Catch up on the latest political news from across Kent with Sofia Akin, joined by Green Councillor Anita Jones from Folkestone and Hythe and Conservative Councillor Patrik Garten from Maidstone.
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00:00 and we'll see you in a moment.
00:02 (upbeat music)
00:04 - Hello and welcome to the Kent Politics Show live on KMTV.
00:25 I'm Sophia Akin and what a year it's been.
00:28 We've seen Kent's political map change drastically
00:30 in May's local elections.
00:32 We've seen London's ultra low emission zones
00:34 expanded into Kent and public sector workers
00:37 striking at record capacity.
00:40 On tonight's show, we'll be taking a look back
00:41 at what's happened in the last year
00:43 and also looking ahead to next year
00:45 and what we can expect.
00:46 But first tonight, May's local elections
00:48 saw Kent's map completely change.
00:51 The Conservatives lost 85 seats across the county
00:54 and lost overall control of five councils.
00:56 We saw the Green Party take overall control
00:59 of Folkestone and Hyde for the first time in its history.
01:02 And we've seen the Labour and Co-operative Party
01:04 taking overall control of Medway Council,
01:06 also an unprecedented win for Medway.
01:09 And nationally, the Conservatives lost
01:10 more than 1,000 seats and that's 8% of their losses in Kent.
01:14 But how would the results of May's local elections
01:18 impact the general elections?
01:19 Here with me is Green Councillor Anita Jones
01:22 from Folkestone and Hyde Council
01:24 and Conservative Councillor Patrick Garton
01:26 from Maidstone to unpick this year's political news.
01:29 Well, thank you both for joining us tonight.
01:31 So as we were saying just there, we
01:35 saw the political map change quite a lot in Kent just
01:39 in May now, particularly for the Greens, Anita.
01:42 We saw the Greens winning for the first time
01:45 in Folkestone and Hyde making history.
01:47 So it was previously no overall control
01:51 with the Conservatives running it.
01:53 So first of all, how was it to see the Greens making
01:57 that history in Folkestone?
01:58 It was such an exciting election.
02:01 It was-- well, we'd already held so many seats.
02:05 We had held Hyde for the four years before that.
02:09 And we'd obviously had a go at expanding our reach.
02:12 And we gained Cheriton.
02:14 We gained some of North Downs East and North Downs West.
02:18 And it's made such a change to the council.
02:22 We have 11 councillors.
02:24 And we have been working in alliance with the Lib Dems.
02:27 And we also work very well with Labour.
02:30 And we've made some really good progress as a district council.
02:34 Labour took the chairs of the council.
02:38 And the Greens and the Lib Dems took the cabinet.
02:41 And I think we've been working really well together.
02:43 So really positive way forward.
02:46 And it was the only council in Kent
02:49 that was taken over by the Greens.
02:52 Would you have liked to see more Green victories across Kent
02:56 sort of more generally?
02:58 I think there will be more Green victories across Kent.
03:00 I think, obviously, the Green Party is growing.
03:03 And people are looking for a party who
03:07 are looking at a wider view, looking
03:11 at more environmental policies.
03:13 They're looking at listening to people and working with people.
03:17 And I think people have been a bit disillusioned with the two
03:19 main parties leading our country.
03:21 And they're looking for something different,
03:23 something which will make a positive change to their lives.
03:27 And Patrick, we saw in Maidstone,
03:32 there was no overall control with the Conservatives leading.
03:35 Just two weeks before the elections,
03:36 the Conservatives lost one of their councillors.
03:39 And the win, you just narrowly missed overall control
03:43 by one seat, didn't you?
03:44 So how was that, I guess, to be so close to having
03:49 overall control and not quite getting it?
03:51 Well, Maidstone has always been a strange council
03:55 in that we had elections by third.
03:58 Every year, we had some elections.
04:01 And that obviously, Maidstone has
04:04 been no overall control for many, many years,
04:08 with one party leading over the other
04:11 and then changing 12 months later.
04:12 So it's no surprise there.
04:15 I think the important thing to remember here
04:17 is that very often, local councils
04:21 are being judged by what central government is doing or not
04:24 doing.
04:25 And I think the message for any local election
04:29 should always be, please judge us
04:31 on what we've been doing locally rather than what the guys are
04:34 doing in Westminster.
04:36 And how does this paint a picture
04:38 for the local elections?
04:39 Because we saw the Conservatives losing
04:41 overall control of a number of councils here in Kent,
04:43 but also nationally losing more than 1,000 seats.
04:46 Does that kind of make you a little bit concerned
04:49 for your party in any way?
04:51 It makes me very concerned for my own seat next year.
04:53 I mean, next year, for the first time,
04:55 we will have all-out elections in Maidstone.
04:58 So all the complete council will be replaced.
05:02 And nationally, our party is in a very bad shape
05:06 at the moment for many reasons, some self-made,
05:10 but others, we have the problems coming from COVID,
05:15 Ukraine war, things which are out of control,
05:19 even of the national government.
05:20 And that's where I fear for my own position,
05:25 that I will not be successful in bringing
05:30 the message across what we as a group
05:32 have done for the people of Maidstone.
05:35 And we've seen a number of Conservative councillors
05:38 losing faith in their party in that way.
05:40 And you're saying you seem quite concerned
05:43 for your own position.
05:44 So when we're looking at a general election, which
05:47 is likely to be called next year,
05:49 how does that make you feel nationally,
05:51 looking at the government's position,
05:54 if there are a number of councillors losing faith
05:56 in the party?
05:59 Losing faith is not a really good thing to do.
06:04 I think we have to keep faith.
06:06 Our central government has implemented a lot of good things
06:09 recently in the autumn budget.
06:12 If we have elections later on in the year, in 2024,
06:18 as the defence minister forecast,
06:21 then I'm sure that a lot of the good things which
06:24 have been recently implemented by Rishi Sunak
06:27 will bear fruit before the elections
06:31 and we can be successful.
06:33 I think it's all a matter of putting the right message out
06:37 and not give up hope.
06:39 And just before the May elections,
06:41 we went round to all the districts in Kent and Medway
06:45 asking residents what it is that they wanted in the elections.
06:48 So we can actually hear a little bit from that now.
06:50 Just to clarify, it's from before the elections.
06:53 So we spoke to residents in Folkestone Hyde
06:56 earlier this year.
06:58 Green space.
06:58 I like to see everything nice and tidy.
07:01 I don't like graffiti and things like that.
07:03 I wish people wouldn't do it.
07:05 And the environment, just generally keeping it nice
07:07 and tidy and respect for everything.
07:10 I think the most important one for me locally
07:13 is the development at Prince's Parade
07:16 down on the Hyde seafront.
07:18 I think it is a complete and utter destruction of something
07:22 that really should be left alone.
07:24 I think they need to deal with the boat issues.
07:31 There's too many.
07:32 There's too many of them coming over.
07:35 So we had a range of sort of different needs
07:38 then just before May.
07:39 So one of the things that kept being raised
07:42 is keeping things tidy and not feeling like things in the area
07:47 were very well kept.
07:48 So since then, six, seven months on, however long it is,
07:53 how are things now, would you say?
07:55 I'd like to think that we've made really good progress.
07:58 Certainly our cabinet member in charge of waste and bins
08:01 has been working really hard to try and keep the area tidy.
08:05 We get a lot of visitors who come down to the coastal park
08:09 and leave their rubbish, sadly, and don't take it home
08:12 with them.
08:13 So they have been working on solutions
08:15 to try and keep the area tidy and then down
08:17 towards the harbour area in Folkestone
08:20 and actually all along our seafront.
08:22 It is a problem.
08:24 We would prefer it if people actually took their waste home
08:26 with them.
08:27 Whatever you bring with you, you should just take home with you.
08:30 But that's not always the case, sadly.
08:32 So tidiness, that was one thing, obviously,
08:35 that our councillor, Jeremy Speakman,
08:37 has been working really hard on.
08:40 Another thing in the clip which we heard about
08:43 was Prince's Parade.
08:44 And I think that was probably one of the biggest things which
08:48 won us the election.
08:50 I don't know if you're familiar with the Prince's Parade saga.
08:54 Obviously, it's council-owned land,
08:55 but it's heavily contaminated.
08:57 And the previous Conservative administration
09:01 were determined to build on it.
09:03 But this was, obviously, very unpopular with the locals.
09:06 And they had cut down the trees, and they
09:09 put a big white fence around it, which is still
09:12 there, sadly, at the moment.
09:14 And people were really cross, because people really
09:17 value being able to visit the beach
09:19 and being able to have access to open space next to the beach.
09:24 It's quite a rare place, Prince's Parade.
09:27 There's not many places along the coastline
09:29 where you have open space right next to the sea.
09:32 And they were also trying to move the main road away
09:35 from the sea, which was going to mean
09:37 that accessibility to our beach was going to be a problem.
09:40 So it wasn't just in Hythe that this became a problem.
09:43 This also featured, obviously, up in Cheriton, people
09:46 who come down and visit the beach.
09:48 And even it was an issue up in the North Downs.
09:50 So a lot of people in the district were really upset.
09:53 And people voted so that we could actually
09:58 have councillors who listen and actually
10:00 do what the public wants.
10:01 So what we've done since the election
10:04 is that we have made provision for the fence to be removed.
10:08 And this will take place before Easter.
10:11 There will be another fence in place,
10:12 because it is still contaminated land.
10:16 But then we're going to have a proper public consultation
10:18 to find out what the public really want, which is something
10:21 we promised in our manifesto.
10:22 So hopefully, we'll be able to move forward with that
10:26 and look forward to a beautiful green space next to our beach.
10:30 Well, just before we go to the break,
10:32 we also were asking residents in Maidstone in your area, Patrick,
10:35 what they wanted before May's election.
10:37 So we can take a look now.
10:39 The park we're in is normally trashed
10:41 every Friday, Saturday.
10:44 I think just the general upkeep of the area, really.
10:46 Some more safety and sort of branchy gardens.
10:48 I don't really feel safe walking around town.
10:50 Sometimes the street is really dirty.
10:53 The rubbish that's left everywhere, the roads,
10:56 the pavements are a disgrace.
10:58 The whole area has gone downhill.
11:01 Regarding the driving in Maidstone, it's like a hell.
11:06 After the winter, we notice a lot of damaged roads.
11:11 Patrick, most of the concerns there
11:12 were around branchy gardens and antisocial behaviour.
11:15 What do you have to say about that?
11:16 Absolutely.
11:17 It's a bit unfair because it was taken in spring
11:21 when obviously no park looks pretty.
11:23 That's how nature is.
11:24 Branchy gardens looks very pretty in the summer.
11:27 We had music festivals in branchy gardens, et cetera.
11:29 That building you just saw in the clip,
11:31 that is now becoming a police station.
11:34 So we will have police presence in branchy gardens.
11:36 We are working on town centre strategy.
11:39 And my team, I'm the cabinet member
11:41 for environmental services, we are cleaning Maidstone.
11:44 If you come after partying on Saturday night
11:46 and you come to Maidstone at 11 o'clock in the morning,
11:49 you can actually eat from the floor in Maidstone town centre.
11:51 So I think--
11:53 Thank you, Patrick.
11:54 We'll have to leave it there.
11:54 We've got our break now.
11:56 See you in a minute.
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15:04 Hello, and welcome back to the Kent Politics Show
15:10 live on KMTV.
15:12 Tonight, we're taking a look back at the political news of 2023.
15:16 We started off with a look back at May's local elections
15:19 and a look forward to the general elections expected
15:22 next year.
15:23 But now, Kent motorists saw London's ultra-low emission
15:26 zones extended into Kent this August.
15:28 It's a scheme where anyone driving
15:30 through certain zones in London and surrounding boroughs
15:33 with a high-polluting vehicle will be hit with a £12.50 fine.
15:36 It aims to lower emissions and improve air quality.
15:40 There were several attempts to stop the expansion
15:42 into all London's boroughs.
15:43 Despite a High Court appeal and continued fightbacks
15:46 from councils, it still went ahead.
15:49 Gabriel Morris spoke to businesses this month,
15:51 three months on from the expansion into Kent.
15:54 It's been three months since EULAS was
15:56 expanded to the Kent border.
15:59 The mayor of London continues to say it was an uneasy decision,
16:02 but one to tackle toxic air.
16:05 But that means any non-compliant vehicle now
16:08 pays a £12.50 daily fee.
16:12 But the expansion to the Kent border
16:14 has been nothing but controversial.
16:16 You can see stickers placed on this sign here in Dartford.
16:20 I think that shows the local mood to EULAS.
16:25 This garden centre in Dartford is close to the EULAS border.
16:29 The family-run business is gearing up for Christmas,
16:32 usually a busy period.
16:34 But they say sales are down this year.
16:37 And at their Christmas grotto, it's
16:39 usually hard to book a place.
16:42 This year, they've sold 15% fewer tickets.
16:46 We are normally fully booked for the last week
16:48 leading up to Christmas, and that's not
16:50 happened this year either.
16:52 We have an August stock take sale,
16:55 which is usually very popular.
16:59 And it wasn't.
17:00 And then it's just sort of continued through September.
17:03 October was terrible.
17:06 November was very quiet.
17:07 We assumed people were saving up for the Christmas rush.
17:10 And that's not happened either.
17:13 Bosses hope last-minute Christmas shopping
17:15 will drum up much-needed revenue,
17:17 but hope for something radical to give their profits a climb.
17:21 The EULAS expansion was challenged by the government,
17:24 but the High Court ruled it lawful.
17:27 Today, the Dartford MP wants to bring in a bill allowing
17:30 ministers to review and overturn decisions
17:34 made by the Mayor of London.
17:37 The Mayor of London does not have a mandate
17:39 for this EULAS expansion.
17:42 He didn't put in his manifesto when
17:43 he stood to be mayor at the last election.
17:46 He didn't put in his transport strategy.
17:49 And he didn't even take note of the consultation that
17:52 showed that the majority of people were against it.
17:55 And therefore, it's right that we implement a law here
17:59 in the House of Parliament in order
18:01 to overturn that expansion.
18:03 In a statement, the Mayor of London
18:05 told us they've received no indication
18:07 that ministers intend to u-turn their commitment to devolution
18:11 in cities and communities across the country.
18:15 The fight on for EULAS expansion is clearly far from over.
18:19 Politicians opting for a legislation battle.
18:22 But it seems some angry individuals
18:24 have turned to criminal damage.
18:26 But the Mayor of London says EULAS will save lives.
18:31 Gabriel Morris for Caine TV in Dartford.
18:35 Still with me here is Anita Jones, Green Councillor
18:37 from Foxton and Hythe, and Conservative Councillor Patrick
18:41 Artin from Maidstone.
18:42 We're unpicking this year's political news.
18:45 And the decision to expand London's ultra-low emissions
18:49 zones into all of London's boroughs
18:51 was quite a controversial one, wasn't it?
18:53 There was definitely in our coverage,
18:55 we heard their business saying that this was really
18:57 hitting them.
18:58 And they'd noticed that their ticket sales had gone down
19:01 around this time of year as it was harder for people
19:03 to get through as that was right on the border.
19:06 So as well as that, we saw before it was even
19:10 expanded into Kent, we saw 70,000 Kent motorists hit
19:13 with EULAS fines.
19:15 And in your area, Patrick, there were 6,000.
19:18 And that was in the year before it was expanded.
19:20 So firstly, what do you think of this?
19:23 Some say that it's hitting motorists and those
19:28 from less fortunate backgrounds.
19:29 But what's your take on it?
19:30 Well, it hits business, first of all.
19:32 Any anti-car policy hits local business.
19:35 People want to take the cars to drive into the town centre
19:39 to do shopping.
19:40 That's why in Maidstone we are keeping car parking
19:42 charges as low as possible.
19:44 We're not increasing next year.
19:46 Personally, I'm against any sort of anti-car policy.
19:50 Some consultants came to us once in Maidstone
19:51 and wanted to introduce a EULAS zone in Maidstone.
19:54 And the result would have been, well,
19:56 we would reduce the pollution level by two years.
20:00 Because in two years, the cars will be as clean anyway.
20:03 And there won't be any more benefit in the EULAS.
20:06 So there's a lot of politics, anti-car politics
20:10 playing on that.
20:12 The reason is vehicles are getting much cleaner.
20:14 A Euro 6 diesel is actually emitting less particulate
20:19 matter out of the exhaust pipe than what
20:21 comes from the tyres.
20:22 So you have that pollution with an electric car as well.
20:25 It was a policy introduced by Boris Johnson,
20:27 though, when he was the London Mayor.
20:29 I think it was appropriate at the time
20:31 for a very small area in very narrow central London.
20:36 But to make it a tax-raising system for greater London,
20:40 where people have not the choice to use public transport
20:44 as you would have very much in central London,
20:49 it's just a money-raising scheme.
20:51 And what is Ziddy Khan doing now with the scrappage vehicles?
20:55 He's actually sending them to Ukraine.
20:58 Well, the point of EULAS is to improve air quality and lower
21:02 emissions.
21:03 Anita, what would you say to Patrick's comment,
21:06 saying it's all just a money-making scheme?
21:08 No, I think it's so important that everybody
21:11 has a right to clean air.
21:13 And I was saying earlier in our conversations before this,
21:17 I used to live in London, and the air quality was very poor.
21:20 You would feel dirty.
21:22 You'd feel grubby.
21:24 I lived on one of the busiest roads in London.
21:26 I visited London a couple of days ago,
21:29 and it is so much improved.
21:31 It's a lovely place to be.
21:33 You don't smell fumes all the time.
21:36 You've got electric vehicles.
21:38 You've got a lot less vehicles.
21:40 London has got a fantastic transport infrastructure.
21:45 It's the ideal place to be encouraging people
21:48 to use public transport rather than their cars.
21:52 I would say that the traffic has substantially
21:56 improved in London.
21:57 Certainly, I didn't see the kind of traffic jams
22:00 you used to see around the main parts of London.
22:02 So there's a lot of positives to come out of this.
22:06 And I think it makes sense to expand it further out
22:08 into the other boroughs around London.
22:11 It is hitting certain motorists, though,
22:13 and as Patrick said, certain businesses.
22:15 So that £12.50 people charge, sometimes twice a day
22:19 if people are going in and out of the zones,
22:20 can be challenging for some.
22:22 So the government need to encourage people to embrace
22:25 this, and they should be supporting people
22:27 to scrap the poor emission vehicles.
22:31 There's also kind of behaviour change
22:35 that needs to take place.
22:36 And we all need to be thinking about this
22:38 if we're ever going to reach net zero as a country.
22:41 So by introducing a charge like this,
22:43 people will start to think twice about using their cars,
22:45 and they will start to think, well, perhaps I
22:47 could use public transport, or I could walk.
22:49 So again, it's just gradually introducing these things,
22:53 and people will start to change their behaviour
22:55 and travel in different ways.
22:57 And another big issue hitting the headlines this year,
23:04 we saw more than 4 million working days
23:06 lost to strike action this year.
23:08 We saw train lines suspended, record-breaking NHS waiting
23:12 lists, and classrooms left empty as a range of workers
23:14 called on better working conditions and pay deals.
23:17 And of course, the latest one, Eurotunnel strikes
23:19 in France, which has had an impact on us here,
23:22 with queues still backed up in the port of Dover earlier
23:25 today.
23:26 While a number of unions have come to a pay deal
23:28 with the government and employers,
23:30 some have already announced further days
23:32 of industrial strike action to come next year.
23:35 So we saw more than a million NHS appointments and treatments
23:39 cancelled this year so far.
23:42 Is that fair?
23:44 Certainly not when the doctors want a 35% pay increase.
23:48 I think essential services have to--
23:53 in other countries, essential services
23:54 are not allowed to strike.
23:56 A very small handful, doctors, firemen, police officers
24:01 are not allowed to strike.
24:02 And I think that is a correct move
24:04 to take by the government to reduce the public being held
24:09 at ransom.
24:10 And we see it tonight in Dover port,
24:12 and yesterday in the train station in Folkestone
24:16 for the Channel Tunnel.
24:17 Unions are holding the country to ransom
24:22 at the most inconvenient time.
24:24 And it will not enhance the unions' standing in society
24:29 if we are suffering their--
24:32 This decision by the government, they
24:34 passed laws to reduce strike disruption.
24:36 I think you were mentioning it just then.
24:38 Is this a step in the right direction,
24:39 or is it going to aggravate workers
24:41 if they feel like they're having more laws and rights taken away
24:44 from them?
24:44 Is it a bit of a vicious circle?
24:46 I think the unions have to be careful about it,
24:48 because at the moment, the unions are aggravating
24:51 the public by striking on those days
24:54 when the public wants to take the holidays,
24:56 as we've seen tonight in Dover.
24:58 And Anita, we've seen train workers as well striking
25:01 for the past 18 months.
25:02 Aslef workers were striking earlier this month.
25:04 Before Christmas, its busiest time.
25:06 We saw the RMT union accepting a payoff of 5%
25:11 and some working conditions changing.
25:13 Do you think that we will see perhaps Aslef accepting offers,
25:18 or will perhaps see more unions accepting offers?
25:20 Because some are coming to agreements with the government,
25:23 and some in the same industry aren't.
25:25 So why do you think there's that sort of difference there?
25:28 I think there were bigger concerns about safety
25:31 and the cutting of, obviously, people on the trains,
25:36 as in people, guards on the trains.
25:38 And I think it's really important
25:40 that actually we do keep safety in mind.
25:43 And there were good reasons why they were striking.
25:47 So until those things are resolved,
25:49 I think they're only right to be striking until the safety
25:54 concerns are put right.
25:57 How can they be resolved?
25:58 Because currently, at the moment, the government
26:00 and the workers aren't all coming to an agreement.
26:02 So how can they be resolved?
26:04 It's a good question.
26:05 And I think the government need to make sure they're listening
26:08 and they're working with the unions.
26:12 Often, we get the impression that they are not listening,
26:15 and they are just letting the strikes carry on.
26:18 So more talks with the government
26:20 to find a safe way forward.
26:22 Well, we know, of course, they've
26:24 come to a number of agreements with public sector workers.
26:26 So potentially, in the new year, we'll
26:28 see more deals being tied up and things like that.
26:32 But we know some dates have already
26:34 been announced for the new year.
26:35 So we'll have to leave it there for now.
26:37 But thank you to both of you for joining us
26:39 to take a look back at what's been an incredibly busy year
26:41 in the world of politics.
26:43 It's all from us here at the Kent Politics Show.
26:45 We'll be back straight after the break
26:46 with a look at the news across Kent.
26:49 See you in a few minutes.
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