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00:00First, we can win Kent once again. That's the Conservatives' message, as Kemi Badenoch
00:26visited a farm in Sevenoaks ahead of next week's county council elections.
00:30The Tories will be well aware that some polls predict they could lose overall control for
00:35the first time in nearly 20 years.
00:37Well, local democracy reporter Gabriel Morris was there.
00:41Flowers might be blossoming on this Sevenoaks farm this morning, but is there a spring in
00:46Kemi Badenoch's steppe ahead of next week's election?
00:50She'll be hoping to swing those photos lost at last year's general election back to the
00:55Conservatives.
00:56These are exactly the sorts of ideas that we want to get. We just want to start fresh
01:01rather than just building on.
01:03But a new party entering the political field could throw those plans into chaos.
01:09How scared are you of Reform UK's prospects in Kent?
01:13I'm not scared of anything. This is a very competitive political environment. Every party is a threat.
01:19And what I've said is that we win by making sure that we have the best and most compelling
01:23offer. And that's what I'm working on.
01:25And Kemi, what will voters get in return if the Conservatives are re-elected to County
01:31Council next week, particularly after years of cutbacks to discretionary services?
01:36We have been living in a very challenging economic environment. And what I tell people is that
01:42even within those circumstances, the Conservative councils are the ones that have been delivering.
01:47I'm not saying it's been easy, but you only need to look at Birmingham, where they've gone bankrupt,
01:51where people paid council tax and yet their rubbish wasn't picked up. Rats are running
01:55all around the streets. That's what you get when you treat local government elections like
01:59an opinion pool. You need to look at who's going to get you the best services.
02:03The Tories have held Kent County Council for most of its history, aside from a brief spell
02:08in the 1990s. It should be a stronghold. But is it still? This is what voters in Sevenoaks
02:15think. They do better than Labour, they do better than the Dems. And I don't trust reform,
02:22because they seem to be very disjointed at the moment. As a young party, they've had no
02:28experience of any kind of leadership. Politicians now are in it for a career,
02:33rather than actually wanting to serve people. And they're absolutely in it for themselves.
02:39Not particularly, but I don't trust any of the parties that much. Back on the farm,
02:45the parties hoping its stance on inheritance tax will herd support its way. But at County
02:50Council level, they'll have little influence on that, but rather potholes, adult social
02:56care and children with special educational needs. With little more than a week till polling
03:01day, Kenny Badenock will be hoping the Conservatives retain control of Kent County Council. Polling
03:08so far hasn't been good, but will the grass be greener on the other side? Gabriel Morris,
03:14near Sevenoaks.
03:16Now, in Chatham, one man has become something of a local legend. Yes, burger man Surge gives
03:23out free burgers to people who are homeless or struggling with the cost of living. He goes
03:27live on TikTok most days and with nearly 300,000 followers, donations help keep him going. Our reporter
03:34Kristen spent a day with him to see what life is like behind the grill and the camera.
03:39Across Kent, there are many people that help to make a positive difference in their community.
03:44But in Chatham, one man has done this by flipping burgers on TikTok Live.
03:48Every Thursday, I've got a sign as well. Every Thursday from three to six, we give out burgers to
03:53those in need, to the homeless, to people who can't afford meals, warm meals. There are many soup
03:58kitchens, many other charities that do something similar, but we're able to do it as a business
04:03every single week. And this is due to the fact that we have so much support worldwide online.
04:09His TikToks got traction quickly, and before he knew it, he had hundreds watching.
04:13Except McDonalds is not healthy. McDonalds. McDonalds is not healthy.
04:17McDonalds is not healthy. They should come to Burgum and Surge instead.
04:20From that day, we've had thousands of thousands of thousands of people tuning in on a daily basis,
04:24and I've just been keeping at it every single week. I had the option to go live. I pressed
04:29the button and I left it there for a couple of minutes. I went back to making my burgers.
04:34I turned around. I had about two or three people in there. Nothing going on. I didn't think anything
04:38of it. I continued making my burgers. Turn around in five minutes. All of a sudden,
04:41we've got 50 people in there. We've got taps and hearts on the screen. We've got people commenting.
04:46I'm like, whoa. For around two years now, Burger Man Surge has been able to give out
04:50around 80 free burgers a week to those who are homeless in Chatham. He's made a
04:54real difference in the community, which I can tell from being here, and that's all thanks to his TikTok.
05:03They do a theme. They serve homeless people certain times. I think that's brilliant,
05:09because there's not many places now where homeless people don't get food food, and it's the best food.
05:17So when I first went out, hey, this is the man. That's on us, by the way. Enjoy your burger.
05:22Yeah. These are good friends. I helped them out. So I've been coming here for eight years,
05:28and obviously inflation, now they're £4 and 4.20 if you want cheese, but they're the best burgers
05:33ever. They do actually help people. There's a kid who's got autism and stuff, and they help them out
05:39with working out. They're like community people as well. They're really, really, really, really good people
05:43as well to support your local businesses. Besides all the stuff that we do over here, it's stories
05:49like this, people like him, that add so much to what we do over here. I make burgers. I do everything.
05:55I clean everything. I'm the manager. 50 is the manager.
06:00Serge previously lived in North London, and after coming to Chatham to start the business,
06:05he says he's fallen in love with the area. It's a very, let me say, a very eventful place. I always
06:11say if they want to make a Netflix series, a Netflix show about Chatham, it's the perfect place.
06:17Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV in Chatham.
06:25Well, apparently today marks the start of a six-week rush to get the perfect holiday planned.
06:30Yes, and with 97% of us saying that we're happier when we've got a trip planned,
06:36we actually spoke to a travel expert to learn more about this six-week period. We spoke to that
06:43person earlier. Talk us through the science of six weeks as well, how that's sort of come across
06:48at that time, because we know, for example, if you're going to a really exotic location, you need time for
06:54vaccinations to set in. But, you know, there'll be room to budget and pack smart and having to
07:03put time off with work. So give us an idea of the sort of the science, the mechanics of those six weeks.
07:08So there's a number of different studies that we drew on for this. Firstly, six weeks is just the
07:14minimum amount of time that you need to get all the paperwork done. As you rightly say, if you ask the
07:19NHS, how long do you need for vaccinations? Six weeks. If you ask the passport office, how long
07:24do you need to fix your passports? Again, six weeks. So if you start from six weeks out,
07:29you've given yourself enough time to get all of that done. But more importantly,
07:33there's a number of studies that show six weeks is the sweet spot for savings. If you book your
07:38flights and your hotel with six weeks notice, you've already started to take advantage of some of the
07:43early deals. You're not paying the starting price, but you're not leaving it to the very last
07:47minute where you can probably get a last minute deal, but you don't really have any guarantee of
07:52getting the best destinations. The other factors involved here. Firstly, when we looked at what's
08:01involved in booking a holiday, obviously people will book themselves a flight in a hotel and then
08:06think, great, my holiday's all sorted. But actually, six weeks is about the minimum amount of time that
08:11you need to sort out all the other things, all your extras at leisure. So let's think you're going
08:17to Turkey or Albania or Greece, a handful of very popular destinations. You've got your hotel and
08:23your flights. You've somehow got to get from your house to the airport at the UK end. You've got to
08:27get from the airport in destination to your resort. If you're going to, well, let's say Albania,
08:33you've got to sort out the currency. You've got to get charges. You've got to pack everything that
08:37you want to do. You've got to work out what you're going to do when you get there. And when we ran all
08:41that through our AI tool, it worked out that 42 days was enough time to do each of those things
08:50at reasonable leisure over the course of those 42 days. And more importantly, when we asked people,
08:56okay, if you don't do it at leisure, if you leave it to the last minute, two things happen. Firstly,
09:00you do everything in a panic and you forget things. And secondly, studies show that if you're doing it
09:05at the last minute, you're leaving things behind. And something like 20% of holidaymakers said,
09:09yeah, if they pack and plan at the last minute, they leave things behind that they definitely
09:15needed on that holiday. And that costs them on average £140 in replacement costs and buying
09:20things in resorts. So there's all sorts of ways that giving yourself those six weeks to plan
09:25make it a more cost-effective and more stress-free and a much more pleasant experience to book.
09:30And for those who maybe normally book a year or six months in advance, what do you think's leading
09:37to these more spontaneous six-weekers? So there's absolutely nothing wrong in booking
09:42with more notice. If you book well in advance, obviously, you've still got those six weeks at
09:46the end to book everything. But if you think about where we're going to go on holiday this summer,
09:53I'm going to take my kids away at the start of the summer holidays. I'll probably start planning
09:56that in June. That'll give me ample time to make that happen. There's plenty of deals available,
10:02plenty of chances to go to exactly where we want to go. Yeah, lots of people will book their summer
10:07holiday for this year in January. But again, there's great deals to be had six weeks out,
10:13and it gives you ample time to plan it and ample time to make it all work.
10:17Have you found in your study that there's particular locations that come up
10:21more in advance, that there's more locations that come up six weeks out from maybe a year out?
10:29Well, the classic one people book way in advance is Disneyland. People tend to start planning trips
10:34to the American Disney parks a year, two years ahead. But if you're going for a beach holiday
10:40somewhere in Europe, and you're reasonably relaxed about which of the various destinations you end up at,
10:46you know, you want some sunshine and some swimming, you should be absolutely fine to book six weeks
10:52out. The top destinations for UK holidaymakers, they didn't change a lot for most of the last 20
10:59years. It was Spain, France, Italy, USA fairly consistently. During 2020 and 21, the lockdowns,
11:05things shifted fairly materially. Spain is still the top destination. We've now got Greece in second
11:11place and Turkey in third, because holiday habits changed quite a lot in that period when a lot of
11:16places weren't available. UK holidaymakers started going to Greece and Turkey, liked it so much they
11:21kept going back, and those are still the sort of second and third most popular destinations. But
11:26there's lots of rising destinations as well. We found recently that particularly when places come up
11:32on TV, so you'll have seen Thailand in particular on White Lotus, that's gone up by a couple of hundred
11:38percent over the last couple of years as more and more people have been going there. So it's a combination
11:42of traditional destinations that people have always been going to for UK holidays and places that have
11:48been found in the limelight. Now, we often report on elections being held across Kent, especially in
12:09the last few years. But have you ever considered how much they actually cost? Well, after resignations last
12:15year, Medway Council held a by-election in February to fill three seats. It's a statutory part of running
12:22a council, but it comes at a cost of more than £60,000 to local council taxpayers. Local democracy
12:29reporter Gabriel Morris has been asking voters whether compulsory voting should be introduced.
12:35Three seats were contested this February. We know who won and we know turnout was low.
12:42In Rochester East and Warren Wood, just 24.4% of eligible voters cast a ballot.
12:51And at that last election, it turns out it cost the taxpayer around £14 per vote. That's the average
12:59cost of one person getting a takeaway. But how about if everybody voted who could? Well, then it would have
13:06cost the taxpayer only £3. That was less than this sandwich cost me. Even at last year's general election,
13:16turnout was only around 60%. You would need compulsory voting to get everyone to the polls.
13:23But would it be popular? We've asked people in Rochester.
13:27I think it's a two-edged sword. I mean, the problem with that is I'm lucky I work from home,
13:32so I can take my dog for a walk. But if you are a man who's working in NHS, whatever else,
13:37when do they get the time to do the voting? If it's compulsory and do they get penalised if they don't?
13:41I mean, I know some places it is compulsory. I can't imagine it coming in here at present.
13:47But I think people should get to know their councillors.
13:49No, to be honest, I wouldn't vote personally because I'm not as aware of the information
13:55I need to be aware of. And I feel like I'm only 19 at the end of the day as well,
13:59so I don't feel like I know a lot. The thing is, do people know it's costing £14 a vote?
14:05I didn't know that until you told me. No, I didn't know it cost money either.
14:08No. Following new Medway MPs being elected last year,
14:12they stood down as councillors, triggering this year's by-election.
14:17Elections are a statutory process. Is there any way we can make them cheaper and more efficient
14:22so they don't cost £14 per voter? Certainly as regards the process, both of the count,
14:28but also the days and weeks running up to actually election day, the team here do a tremendous job.
14:34So, look, democracy does have a price. That's the reality of it. But I would say the efficiencies
14:41are strong in that team. Voter fatigue is often blamed for low turnout,
14:46so there'll be far fewer elections across Kent anyway. County Council heads to the polls in a few
14:52weeks and it's set to be historic. Expected to be the last before local government reorganisation
15:00reshapes Kent, reducing its 14 councils to just three or four. Gabriel Morris in Medway.
15:09A unique underwater statue in Canterbury has become even harder to see. People have criticised the
15:16artwork for being covered in algae and silt, leaving it barely visible from its home at Westgate Towers.
15:22However, the creator says the installation is designed to weather with the flow of the river
15:27and the season. Our reporter Finn McDermott has been down to Westgate Gardens in Canterbury to see
15:32what people think. Now, the Alluvia statue has been here for about six months. But over that time,
15:38as you can see, it's gained quite a lot of dirt and algae. And locals have even been saying that
15:43for them and for tourists, it can be a bit creepy, disturbing and even hard to spot.
15:47I mean, we'd come down. My brother had told us a bit about it. I was expecting a bit more.
15:52There wasn't much to it, really. I thought there might be more in there.
15:55I thought it looked a bit creepy. And it's very dark. Yeah, you can't really, you have to look
16:01right down to actually see the outline of the statue. Well, to be honest, we didn't actually
16:09notice it was there. We had to be told by the local journalist that it was there. We didn't see it
16:14the first time we walked past. A little bit disappointed because it's a bit covered now in
16:19the algae, but just about managed to see the outline. But according to the creator,
16:27that's actually how it's supposed to look. It's supposed to change with the seasons
16:31and naturally weather with the algae. But the question remains, should it be cleaned
16:35to help Canterbury's tourism or should it stay as it is to help Canterbury's environment?
16:41Do you know much about how it's a water sensor as well? No, I didn't know that.
16:44Do you think it should be cleaned up? I personally say yes. Well, I guess if it's the artist,
16:53then maybe we should respect them because it's their kind of ownership, their artistry. But,
17:00yeah, I don't know. I guess I can see what they mean blending in with nature. But if they want it
17:05to be an attraction that people can see, then maybe it's got to be cleaned. So Canterbury City Council
17:09have said they won't commit to regularly cleaning the statue, but they will check on its condition.
17:13So for now, it'll stay as the artist and nature intended.
17:19Students and teachers at schools in Kent and across the country will be used to celebrating
17:25World Earth Day, building bug hotels and other environmental initiatives. But this year signals
17:31a major change in how schools tackle the climate crisis. The Department of Education is implementing
17:37a sustainability strategy requiring all education settings to have a designated sustainability lead
17:43and a climate action plan in place by the end of the year. These leads will be responsible for
17:48developing and implementing these plans, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare
17:54young people for a world impacted by climate change.
17:56To tell us more, we're joined on the line by Gemma Bailey, Hub Manager for Climate Ambassador
18:01Southeast. Gemma, thank you so much for joining us at this early hour. First of all, tell us about
18:07the strategy and what it means for schools here in Kent.
18:10Good morning. Thank you so much for having me today. Yes. So as you just mentioned, back in 2022,
18:21the Department for Education published their sustainability and climate change strategy.
18:27The strategy aims for, like you say, all education settings to have a sustainability leading climate action
18:32plan in place by the end of this year. And the primary goal of this is ultimately to try and
18:40get schools starting to take action within sustainability. The climate action plan should
18:46cover four areas. So decarbonisation, adaptation and resilience, biodiversity and climate education and
18:53green careers. And ultimately, the aim of this is that we can help to start, move schools along to,
19:00like you say, decarbonise and meet net zero. But alongside that, actually inspire, enable and
19:07empower young people to feel like they understand what is going on in the world. But not just that,
19:13actually, that they can also understand how they can make small changes to make a difference as well.
19:19And how will this be enforced? How do we know that all schools will follow this?
19:23So with regard to the enforcement, the Department of Education will not be, or say, asking action plans to
19:33be uploaded anywhere and to be assessed in that way. It is more of a soft rollout of the kind of
19:41strategy and the enforcement of climate action plans at the minute. That could change. We don't know.
19:47Obviously, I'm working for a programme that supports the strategy, but we aren't sure whether the
19:52Department of Education will take this. But I would say one thing with climate action planning
19:56and with taking any sort of action within sustainability, there are multiple co-benefits
20:03to it as well. For example, where you touched on decarbonising and meeting net zero, that comes with
20:10lower energy bills and therefore lower running costs. There's a lot of money to be saved as well here.
20:14But as well as that, if we're looking at the students and inspiring and enabling and empowering
20:18young people, this also contributes to hopefully improving their wellbeing as well.
20:23So there's multiple co-benefits to think about when taking climate action. And so the climate
20:27action plans, I would say, although, yes, the Department of Education are asking education
20:31settings to do this and take this step. Also, the way settings should look at it is that there
20:37are also co-benefits to taking these actions.
20:39So, Gemma, are there repercussions if a school doesn't nominate a sustainability lead or doesn't
20:47have an action plan? Are there any repercussions there?
20:52No. Schools do not need to worry. So this is not, like I say, something that is going to be added,
20:58for example, to an offset framework. This is a soft rollout of climate action plans and sustainability leads.
21:06What have you heard from schools in terms of how important they feel climate action is,
21:10as well as their students?
21:13Well, I think a lot of it within schools at the minute is coming from students and coming from
21:20teachers and senior leadership teams hearing more and more from their students that they want to see
21:25changes within the schools related to sustainability and environmental actions, which is fantastic.
21:31At the same time, I would say we've got a lot of education settings that are coming forward to us
21:35and saying, look, we are noticing that this school over here has started to make some fantastic changes
21:42and it's been amazing for the students, but also incredible for the schools kind of bills and things
21:47like that. Therefore, we want to start making some changes as well. So the schools, I would say,
21:52that have taken a lot of action so far are probably the kind of ones that were potentially already
21:59taking some action in this area. We're now largely, when I'm working, speaking to kind of a middle
22:04group of education settings that maybe haven't done loads on this so far, maybe have, for example,
22:10an eco club or a gardening club, have a little bit of an outside growing space, something like that.
22:15But it's now starting to encourage them to move and look into this wider scheme of work,
22:20not just focusing on one area, ultimately. So it's a real mixed bag.
22:25And we obviously spoke at the Green School Awards last year, which celebrated some of those schools
22:32in Kent that have taken that action and are doing amazing things, and they are all across the county,
22:38which it should be said. For you, talking to that middle group of schools and trying to get those
22:45schools that might be umming and ahhing about it, what are some of the challenges and how are you trying
22:51to overcome that with those schools? Because I can imagine there's already a lot of pressures on
22:55teachers, as there is, and schools and students as is. So how are you navigating all of those
23:02challenges to get people on board?
23:05Yeah, so there are a lot of challenges and barriers to taking action within education settings.
23:11One that we are finding, I mean, I'm sure you can imagine that there is time and money as key
23:17problems and key barriers. But another one that we are finding more and more is expertise as well.
23:22Obviously, teachers and senior leadership teams within education settings, they have not come into
23:27this role to be sustainability experts. And so that is where a program like ours, which is called the
23:31Climate Ambassadors Scheme, we are mobilizing and supporting education settings to help them act on
23:37climate change using skilled volunteers. So what we do is we actually partner up volunteers who work
23:43already in the environmental space. So for example, they might be a sustainability consultant
23:48and they volunteer some of their time to help support education settings to advance in this agenda.