Catch up on all the latest news across the county with Abigail Hook.
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00:00Hello, good evening and welcome to Kent Tonight, live on KMTV.
00:28I'm Abbey Hook, here are your top stories on Friday the 13th of June.
00:33Heartbreak in Ramsgate, pride community in mourning after Kent couple dies in Air India plane crash.
00:41I just had this image of the phone ringing in the plane in the crash, it's just harrowing.
00:49Celebrity support, actor Tom Burke joins calls to save Ashford Shopping Centre from demolition.
00:56But, you know, turning a blind eye to this kind of thing is unacceptable.
01:01And a major milestone. Medway wheelchair rugby team reaches national final.
01:08We've got to try our best to try and keep our focus on the task at hand and not get sort of overwhelmed by all the fanfare.
01:15First this evening, tributes are pouring in for the Ramsgate couple who tragically died in the Air India plane crash.
01:33Friends describe Jamie and Fingal as having electric energy and a lasting impact on their community.
01:40Lucy Taylor, a friend and organiser of Ramsgate Pride, which the couple were due to be part of this weekend,
01:47told the programme she's still struggling to come to terms with the news.
01:52Gabriel Morris has this report and a warning. It does contain distressing images from the start.
01:57We are at the airport, just boarding. Goodbye, India.
02:03Goodbye, goodbye. Ten-hour flight back to England.
02:07Smiling and joking on camera, Jamie and his husband, Fingal Greenlaw Meek, had just wrapped up a wellness retreat in India.
02:17OK, yeah, my biggest takeaway is don't lose your patience with your partner.
02:22Yeah, you're already starting to, you've already snapped at me while we're having chai at the airport.
02:27The charisma shines in their final video, filmed in the departure lounge.
02:33Going back happily, happily, happily calm.
02:37They boarded the doomed flight that took more than 200 lives, leaving behind heartbroken friends and family.
02:43In Ramsgate, Lucy Taylor, who worked closely with the couple and is helping organise this weekend's Ramsgate Pride,
02:53says the loss is unimaginable.
02:55I didn't know where to compartmentalise it because I just imagined,
03:02because once we'd heard the news, we weren't sure if it was true, I wasn't sure if it was true,
03:06so Heidi, she phoned Jamie's phone.
03:09I just had this image of the phone ringing in the plane in the crash.
03:14It's just harrowing.
03:17I still haven't processed it yet.
03:19I think it's something that will sink in in the coming weeks, I think.
03:26And the couple, how will they both be remembered here at Ramsgate?
03:29They will be remembered as an example of love and light.
03:34Two people can love each other no matter who they are,
03:37and that we will not allow anything more than that to be remembered for them.
03:44They have big plans ahead, bringing their wellness business home to Ramsgate.
03:49We've already helped thousands of people live their most soulful, connected selves.
03:55Earlier this year, Fingal appeared on This Morning.
03:59Today, the programme paid tribute to them.
04:02In Ramsgate, local councillors told us the couple's presence will be deeply missed.
04:07Fingal and Jamie, I think they were new to this community,
04:12but had their own unique energy that had permeated already.
04:16Even people that don't know the two young men will remember them with fondness and kindness,
04:22as I think we will all of the people that lost their lives.
04:26You can feel a stillness in Ramsgate today as the community comes to terms
04:31with the sudden loss of two of their own.
04:35Meanwhile, in India, investigators have found the black box,
04:39which could be the key to unlocking what went so wrong with Flight 171.
04:45Gabriel Morris for KMTV in Ramsgate.
04:48And we'll continue to keep you updated here on KMTV as we find out more information.
04:55Now moving on next this evening, Hollywood actor Tom Burke has joined calls
05:00to save Ashford's Park Mall shopping centre from being demolished.
05:04It comes after Ashford Borough Council said it would pull down the almost 40-year-old site
05:08as running it had just become an unsustainable cost.
05:12Bartholomew Hall has been speaking to the businesses who have until January to vacate their stores.
05:18What started as a campaign to save an Ashford shopping centre from demolition
05:22is now picking up celebrity support.
05:25Star of TV crime dramas and Hollywood blockbusters Tom Burke
05:29has now joined the calls to save Park Mall, which he says he regularly shops in.
05:34I have an investment in this place.
05:35It's where I grew up.
05:37It's where I still spend a lot of my time.
05:42It's I would like Ashford to care.
05:46I would like the council to care about the right things.
05:49I know they've got a lot to care about, but, you know, turning a blind eye to this kind of thing is unacceptable.
05:55But behind these delivering a petition to Ashford Borough Council,
06:00it's businesses here who are most to be affected by the authorities' plans to pull down the centre.
06:05They have until January to leave their units.
06:08So I employ four staff full-time.
06:11You know, we pay our taxes, VAT, and they're all very concerned, as I might.
06:16You know, my staff are one month's paycheck away from being evicted from their homes.
06:20They don't have any money put away.
06:22No one does.
06:23To move, we're looking in excess of 100k just to cut everything out and to find a store.
06:28I've been here nearly 10 years.
06:31Would have made my 10th anniversary in September of this year.
06:36Being forced out of an almost subsidised site so that they can knock up some flats is a bit painful.
06:45It comes after the council decided to close and knock down the Park Mall shopping centre
06:50after Ashford Borough said it had been running the site at an unsustainable loss.
06:54The plan is to replace the centre with an interim multi-storey car park,
06:58while plans to build flats on the land remain in the pipeline.
07:01With the council standing firm on its decision to demolish Park Mall,
07:04those in favour of this petition are now calling for an amendment
07:07which would see parts of the shopping centre in best condition saved from facing the bulldozer.
07:12I don't personally believe that we should demolish the entirety of this shopping centre.
07:16There's an awful lot of traders that are going to lose their livelihoods, their investments
07:20and there's an awful lot of people that are going to lose their jobs
07:22and I just don't agree with that at all.
07:24This is people's jobs, this is people's livelihoods that are going to go, right?
07:28That is going to go. It won't exist.
07:30It's like that. Game over.
07:32And that's not good enough for me because in my heart I'm passionate about this town centre.
07:36In a statement, Ashford Borough Council told us
07:39the asset cannot support a continued managed decline any more.
07:43The proposed residential-led mixed-use development will serve as a catalyst
07:46for the regeneration of the town centre, bringing new energy and investment to the area.
07:52Almost 1,200 people have called for the council to U-turn on its proposals,
07:56so with deliberations to continue at the civic centre,
07:59many of those will be keeping their fingers crossed
08:01that the bulldozers can stay parked for now.
08:04Bartholomew Hall for KMTV in Ashford.
08:07Bartholomew joins me in the studio now.
08:10What does this bit of celebrity sort of endorsement do for a campaign like this now?
08:15Well, it's not going to hurt.
08:16It's definitely going to give it a bit more notoriety,
08:19but in this case the council seem to be very strong-footed
08:22about their position on going forward with the demolition.
08:24ABC, which is run by a coalition of Ashford Interpendants
08:28and the Green Party, has long held ambitions to flatten Parkmore.
08:31They've blamed a declining retail sector,
08:34the loss of tenants such as Wilco and escalating maintenance costs too.
08:39Now, I have to say that I was there yesterday for a couple of hours
08:42and there was a very clear distinction between the bustling high street
08:46where you've got tons of people moving up and down,
08:49going about their days, shopping in the shops,
08:51and just a sort of handful of people that were inside Park Mall.
08:54Now, shop owners told me that that isn't the case every day.
08:57They do have their regular customer base that are using their shops on a daily basis,
09:00but one of the things that stood out for me the most was just how many of those units are empty now.
09:06Now, of course, lots of people have personal memories,
09:08one of those being Tom Burke,
09:10who spoke a bit more to us about some of his early memories of Park Mall.
09:14It always seemed like the heart and centre of the town to me.
09:18I was six when it went up.
09:20Before that, there was the old market,
09:23and I think when that left, there was a hole and Park Mall filled it.
09:30Some of the buildings need to be knocked down, frankly.
09:34Most of it not. Most of it half of it.
09:38So now the petition's been handed to the council, what's next?
09:42Well, there's a whole lot of processes that have to be taken
09:44before they can decide if they're going to be having a debate or not.
09:48But what we did here at last night's cabinet meeting was a statement from David Hebditch.
09:53Now, we've heard from him before here on KNTV.
09:56He's an investor in Baby Art Studios,
09:58one of the businesses that's affected by these proposals.
10:00He handed in those signatures on behalf of the campaign group and spoke.
10:06He gave this statement.
10:11How can this be fair to treating people and running a shopping centre?
10:15There has been no public consultation on demolition of Park Mall,
10:20and the paper that went through cabinet at the council in 2024 December
10:24was exempt from viewing by the public.
10:27In simple terms, as a member of the public,
10:29the first thing you would have heard about at the shopping centre
10:31was to become a flat car park would have been in the press.
10:34Just for clarity, we will not be discussing this item this evening.
10:39Your petition will now be reviewed by officers of the council,
10:42who will validate it to ensure that it meets the criteria outlined
10:45in this council's petition scheme.
10:48So we'll have to wait and see if that debate is going to be going forwards.
10:50One of the other big criticisms from the group
10:53is that tenants haven't been properly informed.
10:55Well, the council leader who we heard from just there
10:58has disputed those claims.
10:59He said that we have been offering a wide range of practical support
11:02to help them relocate,
11:03and of course they have until January to do so.
11:05OK, Bartholomew, thank you for those details.
11:07Now, an amber weather warning has been issued for the whole county.
11:11Warning of thunderstorms and heavy rain between 8 o'clock this evening
11:15and 5am tomorrow.
11:16Let's take a look at the forecast where you are.
11:23Well, as we said there, this evening brings thunder and showers
11:27as that amber weather warning covers the whole of Kent.
11:30Temperatures between 18 and 19 degrees.
11:33Tomorrow morning, partly cloudy weather across the board.
11:35It should start to ease, but that warning still in place.
11:38Some sunshine, a real mixed picture to be expected.
11:42Some wind picking up both inland and by the coast.
11:45And here's the picture into next week.
11:47The calm after the storm, perhaps some sunshine.
11:50All right, time for a quick break.
11:51I'll see you in a few minutes.
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17:09And I found some council homes in Gravesham and thanks to right to buy it.
17:13It's now five and a half thousand.
17:15The need for social housing hasn't actually gone down.
17:17So we need to grow our council housing stock again and actually will unlock so many of the brownfield sites that we desperately need for affordable and social housing.
17:25Between 2018.
17:27Between 2018.
17:29The amount of affordable housing.
17:31The amount of affordable housing.
17:33The amount of affordable housing being built in Kent and Medway averaged around 15,000 dwellings every year.
17:39That's around one third of what is likely to be needed to help support the nearly 18,000 households waiting for social housing.
17:52Something like 300 people are in temporary accommodation and they're often there for quite a while because we don't have the homes for social rent to move them into.
18:02So making sure that we are building those affordable homes, those homes for social rent, that is the essential bit that's missing from our housing supply.
18:12But while the spending review may allow councils to replenish their stock, there are worries that the cost will be put back on taxpayers.
18:25So, of course, we welcome house building to deal with the problems that we have with a lack of supply of housing in this country.
18:33But let's be honest here. This was a tax and spend budget where they're going to tax us all in extra council tax.
18:39They're going to borrow more money and we will feel it all in our pockets.
18:42A divided response here in the county. But as questions around council tax and funding allocations persist, the devil will be in the details when we have them.
18:56Olly Leader in Gravesham.
18:58Now, in other political news, a senior Conservative MP has lodged a complaint to the Information Commissioner over fears of GDPR breaches within Kent County Council.
19:10It comes as Reform UK's new Doge unit demanded access to typically confidential items relating to payments to foster parents, care home funding and even payroll details of council staff.
19:23But Reform UK have hit back, claiming the party that used to run the council are trying to avoid transparency.
19:30Well, our local democracy reporter Olly Leader joins me now. Break down this latest controversy.
19:37You thought you could get away with the end of the week with not with yet another KCC story.
19:43But you know what? Doge is here to stay. And with it, stories like this one.
19:48Basically, what's happened is Kevin Hollenrake. He's a shadow minister for local government.
19:52He's written to the Information Commissioner's office. You see him on screen right here.
19:58And he basically wrote to say there are concerns about the Doge unit, particularly what information it was requesting.
20:06They're basically asking for what could potentially be highly sensitive personal information that may be bound by data protection obligations.
20:16Everything from payroll details to, let's say, whistleblower complaints.
20:22So there's some concerns here that the data is not going to be handled properly, particularly if it's being outsourced to non-elected council representatives or officers not within KCC.
20:34Obviously, we saw Nigel Farage and Zia Youssef were on the letter demanding this data.
20:39So there are some concerns here, though reform have hit back.
20:44Yeah, seemingly there's got to be a reason. What have they said?
20:47So it was actually just about 20 minutes ago that one of the deputy cabinet members, Maxwell Harrison, a key member within the reform administration, Chief Whip as well, he said the Tories are terrified.
21:00It's all about basically claiming the Tories are calling this thing because they don't want to see the waste that they did when they were in power at KCC for all of those years.
21:11While Zia Youssef says it's basically a classic and conservative move to go to a quango.
21:18Obviously, most political non-nerds wouldn't know what a quango is.
21:23It's a quasi-autonomous, non-governmental organisation.
21:26Basically, the ICO manages people's data, while you have Richard Tice as well hitting back about from the transparency concerns.
21:34It's all a bit confusing. Basically, more argy-bargy at KCC.
21:38You are well placed as the local democracy reporter with all that lingo. Thank you very much, Olly.
21:44All right, finally, over to sport this evening, where a Kent wheelchair rugby team is taking on their biggest match in their history.
21:51Well, here's Finn McDermott with all the sport earlier.
21:54Hello there. We start with Maidstone boxer Sam Noakes, who's dreaming of a fight in Las Vegas or Wembley after securing a long-awaited world title shot.
22:12The 27-year-old Kent fighter will face American Abdullah Mason for the vacant WBO lightweight belt.
22:19The British champion has an unbeaten record of 19 wins with 17 knockouts.
22:24And speaking to Kent Online, Noakes said you will always remember this moment, whatever happens.
22:28It's understood a date and venue are expected to be finalised over the coming weeks.
22:33Next, Kent Spitfires suffered their second loss of this year's T20 Blast competition with a four-wicket defeat to Surrey.
22:41With Zach Crawley recalled to England, Harry Finch came in for Kent at No. 3, but Joe Denley was Kent's highest-scoring batter with 40 off 22 balls.
22:50Kent finished their innings at 171 for seven, and with the match going down to the final ball, Surrey's Chris Jordan hit it for four to secure Surrey's 173 for six.
23:01The Spitfires return to action when they take on Somerset at Taunton this Sunday.
23:05Next, Gillingham have unveiled all three of their kits for the 25-26 season with an alternative way to show off the colours their players will be wearing.
23:14These are players Shad Ogi, Aaron Rowe and Joe Gabode at main sponsors MEMS Power Generations Headquarters.
23:25It comes after a video was leaked of the three players in question taking part in the same dance in the dressing room last season during a poor run of form.
23:33The club's away and third kits have also been released, with the club saying more than a thousand have already been sold at their shop this week.
23:39And finally, the Medway-based London Roosters have reached the Wheelchair Rugby League Challenge Cup Final for the first time.
23:47Founded in 2022 and based at Medway Park, the club represents Kent and the South East in the national competition.
23:54They take on the sport's most decorated club, Halifax Panthers, in Wigan.
23:58Roosters, headed up by England World Cup-winning head coach Tom Coyd, MBE, was founded in 2022 and is open to new members with free sessions at Medway Park.
24:07Tom told us he has one clear message for his team.
24:11The message to the team has been, you know, like, enjoy it.
24:14We've earned the right to be here and this is going to be a really unique experience.
24:17But we've got to try our best to try and, like, keep our focus on the task at hand and not get sort of overwhelmed by all the fanfare.
24:26And, like, they'll be singing the national anthem before the game and that's the first time we've ever done that before as a team.
24:32Rugby League is probably known for being a stronghold in the north, but we've got a real hot spot of wheelchair rugby league activity down here in the South East.
24:42And it's not just London Roosters, to be fair, there's several other clubs who are doing brilliant work in the community.
24:49And we like to think of ourselves as the tip of the spear for the South East.
24:53The match takes place at 2pm this Saturday and will be streamed live on the BBC.
24:58Well, that's it for today's sports roundup. Goodbye.
25:00And just before we go this evening, a reminder of that ABBA warning for thunderstorms this evening.
25:15Heavy rain expected between 8pm this evening and 5am tomorrow.
25:20The Met Office warns of rain rising to 50mm during those hours and a risk of flooding, as well as strong 40-50mph winds too.
25:29Well, with that in place, let's take a look at the full forecast for the coming days where you are.
25:34As I said, tonight brings thunder and showers as that amber weather warning covers the entire of Kent.
25:46Temperatures between 18 and 19 warming up tomorrow morning.
25:50Highs of 21 in Canterbury and Margate. Wind picking up towards the afternoon as well.
25:55But seemingly clear skies, sunshine all around.
25:59So perhaps the calm after the storm continuing into next week as well, with highs of 25 expected and sunshine.
26:16We've been watching Kent tonight live on KMTV.
26:19There's of course more news made just for Kent throughout the evening.
26:22We'll be back with our 8pm late bulletin as well.
26:25But don't forget you can always keep up to date with the latest news across your county by logging on to our website.
26:30It's of course KMTV.co.uk.
26:33And also keep us on all your social timelines as well over on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram as well.
26:40That's all from me and the Kent Tonight team this week.
26:42I'll see you again on Monday. Bye bye.
26:46I'll see you again on Monday.