honest with you,
11:24and the gratitude is seeing the kids come back not scared any more and smiling all the time.
11:29Parents have said that haircuts can be especially difficult, both for their children and for them,
11:34so hopefully Roo will be one of many children who feel they can get their haircut and raise money for charity all at the same time.
11:41Finn McDermid for KMTV in Maidstone.
11:44It's time for a short break now, but coming up, we're hearing all about Bowel Awareness Month,
11:50Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. I'll see you in a few minutes' time.
11:52We'll see you in a few minutes.
12:52We'll see you in a few minutes.
13:22We'll see you in a few minutes.
13:52We'll see you in a few minutes.
13:54We'll see you in a few minutes.
14:22We'll see you in a few minutes.
14:24We'll see you in a few minutes.
14:52We'll see you in a few minutes.
14:54We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:08We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:10We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:12We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:14We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:16We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:18We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:20We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:22We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:24You in a few minutes.
15:26We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:28We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:30We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:32We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:34You in a few minutes.
15:36We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:38We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:40We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:42We'll see you in a few minutes.
15:44just metres away from the garden fence with terraced homes. Police do say that there were
15:48no reported injuries, but the cause is not yet known.
15:52Now, the month of April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, and it has the aim to educate people
15:57on the disease and help detect the cancer early. But recent data has highlighted a lack of public
16:04knowledge on symptoms, with 35% of people in the UK not being able to identify a single
16:09single symptom of bowel cancer. Desi Page has all the details.
16:15Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer, claiming over 16,000 lives each year here in the UK.
16:22The disease can be treatable and curable if found early, but new research led by YouGov has shown
16:28that many people may be missing the early warning signs. The data has revealed that more than one
16:33in three people cannot name a single symptom of bowel cancer, meaning 35% of all adults don't know
16:40the signs of the second deadliest cancer here in Great Britain. The results highlighted the lack
16:46of public knowledge for symptoms. Of those who took a survey about the symptoms, 12% recognised bleeding
16:52from the bottom, 22% recognised changing in bowel habits, less than half-mentioned blood in poo,
16:5932%, and 35% of the people admitted to not knowing any symptoms at all.
17:05So, what should we be looking out for?
17:07There are some symptoms in bowel cancer that people might notice, one of which is a change
17:12in your bowel habit. In other words, you may move to having a lot more diarrhoea or constipation.
17:18You may have a feeling that when you've gone to the toilet that actually not everything's
17:22come away, you still need to go. The other very big one is bleeding, either from the
17:29back passage or on the poo. Blood, whether it's bright red, right through to dark red or
17:35black, is a sign that there's bleeding happening somewhere in the bowel, and unfortunately some
17:40of the time that's going to be bowel cancer. Not always, there are simple things like piles
17:43can do the same thing. And so, actually getting into a habit of having a quick look at your
17:48poo is a good idea, because then you'll spot that something's happening, you may see blood
17:52in the pan or on the poo itself, and then really you need to seek help from a doctor.
17:57Here in the county, Social Enterprise Kent has partnered with Kent and Medway Cancer Alliance
18:03to raise awareness of cancer and screenings. Through the Smart Cancer programme, they offer
18:08accessible and trusted information to support people and help them feel more comfortable
18:13when talking about their health. At the core of the programme is for people to understand
18:19their bodies and go and speak to medical professionals when they're worried about something. But it's
18:23also to have conversations about risk factors and what we can do to either reduce our risk
18:29in some way, or in some cases prevent. So we talk about cancer screening programmes, about
18:35what screening can do and what's really brilliant about that. With breast and bowel screening in
18:40particular, it can pick things up really early on, before perhaps symptoms have shown. And actually in the case
18:48of cervical screening, it can even prevent cervical cancer from actually happening in the first place.
18:52The NHS has reduced the age to 50 for receiving a bowel cancer screening kit, which will
18:58automatically arrive in the post every two years. You can use the bowel screening helpline to request
19:03information, a kit or find out more regarding the screening process. Daisy Page for KMTV.
19:10And our health expert Dr Julian Spinks explained more about the health headlines earlier on the
19:15Kent Morning Show. We do need to open up about it, because if you don't actually start to have
19:21that conversation, you are going to not catch those cancers early. And the earlier you catch it,
19:26the better chance you have of surviving. And I suppose a lot of the time, if you do have the symptoms,
19:30it might not even be bowel cancer. Absolutely. Things like bleeding from your back passage very commonly
19:36can be due to piles, but we don't want people to make that assumption. It's better that we check
19:40them out and then we can reassure them or we can make sure they have other investigations.
19:45And how accessible are screenings in general, not just for bowel cancer, but there are lots of
19:51moves. There's a headline almost every day about research into cancer and how screenings are getting
19:57better. We're going to move on to talk about something that has come up this week about blood
20:01tests as well. But in terms of the screenings, how accessible are they? Actually, it's relatively
20:06limited. We have screening for things like breast cancer, for cervical cancer. For older people,
20:13you've got bowel cancer screening, but it doesn't only happen in older people. At the moment, prostate
20:19cancer does not have any screening. There isn't really a formal one for ovarian cancer and so on.
20:24And it's because screening has to be effective. It has to be able to pick up the cancers,
20:30not pick up too many false positives, and we have to have something to be able to do afterwards.
20:35And so we have a national screening committee that looks at all those options and says, you know,
20:41this is worthwhile or at the moment we haven't got the evidence to introduce it.
20:46We saw headlines yesterday that childhood exposure to a toxin produced by bacteria in a bowel could be
20:53contributing to a rising cancer in under 50s around the world. That's according to researchers.
20:59What's happening here? Yes, it's always fascinating. When we're trying to find out
21:03why cancers occur, and it's often an interaction between genetics, so some people have it running
21:09in families, things that trigger, and a degree of luck as well. In this case, they're suggesting
21:14there's more of a particular type of bacteria, E. coli, that is causing this. But what's caused the
21:20shift is the tricky bit. And I do wonder whether the diet, particularly going to this Western diet,
21:24high in red meats, and so on, may be pushing it in that direction. But that's the theory,
21:29you can't guarantee it. Yeah. There's a new blood test out for the 12 most common cancers. So
21:37one blood test, and I think it's as little as 10 drops of blood to detect potentially 12 of some of
21:43the most common cancers as well. How much of a leap in sort of the research is this? And
21:49a sort of breakthrough, perhaps? Absolutely. Modern science is incredible.
21:54This test looks for micro RNA, which is little tiny particles of genetic material from cancers,
22:01picks up some of the common cancers, things like breast cancer, bowel cancer,
22:06and ones which are very difficult to detect, like ovarian cancer and pancreatic.
22:10The good thing about this test is that it is highly sensitive, 99% chance it'll pick it up,
22:17and highly specific. In other words, it has very, very few false positives. It is still in an
22:23experimental phase. They're moving on to see how to apply it. So it'll still be a little time,
22:28but it does really, to me, seem like a breakthrough. And it's British.
22:31Yeah, so 99% accurate, but can it, with it guaranteed to get sort of all 12, 99% of all 12,
22:39or is this 99% of each one? How exactly does it work? Is there a chance that something could be missed?
22:46This is why the work's carrying on. They have used it on thousands of people so far,
22:51but like all of these things, you have a preliminary research, then you start to look at the detail of it,
22:56to see whether it is good at predicting right across the range, because falsely reassuring people is
23:02also very bad. Yeah, 20,000 people, it's been tested on 91% accuracy, as you're saying.
23:09How quickly could this be rolled out? And is this, could this become like a health MOT for patients?
23:14You know, have a jab, take some blood, and see if you do have cancer. Could it just be routine like
23:19that, something that we have every year? We're somewhere down the way. So it could be a couple of years,
23:23could be slightly longer than that. The key bit is that we need to know when we're going to apply it.
23:28Are we going to give it to everybody every year? Might not be able to afford that. Right through to
23:32being very selective, which means a lot of people will miss out. But that's the work that happens
23:37when we start through the second phase. Is there a chance that with this, the health system could
23:42become complacent in saying, here's your 10 drops of blood, you don't have any of those 12 cancers with
23:48a 99% accuracy. Okay, next patient. Is there a potential that something like that could happen?
23:54Or even as patients become complacent in thinking that a lot of the time we want to brush things
23:59under the carpet, and we can be embarrassed we've spoken about this morning. Is there any risk of
24:04complacency here? This is very definitely screening. This is for people who have no symptoms.
24:09Whatever the test, if people have symptoms, we still need to look at that. So it's never going to
24:14replace someone coming to their doctor when they have those symptoms. And if we go this evening,
24:19here is your forecast.
24:26A cloudy evening tonight. Temperatures at eight degrees in Dartford and Canthbury, and lows of six
24:31over in Margate. Into tomorrow, another cloudy day. 10 degrees over in Ashford. And into the afternoon,
24:4114 degrees up in Dartford. Some sun peeking out behind the clouds. Still going to be cloudy in
24:46Royal Tunbridge Wells. And for the weekend, it's going to start heating up all the way till Monday.
24:53Sunny at the beginning of next week with 21 degrees. A bit of cloud over the weekend.
25:03And finally, a woman has gone to incredible lengths to save her twin sister by flying back
25:08back from New Zealand to donate a kidney. Now, Jenny Parker is preparing to run the London Marathon on
25:13Sunday to raise money for Kidney Research UK and prove that life after donation can be full of
25:19possibility. They will be celebrating their 50th birthday together by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
25:25Here she is sharing her story. I was in hospital for four days and then came out and I was cooking
25:33dinner within sort of six days and flew back to New Zealand within about six weeks.
25:40I'm really glad that I was able to run for Kidney Research UK. So important, the work that they do,
25:47funding research. Just an example, the IGA that my sister has, we don't know why she got it
25:55or, you know, how she got it. And it turns out that her husband also has it, which is incredible.
26:04And we just don't know why. So, you know, the work that Kidney Research UK does is vital for finding
26:10out, you know, why this happens. At the moment, there's also no test to see if you've got the disease,
26:18if you will get kidney failure, because only 30 percent of people do. It's going to be an amazing
26:25once in a lifetime experience. And yeah, I'm just really grateful to be here and to all my sponsors
26:30as well. So I've raised over, I think it's £2,800 now. A really amazing, touching story there. We have
26:39more news throughout the evening. We'll see you tomorrow for the Kent Morning Show at 7am. Take care now. Goodbye.
26:48Bye.
Recommended
27:00
|
Up next
27:07
27:06
27:05
27:02
27:03
27:03
24:59
26:59
27:04
27:01
27:08
27:05
27:03
12:04
12:00
12:01
27:13
27:00
27:04
27:09
27:01
27:06
27:05