Catch up with all the news across the county with Abby Hook.
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00:00Hello, good evening and welcome to Kentonite live on KMTV. I'm Abbey Hook. Here are your
00:27top stories on Monday the 25th of November.
00:31Raising Rochester's bar. Government hopes extra staff training will stop drink spiking.
00:38We've had a few occasions over the last few years. The problem seems to have increased
00:44and got worse recently.
00:46Rise of the robots. How Amazon is using AI to meet demand in Dartford this December.
00:52AI is in everything we do. Everywhere you look AI is involved in our process.
00:58And Christmas is calling. Medway's Magical Market returns for its 15th year.
01:04And I'll be going live from right here in the Christmas village.
01:17First tonight, a bar owner in Rochester says drink spiking is only getting worse in the
01:22town. It comes as a new program to train bar staff to detect and prevent spiking is being
01:27rolled out in December. The scheme will give 10,000 employees the skills to collect evidence
01:32which they hope will help police investigations. But some say it shouldn't be down to the
01:37bar staff alone to spot it. Finn McDermott has been finding out more.
01:41It's very difficult to detect and punish spiking. Busy bars and loud music mean that
01:45across Kent and the country, people on nights out, especially women, are scared for what
01:50they could drink without their knowledge. But now the government are looking to bar
01:54staff to be able to tackle the issue.
01:56Now if you've been on a night out anywhere across the country, you've probably seen
02:00one of these. It's a cap designed to stop drink spiking. But the government are saying
02:05it's not quite enough to stop the issue. So they're rolling out new training across
02:10the country in order to help stop, spot and even collect evidence against drink spiking.
02:17The government hope to begin the training in December and have the 10,000 trained by
02:21spring 2025. I went to the city wall in Rochester to ask the owner Sanjay how frequent incidents
02:27of spiking were.
02:29Sadly we have. We've had a few occasions over the last few years. The problem seems to have
02:35increased and got worse recently. We are trying to do the best we can to deal with it.
02:40Sadly, yes, too little too late, but it's a positive thing and it will help us in the
02:45future and hopefully if they can roll it out as they say they are to all the bar staff
02:49across the country, it can only do, it can only help.
02:52He went on to say that there was a Medway training scheme for the pubs, bars and clubs
02:56in the area that taught employees how to recognise Rohypnol and other drugs and even understand
03:02how it's decanted. I spoke to Tara, a Rochester local and former bartender, about what she
03:07thought of the government's training plan.
03:10When I was in college I was working in a bar. Most of the time you've got your back turned
03:14getting something. I don't think it's really fair on bar staff when they're in peak hours
03:20to be watching for this as well, as well as taking in loads of orders of drinks. I think
03:25maybe the best thing the government could do is to provide young women kits to see if
03:30their drink is spiked. I know you can get things where you can put it in and it would
03:34show a different colour if there's a drug in your drink and that's probably maybe the
03:37better way to go so that people can self-police.
03:40The government hopes that the new programme and other efforts to keep women safe, like
03:44turning spiking into a full criminal offence, will help towards their commitment to halving
03:49violence against women and girls. Many of the women and some men I spoke to in Rochester
03:53said they were afraid of going out to pubs, bars and clubs in Medway late at night, especially
03:58alone, and were glad more was being put into public safety.
04:01Finn McDermid for KMTV in Rochester.
04:05Thousands of robots, millions of packages and only a few weeks to go until Christmas.
04:11That's what life looks like within Dartford's Amazon warehouse, one of the biggest in the
04:15country, driven largely by artificial intelligence. But there are worries that emissions linked
04:21to machine learning are destroying the planet. Oliver Leader de Sacks has been inside the
04:26distribution centre to find out what the retail giant is doing to tackle it.
04:31It's not quite Santa's workshop, but in the shadow of the Dartford crossing, the busiest
04:37Amazon warehouse in Europe is gearing up to make the Christmas magic happen.
04:422,500 workers, some hired just for the festive season, are working day and night to distribute
04:51deliveries across the southeast. But with countless items being stocked, stacked and
04:57sent off, the global delivery giant has swapped the elves for something a little more futuristic.
05:05AI is in everything we do. Everywhere you look, AI is involved in our process. Amazon's
05:12been working with machine learning for over 25 years now, whether it's the optimisation
05:17of a parcel coming in or on the road. And that journey starts months before a package will be
05:22even delivered to the door. And we're investing heavily in gendered AI as we believe it's going
05:27to be something that's going to transform every application of our personal, professional lives.
05:32Amazon couldn't do what they do without one of these, the Hercules Drive robot. There's
05:37thousands of these giant Roomba-style machines scuttling around the warehouse. And they can
05:43carry around 800 kilograms, the weight of a grand piano. And they make sure the goods that
05:49you need get to your doorstep by delivering them to the right place in storage. So basically our
05:55robots moved the shelves with the products to our storers and pickers. So storers and pickers,
06:01they can put or remove the items. Every day we make sure everything is running smoothly,
06:07if motor is working, if they are clean and the wheels are working properly.
06:13But artificial intelligence is energy intensive. One UN report suggests that the number of data
06:21centres required for machine learning worldwide has surged to over 8 million, with energy
06:28consumption doubling every four years, in no small part due to our reliance on AI.
06:36And while Amazon's overall emissions fell by 3% last year, emissions as a result of direct
06:44operations, like delivering packages and data services, rose to more than 14 million tons,
06:54according to Amazon's own sustainability report. So with 30,000 robots and miles of conveyor belts
07:03in just this warehouse alone, is Amazon boxing us in to a high emission future?
07:09Amazon signed the climate pledge in 2019, and with that made two commitments. Number one,
07:14by the year 2030, all of our data centres, warehouses, grocery stores would be using
07:19100% renewable energy, which I'm happy to say by last year alone, we were able to reach that. So
07:24seven years ahead of plan. By the year 2040, to be carbon net neutral, which involves tons of
07:30things, as you see, like with our packaging, we're reducing our packaging every day.
07:34But with Amazon promising to invest even more into their robots in the coming years,
07:40some here in Kent may be left wondering what's next for the people behind the presents.
07:47Oliver, leader of the sats for KNTV in Dartford.
07:52Next this evening, Davina McCall gave fans a touching update from her home in Tunbridge,
07:57just 10 days after undergoing brain surgery. The TV presenter opened up about the impact
08:02it's had on her memory and said she'd been keeping a diary to try and stay on top of things.
08:08She also thanked both fans and family that had checked in on her in the past week.
08:12We can hear a bit of an update from her Instagram now.
08:16I just thought I'd check in and say an enormous heartfelt thank you to everybody who's
08:24messaged me or been in touch. And it's just really nice to be back home. I'm on the other side.
08:35My short term memory's a bit remiss, but that is something that I can work on. So I'm really
08:43happy about that. I'm writing down everything that I'm doing to keep myself feeling safe.
08:51OK.
08:53Next this evening, Kent Police have seized a total of 45 knives from parks and public spaces
08:58as part of a week-long campaign. Officers visited schools and Bluewater Shopping Centre too,
09:03as part of a broader plan to tackle knife crime across the county.
09:07They showed shops how to store and display knives safely and follow a strict
09:11Challenge 25 age verification policy. Xenia Nakvi is here to tell me more.
09:16Xenia, 45 knives were seized.
09:19Yeah. So last week, Abi, Kent Police did various things to keep knife crime at bay in our county.
09:24For example, they installed knife arches in Bluewater Shopping Centre and also did a
09:29sweep for any weapons in parks and similar spaces. The figure they've given us is 45.
09:35But obviously, that's all they could find. There could be more. There could be less.
09:39So what is it that officers are really trying to achieve?
09:42So, you know, many of us might associate this with this very specific type of crime
09:48with young people. So Kent Police have taken on a very hands-on approach to really tackle this.
09:55But what's really interesting is, after I spoke to Detective Inspector James Ross,
09:59is they're not following the sort of hardline approach we might expect from, as the public.
10:08I think we can hear from the police officer now.
10:11We're not looking here to persecute or prosecute or anything like that. What we're here to do is
10:18educate. The first thing we want to do is educate any child, any person carrying a knife. You
10:24carrying that knife makes you more susceptible to harm than if you didn't carry it. That's a simple
10:30reality. And if we can then highlight the people that are likely to be the carriers of knives,
10:35we can work with them. We can work with what they're doing, how they're going through life.
10:39We can be there with them and support them. We've seen Kent Police do a lot of work recently,
10:44especially zombie knives when they become illegal as well. And there was that amnesty where they
10:49could be handed in. We saw a lot of them seized across Kent. But what have they done to help
10:53reduce knife crime then? So Kent Police did run assemblies across the county. They visited a
10:59whole, like a total of 35 different schools across Kent, including in Swale, Folkestone,
11:05Tunbridge and all the way down in Dover. I mean, they've even spoken to retailers
11:14about how they can really implement that Challenge 25 policy. And they spoke to young
11:21people in busy towns across Kent. Really to try and enforce that message across all aspects,
11:27not just in schools, but for those retailers too, to challenge anybody buying a knife that
11:32does look under 25. Xenia, thank you very much. Now it's time for a very short break. But coming
11:40up, Bartholomew Hall is here with all the sports news ahead of a brand new episode,
11:43as always, on a Monday of Invicta Sport. I'll see you shortly.
15:03Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight, live on KMTV. In sport, Gillingham manager Mark Bonner has
15:14described his team's performance as disgraceful, as the Medway side returned to League Two action
15:19at the weekend after a fortnight break, only to suffer a loss against Harrogate at home. But first,
15:25our sports reporter Bartholomew Hall joined me with an update to a story about a Maidstone cyclist
15:30who has been banned from competing for Australia. An interesting story this one, an interesting
15:36switch of sides. Yeah, Matthew Richardson, three-time medalist at the Paris Games, when he
15:40came back from the summer, made the decision to leave Australia and join Team GB. Quite a dramatic
15:46decision to make. He said he went to social media and put out a statement saying that it was purely
15:51a personal choice made after careful consideration of his career and his future, and that he still
15:56had a lot of admiration for his Australian teammates and all of those people that have
15:59helped him along the way. A bit of background on him, he is originally from Kent, from Maidstone,
16:04moved to Australia when he was nine and has held dual citizenship ever since. That's why he's been
16:08able to compete under both flags. But now the update today is that Oz Cycling, which is a
16:14governing body of cycling in Australia, much like British Cycling is the one here, have essentially
16:19said he isn't coming back. He is banned for life from ever being able to compete for Australia again.
16:26And what's the reason they've given for this? Why? Well, there has been some speculation that he
16:31didn't do the changeover in maybe the most commendable fashion. There was some suggestion
16:36that he didn't speak to some of his teammates during the Paris Games, that maybe he could have
16:40said this a bit earlier on. Obviously, after having so much success for them, it's not a great look for
16:44Australia that one of their one of their best guys has changed, has jumped ship essentially
16:49after the Games. But the statement that they've released today says that he acted in a way which
16:53conflicted with the values of Oz Cycling, the Australian national team and the broader cycling
16:58community. They added as well that he's prohibited from using any resources associated with Australian
17:03cycling or its partners and that he will be ineligible for any future awards as well. Now,
17:09I don't think he's possibly thinking about moving back to Australia in the future. He's made his
17:13bed now and he is lying in it. This picture here was taken just a few days ago. He was competing
17:19for Team GB over the weekend and he won the men's sprint and carrion finals at the Track
17:24Champions League event in France as well. So he's clearly bringing a lot of success. And if we look
17:28at this from a Kent perspective, we get to add him to another one of the big list of names that
17:32have made such success for Team GB over the years. And speaking of, we'll be joined by Charlotte
17:38Evans. She's originally from Chatham, former Paralympic champion in skiing. She'll be here
17:43to talk about the Medway Sport Awards, which is coming up soon and that she is a judge on.
17:49Speaking of the Medway Sport, not a bright weekend for Gillingham. No, that's true. Mark
17:53Bonner, not a very happy guy after their loss to Harrogate. And we can take a look at some of
17:56those highlights now. In the EFL, Gillingham's return to League Two action ended on a downer,
18:01with the Medway side conceding advantage to lose 2-1 to Harrogate at home. Team Dieng broke the
18:06deadlock early on in the second half, but the Gilles lead was wiped out with goals from Anthony
18:11O'Connor and Josh March. I thought we were disgraced when we went ahead, to be honest,
18:15and I think being ahead in four of our last, I don't know, six games, something like that,
18:19and not taking anything from the game. Probably a bit like everybody else in the stadium. I
18:23absolutely hated the last half hour and it was as rubbish as everyone thought. So,
18:29we deserve to be booed off because that is miles off a good team there.
18:32Like you say, it has happened too many times. We all know that. We've got to try and find
18:39everything ourselves to put an end to that and try and hold on to the 1-0 or try and put
18:44teams to bed and try and score a few more. The result means Gillingham drop to 11th now,
18:49with just one win since September. But all eyes to their next game,
18:53where Gillingham are away to Bromley, where a historic South East derby awaits.
19:01All that and more sport coming up in Invicta Sport after Kent tonight this evening,
19:06but let's take a look at the weather now.
19:08Tonight, temperatures of seven and eight degrees across the county,
19:17lows of six in Ashford, along with a little bit of rain in Tunbridge, Wales and Dover.
19:21Going into tomorrow, though, clear skies all around with highs of eight towards the coast,
19:25lows of seven in the other half of Kent there. The sun remains into the afternoon as well,
19:30with an average temperature of eight degrees across Kent, nine by the coast there.
19:34Now, for the next few days, heavy rain again on Wednesday,
19:37didn't last too long, that sunshine temperatures between twelve and seven.
19:51Now, don't forget, as well as watching us here at five thirty every weekday,
19:55you can keep up to date with all the latest stories across Kent by logging on to our website.
19:58It's KMTV.co.uk.
20:01You'll find all our reports, including this one about the sudden closure of a tattoo shop
20:06being illegally sublet in New Ash Green.
20:09It was essentially I went to bed with a shop and woke up without one.
20:13Fifteen thousand pounds of investment. That's how much Charlie and his partner
20:18poured into their business, only for bailiffs to change the locks unexpectedly,
20:22leaving them fearing they've lost it all.
20:25Three businesses at New Ash Green shopping centre were shut down after property managers
20:30claimed the units were being unlawfully sublet.
20:33The site, owned by LTP New Ash Limited,
20:36was bought at auction last year and is managed by KMP Solutions.
20:41Charlie, the owner of Bissell Inc, was given no warning about the closure
20:45and is concerned for his partner, who does piercings at the shop,
20:48as well as their 12-week-old baby.
20:51She's unable to drive because of how traumatic,
20:55both physically and mentally, this birth has been for her.
20:57So the fact I was able to stay close by and support her in many ways
21:01was a massive benefit for us.
21:03Charlie says that bailiffs arrived early in the morning while they were asleep,
21:07despite being told he'd be kept informed if there were any property issues.
21:11I mean, with regards to the fact that these three businesses have invested in those units,
21:17that's absolutely true.
21:18They've put a lot of their own money and time into making those studios suitable.
21:25And we don't believe that they did anything wrong at all.
21:30Losing an average of £500 a day, as well as a deposit they'd saved for a family home,
21:35Charlie has been offered alternative properties,
21:38but insists hygiene standards are crucial for his parlour and he can't move just anywhere.
21:43Lots of customers have already paid deposits for upcoming tattoos,
21:47which he can't afford to give back.
21:49Paint that is medical grade and wipeable, make the surfaces wipeable
21:53and everything up to a good standard to make sure that, of course,
21:55what we deal with is blood pool pathogens and infections and wounds and such,
22:00is such a mammoth task that it always takes us months,
22:04whenever we move into a premises, to get it up to a standard.
22:08In a statement, KMP Solutions said that it is possible that the three businesses
22:12may not have been aware that their use of the premises was not under lawful terms.
22:16We recognise that they are likely well-meaning small business owners.
22:21Charlie says that trying to work through all these issues is like finding a needle in a haystack
22:26and he needs a permanent location soon, rather than a temporary solution for his customers.
22:31Kristen Hawthorne, KMTV in New Yashgreen.
22:36And finally this evening, Medway is gearing up for some Christmas magic
22:40as elves are working hard on the opening of the Rochester markets this Friday.
22:43For the 15th year in a row, there'll be stalls, pantos, food and festivities,
22:48with some more inclusive features too.
22:51And our reporter Finn has been given a tour of the children's village ahead of the opening.
22:55And Finn joins us live now.
22:57Finn, what do you make of it? Did you feel like a child on Christmas Day yourself?
23:03Yeah, even though it's November, it certainly feels like the Christmas season now,
23:08especially with the cold.
23:09But just behind me, you might be able to hear some of the children
23:13enjoying some nice warm marshmallows to warm them up.
23:16But I don't have that luxury, unfortunately.
23:19I've just been given a tour of the Christmas village.
23:22We're here right now in the Rochester Castle Gardens.
23:26There's arts and crafts, there's gingerbread decorating,
23:28and there's even a very special guest waiting to read the kids, the children, a story.
23:34But I don't want to spoil too much ahead of the big opening this Friday.
23:39It's the 15th annual Christmas market.
23:42And right now I'm in the food section, which is just a bit...
23:47I think it's bigger than last year's.
23:49So yeah.
23:50It's not the only thing that they've done new as well.
23:53They've not only extended the food court, the food village part of it,
23:57but they actually have some more inclusive features as well.
24:04Yes, we certainly do have some more inclusive features.
24:08Since Christmas can be a bit overwhelming for some people,
24:12the music, the lights, and especially the crowd.
24:15So they're running more relaxed sessions this year,
24:18as well as having British Sign Language at some of the events.
24:22Earlier I spoke with Claire Horan.
24:24She works for Medway Council as the Festival and Events Manager,
24:28and talked to her a bit about that inclusivity.
24:32So on the Friday mornings, our relaxed shopping sessions will be quiet sessions.
24:37So not a lot of background noise, less people around.
24:41So for people who like it a bit more of a less frenzied environment,
24:46then Friday mornings are going to be great.
24:48And then our Children's Christmas Village, which was the first time we did last year,
24:52this year we were thinking,
24:53how can we bring and be more inclusive to our younger audiences
24:57in the BSL sessions, which we're having on the Sunday the 8th.
25:02Lots to look forward to this Friday.
25:05Finn, what's your favourite part?
25:14Can we hear Finn?
25:14The Christmas season is probably the food.
25:17What was that, Finn? Your favourite part's food?
25:21Yes, it'd definitely be the food.
25:23We're here in the food section, like I mentioned.
25:25But yeah, my favourite part, probably the food.
25:28You know, turkey, mint sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire puddings.
25:33Mint sauce with your turkey. Is the mint sauce meant to be with beef?
25:38Lamb? I'm hearing lamb. Even I got that wrong.
25:43No, I think, I just, I don't know. It just works. It just works.
25:48All right, Finn, what's it been like down there?
25:50What are the parents and children making of it?
25:54They seem to really be enjoying themselves.
25:57Like I mentioned, not only is there the Christmas Village, but come Friday,
26:02there's going to be the Medway Afro-Caribbean Association.
26:07They're hosting an African and Caribbean market.
26:11And as always, there's going to be your classic Christmas market activities.
26:15Fairground rides, merry-go-rounds,
26:17and some of the marshmallow toasting they've been enjoying behind me.
26:20And even Mrs Claus is going to be there to read them a story.
26:24Very exciting stuff, Finn. Thank you.
26:26You can be one of the elves, although your height doesn't make you seem like an elf.
26:30I'm sure you can get helping there at the Christmas market.
26:33Finn, thank you very much.
26:34So we've got time for this evening.
26:36Bartholomew Hall will be here with Invictus Sport after the break.
26:59you