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00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight, live here on KMTV.
00:29I'm Oli Leder and here are your top stories on Friday 9th May.
00:36Taking control, Kent County Council's first reform UK leader outlines her priorities.
00:43An outpouring of support, thousands react following viral KMTV investigation into dog
00:50death and lighting up the skies as Medway celebrates victory in Europe Day.
00:59Now we begin this evening with the news that Lyndon Kemp-Karron has become the new Reform
01:04UK leader of Kent County Council.
01:08Her election comes just a week after the party secured a sweeping majority on the local authority.
01:16She's not ready to commit to firm policies just yet.
01:19But she says she wants to bring doge-style reforms to County Hall and plans to remove the Ukrainian
01:25flag from the council chamber.
01:29Local democracy reporter Gabriel Morris has this report.
01:33It felt like the first day of school.
01:36Big smiles from all 57 Reform UK councillors as they arrived at County Hall for the first
01:42time.
01:43They've taken control of KCC, an authority that's almost always been run by the Conservatives.
01:50But with the title of England's biggest local authority, they now face some of the country's
01:55biggest challenges.
01:56Before tackling those, a group leader needed.
02:00At a closed-door meeting last night, six candidates battled for the top job. Reform councillors electing
02:08Lyndon Kemp-Karron.
02:09And we're not about just taking money away from services.
02:12What you have to understand is we'll be looking at the entire structure of this council and
02:16we will be looking for areas where we can save money.
02:19That could be in contracts that have been negotiated and we may need to go in and renegotiate
02:24those contracts.
02:25But this is going to be a work in progress. Don't expect me to come out and give you solutions
02:30straight away.
02:31I can't do that. This is my first day in a brand new job. And like anybody, first day
02:36in a brand new job, you wouldn't expect them to have all the answers.
02:38Born and raised in Kent, Kim Karen spent most of her career as a BBC journalist. Now the microphone
02:44is on her and she's promised to take inspiration from the United States by introducing a version
02:50of Doge to cut wasteful spending.
02:53So they need to explain a bit more about what they mean by this and whether actually
02:57it's a cover for making large cuts to public services. During the election, there was a
03:03radio hustings between the party leaders and then acting leader reforms that they were going
03:09to increase council tax by a smaller amount than the Conservatives were going to by about
03:152% less. But that would involve finding tens of millions of pounds of further cuts.
03:21Last week, party figurehead Nigel Farage pledged to end working from home for KCC staff. Now
03:28the question is, will Kim Karen follow through on that promise, even if it sparks backlash
03:33from the unions?
03:34Well, you know, unions will be unions and reform will be reform. Reform are in charge of this
03:40council. You have to understand that we want a massive majority. We have absolute ultimate control. There is an
03:46opposition, but I'm not sure, you know, they're going to actually be able to change anything
03:50we want to get through. So reform are in charge and reform will be doing what we want to do.
03:54The council chamber sits quietly today, but in the coming weeks, debate is expected. For now,
04:00Kim Karen is keeping her cards close to her chest, but she has confirmed the Ukrainian flag
04:07will be coming down.
04:08I think the fact that they're here, and they've come here legally, and they've made their lives
04:13in Britain, some of them. Some of them have gone back home to Ukraine. Others may stay for a long
04:17time. That's absolutely marvellous. They're amazing people, the Ukrainians. They've contributed
04:21amazingly to our society. That's great. A flag doesn't change any of that.
04:26Our next task is to appoint a cabinet for the remaining 56 councillors. A decision expected as early
04:33as next week. Gabriel Morris, County Hall.
04:38And it wasn't just reform that made gains during the local elections. The Liberal Democrats securing
04:4412 electoral divisions. We spoke to the leader of the opposition, Anthony Hook,
04:51about the recent win of reform within the Kent County Council, and where KCC goes from here.
04:58Anthony, thank you very much for being with us this morning. First of all,
05:01your reaction to the person you'll be now holding to account?
05:08Well, we look forward to holding the reform administration to account. The Lib Dems
05:12opposed and held to account the Conservative administration, and we now have a different
05:18administration, and we will do our job serving the interests of the people of Kent by challenging
05:23them, asking them questions, putting alternatives to them.
05:26I think reform have the right priorities. We've been speaking a lot on the programme
05:35with reform councillors, with the new leader, about a lot of their policies being about national
05:41issues. That's been a big part of the conversation. So, do you feel confident in their priorities
05:47here in Kent? We certainly need to hear from the new administration what they're going to do about
05:54the issues that people really care about within the control of Kent County Council. One of the
05:59County Council's statutory responsibilities is to provide adult social care, so social support
06:05for older people or disabled people who need it. That's one of the biggest expenditures of Kent
06:11County Council. And we've heard nothing from reform about how they're going to improve that service,
06:17which is in a really challenging situation because a lot of people in Kent are living into old age with
06:22a complex combination of health and care needs. Another one is children's social services and children
06:30with special educational needs. And those three things together account for about 70% of KCC's
06:36expenditure. And you'll remember that only a few years ago, Kent was rated as failing by Ofsted children
06:43with special educational needs. There is an urgent and immediate issue to make sure we provide every
06:49child in Kent with the support they need to get a really good education, especially if those children
06:54have special needs. So, we quickly need to hear from reform what they're going to protect and improve
07:02those services. They've made some references to audits and open the books, which sound odd to me,
07:09because KCC's financial information is all published online. At the budget meeting in February,
07:15the reform members of the Council made no contribution to the budget debate whatsoever.
07:21Perhaps Kent's mind is changing, and perhaps parties that are focusing on things like the footpath,
07:27the local issues, that's just not attracting the voters anymore, even though it is a
07:31local election. There's so much going on in the wider country that perhaps that's why
07:36this vote has been swung this way.
07:38Well, I really, two points to make in response to that. I mean, the Liberal Democrats doubled our
07:44number of seats, because our local councillors are very active, keeping touch in their communities
07:50all year round. And I think people responded to that by wanting more Liberal Democrat local champions.
07:56I think reform were able to come in in large parts of the county, where unfortunately,
08:01there were not local councillors who were as in touch with their local communities. And there's
08:05a lesson there for what we need. But also reform has not won a big mandate. They only won 37%
08:13of the popular vote. So, for every vote they won, there was almost two votes against them. It's only by a
08:21quirk of the electoral system that that has translated to so many seats. So, in terms of
08:27votes and the support of the public, they don't have any mandate at all. I mean, the Conservative
08:33administration last time won 49% of the vote, which is not a majority, and they recognised that
08:39and often worked cross-party on a number of issues. And actually, this really underlines the need to
08:45modernise Britain's voting system and move to a system where the number of seats you get is in
08:50proportion to the number of votes you get, rather than the antiquated system we have, which is designed
08:55for two parties. And it's fundamentally broken now that we're in a four or five party system.
09:01Now, in other news, we shared a report about a dog who died at a pet hospital in Gillingham. And since
09:08then, we've seen an outpouring of support for the owner on social media. The video on KMTV's TikTok
09:16account has reached more than a quarter of a million views, and many of the interactions are
09:22actually comments on the post. Well, we can't say for certain if many of the similar stories people
09:28have shared are really true. Our owner Abbey Hook met with Lee Taylor to see what he thinks of the reaction.
09:36This is KMTV's exclusive story about Diesel the dog who died from what his owner suspects
09:44is a lethal combination of two prescriptions that the vet charity PDSA should have picked up on.
09:51It's had more than 300,000 views on TikTok and around 6,000 interactions. More than 500 of those
10:00are comments, many from people claiming they've had a similar situation with PDSA.
10:06We've had some really good comments, some really nice comments from people. Some really lovely
10:10people that have been around messaging and stuff. I haven't really replied back to many people
10:17because I don't really know what to say to anyone, you know. So I just say like I'm sorry because
10:22obviously a lot of people have lost their dog and I feel like they're sort of connecting with me,
10:28so I just say like sorry for your loss. I don't really know what to say for it, you know.
10:32For legal reasons we can't actually read out the majority of the comments,
10:36nor can we confirm all of them are actually real cases. But I have spoken to a few dog owners on the
10:42phone who say they've had a bad experience. Whilst I continue to look into those claims and comb
10:48through those medical records, PDSA's investigation into Diesel's death is ongoing. In an updated
10:56statement the charity says, we're committed to ensuring we thoroughly consider everything
11:01raised in this matter. We're still in the process of investigating at the moment and we really
11:06appreciate patience while we carefully explore all of the details. We share our sincere condolences to
11:12Diesel's family and our teams are available should we be able to offer any further support.
11:17While views and interactions continue to increase on social media, Lee can do nothing else but wait
11:25and hopefully when the investigation concludes next month, have an answer as to why Diesel died.
11:31Abbey Hook for KMTV in Gillingham.
11:37And of course you'll find the full report on our website or on our TikTok. It's time for a quick
11:43break. Afterwards we'll be wrapping up our VE Day coverage. Please stick with us.
11:54We'll see you next time.
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17:23Well, it's really important that we actually educate the public to what to look out for.
17:28Also the professionals as well.
17:30There are tools we use, we have a thing called a news score, which is a national early warning
17:34score system, which actually allows us to put in various factors that we've asked people
17:39about or we've tested, and that tells us the likelihood it's going to be there.
17:42But it's never going to be a precise science.
17:44But it's never going to be a precise science.
17:46I'm sure that in my career, I will have missed sepsis, but the other end of the spectrum, you
17:52know, if you can catch it early, then survivability is very good.
17:55So if you get to the severe end of things, septic shock, you have a 50% chance of dying.
17:59Another health headline we've seen this week, Weight Watchers has filed for bankruptcy in the US as it struggles with debt and fierce competition from the weight loss jabs like a Zen pick.
18:12It's a tricky one because the idea is to get people healthy, but then there's this huge business as well that's gone under because of that.
18:26I do worry that the quick fix weight loss jab is going to move people to using that and not looking at the whole picture.
18:35And Weight Watchers, part of that was teaching you how to eat healthily, how to do it over the long term, because it's all very well losing the weight.
18:44You've got to keep it off.
18:46And we don't really have enough evidence to know how long the Wigobi effect actually works for in the sense that you can't be on the treatment lifelong.
18:54So when you stop it, is it that in five years time, you're going to start putting all the weight back on again?
18:59And in those cases, having the sort of education element of Weight Watchers is a way that you can make sure people don't put the weight back on.
19:07As GPs, are some GPs just relying on things like weight loss jabs?
19:12I'm more worried about the private services selling these jabs because they tend to just give you the drug.
19:18NHS services, you generally have to go to a service which also does all that other advice about exercise and so on.
19:23And I think that's a better match.
19:26But very clearly, the private services, some of them are just set up to sell you the drug effectively.
19:31Thank you very much.
19:32A wide variety of health headlines this week.
19:36And of course, Friday means it's the weekend.
19:39But will it be a sunny one?
19:41Let's find out, shall we?
19:42Let's start off with tonight.
19:50Temperatures between 10 and 12 degrees, 9 over in Royal Turnbridge, Wales.
19:55Today morning, it's going to be sunny across the county.
19:59Highs of 17 over in Ashford.
20:02And by the afternoon, those winds picking up.
20:04The temperatures as well, 21 degrees in Medway.
20:07And for the beginning of next week, still relatively sunny, but temperatures dropping down around 18 degrees by Tuesday.
20:24And now throughout the week, we've been covering the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.
20:30And the Royal British Legion Industries in Aylesford hosted a special celebration in honour of the day.
20:39Music and jubilations were held throughout the evening and gave veterans a chance to remember one of the planet's most historic wars.
20:47Well, our reporter Henry Luck went down to speak to them about the impact of the conflict.
20:51On the 8th of May, 1945, British leader Winston Churchill announced to Britain that Germany has unconditionally surrendered to Allied forces.
21:05This is now known as VE Day.
21:0880 years on, this victory is still being celebrated across the country, including right here in the Royal British Legion Industries Garden of Honour,
21:17giving veterans a chance to reflect on and celebrate the past.
21:23You get, it's emotional, it's pride.
21:27Someone commented today saying I look very proud in my photo in London today.
21:33And yeah, it's a lot of, yeah, I felt very emotional in Westminster Abbey.
21:37I was there, had the honour to be there today as well.
21:41When we come to here, it's so, so, so important that these guys are still recognised.
21:46Guys, these women as well, some extraordinary, extraordinary performances.
21:51And I think it's important because these weren't professional soldiers.
21:55These were just Joe Public who volunteered and did their stuff and became exceptionally professional in what they did.
22:03One veteran said the memory of our servicemen should be a regular part of our lives, not just for anniversaries.
22:11You should celebrate it more.
22:14You get a lot of people who wear the poppy for one day.
22:17It's not a one-day thing.
22:18You celebrate and you remember everyone that's served.
22:23Because, whether it was an Army, Air Force or Navy, they're all heroes.
22:28And I think it should be recognised that they are.
22:30But it should be a part of the school curriculum where we get to know and our future generation get to know why and how and what is going on around them.
22:40The ceremony concluded with the lighting of a beacon, a reminder of the sacrifices and courage of those who won our freedom 80 years ago.
22:51Now, the 80th VE Day has finally turned to night.
22:56But hopefully, the memories forged not just in Kent but across the entire country will stay in the hearts and minds of people long after the remembrance flame has burnt out.
23:10Henry Luck for KMTV in Ellsford.
23:14And finally, to bring our VE Day coverage to a close this week, we sent our history producer Finn McDermott out in Rochester last night.
23:24The sky was scattered with searchlights.
23:27The castle was covered in the colours of Britain after a commemorative march through the heart of the town.
23:33The skies above Rochester would have once been crowded with the sounds of planes and gunfire.
23:42And now, church bells, the marching of a parade and cheers fill the air instead, as Medway pays tribute, 80 years on, from victory in Europe.
23:54A procession made their way through Rochester's High Street, turning to salute Mayor Nessarov on their route and ending outside Rochester Cathedral for the VE Day service that saw soldiers, cadets, veterans and reserves in attendance.
24:06We're doing the main parade and laying a wreath at the cathedral.
24:13The poppy wreath that we have is by the Royal British Legion.
24:17It's a special Royal Navy one that we've put a message there.
24:22So I wrote it and basically it says thank you to those who fought and toiled for freedom to mark today, VE Day, 80 years on, all those courageous people who we owe our freedom to today.
24:42With Kent's unique position as the closest part of Britain to occupied Europe, it had to be prepared to defend the country's skies and seas around the clock, even at night.
24:53So at the end of the VE Day celebrations, six searchlights from across the Medway towns all switched on to commemorate the monumental anniversary, swivelling to meet each other's beams in the same point in the air.
25:05Well, I think we've got a long history of beacons, but actually for this year, I think something slightly different.
25:10So actually we've got this new approach and we'll be lighting up the night sky as part of that national recognition at 9.30 to say very clearly as a community here in Medway, we're proud of our armed forces here at Heritage.
25:24We're proud of the contribution that residents here made 80 years ago to win that peace.
25:29But of course, we think about those who we've lost and made the ultimate sacrifice in defending our democracy and freedom, doing that collectively in the way we will be at 9.30, something I'm incredibly proud of.
25:40The sight of searchlights piercing the clouds and scanning the skies is something you would have only seen in World War II.
25:46And now they've been brought into the modern day not to spot enemy aircraft, but instead to highlight the sacrifice of those who gave their lives during World War II and ensured that 80 years ago there was peace in Europe.
25:59Medway is only connected by land and by river, but for our soldiers on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, it was connected by the sky too.
26:07Finn McDermid for KMTV in Medway.
26:10A poignant way to end the programme tonight, to catch up with all our VE Day coverage from throughout the week, just head to our website, kntv.co.uk.
26:24There you'll find all our special programmes, including all the repeats of Kent Tonight, the Kent Film Club, Invictus Sport and of course, a brand new episode of the Kent Politics Show in reaction to those local elections.
26:39That's all for me for this evening. I'll be back later with the Bulletin. I'll see you soon.