Catch up with all the news across the county with Bartholomew Hall.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Kentonite, live on KMTV.
00:28I'm Bartholomew Hall, here are your top stories on Thursday the 5th of December.
00:34Faversham flooded, sudden leaks leave businesses without water and forced to close.
00:39Yeah, just watch their customers come to the door, look at the sign and walk off.
00:44Antisocial swale, we take to Sittingbourne's High Street for an up-close look on the town's
00:49troublesome teens.
00:50As you can see, I've just tried to open my passenger door as I'm driving past, brilliant.
00:58An unfortunate tale, fox saved as Chatham Charity warns of the growing threat to the
01:03wild animal in our towns.
01:05We're seeing foxes during the day, unfortunately we're seeing foxes on the side of the road
01:09in children's parks because locally we are just building on every single wild area.
01:25Good evening.
01:26Dramatic footage shows the moment a flooding Faversham road was destroyed by a passing
01:31bus resulting in much disruption to the town centre.
01:35Despite being reopened, businesses on Prescott Street have been forced to shut today, including
01:39one bakery which says the problems only add to the struggle at this time of year.
01:44Our reporter Oliver Leeder de Sacks has more.
01:47It's something no small business wants to wake up to.
02:01Only for it to become much more devastating.
02:10According to South East Water, it was a bus like that one that just passed that made the
02:15leak much worse than it started out as, and that has left much of that side of Preston
02:22Street without running water, forcing small independent businesses like Oscars Bakery
02:30to close and impacting their bottom line in the lead up to Christmas.
02:34You just have to laugh, otherwise you cry, is really it.
02:38We lost a whole day's trade, so, you know, five days were open, that's one day less.
02:44So, yeah, just watched our customers come to the door, look at the sign and walk off.
02:49No fresh bread and no hot coffee means Stephanie's Bakery may have taken up to a 20% hit on this
02:58week's earnings.
03:00But it's not the only business impacted.
03:03Up the road, the usual lunchtime bustle at the Limes was nowhere to be seen, with the
03:10pub also being left without water.
03:14One of the guys running the job from Southern Water has kept us informed, so he came into
03:19the pub to tell me it was unlikely to be open before midday, probably mid-afternoon.
03:25So I took the decision to not open for legal reasons with no water supply for toilets and
03:31for hygiene.
03:32I'll lose trade, so it's as simple as that.
03:35I had 15 booked in for lunch, which I've had to cancel, so it's not great, but these things
03:41happen.
03:42South East Water have apologised to both customers and businesses along Preston Road, stating
03:50that a technician was sent out to make the area safe before the rest of the repair team
03:56arrived.
03:57Those repairs have now been completed, but it won't bring back the trade lost for businesses
04:03forced to shut up shop for the day.
04:06Oliver Leader, The Sacks, for KMTV in Faversham.
04:12Next tonight, reports of anti-social behaviour on the streets of Sittingbourne have been
04:15pushing crowds away from the town's nightlife.
04:18That's according to businesses who have spoken with the Kent Messenger as part of an investigation.
04:23Kent Online reporter Joe Crosley has been taking a look at the town centre's notorious
04:27issues and he spent a night observing just how bad it can get.
04:31I spoke with him about the long-lasting issue earlier today.
04:35The reason behind the investigation was for the last couple of months we've had some high-profile
04:40anti-social behaviour incidents that we've reported on.
04:45So those namely were two McDonald's workers were reportedly assaulted while at work in
04:51the town centre, and also during the Christmas lights switch on, which should obviously be
04:57a very happy occasion for everybody who goes along to it.
05:01Youths again were reported to have caused havoc, smashing a window in Shoe Zone again
05:07allegedly.
05:08So yeah, this is why we wanted to go and do the investigation to find out why things have
05:13got this bad.
05:15So we went down into Sittingbourne High Street and Sittingbourne town centre and we kind
05:20of drove around, had a look.
05:22Largely it was quite quiet, but there was one group of sort of 10 to 11-year-olds who
05:28were hanging around by one of the hot spots really, which is near, which is a bunch of
05:35benches down by St Michael's Church, which is right down at the bottom of the high street.
05:41And basically as we drove past, they tried to yank open my passenger door.
05:45I say tried, they did yank open my passenger door as I drove past.
05:49So this all adds to sort of this sense of danger and intimidation that a lot of people
05:54have told us about, that have spoken to us.
05:57Yeah, I know it does sound really scary, of course, being there and having your door open.
06:01What have the police had to say about what you found?
06:03Sure.
06:04Yeah.
06:05I mean, the police say that they're, you know, they're doing their jobs really, that they
06:09are seeing a problem.
06:12But basically this story runs back for about 15 months.
06:15We spoke to the police 15 months ago in August last year, and they basically said that they
06:21are seeing a reduction in crime, and that these were mainly about street drinkers and
06:26shoplifters.
06:27And the police say that their crackdown on that specifically is going really well.
06:33Now they're sort of seeing, because of these street drinkers away from the high street
06:38and this anti-social behavior has gone down, you've sort of now got a highlighted presence
06:42of these young people who are causing problems.
06:46So now they're sort of cracking down on them.
06:49They're bringing in some new initiatives.
06:51So one of these was a sort of football initiative to get young people away from town centers
06:57and playing football, which they said that they've got the funding for a second year
07:01of or to be continued with.
07:04And then they've also, if they are finding young people who are out and about and caught
07:11doing anti-social behavior, maybe these conversations with parents going right to the heart of
07:17families is going to be something that will stop some young people messing about in town centers.
07:24Yeah, very important investigation.
07:25Joe, thank you very much for bringing us those details.
07:29New drone footage shows the aftermath of a dramatic fire that burned for more than 24
07:34hours in a former Debenhams store on Canterbury High Street this week.
07:38After it started on Monday evening at its peak, the fire had 50 firefighters stopping
07:43it from spreading elsewhere throughout the city, with 30 people having to be evacuated
07:46from their homes and one needing medical attention.
07:49Well, in the days since, two 15-year-olds have been arrested.
07:52One has been bailed whilst inquiries continue, whilst the other has been released without charge.
07:57The exact cause of the fire is still unknown, but an investigation is due to start imminently
08:02with authorities treating it as suspicious.
08:07Kent is the third most likely area in the country to be scammed during festive shopping.
08:12That's according to data from Kent Police, which shows losses from consumers here in
08:16the county racking up to an estimated £154,000.
08:20With thousands across the county and most likely many of you at home thinking of buying
08:23gifts this season, I spoke with Everey's Chief Security Officer, Richard Butta, about what
08:28you should be looking out for.
08:31So the things that we are saying that people should look out for, the easiest way to remember
08:35is think of the three L's.
08:37So quite simply, from top to down in a message, the first L is lack of personalisation.
08:42So does it just have a very big, hi, hello without your name?
08:47So that's the first hint.
08:49For example, if your parcel is with Every, we'd always know who you are, so it would
08:52be hi and your name after that.
08:55The second one is language.
08:57A lot of scam messages, they're really poorly formatted, bad grammar, and there's a sense
09:02of urgency, there's a call to action from you, they don't want you to think too long
09:07before you act.
09:08So the second one is about language.
09:11And the third one, that's kind of the most important one, is link.
09:15So that link is what gets you.
09:17So if that link is taking you to another website where you input information about yourself
09:23or with your bank details, username, password, that's another watch out.
09:28So the three awareness hints for you for watching out for a scam message is the three L's.
09:34Yeah, definitely.
09:35And looking up some of those dodgy links as well, I know that's one of the key ones, like
09:38you say there.
09:39And obviously, we've seen some of these figures, such a huge rise in scams, people falling
09:44for them.
09:45Why do you think that Christmas time in particular is challenging for scams and why it seems
09:50to be the type of year that criminals are looking out for people that they can steal
09:54money from for information?
09:56Yeah, unfortunately, the scams are increasing.
10:00This year alone, we have taken down over 14,000 malicious websites.
10:04And the number of reports that we're getting of scam messages keeps increasing.
10:08So in the last six months, we have had 30,000 scam reports.
10:12During this time between Black Friday to Christmas, most people are expecting a delivery from
10:17us.
10:18We are delivering about 4 million parcels each day between now and Christmas.
10:23So the likelihood of you expecting a parcel and those, you know, spray and pray type of
10:29attacks with scam messages means that you're more likely to click on them.
10:34And hence, that's the time where the scam messages increase.
10:37Yeah, definitely.
10:39And obviously, with firms like yourselves and every yodel becoming ever more the popular
10:44choice for retailers to send our gifts and our parcels to us, especially at Christmastime,
10:50you can tell that these reports are on the rise.
10:53And there was an Ofcom report earlier this year that said that some customers, two thirds,
10:57were saying that they were having issues, whether that was having delays with their
10:59parcels or getting in touch with customer support.
11:02When it comes to customers falling into problems with scams or deliveries or whatever it is,
11:07I'm just wondering what steps you have at Everee for people to be able to resolve that
11:11and get in touch with you?
11:13Yeah, so we do proactively take down a number of scam websites.
11:18And as I said, if you find anything suspicious, then you can always write to us.
11:24So it's phishing at Everee.com.
11:26But the one thing is, if you're looking out for your parcel and you're waiting for delivery
11:30information, go straight to our website, use our tracking information.
11:35And the most authenticated way of reaching out to us is our app.
11:39If you download our app, there's no middleman there, there's no SMS in the middle, so you
11:43can directly reach us.
11:45Richa, thank you very much for joining us today.
11:47Very good to have you on the show.
11:50Plenty more news made just for Kent coming up after this break.
14:47Hello, and welcome back to Kent Tonight live on KMTV.
15:16Overpriced, underwhelming and lacking any sense of magic or atmosphere.
15:22This is how parents are describing the Elf on the Shelf Christmas experience at Blue
15:26Walter.
15:27The 25 minute event, which includes a free roaming style play group, is described on
15:32its ticketing website as a never seen before interactive theatrical experience.
15:37However, customer reviews have not issued such a similar growing description, with the
15:42experience having only received a score of 2.5 on Trustpilot, while a spokesperson from
15:48Elf on the Shelf says it's received both positive and negative responses, whilst Blue Walter
15:53says it's shared feedback with the third party events company and looks forward to welcoming
15:58more people to enjoy the experience.
16:02A cat rescue centre in Chatham is warning of the growing threat to wild foxes after
16:06it was forced to step in and save one which had been trapped in fencing overnight in Rochester.
16:12Billy Devitt from Wisteria Cat Rescue took in the fox after it was reported that mainstream
16:16rescue and vet services were unable to attend.
16:20Well Kristen Hawthorne joins me now with more, you've been speaking with Billy today, tell
16:23us about this situation in particular.
16:25Yeah, so just this morning, this fox, it's called Bella, a scaffolder spotted it caught
16:32in a fence.
16:33He was able to save it, he got her out of the fence, got her to lay down, thankfully
16:39once Billy had went to go and get her, they found she had no broken bones, but she was
16:44severely shocked, her temperature was dropping, but again thankfully she's now getting a lot
16:50better.
16:51Interestingly, I've seen a lot of foxes that have been injured or killed recently, and
16:55I asked them why this is happening.
17:00We're seeing more foxes, we're seeing foxes during the day, unfortunately we're seeing
17:03a fox on the side of the road in children's parks, because locally we are just building
17:09on every single wild area, and unfortunately if you've got a fox then, then foxes are going
17:15to go somewhere, which does mean they're going to come local to people's homes.
17:20I think building is the biggest attribute to these poor foxes, we're building on their
17:25homes, these animals deserve to live as much as we do.
17:30So I mean a lot of people aren't too keen on foxes, I mean I know gardeners and farmers
17:35they're quite maybe scared of them ruining what they have, however I did ask Billy what
17:42could be done with foxes to sort of help them out a little bit better.
17:47If you've got old food, do check the Fox Project website out, you can see food that is safe
17:53to feed foxes, do feed them, you don't need to encourage them into your gardens, we're
17:57not asking people to leave mouths of food down because obviously that's not good for
18:02dogs and cats, or other wildlife, but if you do know that there's a fox living in the end
18:08of your garden, just leave it undisturbed, they will take their self off.
18:11If you know that cubs are underneath your shed as we roll into spring, we are in the
18:17mating season at the moment, so foxes like Bella, who was a little girl, chances are
18:22she was probably mating and that's why she was out, so all I'd say is please just leave
18:27them alone, they will take their self off.
18:30Yes, so it is important to note that foxes are quite resilient, however it's not, you
18:38know, oh my goodness.
18:40Obviously we see them a lot at night time, I know where I live in Medway we see lots
18:44of them at night.
18:45What's the advice for them?
18:46We heard a bit about what we can do in the day time, but obviously that's where we tend
18:49to see them, it's during the night.
18:51So if you're driving about at night and you're in the 30mph zone and there's no street lights
18:55or anything, Billy does recommend to slow down to 20 and just keep an eye out to stop
18:59killing anymore.
19:00Kristin, thank you very much for those details.
19:03Now don't forget you can keep up to date with all your latest stories across Kent by logging
19:06on to our website kmtv.co.uk, when you get there you can take a look at all our videos
19:12including this one about a Kent police officer who turned to painting after being involved
19:16in a life changing car crash.
19:19It's not quite every day that a police officer trades their uniform for a lifetime of art.
19:24Anne Baldwin from St Mary's Island swapped her 15 year policing career after a life changing
19:29car accident.
19:30She credits her success to her strong willed nature and has even experienced homelessness.
19:36I was homeless, I was on the streets in Chelsea and I thought to myself, look, is this it
19:43for me?
19:44Is that all that's going to be for me?
19:46I'm just going to die on the streets at the age of 16, 17.
19:50The car crash left me with life changing injuries, so I couldn't do my job anymore.
19:57Basically I can't move my hand and I can't twist.
20:03Doctors told her surgery could leave her paralysed from the waist down.
20:06I always know that something good is going to come out of it.
20:10So when I had the accident and like five years later they told me that's it, I mean
20:16I'd actually studied for my sergeant's, I'd passed my exams, second time round, I was
20:22so chuffed.
20:23I thought great, I'm going to have a team, it's going to be amazing.
20:26And then overnight everything changed, but the way that you have to look at it, it doesn't
20:31matter how bad things get, it doesn't matter if it's five minutes, five days, weeks, months,
20:38years or even decades later, something good is going to come out of it.
20:43It's just you don't always see it at the time.
20:45But the ambidextrous artist taught herself how to draw using online tutorials and says
20:50art helps calm her anxious mind.
20:53And I was doodling, literally just doodling on a piece of paper and I thought oh, hello,
20:59that's not too bad.
21:00So I got onto YouTube, then I started buying equipment, I now have a mantra which is basically
21:07bad things happen for good reasons.
21:09Now Anne runs a successful studio from her Chatham living room.
21:13Her social media reach has meant she's had customers from as far away as the USA.
21:18Now she wants to start painting and turn her attention to landscapes.
21:22Art didn't always seem like the natural career path for Anne.
21:25After achieving a D in her Art A level, she's managed to make some extraordinary portraits
21:31specialising in humans and pets.
21:33And this is Anne with her dog Rupert.
21:36Sinean Akhvi for KMTV in Chatham.
21:41Now following the naming of Storm Dara, the Leeds Christmas Castle lights display has
21:45been cancelled because of the storm which could bring 80 mile an hour winds across the
21:50south east with an amber warning issued.
21:53A spokesperson told us that any tickets holders will be contacted but some customers aren't
21:58happy as the same event was cancelled last year and it's not the only one with Dover's
22:02winter light up also to be postponed until after the festive season.
22:06Meteorologists say there is also a slight chance that Dara could cause damage to buildings,
22:11flooding and power cuts and people are being advised to secure loose items out of their
22:16home.
22:17Well let's take a look at the weather in a little bit more detail.
22:19Well let's start with this evening, a warm, wet and windy night ahead.
22:27Heavy rain throughout the evening, 13 degrees across the board, wind speeds picking up.
22:31Tomorrow that yellow warning comes into force for wind over the county but in the morning
22:36we're having clear skies, temperatures of 7 and 8 degrees.
22:40Here's the afternoon, that yellow warning staying in place, roughly the same temperatures
22:44but that cloud coming in as well.
22:46Here's the outlook, yellow wind warning stays until Sunday, temperatures in the high single
22:51digits.
23:00And finally this evening, December has passed which means it's the perfect time of year
23:04for looking back over what's passed in the last 12 months.
23:07Millions of people have woken up today and taken a look back at their Spotify wrapped
23:12feature where you get to take a look back at all the music that you've listened to over
23:15the years.
23:16But ahead of a brand new episode of the Kent Film Club airing this evening we thought we'd
23:20take a look back at some of the movies that have been released this year along with the
23:24show's presenter Chris Desey who is here now.
23:26Chris, thank you very much for being here.
23:28We've got a film on the screen here which you told me earlier is the film that you've
23:33potentially seen the most this year.
23:35Tell me about it.
23:36Well not on the same scale as Mission Impossible last year which I think I saw 13 times at
23:39the cinema.
23:40Wow.
23:41So I think that would blow Spotify wrap off the radar.
23:43Yes.
23:44Genre 2 I've seen four times.
23:45But extraordinary, do you remember all those John Grisham adaptations, big from the 90s?
23:49This has a similar kind of premise, guy in court, he's on the jury and suddenly he realises
23:56that he has a role to play in the case that's unfolding and the guy is innocent who's being
24:01charged with a murder and maybe he did it.
24:03Now that sounds like a fanciful conceit but the film puts the Socratic family first and
24:08it sort of has this quite unbelievable premise but starts unpacking it in a way that Clint
24:14Eastwood does so beautifully.
24:15I mean he's 94, he's been making films for 60 years and I was just blown away by this
24:20film and it feels as though he has so much more to say and it probably is his swan song.
24:25Yeah of course, anything attached to Clint Eastwood always goes down well in my books
24:28definitely and then we've got Venom on here.
24:31This one didn't go down well with you did it?
24:32It didn't for me.
24:33I saw the first one, the second one was okay.
24:35It kind of felt to me here as though there's this premise which you see of course throughout
24:38the Marvel Universe.
24:39I've been in cinemas when Venom has come on and people have been literally jumping out
24:43of their seat and thinking hey, you know, a reference to the multiverse, all that intertextuality.
24:47This one to me felt it was going through the motions.
24:49I didn't think that it had the same sort of texture.
24:52I was a bit disappointed.
24:53I don't normally review a film after I've watched it.
24:55I kind of felt with this one I wanted to just kind of let it go.
24:58Yeah, just before we move on to our final film, just wondering what you think about
25:01superhero films now.
25:02We've had so many of them, especially with the Marvel Universe over the past 10 years.
25:06Do you think we're getting to the point where it's becoming that kind of oversaturated,
25:10audiences getting used to it now?
25:12I'm old enough to remember when the first Batman came out, Tim Burton's in 89 and that
25:15was so different from anything that we'd seen before.
25:18I kind of feel now that that's the template that we're used to expecting.
25:22DC films, nothing to do with me, the DC films have, I think, got a lot better and darker
25:26in the Batman franchise.
25:28The Marvel films, I kind of feel that there's a bit of coasting going on.
25:30I remember Sean Penn saying a year or two ago that he feels that there's a point now
25:33when Hollywood needs to move on from the superhero genre.
25:36I mean, I might not be the right demographic for that.
25:38I've been in audiences where Spider-Man has come on and they thought, hey, another iteration
25:42of Spider-Man, you know, and they've all jumped out of their seats.
25:44But I think that a film like Juror No. 2, which my 12-year-old daughter watched and
25:49was completely blown away with, I think it kind of shows that there's a lot more that
25:52cinema can offer.
25:53Yeah, definitely.
25:54Well, let's talk about Wicked then, obviously.
25:55In terms of films this year, one of the highest-grossing ones, it's only been out for a couple of weeks
25:59or so.
26:00But in terms of adaptations, and we were talking about Marvel just then and all of the films
26:05that can come from that, there's lots of Broadway shows, lots of West End shows that could be
26:08potentially turned into films in the future.
26:10There are.
26:11And do you think of Back to the Future?
26:12Actually, I was just thinking here as well, because I saw Trading Places on the big screen
26:16yesterday.
26:17There's something similar here.
26:18It's a bit like the thing of places.
26:19Who's good?
26:20Who's evil?
26:21I haven't seen the stage play.
26:22Obviously, I know the original Wizard of Oz from 1939.
26:26What works here, a bit like the film Trading Places, is in a way the question of who you
26:30think is a good person, put them in a different context, and they turn out rather differently.
26:35It's a really clever conceit.
26:36Of course, it's in two parts.
26:38After two hours and 40 minutes, you think we're just halfway through, but there's so
26:41much more to offer.
26:42And plenty more film discussion like this on the Kent Film Club just coming up after
26:44the break.
26:45That is it from us.
26:46Goodbye.
26:48Goodbye.