Join Abby Hook and Bartholomew Hall with all the latest news for Kent, in the morning!
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00:00Now, Medway Council is sitting on nearly £20 million of unused funding from housing developers.
00:26Section 106 contributions improve local communities when developers receive planning permission for larger projects.
00:33Well, a Freedom of Information request has revealed that just 1.5% of the money collected in the last 12 years for health projects has actually been spent.
00:43Our local democracy reporter, Gabriel Morris, has more.
00:46Over the last decade or two, Medway has seen some large-scale developments across its towns.
00:52After planning permission is given, a legal agreement is signed between the developer and the local authority.
00:58It's to give community money to the local area to offset the burden of whatever they're building.
01:05Now, here in Gillingham, this play park was funded by Section 106 contributions.
01:11However, as a whole, not all of the money contributed over the last 12 years has been spent.
01:18Maggie Francis first became aware of this 10 years ago.
01:21Well, people have to have homes. We know that. We all started out somewhere.
01:25She was fighting against a housing developer's appeal, now built and overlooking her home.
01:31Since then, she has sent more than 1,000 emails, farred freedom at information requests and held meetings to try and find out where the money has gone.
01:40I'm disgusted. Absolutely disgusted. I've been asking for years to see what this money is being spent on.
01:48It's almost as if it's a hot potato and everybody's passing it around and nobody wants to catch it.
01:54What is it that you want Medway Council to tell you?
01:57Nobody's told me anything. Nobody has ever told me that I'm wrong.
02:01Nobody's ever asked me, until you've come along, why I'm asking these questions.
02:07It's almost as if, just move along here, nothing to see here, just ignore her and she'll go away.
02:13I think they're discovering that I'm not going away.
02:17It's been revealed that the total unspent money stacks up to £19.5 million since 2013.
02:25When it comes to health-related projects, after the 40 agreements signed, only two have been spent.
02:32Some of this money set aside to improving GP services in the towns.
02:37Medway Council says it takes time and planning to spend contributions,
02:40but the team continues to work with those services and third-party partners to ensure funds are utilised appropriately.
02:47It's also understood that there's frustration with the local NHS Integrated Care Board
02:51over collecting the funding from the authority.
02:54The ICB says when there is an identified and approved project to allocate the funding to,
02:59there can be a significant time lag between the S106 contribution being secured through the planning application,
03:05the development starting and getting to the stage where the contribution is due.
03:10And nationally, it's thought £8 billion worth of this money is being held by councils,
03:15according to the Home Builders' Federation.
03:18What's more, there are time limits, meaning if it's not spent, the developer can request it back.
03:24Gabriel Morris in Medway.
03:25Now, police were called to a family fun day.
03:33Sorry, I don't have my scripts up in front of me.
03:36A fun day hosted by Swan Young Farmers Club after being targeted by activists.
03:40Yeah, it comes after the activists say they wanted to bring awareness of where food comes from,
03:45but some parents were left shocked by the leaflets.
03:49Well, Daisy Page joins us now.
03:51Take us through this situation.
03:53So, obviously, as we just heard, the Swan Young Farmers Club hosted a spring fair in Ashford.
03:59It was to raise money for their club, and by the end of it, they managed to raise over £2,000.
04:03However, at 1.30pm, police were called following a report of a small group of protesters.
04:11Officers attended to prevent the breach of peace.
04:14Activists left and no arrests were made.
04:16However, I can take you a bit through, David.
04:18Behind us, we can see protesters came.
04:21They set up a stall, and they were handing out, as you can see here, leaflets to people attendants of the spring fair.
04:29And we can actually show the leaflets in just a moment as well.
04:33It said on the leaflets it offered a fun-packed tour around the local abattoirs.
04:37And while some people were not bothered, there were really a big amount of mixed reactions.
04:43Some people saw the funny side of the stunt, but some people were quite upset.
04:50There was reports of a mum who said that her six-year-old daughter nearly burst into tears after receiving this.
04:57After the fair, Giles Dillabote, a member of the Young Slaughterers, who were the activists, said,
05:06We need to bring back honesty in farming and think that parents should have these conversations with little ones from an early age.
05:13She said that she thinks slamming events were the perfect opportunity, but unfortunately farming is fundamentally dishonest.
05:20So that's why they were there, to hand out and raise awareness of where this came from.
05:25However, another parent who attended said that when she received the leaflet, she laughed, she saw the funny side.
05:33But when she scanned the QR code on the campaigner's leaflet, it took them to a direct YouTube video of people abusing animals in a slaughterhouse.
05:43The mother who received the leaflet posted this online, and it did spark debate online as well, not just at the fair itself.
05:50Some people said, finally, someone willing to show the truth of where meat comes from.
05:57But others expressed their frustration in this, saying that young farmers do great work and that this was not the place to be pushing around this type of message.
06:04Yeah, I think you can see, just by looking at the leaflet, the kind of message they were going for, it's obviously got this kind of family-friendly, kind of cartoonish feel to it.
06:15But then if you actually read the words, it's clearly, there we go, we've got it up on the screen now, and it's got a similar kind of look to the real poster on the left there.
06:22It's clearly trying to make a point about slaughterhouses and how that can sometimes be covered up by the spring fair and by the kind of cute, cuddly pictures that you've got on the real one.
06:36But then the question is, is it suitable to be doing this in front of children as well?
06:42And clearly, I mean, according to some parents there, they didn't think so at all.
06:45Yeah, the Swan Young Farmers have replied. Now, they are a non-profit organisation and it's for young farmers between the age of 10 and 28.
06:56They have since released an apology for the disruption caused by activists.
07:02They said like a massive thank you for everyone attending, but they wanted to make it clear that they were not a part of the spring fair and they tried to do everything that they could to get them removed.
07:11But again, as activists, they keep echoing that the Young Slaughterers Association mirrors, which is their words, what they said, the Young Farmers Club, and aims to bring awareness around food comes from.
07:25So they're really echoing that statement of they want to bring awareness of where food comes from.
07:30But going back to what you said, just whether it was executed rightly.
07:35Yeah, exactly. OK, well, Daisy, thank you very much for bringing us that story.
07:40As always, plenty more on that over on Kent Online.
07:43It's the top story today, so I can read plenty more on that one.
07:49Now, with the cost of living affecting thousands, some who are particularly struggling in these times are unpaid carers, according to charities.
07:58In fact, one in seven have had to use a food bank.
08:02Well, that's why Medway Food Bank has partnered with Carers First and started a campaign called the Carer Poverty Project to try and tackle the issue.
08:10They believe the carers' allowance just isn't enough to support these key workers, despite the increase in the earnings threshold from the government.
08:18Well, we were joined by Mike Evans from Medway Food Bank to discuss what they're trying to do to help unpaid carers.
08:23Mike, thank you very much for joining us today.
08:26Now, Medway Food Bank has joined forces with Carers First, and that's in the hope of reducing the number of unpaid carers living in poverty.
08:33And there's actually a large number using your service.
08:37What have they told you as to why that is?
08:42Well, there's a variety of reasons.
08:44And obviously, the cost of living is very, very high at the moment.
08:49That has got worse this month because there are increases in council tax, gas, electricity, water bills are going up, broadband.
09:01But even before those recent rises, many, many carers have been struggling.
09:09Well, the government have previously said the increase in the carers' allowance earnings threshold is the biggest rise since its introduction in 1976.
09:19But you'd say it's just not enough to meet those increasing pressures and costs elsewhere.
09:26Yeah, I mean, that's the earnings threshold.
09:27That's a different thing.
09:28That's not the amount you're paid.
09:29The earnings threshold was previously £151 a week, which was the amount you're allowed to earn to be eligible for carers' allowance.
09:37That has gone up a lot to £196 a week.
09:40So you're now able to earn £196 a week and not lose your carers' allowance.
09:47But it doesn't alter the fact that carers' allowance is still incredibly low at £83.30 per week.
09:53So the fact that you're able to earn a little bit more, and if you add those two numbers up,
09:57£196 a week, £196 a week, it's still a very low sum.
10:02And tell us how this campaign came about working with carers first.
10:08What are some of the issues that you've noticed, actually, at the food bank with some carers coming to you and asking for your support?
10:15Well, the project originated from Trussell, actually, formerly Trussell Trust.
10:22Medway Food Bank is affiliated to Trussell, and they have a vision of a society without the need for food banks.
10:29It's very idealistic and optimistic, perhaps.
10:31But they've asked each individual food bank to identify the drivers of poverty in their area and to work to reduce them.
10:42And we have teamed up with Carers First because Carers First have noticed that there's an absolute epidemic of poverty amongst the carers that they are supporting.
10:53Carers First give practical advice to carers and emotional support to carers.
10:56But they're very, very worried about how many carers are in deep, deep poverty.
11:02And we, of course, have noticed a huge number of carers coming to the food bank.
11:07You know, they're brilliant people who work in that industry, but their pay is very low.
11:11But this campaign is specifically about unpaid carers who are normally family members looking after a loved one,
11:21someone who might have dementia or profound learning disabilities.
11:24Tell us how you're going to be helping these carers.
11:27How are you going to be trying to reach out to them and making sure that they're getting the support that you can offer?
11:33What we're doing at the moment is, together with Carers First, we have started the Carer Poverty Project.
11:44And I'd invite any of your viewers to go on to our website, the careofpovertyproject.co.uk.
11:53Now, one lucky person in Sevenoaks has drawn a winning ticket for the lottery's Set for Life draw,
12:12meaning they are entitled to £10,000 a month for the next 30 years.
12:18But their luck is about to run out as they haven't claimed the prize, totalling £3.6 million.
12:24And they have just seven days to, well, realise and produce that winning ticket or they won't see a penny.
12:31Well, Finn McDermid has been down to Sevenoaks with the mission of tracking down the mystery millionaire.
12:37What would you do if you had £10,000 straight into your bank account every month for 30 years?
12:44Well, for one Sevenoaks local, the dream is a reality.
12:47But the catch is, they don't even know it.
12:49And if they don't realise and produce a winning ticket by the 22nd of April,
12:53then the money will go to national lottery-funded projects across the country instead of their wallet.
12:58But there's another catch.
13:00The ticket was bought all the way back in October last year, and time is running out.
13:04If the Sevenoaks secret millionaire doesn't come forward in the next week,
13:07then they wouldn't be entitled to a penny of that life-changing money.
13:11But I was on a mission to find our missing money bags with the help of the people of Sevenoaks.
13:16Of the 120,000 people here in Sevenoaks, just one person has the winning ticket.
13:21And we're going to see if we can find them today. Let's go.
13:23Excuse me, madam. Do you use the lottery at all?
13:26Do you know, I don't.
13:27You don't. Okay.
13:28Well, if you did win, what would you do with, it's the Set for Life campaign,
13:32so it's £10,000 every month for 30 years, a total of £3.6 million.
13:36What would you do if you ended up winning?
13:38Gosh. So someone's won that locally, have they?
13:41Yes.
13:42Do you know, £10,000 a month is an awful lot.
13:45So I think I'd probably, I've got children that would really welcome a bit of money every month.
13:50So I think I'd probably do that, kind of support everyone.
13:53A little car, lovely little house, stay in the area and give the rest to my daughter for her life, you know, the rest of her life.
13:59I would disappear from England and travel the world, possibly, and go everywhere where the weather is hot.
14:08Travelling to see our family abroad in either Australia or in Canada or in eastern southern Africa.
14:16Some advice experts have given includes remembering back to autumn when the ticket was bought,
14:20checking coat pockets, scouring through their vehicles and even in places you might not expect.
14:25People have kept tickets in dictionaries under L for the lottery.
14:31People have kept them under the front doormat as a place where it won't move from.
14:39A million and one places, I'm sure, anything you can probably think of has possibly happened in terms of where people have kept their tickets safe.
14:47Now it has happened before where people would find their tickets right before the deadline.
14:51And as I was speaking to people, quite a few had heard of the missing winner, but we were no closer to finding them.
14:57But this isn't the end. Like I say, there's one more week.
15:00So we've been mainly operating around this area, but now I want you to go out and see if you can find the set flight winner anywhere here or in the rest of Sevenoaks.
15:08Family members, co-workers, your dog's groomers, the person serving you in a shop.
15:12The winner could be anyone up until that deadline day of Tuesday, April 22nd.
15:17And while it will certainly be a mission to find them, it's far from impossible.
15:20Finn McDermid for KMTV in Sevenoaks.
15:28Now homelessness in rural areas has increased by more than 40% in the last five years.
15:34And charities are hoping to launch a trial that could help those sleeping rough in East Kent.
15:38Yeah, the Housing First scheme could see those in rural areas find support that they may not usually be able to access.
15:45Port Shlight has been meeting with housing associations and local councils to propose their plan to tackle the growing issue.
15:51Well, we're joined on the line now by Chris Thomas from the charity.
15:55First of all, Chris, thanks for being with us this morning.
15:58Could you just explain to us what rural homelessness actually is?
16:02What defines it?
16:04OK, nice to be here.
16:06So, essentially, it's similar to the homelessness that we're seeing in towns and cities, but it's people in more secluded rural locations.
16:18And the issue we have is that there's a lot of people who are homeless.
16:22We don't really know where there are or even how many of them there are because they might, you know, be sleeping in a barn, sleeping away in woodlands.
16:33They're very hidden away.
16:34And they're encountering this issue where a lot of homelessness services in this country are designed with cities and towns in mind.
16:47So, if you are rural, if you're homeless in a rural area, you're kind of cut off from a lot of that.
16:54And your only option is to travel quite a big distance to go and get support.
16:59And that just doesn't work for people.
17:01And as you've said, this is sort of fueling this crisis where we're seeing more and more rural homelessness.
17:07Yeah, what part of Kent is actually the worst, Chris?
17:12Because we have a lot of rural area here in Kent.
17:14We're seeing some footage now of some of the areas people might be sleeping rough.
17:19Well, that's the thing.
17:21I can't actually tell you.
17:23And that's because, you know, there's so much woodland and everywhere else where people can be hidden away, hidden from view.
17:33It's really difficult to say exactly how many people are out there and how many people need help.
17:38I mean, it's such a difficult one to sort of tackle because people who are suffering from rural homelessness are going to have so much less access to different services, access to care, health care, for example.
17:53So, how do we go about tackling it?
17:57So, we believe that the solution to this is with something called Housing First.
18:02Housing First is a scheme that's a little bit different to what most people recognise as homelessness support.
18:12So, it's not like an emergency shelter.
18:14It's not like a hostel in a town.
18:16Essentially, if someone's homeless, they are given a place of their own.
18:23They're given a flat of their own.
18:26And there are no conditions put on them if they want to move in.
18:30So, if you went into a hostel, for example, you might have to sort of meet certain criteria.
18:39But for a lot of people, they don't really fit into institutions.
18:42They don't – they find it difficult to trust being somewhere where – being in somewhere that's trying to improve them.
18:49So, under Housing First, they are given a home first and foremost.
18:54They move in and then they can – there are no conditions placed on them to remain in there.
19:02And they get support and over time they become sort of acclimatised to where they are because the transition can be quite difficult.
19:11And over time they – they just sort of like learn to live independently.
19:19They recover.
19:21And we've used Housing First in non-rural areas.
19:26And we've seen it help people who break the cycle of homelessness, who've been homeless on and off for like 15, 16, 17 years.
19:34It's – it's massively effective in other countries.
19:38We found it massively effective.
19:41And because it's all about giving someone a home first and then the support goes to them, instead of them having to go somewhere for support,
19:50we think it's going to have a massive impact on more than people who are homeless in rural areas.
19:54Yeah.
19:54And, of course, homelessness in any area across the county or country is a problem that needs to be addressed as well.
20:01But I can imagine some councils, some businesses, those businesses in the high streets as well,
20:06and the residents that use the high street, would say that they'd rather see homelessness tackled in the high streets.
20:13They'd rather see people moved on because perhaps it's bringing business down.
20:16People aren't visiting as much or they see more people sleeping rough in their local high streets as well.
20:22Of course, all of these are big issues that need tackling.
20:25But what would you say to those people who, you know, they don't really know about rural homelessness?
20:29I know that's part of the project to try and get that awareness out there.
20:33But the things that communities are seeing day to day and what's affecting them too, that they'd like to see actioned?
20:40Yeah, well, there's a few issues here.
20:43You know, we work with a lot of councils first up and a lot of businesses who support us.
20:48And we're really grateful, but everyone is struggling for money, you know, and homelessness is getting worse.
20:55It's not cheap to help people, but it is important.
21:03Now, did you know that April is when Thailand celebrates New Year's?
21:08Well, a restaurant in Maidstone did stay with their festival of Songkran.
21:12Songkran is an annual holiday that allows participants to be spiritually cleansed for the upcoming year.
21:17Well, our reporter, Henry Luck, went down to learn about this celebration and it being brought here to Kent.
21:25The Thai orchid here in Maidstone is celebrating New Year's in April with a tradition of their own.
21:33Songkran, derived from the Skanska word, Sangkranti, meaning passing or approaching,
21:40is a national three-day holiday in Thailand.
21:43An important part of Songkran is water because it's used as a spiritual cleanser to wash away the sins and misfortunes of the past year.
21:56One of the most important rituals of the event is paying respect to Buddhist monks by gifting them food.
22:03There's a time also with the Buddha statue here.
22:06You'll see that the people will come by and they will pour water over the Buddha statue.
22:13Again, offering respect, but at the same time as a purification.
22:18And then they will pour it over the hands of the monks as they walk by.
22:23And then over the elders.
22:24So any of the elders of the Thai community.
22:26It's a very beautiful tradition.
22:28It's a very beautiful day.
22:29The owner of the Thai Orchid wanted to bring the tradition of Songkran for everyone in Maidstone to experience and enjoy.
22:38So what reminds me of Songkran is water festival, you know, because in Thailand people always say that there are three seasons, hot, hotter and hottest, you know.
22:50So that's why April is the hottest month, you know.
22:53So that's why we have to bring the water, cold water and splash the water, yeah, to each other.
22:59I decided to get a blessing myself from the Buddhist monks, which hopefully will give me good fortune for the year ahead.
23:07And there's more events coming up in 2025 for anyone hoping to get involved in the Thailand culture.
23:15Okay, actually, it's not only for Thai community.
23:19We also promote this festival for locals like British, you know, or Europeans living here as well.
23:26We are really proud of our culture.
23:28So that's why we would like to spread this to other people to visit us.
23:32This is Henry Luck for KMTV, in Maidstone.
23:36This is Henry Luck for KMTV, in Maidstone.