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00:30and welcome to Kentonite live on KMTV. I'm Abbey Hook. Here are your top stories on Monday the 1st
00:36of July. Writing on the wall, Labour lead in polls, but are they set to sweep Kent in general election?
00:44We know there are lots of undecided voters still, so our task between now
00:49and Thursday is to speak to as many voters as possible.
00:52Concrete in Capel Laferne. Residents oppose 90 new homes on farmland.
00:57There's problems with water pressure up here, so you can imagine all of that extra burden.
01:03Back on track?
01:06England scrape through, but are Kent fans still backing them to lift the trophy?
01:12I think that we should always have hope and believe in our country.
01:16What do you want to wake up to on Friday morning? That's the question Labour were
01:30posing in Strood earlier today, just three days before Kent decides at the general election.
01:36Pollsters have the left wing party in the lead in Medway, but are voters on the street
01:40a little more torn? Oliver Leader de Sacks was in the Labour target seat to find out.
01:45Labour's Kent candidates this election, waiting for change.
01:55The party have bought ad space on a billboard near the Rochester bridge.
01:59And while change isn't always a quick process, canvassers here were probably hoping the attack
02:04ad wouldn't take ten minutes each time to pop up to passersby. Labour in North Kent are used
02:12to waiting. All three seats in Medway have been in Conservative hands since 2010. But with pollsters
02:19putting Labour ahead in the five towns after a decade in the wings, the writing on the wall here
02:25in Strood is not to be complacent. We're not complacent about anything at all. We've run a
02:33really positive campaign here in Kent and across the country, speaking to as many voters as
02:40possible. But nothing's been decided yet. Some people have started to send back their postal
02:45votes, but the vast majority of people won't vote until Thursday. And we know there are lots of
02:50undecided voters still. So our task between now and Thursday is to speak to as many voters
02:56as possible, putting forward our positive message for change.
03:00A round of applause for the senior Labour official. But over the bridge, Rochester voters
03:06I spoke to were less convinced by the idea of a Labour government. They're not telling us the
03:12truth, completely the truth. We know the money's not there. I mean, when we had a Labour government,
03:17you know, a long time ago, you know, we then ended up with a huge debt, you know, a British debt.
03:25It's difficult. I think they all say very similar things. It's what...
03:29I don't know. I don't know what it is. I don't have a lot of faith in any of them, if I'm honest.
03:36Yeah, the main party you serve is your Labour.
03:40I don't know, there's not too much distinction between the two anymore.
03:42To be honest, I don't know about any of them that are really going to be there.
03:50A sign of the times then. But with Labour feeling quietly confident about their campaign,
03:57we'll have to wait until Thursday to see if this sentiment and ad space is well-placed.
04:03All of the lead of the sacks for KMTV in Strood.
04:06And for a full list of candidates, just go to Kent Online.
04:14Now, while we may have heard that some voters in the five towns are torn, others are worried they
04:18won't be able to vote at all. Some residents in Medway say their postal votes haven't arrived,
04:23and they're worried they could be disenfranchised come the 4th of July.
04:27Royal Mail have been approached for comment, but joining me on the sofa to discuss this
04:30is the Labour Medway council leader Vince Maple and Conservative councillor Habib Dajan.
04:35Thank you both for joining me. Now, Vince, you wrote to Royal Mail this weekend about
04:39constituents not receiving postal votes. What do you think's causing the delays?
04:43Have you heard anything back?
04:44Well, I can say first time anywhere publicly that I've received very late this afternoon
04:50a response back from the Royal Mail, who have confirmed that everything has now been
04:54dispatched. But I am very concerned that in a number of cases,
05:00this has taken much, much longer than normal. And we know this is not a Medway problem.
05:05I was in the Green Room just a few minutes ago, and the SNP leader is saying actually
05:11voters across Scotland may have a similar issue with postal votes. So I do think this is something
05:17that post July the 4th, I think there will be a lot of conversation about. I've had emails from
05:22certainly a couple of residents who will not be able to vote in this election
05:26because they'd arranged for a postal vote that's been dispatched in good time by the council,
05:31but it hasn't been delivered by the Royal Mail. So I do think there'll be questions to answer
05:35both before July the 4th, but realistically, far beyond that.
05:39Habib, what impact do you think this is going to have on the result here?
05:43I totally agree with what Vince said. Yes, I mean, it will leave residents disenfranchised
05:49in many cases. I was at the count earlier this week, the postal vote count, and I've seen the
05:56returns. I know the first day we had a fair few, in the mid-late 20% coming. So with the solution
06:06in place now, it may have very little impact, I'm guessing, considering the amount of votes
06:12I saw coming into the postal vote count. It is truly disappointing, though, that residents
06:18had to suffer that, and I think we could have done a little bit more from a council perspective in
06:23communicating and sampling residents and trying to let them know what is going on,
06:28what they could do about the situation. Well, I would say that we've been very
06:32clear on that. Obviously, replacement ballot papers have been available since Friday.
06:37If people want to know more, if they live in Medway, they can phone 01634 332099. Other
06:44councils across Kent will have a similar number. People are able to get a replacement ballot if
06:49they haven't received it, and I would encourage them to do that. It is frustrating that the Royal
06:54Mail have left us in this position, but they've been dispatched in good time. In one batch,
06:58actually, it went a day early, and nevertheless, some people still haven't received them.
07:01And just very quickly, we don't have long left at all. Just a yes or no, are you worried that
07:06this could impact the votes for you in this election? I think it could impact, yes.
07:12Vince, are you worried? I'm concerned if any resident in
07:14Medway is disenfranchised by this, that's not good enough, and we will have to learn more
07:18working with our partners, Royal Mail. And of course, yes, speaking to Royal Mail
07:21and finding out what went wrong, and definitely a talking point after the general election,
07:26for sure. Thank you both very much for coming in. And with election week upon us, of course,
07:31the county turns its attention to the polls on Thursday, and then the results. And on election
07:36night itself, we'll be broadcasting from 10pm to 10am, a 12-hour Kent Politics Show special live
07:43here on KMTV. We'll be bringing you detailed analysis, live reports from all 18 constituencies,
07:49and every Kent result as they happen. On Thursday, the 4th of July,
07:54six weeks of hard campaigning for this year's general election will be over. You will have
08:00cast your vote on who you want to run our country. KMTV's exclusive 12-hour live election
08:08programme will bring you all the action from across every Kent count, the constituencies that
08:14really matter to you. The Kent Politics Show Election 2024 special live and exclusive on
08:21KMTV and Kent Online. Make sure you're there when Kent decides.
08:27Not long now at all. But don't forget, as well as keeping up to date here on KMTV,
08:31you can check out our latest on our website, kmtv.co.uk. There you'll find all our reports,
08:36including this one about residents calling on the council to put up better signage
08:41after lorries have been pulling into parks in Swanscombe. Take a look.
08:47It would have been the last thing these picnic goers expected to see reversing behind them,
08:52expected to see reversing behind them, a large lorry in a children's park.
08:57The driver clearly lost, then decided to reverse,
09:02crashing into this fence. The man who shot this video didn't want to come on camera,
09:07but he's the caretaker for the park and is now terrified this will happen when children are here.
09:13So how on earth did this lorry end up in the play area? We understand that HGV took a right into
09:20this no lorry zone. That's because Galley Hill Road is mostly closed because of the landslip.
09:26The driver would have quickly ended up at the road closure signs here, being forced to take
09:30a left into this housing estate, not before taking out this traffic light. We then guessed
09:37the driver tried to find a way out, but he entered into Phoenix Court and swinging around the bend,
09:43he'd realised he was quickly out of road and he entered this park to try and turn around.
09:49Yes it is, the cream of the crop, the cream of the crop. This is the worst,
09:55that was the worst one, everyone else's. We've had a few shouts and honours.
09:59Bruce lives in this no lorry zone. He's had one reversing into his front wall,
10:04destroying it and as a result he's had to put this temporary fence up.
10:09There should be a barrier, a height barrier put across the road to stop the lorries coming
10:14through. They've got ample opportunity to turn right and turn around. They've got plenty of
10:18space to turn around there. That could be done, that should have been done months ago.
10:23Residents living on this street say they're constantly seeing lorries coming up and down it
10:27and there's been more damage in the past. There's an official diversion for HGVs as a solution to
10:33the destroyed road is found, but residents are now calling on Kent County Council to increase
10:38awareness and enforcement. It's very hard to understand why the driver did what he did because
10:43he obviously got in some difficulty going down an inappropriate road, but then to drive around
10:48on the children's play area or near the children's play area and on the grass, I find just amazing.
10:54But we'll learn from it, we'll get some more signs probably so I can ask and I can push and
10:59my colleagues push, but at the end of the day, cases should make the decisions.
11:03It's been nearly 15 months since Galley Hill Road was shut following the landslip,
11:07a solution still months if not years away.
11:11But locals hope quicker measures will come to stop lorries entering their community here.
11:20That was our local democracy reporter Gabriel Morris reporting there. You can find that report
11:24and all our recent stories over on our website kmtv.co.uk. But now it's time for a very short
11:30break. Coming up, all the latest sports news and analysis as England make it through just by the
11:35skin of their teeth to the quarterfinals with an excellent goal from Jude Bellingham. That's been
11:39all the talk, 80 seconds to spare nail-biting game. We'll be getting the reaction from England fans
11:44and see if the hope's still alive on the high streets here in Kent. We hope so. See you in a few minutes.
15:05Hello, welcome back to Kent tonight, live on KMTV. Now, villagers in Capel of Fern are campaigning
15:18against 90-home development on farmland they say would be concreting over the countryside.
15:25Quinn Estates wants to build the new homes on a large field earmarked for development in the
15:29district's local plan. But locals say the area just doesn't have the infrastructure. Well, our
15:34local democracy reporter Gabriel Morris joins me now with more. Gabriel, what can you tell us?
15:39Well, there are plans, as you're saying, to build 90 new homes and that is causing some concern
15:46amongst some residents in the local area. So those 90 homes have received 108 letters of objections
15:53and one letter supporting the plans. 108 letters objecting is quite high when it comes to planning.
16:00And there are some concerns about the impact on the view. You can see how beautiful it is in that
16:05area of Kent in particular. But also, the developers say that they will try and combat
16:10concerns about the environment too. Well, yeah, Quinn Estates are the developer and they
16:15are going to try and combat these concerns by planning a dedicated wildlife area,
16:22having open spaces with trees and implementing electric vehicle charging points to promote
16:28greener energy. And they hope by doing those, implementing those measures, that the estate will
16:34also increase its societal value in the area, promoting greener rather than causing more
16:39concerns. And they hope that will stem some of the objections. And part of those environmental
16:43concerns and infrastructure coming under that same umbrella of traffic are the roads. What's
16:48that looking like? What are the developers hoping to do to fix that? Well, traffic concerns are an
16:53issue. Plans include 180 new parking spaces, 90 homes. There will be an increase in traffic in
17:00the area. It is near a bus stop, which may help promote the use of public transport. We also know
17:05the junction of Cable Street and the main new Dover Road will be improved to manage traffic.
17:12And they would also like to implement a new access point with pedestrians on new roads to
17:17try and increase walking and greener transport measures. Okay. And I believe we can actually hear
17:22from some of those residents now. Most of us along this road bought our houses because of the view.
17:29We will have 90 houses behind us, many of which will look over our gardens and into our houses.
17:37It's not ideal. There's problems with water pressure up here. So you can imagine all of
17:42that extra burden. And then that's not allowing for the fact of the traffic, as I say, going out
17:47to the main road. There's great problems with accidents that happen at the entrances to these,
17:53to this, to this area. The roads around here, just the whole infrastructure and the whole of the
17:59village is not suitable for 90 odd houses behind there. So you're talking not just 90 houses over
18:04there, you're talking 120 houses in all. Just the infrastructure just isn't there. It's just not
18:10suitable at all. Well, now it's time to take a very quick look at the weather.
18:21This evening, pretty cloudy skies, temperatures of 16 across most of the county, 15 down in
18:26Tunbridge, Wales. And as we go into tomorrow morning, temperature stays around 16 degrees
18:30across most of Kent, a bit cooler in Tunbridge, Wales, still cloudy. Rain coming in by Tuesday
18:36afternoon over in Margate, highs of 19 in Dartford. And here's your outlook for Kent.
18:42Rain on Wednesday, Thursday, a bit of sunshine, cloudy on Friday.
18:56Now to sports, and only one story has been dominating the headlines today. And that,
19:01of course, is Jude Bellingham's last gasp goal, which sent England's Euro 2024 last 16 match with
19:07Slovakia into extra time and, of course, onto a win. Many pubs and beer gardens in Kent jam-packed,
19:14full of people watching the match. But after a start to the competition, which has been
19:18widely scrutinised, just how far can they go? Well, I'm joined with Bartholomew, who was at
19:22one of those pubs last night watching and celebrating. And what can you tell us?
19:26Well, it's never an easy time watching England, is it? You think you're going to the pub for a nice
19:30Sunday afternoon and you end up adding 10 years onto your life by the end of it. Honestly,
19:34it was a real nail-biter, wasn't it, that England game? I think by the time it got to around the
19:3990th minute and we saw those five minutes added on, most people were thinking, right, that's it,
19:44time to pack up, think about the World Cup in a couple of years' time. But no, something changed,
19:50didn't it? We saw Jude Bellingham in that 95th minute with just a couple of seconds to go,
19:54being in the right place at the right time and scoring a brilliant bicycle kick. We don't need
19:58to show you it here because you've seen it already on social media. It's been everywhere.
20:03Now, the question is, how are they going to transform this into success further down the
20:07line? My personal opinion, hopefully that's given them enough fuel to get a bit of fire in their
20:12bellies for taking on Switzerland next week in the quarter-finals. But we've been speaking to
20:17some England fans on the streets of Rochester today. Here's what they told us. Oh, definitely.
20:22Well, definitely. They've got to. No, not really. Not sure. I'm not sure. The way they played
20:30yesterday, you didn't think they had a chance until, you know, the last minute of the match.
20:35So, yeah, it's difficult. You can't predict with them. They're not playing together.
20:42They're not playing as a team. That is the problem. Individual talent, no team working.
20:49If you'd watched the game afterwards,
20:55fabulous. The Spanish team, everything, passing, crisp, not England. What do you make of Gareth
21:03Southgate, the manager? He's a smashing guy, but he's not strong enough. So you've got no
21:10hope for the coming weeks then? No, unless they change their pattern of play. I think that we
21:17should always have hope and believe in our country. They pulled it out the bag in the end.
21:23However, they don't look like they want it, which I think is hard for us England fans to watch. It
21:31doesn't seem as if they want it. It doesn't look like they're fighting for it. They were awful.
21:36But they got the results in the end, didn't they? Very lucky. And they really do need to up the
21:43game. Do you think they can still win the Euros? I just don't think we can. I've got no confidence
21:49in them. Not much hope there. Some hope dotted through, but it is amazing when the Euros are
21:56on, we all become experts in football. Oh, absolutely. That's the fun of it though, isn't it?
22:01The bar is set so high. How do you think they're going to do against Switzerland? Because Switzerland
22:05are turning into some of the favourites now. They've been playing quite well. Yes, a bit of
22:09a dark horse. They're a little bit lower down in the FIFA rankings, but they did beat Italy.
22:13They knocked Italy out, obviously the current title holders of the Euros. So yeah, could be a
22:17tough one in the quarterfinals. But unfortunately for our local hero, Mark Gay, he went to school
22:21in Gravesend. Will have to miss that game. He picked up his second yellow card. Also a bit of
22:26a question about Bellingham himself. He's under investigation by UEFA at the moment because of
22:31some allegedly gestures that could have been seen to be offensive. He said on his social media that
22:37it was just a harmless inside joke between himself and some friends. So we'll have to see
22:41the outcome of that. Hopefully, fingers crossed, he won't be missing out that game. Well, it could
22:45be a very different story, our quarterfinals and then final with or without him as well. I mean,
22:50he did that with 80 seconds to go or something, secured the hopes. And here are some of the fans
22:54there as well. Some of the fans actually left and missed the goal. They left with no hope and missed
23:00that amazing goal. What a shame. You cannot give up. You have to go right to the final whistle.
23:04Well, soon it'll be back to regular league play, especially for Gillingham,
23:08who have returned to training today. Nine weeks on from the end of what was a disappointing end
23:14to the League Two season. Crunch time begins now as new manager Mark Bonner will be putting his
23:20plans into practice at last. The first hurdle of the pre-season will be a visit from former
23:25manager of Gillingham, Neil Harris, when he brings his Millwall side to town on the 13th of July,
23:30with another championship side, Watford, visiting the following weekend. It comes
23:34after League One Crawley Town have announced the transfer of Scott Malone from Gillingham,
23:39who was one of the four players that the Medway side made available for transfer this summer.
23:45Next, Maidstone boxer Sean Noakes has secured a chance of becoming English welterweight champion
23:52in just his eighth fight. The undefeated fighter is set to face Southern Area champion Inder
23:58Bassi at the O2 Arena on the 27th of July. He'll be boxing on the undercard of the big domestic
24:03clash between Joe Joyce and Derek Chisora. Noakes says it's a good step up, but he's
24:09confident of a win. It comes after the fighter recently returned to his old amateur boxing club,
24:14Westry ABC, where he handed out and signed Team Noakes t-shirts to all of the youngsters there.
24:20Well, from gymnastics to athletics and swimming to archery, there's really not long to go until
24:25Kent will all be sitting down to watch some of the most popular sports at this year's Paris
24:30Olympics. But how much are you looking forward to bouldering? It's one of the newest sports at the
24:34Games, first debuting at Tokyo 2020. One person especially looking forward to it is Sittingbourne's
24:4020-year-old Erin McNeice. That's because she's been selected to take part and represent Team GB.
24:45Here she is telling us how it feels to become an Olympian. I've sort of started to believe in
24:50myself more. So the support just feels to me as though other people believe in me. So it's,
24:57yeah, the support is invaluable to me and it's not pressuring at all. I'm so excited for the
25:02Olympics. I'm so excited for the whole experience and the support just adds to that. And finally
25:09for me, it's day two of Kent's county championship meeting with Hampshire, where Kent are hoping for
25:13a much needed win in the Division One table. It comes after our county side have brought on
25:19Essex batsman Feroze Koushi on loan for the next few weeks following injuries in the squad and
25:24Zach Crawley being unavailable with England. After a slow first day on Sunday, Kent failed
25:29to make the most of a good start after three wickets were taken for just 56 runs. Whilst on
25:34day two today, Hampshire have been able to end their innings after declaring 505 for eight. Kent
25:40are now chasing down 368 with six wickets remaining as we head towards the end of play today. Plenty
25:46more sport coming up in Invictus Sport right after the break. Thank you to Bartholomew with
25:54the sports there. Now, just before we go and hand over to Invictus Sport for all that and more,
25:59a viral back garden burger restaurant for badgers is closing in Maidstone. Well, it was once a
26:05popular place for the animals to get a midnight snack. Each evening, Marcel Payne would prepare
26:10a menu with his son Lewis in their garden in Bairstead and over time, they became a bit more
26:15creative here. The badgers and a cat in the bottom left can be seen eating out of McDonald's
26:21Happy Meals containers, although no actual fast food was offered or ordered. He's shutting up
26:27shop. Unfortunately, Marcel has had to start feeding them outside the gate because they were
26:31destroying his garden. But he's now created a garden pub named the Fox and Badger to honour
26:36his original guests and the new fox that he's welcoming into his home as well. Well, maybe we
26:42can all watch the footy there too as the Euros continue. But that's it for me with Kent tonight.
26:47See you for Invictus Sport.