- 04/07/2025
Catch up with all the latest news from across the county with Abby 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 Wednesday the 2nd of July.
00:33Left high and dry, thousands without water in Whitstable after hottest day of the year.
00:40It's a creaking infrastructure, but it's not even there, it's a broken infrastructure.
00:46Reptile rescue, Raynham resident recovers pet iguana after it got stuck in a tree.
00:53That was it, she was gone. I mean, if you've seen a squirrel go up a tree, how quick, she was as quick as that.
00:59And we're rewinding the tapes on Kent Chronicles and discovering where Maidstone got its name.
01:06Here we've got a piece of evidence of a picture of a lady on a stone and it is easy to draw the connection from that.
01:42This was the sight of hundreds of people in Herne Bay on the hottest day of the year so far,
01:52as thousands of properties in the seaside town were left without a supply, all said to have been caused by high demand.
02:00Temperatures soared above 30 degrees across Kent, with health bosses warning residents to stay cool and drink plenty of water.
02:08The issues in Herne Bay were eventually restored, but then at around midday today,
02:14a further 3,000 people down the road in Sea Salter and Whitstable reported a trickle of supply.
02:20I was first alerted on social media through one of the local resident groups that water pressure was low and then people said,
02:28well, I haven't got any. And then more and more people said, well, I've got none. We've got none again.
02:34The summit has only just started and I am very concerned that this, you know, I was going to say it's a creaking infrastructure,
02:43but it's not even there. It's a broken infrastructure.
02:48Southeast Water said in a statement, we're working hard to restore supplies as quickly as possible,
02:53using tankers to inject water directly into our network to help get drinking water back to customers' taps.
03:00It comes just days after the water giant sent a message to customers urging them only to use water for essential purposes,
03:08including drinking, washing and cooking.
03:10Southeast Water is so concerned about water levels that it's issued an amber warning for the parts of Kent that it supplies.
03:17This means that on average, more than 625 million litres of water are being used by people here in the county every day.
03:26In fact, just a few days ago, the company recorded its highest so far this year, 680 million litres of water.
03:33That's roughly the same as one of these for every adult.
03:36Residents are advised to capture and reuse water at this time, avoid washing cars and patios and not to worry about dried out lawns.
03:46However, not all customers are happy with being asked to save water.
03:49We pay enough money so that we shouldn't have to go through these procedures.
03:54I've seen, you know, people doing their cars, even in this sort of weather.
04:00They're right, they're right, but given how much sewage they're pumping into the waters,
04:05that maybe they need to look into their own disposal facilities first.
04:11Well, water bills are going up and up and up, aren't they?
04:13I think I'll pay about £55 a month.
04:16And the reservoirs are empty and, yeah, we need to save water.
04:19Why not for just a few weeks?
04:21Right now, a hosepipe ban isn't in force.
04:24But the company says as long as customers make small changes now, further measures can be avoided.
04:30Bartholomew Hall for KMTV.
04:33Well, Bartholomew joins me in the studio now.
04:35And you have a bit of breaking news as an update for us now.
04:38That's right.
04:39For those in Cecil who are hoping to be going along to that bottled water station
04:43that South East Waterhead set up today, they have released an update.
04:47This has been in the last 15 minutes.
04:48They said, we're sorry to those of you who visited our bottled,
04:51our current bottled water station due to unforeseen circumstances.
04:56We've needed to close the site.
04:58Please rest assured we are working as hard as we can to source another location to set up
05:02once that new site has been confirmed, they'll advise of the new address.
05:06So if you did get that previous address, don't go to it.
05:09Just wait until South East Water, tell you where you can go for your bottled water stations.
05:14As far as we know, those vulnerable deliveries should be carrying on as planned.
05:18There's no update about that.
05:19But do get in touch with South East Water if you're a vulnerable customer
05:22and you haven't had your delivery at this time.
05:25In terms of cause for this issue, this is specifically the issue in Cecil and Whitstable.
05:30The latest is that we know it's a pressure issue at the site,
05:34which means it's unable to pump the water
05:36and that the company is trying to artificially pump water into the system,
05:41getting some tankers in.
05:42Obviously, this will take some time.
05:44The latest on their website as to when water supply will return to normal,
05:48it says they're hoping that that issue will be resolved today.
05:52It just rings about the questions on infrastructure
05:55and how much it does struggle when we do have these heat waves.
05:58We were expecting it.
05:59It's happened before.
06:00We've sat here, reported this year on year,
06:02since the past few years we've been here,
06:05and it's never been an issue that's directly been resolved.
06:08But South East Water and Southern Water, when these issues arrive,
06:11are quite quick to bring out those stations.
06:14But tell us some of the main advice for this summer,
06:16because the hot weather is easing,
06:19as we'll bring you our updated weather report shortly,
06:22but it's still warm.
06:23Yeah, the first thing to do is to know who your supplier is.
06:26We actually have a graphic we can show,
06:28a map which will give you a bit of an indication as to where you are in the county,
06:34who your water supplier is.
06:36As you can see, a lot of the county is South East Water,
06:39but those yellow areas, that is Southern Water,
06:41those are the two main water suppliers,
06:44and then there are Thames Water and Affinity as well in the county.
06:48It's important, if you're in one of those sort of crossover areas,
06:52just have a look at your bill, your monthly bill,
06:54and you'll be able to see who it is that you're paying it to.
06:57Now, these companies, these will be the people who will give you the advice
07:00if there is any water shortages.
07:03They will tell you if you need to be taking precautions,
07:07going to any bottled water stations or the like as the summer continues.
07:11And very quickly, will there be a hosepipe ban?
07:13Are you the man with the answers?
07:15Well, I spoke to the two big ones, South East Water, Southern Water.
07:18They said at the moment there's no plans for it.
07:20As long as people are taking those steps to minimise their water usage,
07:23it won't have to happen.
07:24But they are, anyway, asking people to make sure they're not using water
07:28when they shouldn't be.
07:29Well, let's hope that advice is followed.
07:30Bartholomew, thank you very much.
07:33Well, following that, let's take a quick look at the weather forecast
07:36where you are as the heatwave begins and starts to ease.
07:40Well, tonight it looks like we've got clear skies and temperatures
07:49around the mid-teens, wind speeds of 7 and 8 by the coast there.
07:53Tomorrow morning, the sun is continuing,
07:55but greeting us with some slightly cooler temperatures as of late.
07:59Highs of 18 there into the afternoon,
08:01highs of 24 in North Kent and in Maidstone too.
08:05But nothing quite like those 30s we were seeing recently.
08:09Some cloud will be coming over the skies this weekend
08:11for most of the county.
08:13Highs of 24 on Sunday, 26 on Friday.
08:22Well, next this evening, a Raynaud resident recently lost his pet up a tree
08:28and couldn't actually get her down for three days,
08:31but finally managed to this morning with the help of a professional tree climber.
08:37Well, Dean Tyrrell, the owner of Blue,
08:40said he received incredible support online after posting about it,
08:43but even Kent Fire and Rescue Service attempted to save the animal
08:47and couldn't quite.
08:48But it might not be quite the pet you expect.
08:52A household from Raynaud recently had their beloved pet escape
08:55and climb up a tree, but it wasn't a cat or their dog Poppy.
08:59It was, in fact, a blue iguana.
09:07Just over three years ago, I was at my brother's yard
09:10and a friend of his came in with a bearded dragon in a van
09:14and said, I've just rescued this.
09:16But the guy's got a large snake and a lizard that he's got to read at home.
09:22I thought it was a chameleon, looked up chameleon.
09:26I thought, that's fine, that's not going to grow very big
09:28and then realised it was a blue iguana which can grow up to about six foot long.
09:34Well, I'm joined here now by Blue herself,
09:36who's taking a very long rest after her ventures,
09:39which ended at about seven o'clock this morning
09:41when she was rescued from the tree.
09:43Yeah, so I've only been up in this oak tree for half an hour so far,
09:46but the iguana has been found.
09:52The only problem is, I don't know if you can see him,
09:56there he is, right out on the extremities there.
10:00Sunday I rang reptile rescue in Tunbridge
10:04and Chris said, I might know a man that can help.
10:08He's a tree climber.
10:10Rang Danny, he said, I can't come out this evening,
10:12but I'll be with you seven o'clock in the morning.
10:15And he was here at seven o'clock this morning.
10:17Amazing.
10:18And he had a dam within 40 minutes.
10:21Dean also said that he received a lot of support on Facebook
10:24in the Raynham Community Group,
10:26with many pitching in offers of their equipment to help save Blue.
10:30Just the help and the comments have been amazing.
10:33We've had the fire brigade come and try to rescue her last night.
10:38We've had people volunteering.
10:40We've had people with a drone,
10:42with thermal imaging to try and pick her out yesterday.
10:45They take a lot of patience,
10:48a lot of patience to get them to get used to you.
10:52You've just got to spend time with them,
10:53lots and lots of time and patience.
10:56And when you feel they're ready, they'll come to you.
10:59I'll say now she'll come out and watch them tilly.
11:01She'll climb up, literally will sit on the end of my knees
11:05and then clear off again and she goes upstairs.
11:09Can I ask how you felt being reunited with Blue this morning?
11:14Can't explain it.
11:16Brilliant.
11:17Yeah.
11:20Amazing.
11:20Well, with Blue safe and sound in her cage,
11:24Dean and his family can rest easy
11:26knowing the mischievous reptile is staying put.
11:29Kai Wei for KMTV in Raynham.
11:33That's proper local news, isn't it?
11:35Usually there's a cat stuck up a tree,
11:37but this time a four-foot lizard.
11:38Who would have thought?
11:39All right, well, we're very pleased Blue is back down safe
11:42and resting as well.
11:44Time for us to take a very quick break.
11:45All the latest health headlines when we're back.
11:47I'll see you then.
11:48I'll see you then.
12:17I'll see you then.
15:21Good evening, Julian. Thank you very much for joining us.
15:30Yes.
15:31Now, the thing on everybody's health headline mind at the moment will be, following our
15:37reports of the water shortages and the water issues as well, following on from the heat
15:42wave, is things like heat stroke as well.
15:44Now, we hear heat stroke, we hear heat rash, we hear sunstroke. Are they all the same thing?
15:49Are they different? Is there a scale?
15:51There are similar things, but the two big ones are heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Heat exhaustion
15:57is nasty but not dangerous. Heat stroke can be. And the main difference is with heat exhaustion,
16:03you'll be sweating profusely, you may feel a bit dizzy, have a headache, but you'll still
16:07be alert, you can respond and so on. When you move on to heat stroke, you can't control your
16:13temperature. You actually stop sweating, you go dry and red with the skin, you have a temperature
16:17above 40 degrees Celsius and people start to get confused, they can collapse and so on.
16:23And if that's starting to happen, that's when you need to actually be phoning for an ambulance.
16:26With heat exhaustion, move them out of the sun, give them plenty of fluids, cool them down.
16:31Same with heat stroke, but you need to be getting medical help.
16:35How quickly can it set in? Because you might be doing what these folk are doing, sitting
16:38on the beach, minding your own business, you might be developing sunburn, but it's often
16:42until you get home you realise just how sunburned you are. Is it a similar sort of situation?
16:48And then when you add things like dehydration and probably alcohol consumption, it becomes
16:53even more dangerous?
16:54Dehydration is a big thing. Because if you look at heat exhaustion, the primary cause is
16:58a loss of fluid and salts. And so having fluids is a very good idea before you go to the beach
17:04and all the time when you're there. Alcoholic drinks, I'm not going to stop people having
17:08an occasional glass of lager, but if all your drink is alcoholic, the problem is that tends
17:13to dehydrate you and makes the situation worse. So it's a false friend.
17:17OK. Well, moving on just slightly, but the same topic of heat. Children as young as five
17:22in Kent are being taught how to check UV levels and apply sun cream as well. It's currently
17:27actually being trialled in primary schools across the county here. And then it's planned
17:31to move into PSHE lessons by 2026. What difference could this make for the future of things like skin cancer?
17:39I think it's a brilliant idea. Because if we can get people knowing this from very early
17:43on, they carry it forward. Not only that, they take that knowledge back to their homes so they
17:48tell their brothers and sisters and their parents how to do it. Because you're absolutely right.
17:53You need to be applying sunscreen the correct way. The highest strength sun cream if you can
17:58get away with it and enough of it put on. And likewise, if you're going to be very sweaty
18:03or you're going to go swimming, you need to reapply it afterwards. It's best to put sun cream
18:08on 15 to 20 minutes before you go out in the sun so you've got it into your skin already.
18:12And then if you're swimming in a pool, swimming in the sea or showering or something, it's then
18:17always a reapplication because some say they're water resistant. How water resistant are they?
18:22I think the problem is that's the term resistant. It's not proof. And so I would
18:26much rather put too much on than take a chance.
18:30Some people would say, well, they don't want to put too much on because they think
18:34they won't get a nice lovely tan. When I was doing some reading and research into this,
18:38the risks of it, the tan is the body's response to the sun damage. So should we even be thinking
18:46like this at all?
18:47It's interesting. If you go out to the Far East, Japan and Korea, really the big thing
18:51is to stay pale. And they carry umbrellas all through the summer to be in the shade.
18:56They put lots of sun cream on and so on. And we used to be the same thing in the UK.
19:00And I think we need to perhaps move back to that, away from this idea that a tan is somehow healthy.
19:05And then when we're looking at our skin and changes perhaps from the sun as well,
19:10what do we need to be looking out for and how much of a risk?
19:13Oh, if there is a mole on our skin, how much worse can the sun make that?
19:17First thing is avoid the burn in the first place. With moles, it's A, B, C, D, E.
19:21And A is asymmetrical. So if it's not a nice round mole, then that's a bit of a worry.
19:28B is border. So if there's a nice clear border, you can see where the edge is,
19:32the mole stops and the normal skin starts, that's all right.
19:35If it's sort of moth-eaten and going into the skin around, you need to seek help.
19:38C is colour. If it's unpigmented or a nice even colour, then not too bad.
19:44If it's all sort of changes of colour, then you need to be seeking more help.
19:49D is diameter or size. So if it's a lot bigger than your other moles,
19:52then it's a good idea to actually seek help.
19:54And finally, E is evolving. Now there's changing shape, changing in pattern,
19:58maybe starting to itch. All of those, go along and get to your doctor to have a look.
20:02We'd much rather see people with completely harmless moles than missing a melanoma.
20:07I've got that list in front of me. And you, of course, with your four decades of experience as a GP,
20:11have got them all right as well, like a check with A, B, C, D, E. Pressure's off.
20:17OK, moving on to a different story now. Medical negligence specialists are warning about the risks associated with self-diagnosis.
20:29A third of people from a new study that's been done believe they've been misdiagnosed by a medical professional,
20:36many turning to self-diagnosis or avoiding, avoiding you, Julian, avoiding their GP at all.
20:42Why is there such a lack of trust?
20:45I think there's an awful lot of social media which sort of points out individual cases which can lead to lack of trust.
20:53In reality, if you look at the number of consultations, the number of decisions doctors make,
20:57the number of times they get it wrong is very low.
21:00Sometimes people will say, I was misdiagnosed because we don't get it right the first time.
21:04But in reality, you'll get symptoms of something like dizziness, where there may be two or three hundred possible causes.
21:10And we may not get it right the very first time, but normally after two or three consultations, we'll be going in the right direction.
21:16Yes, there are errors made. And we do not want to make errors.
21:20I don't know a doctor who feels blasé about making mistakes with patients.
21:23But if people work with us, we're much more likely to get it right.
21:27And avoiding us is bad news.
21:29Dr. Google is not that good.
21:31Yeah, it's something I've been speaking about with Nadia Sabir.
21:34She's a medical negligence specialist.
21:37She's been speaking to me about the role AI plays as well.
21:41Because a lot of us, it's very quick.
21:43You're waiting months for a GP appointment, but you can wait three minutes for AI to tell you what it thinks is wrong with you.
21:48Let's hear from her now.
21:49And she also talks about how their claims and bringing claims forward can then help better the medical sector as well.
21:57We can take a look. Listen now.
21:58We live in a technology based world.
22:00And I think the problem with that is we've got the world wide web.
22:04We've got Google and we're plugging in symptoms into a search engine.
22:08The problem with that is you are putting in symptoms and you're not actually getting physically examined by a GP or a treating physician.
22:17And so they will know the correct questions to be able to ask you.
22:21And sometimes symptoms that you might think are benign or not relevant are actually masking something quite sinister.
22:28Bringing in claims means that the hospitals are having to go away or GP is having to go away and investigate whether their standard of care was reasonable.
22:36And so by doing that, there are lessons that can be learnt by these medical professionals.
22:41So we are seeing more and more that trusts are going away, providing, you know, conducting investigations and providing, you know, training.
22:48Or there are key points of learning where they could have, you know, done things a bit differently.
22:53Yeah, emphasizing your point on doctor internet there as well.
22:57I wondered, as a GP, has anyone ever shared concerns of mistrust with you or just the sort of medical sector in general?
23:04I've had times where people's confidence have been lost because I haven't actually got something right.
23:09It's inevitable. I've done 40 years and, you know, we're seeing 30, 40 people a day.
23:14But thankfully it's small numbers.
23:17I think that the problem with litigation in all this going and suing us is the money is actually coming out of the NHS.
23:25So that's not being used for other things.
23:27However, for many years I've been running the complaints process in the practices.
23:31And we really do learn from those complaints. We learn from the mistakes.
23:36We take them back to medical meetings and so on because we've got to constantly improve.
23:40You discover often there's multiple causes. It's not one single error that causes it.
23:45And if we can learn it, we can prevent it from happening again.
23:48Who's it down to? Whose responsibility is it to undo that third of people feeling like they've been misdiagnosed
23:55or they don't trust their GP or they don't trust the service? Who does it lie with to fix that problem?
24:02I think it's us working with the patients. And actually people need to be honest and maybe say to us,
24:07look here, I'm losing trust with you. You can see somebody else or maybe we can actually find a way to work together to make it better.
24:13But walking away from the normal health services. There's a good reason why I did six years at medical school
24:19because it's darn difficult to make diagnosis.
24:21Yeah, and you said six years at medical school. It's not easy to be a GP.
24:25But with things like this, statistics like this, is it just adding to making the job seem even more undesirable?
24:32It's a frustration and it is very stressful if you have a serious complaint against you.
24:38We have a high suicide rate amongst doctors being investigated at the General Medical Council.
24:42So it gives an idea of both the impact on their mental health and how much really they don't want to make that mistake.
24:48Yeah, it's definitely an interesting topic. Julian, we're going to bring you to another story now.
24:54Now, this is something we've spoken about a lot in recent sort of months as well.
24:58So this is about PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome. So gut bacteria linked to fertility issues in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.
25:08There's been some research on it. Is it another step to getting better treatment, better targeted treatment for women with PCOS and endometriosis and things like that?
25:18Having looked at the research, it is interesting. The one thing that did strike me is they just said people with PCOS have lower levels of particular bacteria in their gut.
25:27That doesn't mean one's causing the other or whether it's the other way around. So if you have PCOS, it affects that.
25:32But they're suggesting this bacteria is involved in chopping up amino acids so that they affect less the ovaries and so on.
25:41But we're a long way away from saying that's going to transfer into treatment or even as a screening process.
25:47And this is the difficulty whenever we have this primary research. But every time someone raises something like this, there's a chance going forward we can actually make a difference to people's treatment.
25:57A lot of women feel like there's a lack of access to certain care and that they're not listened to or they have to jump through several hoops to get the final solution for that.
26:07What more can be done to create better access to healthcare for women?
26:12Again, raise your concerns if you think it's something like that. Be very clear what you're talking to your doctor about.
26:17Maybe keep a period diary or something like that. And we can do some tests which will actually mark out the likelihood you have polycystic ovary disease.
26:26And that includes things like ultrasounds which will pick up all those cysts.
26:30Okay, it's definitely an important part of the industry that seems to be picking up with lots of different tests as well.
26:36Julian, lots of health headlines to go through today. Thank you very much for your time today.
26:40Delighted.
26:43Alright, time for us to take a very quick break when we come back. More on our headlines. See you in a few minutes.
29:56Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight, live on KMTV. Now a reminder of your headlines on Wednesday the 2nd of July.
30:21Left high and dry. Thousands more homes without water in Whitstable.
30:34Reptile rescue, Raynham resident recovers pet iguana after it got stuck in a tree.
30:42And we're rewinding the tapes on Kent Chronicles and discovering where Maidstone might have got its name.
30:51To our main story this evening, thousands more homes have been left without water in Whitstable today.
30:57Just hours after supplies were cut to 7,000 in Herne Bay on what is the hottest week of the year so far.
31:05It comes as Southeast Water has renewed its appeal to customers to only use essential water due to what the company has described as challenging conditions.
31:14Well, Bartholomew joins me in the studio now. Bartholomew, what's the latest that we've got on the water situation developing in Whitstable and Sea Selter?
31:22Well, the context behind this is of course after we've had the hottest week of the year so far.
31:28I was reporting from a farm in Mepham yesterday where we had the official figures telling us that Kent was the hottest place in the country, just over 33.6 degrees.
31:38Now, because of that and because of the increased use of water, Southeast Water said that that is why we saw those supply issues in Herne Bay.
31:46Thousands of people affected. Now, overnight and into this morning, that issue was solved.
31:51But it got to about midday today into the afternoon where we started to hear issues being reported in the Whitstable and Sea Salter area.
31:59That's thousands more homes affected and a lot of people who even this evening have been telling us that they have trickling supply.
32:06Now, Southeast Water said that they did set up a bottled water station.
32:10Now, just before we went live this evening at around 13 minutes past five, they said that they're sorry,
32:16but they've actually had to close that bottled water station due to unforeseen circumstances.
32:21They also said to rest assured they are working as hard as they can to source another location to set up.
32:27Now, all of this comes on the backdrop of Southeast Water sending a message to their customers this week,
32:33telling them to make sure they're only using water in exceptional circumstances, only those essential circumstances.
32:40So that is if you are washing, if you're drinking water or if you are cooking.
32:44Now, they're urging customers to not use water under any other circumstance.
32:49And we can take a look at exactly what that message has been throughout the week.
32:54OK, I think we're experiencing some technical issues, but just tell us some of the main advice that's been going around for the summer period.
33:08Yeah, of course. Well, first of all, it all depends on who your supplier is.
33:12We've talked a lot about Southeast Water and some of the messaging they've been sending out to customers.
33:16Important to note, nothing of a hose pipe ban from them at this stage.
33:21They're saying if everybody sort of falls in line and adheres to these small things, avoiding using water unnecessarily, that won't have to happen.
33:29But we'll take a look at this map now because this shows you exactly who your water supplier is.
33:34There's four for the county, two main ones in Southern Water and Southeast Water.
33:40I know they have similar names, but you have to kind of get with it because the messaging is different.
33:44So I heard from Southern Water earlier today who said that there are also no plans at this time to introduce restrictions on use.
33:52They will be reviewing that as the summer progresses.
33:56But they said because of the driest spring for more than 100 years, they're urging their customers specifically in Thanet to make sure that they are not using water unnecessarily.
34:06They said that the reservoir levels are below where they'd like them to be.
34:10So they've written to customers to ask for their help.
34:12Small changes can make a big difference.
34:14That's the main messaging from the water companies as we go forward into this, carry on into this hot weather.
34:21I know we've had a bit of rain today, but they're still saying because of that extremely dry spring, we're seeing the effects of those reservoirs not being at the levels they want them to be.
34:30Yeah, it's something over the past few years, you in particular actually have reported on when there have been hosepipe bans as well, when they have been implemented.
34:38But of course, this warning coming ahead of that saying, look, if we all be mindful, we won't have to be in that position.
34:44We won't have people having to complain.
34:46And you can do things like collecting water in water butts or using leftover dishwater.
34:51That grey water, yeah, making sure that if you do happen to have a bath, using that maybe to then water your plants in the garden the next day.
34:59If you've got a water butt, as you mentioned, that's connected to your drainage system, you're reusing that water and nothing's being wasted.
35:07But let's take a look now at what some of those issues were today and that key messaging from South Eastwater.
35:13This was the sight of hundreds of people in Herne Bay on the hottest day of the year so far as thousands of properties in the seaside town were left without a supply, all said to have been caused by high demand.
35:26Temperatures soared above 30 degrees across Kent, with health bosses warning residents to stay cool and drink plenty of water.
35:34The issues in Herne Bay were eventually restored, but then at around midday today, a further 3,000 people down the road in Sea Salter and Whitstable reported a trickle of supply.
35:46I was first alerted on social media through one of the local resident groups that water pressure was low and then people said well I haven't got any and then more and more people said well I've got none, we've got none again.
35:59The summit has only just started and I am very concerned that this, you know, I was going to say it's a creaking infrastructure, but it's not even there, it's a broken infrastructure.
36:13South Eastwater said in a statement we're working hard to restore supplies as quickly as possible, using tankers to inject water directly into our network to help get drinking water back to customers' taps.
36:26It comes just days after the water giant sent a message to customers urging them only to use water for essential purposes, including drinking, washing and cooking.
36:36South Eastwater is so concerned about water levels that it's issued an amber warning for the parts of Kent that it supplies.
36:43This means that on average more than 625 million litres of water are being used by people here in the county every day.
36:51In fact, just a few days ago the company recorded its highest so far this year, 680 million litres of water.
36:59That's roughly the same as one of these for every adult.
37:03Residents are advised to capture and reuse water at this time, avoid washing cars and patios and not to worry about dried out lawns.
37:11However, not all customers are happy with being asked to save water.
37:15We pay enough money so that we shouldn't have to go through these procedures.
37:20I've seen, you know, people doing their cars even in this sort of weather.
37:26They're right, they're right, but given how much sewage they're pumping into the, into the waters that maybe they need to look into their own disposal facilities first.
37:36Well, water bills are going up and up and up aren't they? I think I pay about £55 a month.
37:42And the reservoirs are empty and yeah, we need to save water, why not, for just a few weeks.
37:47Right now a hose pipe ban isn't in force, but the company says as long as customers make small changes now, further measures can be avoided.
37:56Bartholomew Hall for KMTV.
37:59Plenty of advice to be following there.
38:01But now let's take a very quick look at the weather forecast where you are as we start to get a bit of relief from some cooler temperatures on their way.
38:15Tonight we've got clear skies and temperatures between about 15 and 18 degrees over in Margate.
38:22Much of the same tomorrow morning, clear skies across the county, wind dropping ever so slightly as well.
38:27But greeting us with slightly warmer temperatures for the midday to the afternoon as well.
38:33Highs of 24 in North Kent there.
38:35And here's the picture for the rest of the week.
38:37Friday, highs of 26 and sunny.
38:40Saturday and Sunday, some cloud and sun, but still should be staying nice and dry.
38:45Now, calls for a popular punch and Judy show to drop scenes of domestic violence have been made by charities ahead of performances in Broadstairs this summer.
39:02The seaside slapstick puppet show has been a tradition since the 17th century, but it's facing this backlash after the council spent almost £3,000 to fund the show.
39:13Well, Kristen Hawthorne joins me in the studio now with more details.
39:17Kristen, this is a controversial issue. There are split views of this. Of course, this is something that dates back, as I mentioned there, to the 17th century, but it does portray scenes that aren't acceptable.
39:29And that's the words of some domestic abuse charities. Can you explain a bit more about what they've said?
39:34Yes. So the two charities that got involved had something to say was Refuge and Oasis. Some people might be familiar with them.
39:42They're some of the largest domestic abuse charities in the UK.
39:45Refuge says that they called on the organisers to remove or reimagine the violent elements, saying that at the heart of these classic performances,
39:55which many people from England appreciate and go to see during the summer, they said there's repeated scenes of domestic abuse,
40:02including punch hitting his wife, all these different things. And they said that domestic abuse should never be the subject of comedy.
40:10The Oasis domestic abuse organisation had, they have a slightly different view. They've called the show to be dropped altogether.
40:18And they think they encourage organisers to consider the potential impact of such performances on survivors and young audiences to seek alternatives that do not normalise making fun of violence in any form.
40:30We could see just some pictures there of the performer, the person that the council is paying to put this on. Of course, that is their livelihood as well. What have they had to say?
40:40So, the town council, Broadstairs and St Peter's Town Council, they're going to pay £2,850 to Ben Hasker, who we've seen on the screen just a few moments ago,
40:52to ensure that the show does go on. He said that he has performed the show in Kent for more than 15 years.
41:00He thinks that it would be a shame to see the play disappear. He thinks it's a bit of fun and, you know, it shouldn't be taken with too much heaviness to it.
41:09OK, so perhaps there is a middle ground to meet as well. Just very quickly, what have the council said?
41:15So, the town council spokesman said they are keen to continue offering the traditional seaside experience, saying that the show is part of a timeless and nostalgic experience and we know our residents and visitors enjoy it.
41:30OK. And you can continue the conversation, join the conversation over on Kent Online.
41:36And there's been a fair few comments there. Lots of people split, as we said, in our opening there.
41:41But more on that story over on Kent Online. Kristen, thank you very much for those details.
41:45All right, time for us to take a very quick break. More on the escapist iguana from Raynham after the break. See you then.
45:00Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight, live on KMTV.
45:16Now, a Raynham resident recently lost his pet iguana up a tree and couldn't quite get her down for three days, but finally managed to this morning with the help of a professional tree climber.
45:29Well, Dean Tyrrell, the owner of Blue, said he received incredible support online after posting about it.
45:36Even Kent Fire and Rescue Service attempted to save the reptile, but their expertise weren't quite in that lizard field.
45:43She's now resting up after the long adventure and Kai Wei's been down to meet her.
45:48A household from Raynham recently had their beloved pet escape and climb up a tree, but it wasn't a cat or their dog Poppy.
45:56It was, in fact, a blue iguana.
45:59Just over three years ago, I was at my brother's yard and a friend of his came in with a bearded dragon in a van and said, I've just rescued this.
46:12But the guy's got a large snake and a lizard that he's got to read home.
46:19Thought it was a chameleon.
46:21Looked up chameleon and thought, that's fine.
46:24That's not going to grow very big and then realised it was a blue iguana, which can grow up to about six foot long.
46:31Well, I'm joined here now by Blue herself, who's taking a very long rest after her ventures, which ended at about seven o'clock this morning when she was rescued from the tree.
46:40Yeah, so I've only been up in this oak tree for half an hour so far, but the iguana has been found.
46:49The only problem is, I don't know if you can see him, there he is, right out on the extremities there.
46:57Sunday, I rang Reptile Rescue in Tunbridge and Chris said, I might know a man that can help.
47:05He's a tree climber.
47:07Rang Danny, he said, I can't come out this evening, but I'll be with you seven o'clock in the morning.
47:12And he was here at seven o'clock this morning. Amazing. And he had her down within 40 minutes.
47:19Dean also said that he received a lot of support on Facebook in the Raynum Community Group, with many pitching in offers of their equipment to help save Blue.
47:27Just the help and the comments have been amazing. We've had the fire brigade come and try to rescue her last night.
47:34We've had people volunteering, we've had people with a drone, with thermal imaging to try and pick her out yesterday.
47:42They take a lot of patience, a lot of patience to get them to get used to you.
47:49You've just got to spend time with them, lots and lots of time with patients.
47:53And when you feel they're ready, they'll come to you.
47:56And I say, now she'll come out and watch the telly, she'll climb up, literally will sit on the end of my knees and then clear off again.
48:04And she goes upstairs.
48:06Can I ask how you felt being reunited with Blue this morning?
48:11Can't explain it. Brilliant. Yeah. Amazing.
48:18Well, with Blue safe and sound in her cage, Dean and his family can rest easy knowing the mischievous reptile is staying put.
48:26Kai Wei for KMTV in Raynum.
48:30Kai joins me in the studio now. Tell me, I need to know the details.
48:35How did you go about getting an iguana down from a tree that high? Many tried, many failed.
48:42Yeah, so Dean told me exactly what happened.
48:45Even, he told me about how Ken Fire and Rescue had, he called them, they came to his place, they saw the iguana up the tree and they just went, I'm sorry, we cannot help you.
48:56So what actually happened was he reached out to Tunbridge, the lizard rescue, and they passed on details of Danny, who eventually was the one who got the lizard down from the tree.
49:10He, um, Dean couldn't stop like praising Danny. He, just with a rope and a harness, he, he scaled the tree himself and he just sawed off the branch.
49:20So the iguana was right on the branch of the top of the tree and he sawed it off and with a rope just lowered the iguana, like vertically.
49:27And it didn't know if it just went?
49:29No, that was like a surprising fact. I didn't know they could like just hang vertically and apparently they climb really fast. Like, uh, Dean described it as going as fast as a squirrel. It just shot up the tree.
49:40Yeah. I love the fact that he thought he was buying a small little chameleon and now he's ended up with a four foot iguana.
49:46Uh, but you actually know a bit more about the species now. I think I'm even pronouncing the name wrong, according to what you've been told.
49:53Yeah. So, um, I, I'm forgetting now if you said it in the package, but it's actually pronounced, um, sorry, Dean, Iguana.
50:03Okay. And there, and there she is in all her glory. And I mean, was she, was she, she seemed very peaceful. Was she resting? Was she getting lots of sleep?
50:13Oh yeah. There's a really nice, uh, I, I just, uh, before I left, um, she was just sleeping in the corner and it was very, very cute.
50:22Yeah. No, we're used to cats up a tree, but look at that. An iguana up the tree and there she is resting peacefully. Kai, thank you very much. If there are any more lizards up the trees, I'll be calling you to go with the camera.
50:33All right. Thank you.
50:35All right. Now, don't forget straight after Kent tonight, as always on a Wednesday with a brand new episode of Kent Chronicles, the show dedicated to uncovering the county's rich history.
50:45You can watch back all of the episodes on demand too, over on our website, kmtv.co.uk.
50:50They'll find all of our reports, including this one where Etta Lee Reynolds takes us back in time at what's arguably Kent's most well-known coastline.
50:58Throughout the second world war, Dover was referred to as the lock and key of England due to its vital position controlling the English channel.
51:07It also saw some of the highest concentrations of wartime artillery in the UK and one gun emplacement has been excavated and is now on show at the White Cliffs of Dover.
51:19Fan Bay number three gun and the underground magazines have been buried for over 50 years, but now they've been excavated and restored as a part of National Trust's Fan Bay Deep Shelter.
51:31The Fan Bay Deep Shelter is a network of tunnels built during the second world war.
51:35The gun battery was intended to attack enemy ships moving through the English channels.
51:40It housed not only artillery, but also the soldiers.
51:44They lived, worked and defended the country from these tunnels.
51:49Life would have been, shall we say, not very nice.
51:54I mean, okay, they're not necessarily in direct contact with the enemy, but they are, they're equally able to be shelled and to be, you know, to have their life interrupted.
52:07These tunnels the soldiers lived in were abandoned in the 1950s, but rediscovered by the National Trust in 2012.
52:15They were first open to the public in 2015, but now after further excavation, the site has expanded.
52:22Everything that we've done here over the last three years has been with a huge volunteer project team.
52:29So the volunteers have given over 20,000 hours to see the site conserved and opened and they've done everything themselves.
52:39So it's this really lovely community project that we're very proud of.
52:44One part of the community that has been assisting the project has been the students from Aster Secondary School.
52:51They've been helping out and learning basic archaeology skills.
52:55The historical value, I'd say, is very great.
52:59It's learning how things used to work, you know, obviously before we were in this world.
53:04Just seeing the hard work that the men did to protect our country.
53:07I think that was really interesting to learn.
53:09It was interesting because I was thinking in my head when we were going around how big it was,
53:14because it is quite a big place to have a gun to shoot over.
53:18For us as a school to get students out of the classroom and actually engaging in with their local community,
53:23actually helping to preserve the history that's around them, it's fantastic.
53:28The evacuation of Fan Bay Gun 3 and the magazine tunnels offer a fantastic opportunity to see the scale
53:35and understand why Dover was such a key player in the Second World War.
53:40Etterley Reynolds for KMTV in Dover.
53:44And more reports just like that one over on our website.
53:48But now, finally this evening, Maidstone Museum are gearing up to tell the story of the town
53:52through the use of its historic items in their latest local history gallery.
53:57Called the Oldham Gallery, exploring Maidstone's past and present.
54:01It's set to feature new objects, many of which have never actually been on public display before.
54:07Including a mysterious seal that depicts a woman standing on a rock.
54:12Or stone, that could be linked to the name Maidstone.
54:16Well, we've got more on Kent Chronicles this evening right after Kent tonight.
54:19But let's hear a little bit from Councillor Stephen Thompson's chat with Bartholomew now.
54:24One of the most interesting items for me, what I've been looking at so far, is this Maid on the Stone.
54:30It's a seal used to put wax on official documents.
54:32Now, I understand there could be some belief that this image could be linked to Maidstone's name.
54:39Yes, Bartholomew, indeed.
54:41Those that went to school in yesteryear were taught their etymology.
54:46You take words apart and you try and work out what it is that they mean.
54:50And sometimes those guesses are accurate and sometimes they're not.
54:53I understand there's a variety of stabs at working out where Maidstone's name come from.
54:59It's hard to know which the right answer is.
55:02Here we've got a piece of evidence of a picture of a lady on a stone.
55:06And it is easy to draw the connection from that.
55:08You know, it might even be true.
55:10Fantastic stuff.
55:11I think there's something so special about, you know, thinking about the place in which you live or where you might have grown up or where family may have come from and to learn a bit more about the history.
55:20It's like a personal connection, isn't it?
55:24Well, it is.
55:25And that really is the point that we're making in the name.
55:29The Oldham Gallery points us to Paul Oldham, a past borough councillor and mayor of Maidstone over many decades.
55:38He made the history of the town part of his wider contribution.
55:43And as you say, those personal stories are things that shape the way that we see the place in which we live.
55:50And speaking of families, very fascinating sort of task you've set yourselves is to find Maidstone's oldest family.
55:57Talk to us a bit about that.
56:00Well, again, Bartholomew, it's a case of go with the evidence as it's found.
56:05There could be some folk out there who should be credited as Maidstone's oldest family and haven't told us who they are.
56:10Maybe they don't even know.
56:12But we're aware that there are many folk who've been on genealogy sites looking into their ancestry.
56:19And we're very keen to bring those personal family stories into the museum.
56:24Amazing stuff there.
56:26Well, more on that after the break.
56:28But for now, that's it from me and the Kent Tonight team this evening.
56:31We'll be back tomorrow at the same time, 5.30.
56:33And don't forget, in the meantime, you can keep up to date on all the latest news across your county
56:38by logging on to our website, cametofeet.co.uk and heading over to Kent Online as well.
56:44That's it from me for now.
56:45Bye bye.
56:49Bye bye.
56:50Bye bye.
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