Kent on Climate - Wednesday 17th January 2024
Catch up on the latest environmental news from across the county with Sofia Akin.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to Kent on Climate live on KMTV. I'm Sophia Akin and in this show
00:19 we discuss all things related to environmental issues in the county. How is climate change
00:24 impacting Kent? What are communities in the county doing to tackle it? And how can you
00:29 help at home? Each week we'll be taking a deep dive into a new environmental issue in
00:33 the county and I'll be joined by expert guests. In today's show we're talking about a landslip
00:39 that's brought Swanscombe to a standstill and how we can help Medways, birds and the
00:45 conservation zoo reeling from a robbery. But first tonight, Dartford councillors are calling
00:50 for a road to be reopened after eight months of closure because of a landslide. They've
00:55 written to the roads minister calling for government funding to fix the A226 as residents
01:00 say diversions are causing damage to the roads and the local economy. It comes after a meeting
01:05 on Tuesday between locals and Kent County Council. Oliver Leader de Sacks reports. A
01:11 collapse cliff followed by a collapse in support. Since this landslip on a section of the A226
01:17 last April, life in Swanscombe has never been the same. I'm here on Galley Hill Road which
01:24 has been closed for the last eight months, the best part of a year. There are now concerns
01:29 it could be closed for another 12 months as well. Some businesses say they won't survive.
01:36 One such business is NBC Dispatch Racing. Already £3,000 in the red, they say the landslip
01:42 has killed their previously successful business. It's destroyed it, absolutely destroyed it.
01:48 We don't get no passing traffic, we don't get hardly anyone coming in now. Last week
01:55 we actually took about £120 a week. It's just devastating us. It's dire really, I don't
02:04 know how long we can last, to be fair. I took a loan out and that all money's gone. You
02:12 know, nothing, nothing. It's just hopeless at the moment. And while Kent County Council
02:17 are putting forward several plans to get things moving, some of the cracks in these
02:22 interim measures are already starting to show. So far we have local roads here that the diversion
02:27 is causing absolute destroying impacts to. We have heavy goods vehicles going through
02:31 roads that aren't meant for heavy goods vehicles. Claire Pearce is one of the councillors in
02:34 Dartford who have taken matters into their own hands, writing to the Roads Minister to
02:39 get funding needed to repair the road. She says it's the only way to fix this problem.
02:46 The one thing, as I keep saying, we're calling for is certainty. Once they have worked out
02:50 exactly what's going on with the cliff service, we need to know exactly who's going to be
02:52 paying for it. Budget cuts at the moment to KCC obviously mean they're not going to be
02:57 paying for most of this. So Dartford Labour have written to the Roads Minister and to
03:01 the local MP Gareth Johnson and we're calling for them to come up with the extra funding
03:06 needed to get this vital, vital road, local road open. But Dartford MP Gareth Johnson
03:11 is confident the government will help where they can. I've warned the Minister, the Roads
03:15 Minister in advance that we will be coming to see him and we'll be asking for some contributions
03:20 to this. This is a major thoroughfare. This is something that's important, not just for
03:25 Swanston and Greenhive, it's important right across the whole of North Kent. So therefore
03:29 we need to get a resolution to this. Yet when we spoke to the Roads Minister, he was non-committal.
03:35 How will the government sort of commit to supporting those in that area and commit to
03:40 reopening that road soon? Well, listen, that's a matter fundamentally for Kent County Council,
03:44 but obviously the DFT will be working with them on an ongoing basis to see how we can
03:49 help. In what way? Well, you'll have to ask Kent County Council. They are the ones in
03:54 charge of the local road network. But clearly if they want to come to DFT and talk to me,
03:59 then the door is open at all times. Kent County Council say they hope work will begin on the
04:03 cliff stabilisation next month. But for some, this work is coming too little, too late.
04:09 Oliver Leader of the Sats reporting for KMTV. Now, Eurostar has announced that the service
04:19 won't return to the county this year and made no commitment to resuming service next year
04:23 either. Services to the continent have been pulled from Ashford and Ebbsfleet International
04:28 since 2020. Thomas Draper, a lecturer based near Ebbsfleet who travels to the continent
04:33 regularly for work and to see family, says the disruption is costing him financially
04:38 as well as damaging the environment. I try and come by train when I can because it's
04:43 much better for the environment. And I come all the way from Prague. And it's a long journey.
04:49 You can do it in one day. But you're very tired at the end and it adds at least another
04:54 hour and a half, if not two hours onto the journey. The fact that you have to go up all
04:58 the way up to London, you have to get another train at King's Cross and Pancras and then
05:04 come back. It's totally unnecessary as well. And it's just a waste of energy. You're going
05:09 literally up and then back down again. I mean, there's nothing environmentally sound about
05:15 that. The train company has justified the decision,
05:22 saying even though we're close to getting back on track, with 11 million passengers
05:26 travelling with us on our cross-channel routes in 2023, we'll continue to face the financial
05:30 consequences of the pandemic for a number of years. Borders have also become more complex
05:35 and the expected launch of the EU's entry exit system invites us to caution.
05:40 Next tonight, do you like bird watching? I know I do. But going down to the coast in
05:44 Kent can cause disturbances to rare birds wintering in the Thames, Medway and Swale
05:49 marshes, reducing their chance of breeding. Well, Birdwise is a partnership between local
05:54 authorities, developers and environment organisations designed to help raise awareness of this issue
06:00 and their project manager Hayley Taylor joins me on the sofa now. Hayley, thank you for
06:03 joining us. So firstly, can you tell us a little bit more about Birdwatcher and what
06:07 it is as a company you do? Yes, certainly. So as you've mentioned, Birdwise
06:10 is a partnership of local authorities and conservation organisations. And in our job,
06:16 we raise awareness of the birds that spend the time on the coast in the winter. We cover
06:21 the North Kent marshes between Gravesend and Whitstable and then there's Birdwise East
06:26 Kent that pick up the mantle in Whitstable and they cover round to Pegwell Bay. So I'm
06:30 the project manager. My role is basically behind the scenes most of the time. But the
06:36 rangers, they're out on site talking to members of the public and basically telling them about
06:42 the birds that are there, where they've come from and really simple ways that they can
06:47 modify behaviours to avoid disturbing the birds whilst they're enjoying our coastline.
06:52 And how many birds, roughly, I'm not expecting it to be that big, migrate to Kent for the
06:57 winter usually? So it's anywhere around about 250,000 birds
07:03 annually that come to North Kent. It really is an important place for overwintering birds
07:10 across our coastline. And we can see some birds popping up on the
07:14 screen. There are so many different types of species of birds. I think people probably,
07:19 there'll be birds that they've never seen before, won't there? So I guess, why is it
07:23 important to raise awareness of the different types? And we've actually got a little map
07:28 here, haven't we, of some of those different types of birds?
07:30 Yeah, so all of the pictures that are taken in this leaflet, it's one of the leaflets
07:34 that we give out to people that we meet on site, they've all been taken in North Kent
07:38 so you can see all of these species at different times of year. Most people don't go out intentionally
07:44 to disturb birds, it's just that they don't know that they're there. So what we do is
07:49 to speak to people about them, tell their stories, help them with identification. We
07:54 run guided walks, we go into schools, and we just like talking to people about the birds
07:59 that are there. And why is this so important to protect birds?
08:03 As you say, there are so many different types of species, so why is that important to protect
08:07 them in the way that you are protecting them? So most of the birds that come here for the
08:11 winter months have travelled thousands of miles to get here and their job when they
08:15 arrive is to feed up and replenish their energy, it's to spend as much time as possible feeding
08:22 and then resting. They can only feed at the right tide times, so that is a further pressure
08:28 for them. Cold weather, stormy weather is further exacerbating the pressures that they
08:33 face. So we like to tell people the importance of giving the birds space, of noticing that
08:41 they're there. Keeping to paths is a really simple way of helping because birds will get
08:46 used to us acting in a certain way. So things like that, having your dog under close control
08:51 when you're out on the coast is another way, it's really simple ways of helping.
08:56 And is it different, so each year if it's a slightly colder winter, would we see sort
09:01 of different species each year as the weather changes and things like that? And what are
09:05 some of the ones we're currently seeing in Kent?
09:07 So at the moment, the ones that we're seeing at the moment are Brent Geese, they've come
09:11 all the way from Siberia. We've got our wintering ducks, things like Wigeon, Pintail, Teal, all
09:17 of those you can find on North Kent. And our wading birds, so Grey Plovers, Dunlin, Redshank,
09:24 Godwits, they're all birds that have travelled thousands of miles to be here for the winter
09:28 months. They'll spend winter, although it might feel really cold here at the moment,
09:32 to them it's not because they've come from the Arctic. So come the spring, as long as
09:37 they've kept themselves healthy, they've rested, they've fed, they'll have enough energy to
09:41 then make that long journey back to Siberia and to the Arctic to then breed and come back
09:47 again hopefully next year.
09:49 And you were talking about that, the disturbance to birds earlier, so what would you sort of
09:53 advise to viewers to make sure that they are looking after the birds and they're making
09:57 sure that they're not disrupting them and their habitats?
10:00 Yes, so the biggest thing people can do is keep on marked paths, on public rights of
10:05 way if you're out on the coast. Having dogs under close control, we know that people are
10:12 very interested now in paddle boarding, that kind of activity, wild swimming, but if you
10:17 do enter the water just check if there are any birds they're feeding first before you
10:21 go in and just basically keep an eye out for them and if they are there move away. But
10:27 we don't want people to stop enjoying the coast because we all enjoy spending time on
10:31 the coast, we know how good it is for our mental and physical health, but it's just
10:35 about sharing our coastline responsibly to ensure that there's room for all of us.
10:40 And this leaflet map that you've got here, is this something that say perhaps children
10:45 or children and their parents can get involved in and is it sort of aimed that you can tick
10:48 them off if you see them?
10:49 Yes, yes definitely, we've got space on there for people to tick them off. If you meet our
10:54 rangers out on site we've got these available, you can pick them up from the visitor centre
11:00 at Riverside Country Park in Gillingham and we've also got a version that you can download
11:05 from our website as well.
11:06 Brilliant, so loads of different ways to get involved and a digital copy as well as you
11:11 said, which is good for the environment as it's less paper isn't it as well. Well thank
11:15 you so much for joining us today, it'd be great to sort of see what Birdwise does in
11:20 the year ahead as well. Thank you Hayley.
11:23 Well, it's all we've got time for in this half of Kent on climate but coming up after
11:28 the break, Maystone facing problems with potholes, quite a lot they've been seeing there, we'll
11:33 be taking a look into that. And a Medway Conservation Zoo is facing a tough start to the year, we've
11:39 been speaking with them. And Rochester Cathedral welcomes farmers for a very special event.
11:44 Don't go anywhere, I'll be back in just a few minutes time and you won't want to miss
11:48 all the climate news coming up. See you soon.
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15:04 Hello and welcome back to Kent on Climate Live on KMTV. Now, Maidstone residents say
15:11 they're fed up with road closures and potholes getting worse due to climate change, with Salisbury
15:16 Road in particular causing them concern. They weren't even comforted by the Department for
15:21 Transport's consultation being launched the other day, which aims to minimise disruption
15:26 caused by roadworks. The Roads Minister was in Aylesford this week to announce this scheme,
15:30 which he says would bring £100 million into national roads in the next decade. I was out
15:35 early this week to find out more.
15:38 A familiar sight for all of us, the dreaded drive over a street filled with potholes.
15:45 For residents in Maidstone, the Department for Transport's proposals to tackle disruption
15:49 from roadworks hasn't filled them with much hope. Some residents have expressed a concern
15:55 in particular with Salisbury Road. They say as soon as the potholes along this road are
15:59 fixed, three weeks later they end up opening up once again, and they're saying the solution
16:03 here just isn't long term.
16:05 Salisbury Road, that's one of the worst. When they fill the holes in, they don't fill them
16:10 in properly. They just do a bogus job, a patch job.
16:14 If there's no maintenance, you get potholes. And if the tonnage on the road increases and
16:20 you've got potholes, then it's going to get worse. And it's also as well the road markings.
16:25 If the road markings were made more clear or maintained, then older people could see
16:31 where they were going or whatever, so there could be problems there.
16:34 It seems roads around here, they're closing them just willy-nilly. You go along, there's
16:39 a road closed, well you will drive past, no one's working on it, and you think, 'Why
16:43 have they closed it off?'
16:44 The other day there was stop and go lights and it took me, a five minute journey, it
16:48 took me 40 minutes. So maybe a little bit more infrastructure on the roundabouts where
16:54 they're going to put lights.
16:56 A consultation has been launched today, hoping to find utility companies not meeting roadwork
17:02 deadlines £10,000 for every day over the agreed deadline.
17:07 Originally this was a requirement on weekdays. It now hopes to be extended to weekends and
17:12 bank holidays as well.
17:14 Roads Minister Guy Opperman hopes today's changes will cut traffic caused by streetworks
17:19 if they go ahead. It's due to generate £100 million in the next 10 years.
17:24 Kent are at the forefront of most of what this is going on because they've been doing
17:27 lane rental for a long time and they do it better than anyone else. But the £100 million
17:32 is on top of the £8.3 billion, which is the HS2 pothole and road resurfacing funding.
17:38 So it is sure, I accept entirely the £100 million is relatively small, but the £8.3
17:43 billion over 11 years is transformational.
17:46 Road closures are a particular concern in Kent, where £12,000 happened last year. This
17:52 has tripled since 2019.
17:55 We need to focus on getting the job done correctly the first time. Now we have an 11 year amount
18:00 of funding agreed from the government, we can plan over a longer term, invest in technology
18:04 where appropriate so that we can absolutely focus on that rather than returning time and
18:08 again to the same problem area.
18:10 The consultation opens today and finishes on the 11th of March.
18:15 Sophia Akin for KMTV.
18:19 And if you enjoyed that piece, you can find more climate stories on our website, kmtv.co.uk,
18:24 like this one from Bartholomew Hall about cycling to work in Kent.
18:30 Just under 8,000 people cycle to work here in Kent. That's according to the latest figures
18:35 from the Office for National Statistics.
18:37 Based on how many cyclists there are per 1,000 people, the data shows an east-west divide
18:43 in the county. Those commonly known as commuter towns sit amongst the lowest in Kent for people
18:48 cycling to work.
18:49 Whilst lower than any city, Medway and Sevenoaks rank amongst the lowest in the country, with
18:55 just 1.99 and 2.86 people cycling per every 1,000 commuters.
19:02 Compared with the rest of the country, Merthyr Tydfil in Wales ranked as the overall lowest
19:06 local authority area, and Cambridge was the highest, with more than 75 people.
19:12 It's clear from this data that Kent sits well below the UK average over people who cycle
19:16 to work.
19:17 Apart from just cycling to work, there's a lot of carbon emission we are emitting into
19:22 the air. It's not just affecting the person standing by the roadside, it's also affecting
19:28 you that is also driving that car, or any other means of transportation that you are
19:33 taking.
19:34 This is Matt, who runs his company All Bikes Servicing from his home garage in Chatham,
19:39 and even he says that he wouldn't choose to cycle to work if he had to go elsewhere in
19:43 the area.
19:44 I've been cycling all my life. It's great to get out in the fresh air. It clears your
19:49 mind. It's just a pleasant situation.
19:53 When I used to work in Gillingham, which is the closest I ever worked in my life, which
19:57 I think is about 4.2 miles, and I'd do a 12-hour day, and cycling to work, do a 12-hour day,
20:03 and then thinking about cycling home wasn't a great prospect for me personally. I get
20:08 that with a lot of people.
20:09 But I think Medway really, bearing in mind where it is based with regards to London and
20:16 those areas, I think a lot of people tend to get on the train and commute that way.
20:21 With the benefits of cycling for your health, for the environment and for your pocket clear,
20:25 why is it that in an area like Medway, the numbers are so low, especially when there's
20:30 more than 80 miles of cycling routes through all five towns? Well, we've been asking those
20:35 who live here if they'll consider cycling to work.
20:38 I would, but I think there definitely needs to be an improvement in cycling facilities
20:43 around here, but generally through the country.
20:47 When I worked in Medway, I cycled to work most days anyway, because I was near enough
20:51 to do that. If I needed a car, I used to cycle home and pick it up.
20:57 I do cycle a lot and I would cycle to work if I think it's safe, and I don't think it
21:02 is very safe, no matter where we are in the UK.
21:04 So with some considering taking up two wheels and others happy sticking with four, it seems
21:09 Kent's cycling stats are yet to hit top gear. Bartholomew Hall for KMTV.
21:16 Next tonight, the owner of Medway's only zoo was hoping for a fresh start after a tough
21:20 year, but he's been left deflated after a quad bike was reportedly stolen. Andy Cowell,
21:26 founder of the Fenbell Inn Conservation, says it's made caring for the animals harder as
21:30 they can't travel around the ground quickly. It will cost them £8,000 to replace, but
21:36 the team haven't reported the incident to the police. Here's our report, and Andy started
21:40 by explaining it's not the first item to be reported missing.
21:45 Last week, unfortunately, we had our third break-in in nine years. We lost our second
21:50 quad. Very frustrating. It's cost us, well, basically thrown £8,000 away is what it cost
21:58 us. It affects our business terribly. One of the things that we do here is run the small
22:04 safari truck for the children. It's very popular. We do all our events on it. It's something
22:10 we can't do now. It also affects the zoo quite badly. Generally, moving things around, things
22:16 that would take us five minutes to move about now takes us an hour in manpower to move things
22:23 backwards and forwards around the zoo. I spoke to Matthew Scott, Kent's police crime
22:28 commissioner, to ask whether rural communities are more vulnerable to crime.
22:33 I think that argument can be made. The sense of isolation is a very real problem. Businesses
22:39 and farmers in particular have told me that that has been one of their main concerns.
22:44 So that's why making rural crime a priority, as we have done, is so important, knowing
22:49 that now that we've put more police officers into responding to 999 calls, if something
22:54 does happen, that they can get there quicker, that the rural task force is able to go out
22:59 and give that reassuring prevention advice, and that there is a rural task force there
23:03 to investigate crimes should they be experiencing it.
23:06 The Fembell Conservation Project was first awarded its zoo licence in 2017, and is now
23:12 home to 24 species of animal, some which were rescued from the pet trade. The zookeepers,
23:19 volunteers and staff members are still working around the clock to ensure each animal has
23:24 their needs met. I'll be quite honest with you, I was hoping
23:29 that 2024 would be a new start and a fresh beginning. Until the weather breaks for us,
23:36 it's very difficult. We have lots of people who ring in and say, do we need support and
23:41 help? Yes we do, but we don't want money for nothing. Come and see us, spend a fiver on
23:47 the gate fee and buy a cup of tea. That's what we need, we need support. We don't want
23:52 anything for free.
23:57 And finally tonight, Rochester Cathedral has welcomed farmers across the county to mark
24:01 Plough Sunday. This ancient tradition allows the community to congratulate the harvest
24:06 and hard work from agricultural communities. But the celebration also gives the cathedral
24:11 and community a chance to bless them for the year ahead. Farmers say it's crucial to have
24:15 the community behind them with climbing costs and cold climates. Henry Luck has this report.
24:22 Farmers from across Kent have assembled at Rochester Cathedral to celebrate the start
24:27 of the agricultural season. Like many businesses across the country, farmers say they've been
24:33 hit hard by the cost of living crisis, Ukraine war and rising inflation, not helped by the
24:40 problems caused by extremely hot summers and freezing winters.
24:44 It's been like every other business, like every other profession, it's been a tough
24:49 four or five years. We've had Brexit, we've had Covid-19, we've had a Ukraine crisis and
24:57 now we've got fairly raging inflation, which has impacted, all of them have impacted on
25:03 farming, reduced farm incomes and left many farm balance sheets in a much worse place
25:11 than it was in 2016/17.
25:14 This is the cathedral's annual Plough Sunday, a tradition dating back to Victorian times
25:20 that celebrates the hard work of those in farming and agricultural communities. Dean
25:26 Phillips stressed the importance of buying Kent produce to support local businesses,
25:31 hoping this will help Kent farmers to keep sowing seeds throughout 2024.
25:37 It's a tradition really that grew up particularly at the beginning of the Victorian period.
25:41 It was a time when the farming community would come together to mark the beginning of the
25:46 new agricultural year. So it's a time when they've been off for Christmas and Plough
25:51 Monday would be when they got back to work. So on the Sunday before there was an opportunity
25:56 to come together and give thanks for the food and the blessing of the forthcoming harvest.
26:02 Part of the ceremony involves bringing a communal plough to the centre of the cathedral to be
26:07 blessed with seed by the Dean whilst the public can get involved through singing carols.
26:13 The plough behind me is the centrepiece for Rochester Cathedral's Plough Sunday service.
26:19 It's a classic farming tool used for farming grain.
26:24 Many Kent farmers hope this year they'll be able to sprout and grow towards a bright future.
26:30 Henry Luck for KNTV in Rochester.
26:36 That's all we've got time for on this week's episode of Kent on Climate. We'll be back
26:40 next week with another episode. Thanks so much for watching us this evening. Enjoy the
26:44 rest of your day and goodnight from me.
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