Catch up with all the news across the county with Abby Hook.
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00:00Hello, good evening and welcome to Kentonite live on KMTV. I'm Abbey Hook. Here are your
00:16top stories on Monday the 11th of November.
00:19Calls to resign. Archbishop of Canterbury told to step down after Church of England
00:25abuse report. One every five days. Exclusive data shows dozens of Kent Excel bullies destroyed
00:34in first six months of ban.
00:37It's absolutely soul destroying but I'm not surprised.
00:42And Kent remembers. Thousands across the county fall silent to pay their respects on Armistice
00:48Day.
00:49My father was in the Second World War wearing his medals here and he was in the Royal Navy
00:54and there's so many people who we can relate to.
01:07First tonight, the Archbishop of Canterbury is being told to resign after a report into
01:11the crimes of one serial abuser connected to the church has been published.
01:15John Smith was a barrister involved with Christian holiday camps and died before he could be
01:20brought to justice.
01:21The report found that 130 young boys and men were victims to his abuse.
01:26Well, Finn McDermott joins me now live in Canterbury.
01:29Finn, you are near the cathedral but it's very dark this evening.
01:33Tell us who exactly is calling for him to resign?
01:40Well at the moment it's plenty of high ranking members of the clergy that are calling for
01:45him to resign.
01:46As many may know, the Archbishop of Canterbury, you might know him from officiating the Royal
01:50Wedding, presiding over the late Queen's funeral and maybe even visiting your school
01:55in Kent.
01:56But he is now dominating the headlines for a far darker reason.
01:59Like I said, he's facing calls to resign from 1,500 members of the clergy for allegedly
02:04keeping knowledge about serial abuser John Smith from the authorities.
02:09Recently, the Make In Review, an independent investigation, found he ran Christian youth
02:18holiday camps across Africa and abused as many as 130 boys and young men.
02:23There are also camps in the UK.
02:25The report outlined that John Smith, the barrister, subjected victims to physical, sexual and
02:32psychological abuse.
02:33Now the reason the Archbishop is involved is because there are some claims he had knowledge
02:38of this before 2013.
02:40According to him, he had no idea or suspicion.
02:43But the review had found after wider exposure that year that he had personally failed to
02:49ensure that, in his words, it was energetically investigated.
02:54And the report said that Smith could and should have been formally reported to the police
02:59in the UK and to authorities in South Africa, where he has now died aged 75.
03:06By church officers, the reporting of him and including a Diocesan bishop who also knew
03:11and Justin Welby in 2013.
03:13Vin, thank you very much for those details.
03:18Now, one, every five days, that's the rate at which illegally owned Excel bullies have
03:25been put down by Kent police since the ban came into force earlier this year.
03:29Data exclusively obtained by the Kent Messenger shows dozens of the dangerous dog breed have
03:35been seized in the first six months of the ban across the county.
03:39The government introduced it for public safety, but owners and behaviourists say it isn't
03:43fit for purpose, as Oliver Leader de Sacks has been finding out.
03:49Meet Colin.
03:50He's just one of thousands of Excel bullies, now muzzled and on lead, after the breed was
03:57designated as dangerous dogs at the beginning of this year.
04:01The ban means dogs like Colin have to be registered with the authorities and neutered, with owners
04:08risking an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison for not complying.
04:14Colin is not the only Excel bully here in Kent.
04:17He's one of nearly 2,000 to have been registered since the ban came into place, according to
04:23exclusive data obtained by the Kent Messenger.
04:26What makes Colin different, though, is he has epilepsy and just about crosses the height
04:32restrictions for the breed.
04:35His owner, Stephanie, thinks he's a borderline case and that restrictions need to be changed
04:39slightly to allow for better treatment of dogs with specialist needs.
04:44It's not that I don't agree with the ban, it's I don't agree with the way it's been
04:49implemented and it was rushed through, if you like, especially for dogs that do have
04:56any medical conditions.
04:58I mean, you know, it's very much something needed to be done, but something fit for purpose.
05:03Now new data shows that Kent police have seized nearly 70 bullies in the first six
05:08months of the ban, destroying 34 of them.
05:13That's one bully every five days.
05:16The ban was introduced after a rise in dog attacks since 2021, but one Maidstone expert
05:22has warned that breed bans don't tackle the root causes of why these attacks happen.
05:28From looking at statistics where we've had pit bulls banned in the past and things like
05:31that, it doesn't result in fewer bites.
05:34So again, I think it was probably a lot of us trainers maybe think it's probably just
05:37a knee-jerk reaction from the government because we did have a lot, obviously there is something
05:40going on potentially with XL bullies.
05:42We have had a lot of unfortunate deaths and of course that's very, very sad and that shouldn't
05:46be happening.
05:47But I think what happens if we just ban these breeds, it is just a sticking plaster on kind
05:53of a very ineffective plaster on the situation rather than trying to make the situation better
05:57in the long term.
05:58The government say they introduced these measures to protect public safety and while many in
06:04Kent have welcomed the new restrictions, calls for strict licensing on owners rather than
06:10an outright ban persist.
06:13Oliver, leader of the SAC for KMTV in Chatham.
06:17Well, 300 cars a week on one road alone are being fined for ignoring Medway new school
06:25streets.
06:26The scheme was introduced outside seven schools earlier this year to reduce traffic to make
06:31it safer for children to get there but latest data has revealed many drivers are ignoring
06:36the signs the council says they're putting lives at risk.
06:39But as local democracy reporter Gabriel Morris has been finding out, others think it's unclear
06:44and actually a moneymaker.
06:47It's a morning school run in Medway but taking the wrong turn down this street at the wrong
06:51time, you'll end up with a fine of up to £70.
06:55The same goes for this street and five others across the authority.
06:59Earlier this year, the council introduced school streets in a bid to make roads safer.
07:05But we found many vehicles are entering the restricted areas.
07:09In the second week of September, the number of fines increased as the six-month grace
07:13period ended.
07:14Although the number is starting to drop once more, the highest amount of fines on the roads
07:19around Burns Oak Primary with an average of 300 being issued a week.
07:25The school's on Richmond Road, which is a busy link road to Gillingham High Street.
07:30Now I've been speaking to a number of drivers who have been fined going down school streets
07:34but he's saying the signage going into one isn't all too obvious.
07:39Council themselves really need to be taking a proactive approach and engaging with residents,
07:43doing that market testing around what signs work and what don't, and where clearly they
07:46aren't working and there's a significant amount of fines being issued, need to look at what
07:50measures they can put in place in order to mitigate them.
07:52Because at the end of the day, if the council as they have been previously have been clear
07:56that they don't believe that this is a revenue-raising measure, then they should be doing everything
08:00they can to ensure that people don't access those spaces and therefore thus aren't raising
08:04revenue.
08:05Do you think it is a revenue-raising measure?
08:07Well I think that's clear for the public to see by the number of fines being implemented.
08:12The council stands by the school streets saying it's keeping children safe and they believe
08:16signage is clear.
08:18Signage is in excess of the statutory minimum.
08:20We have gone above and beyond what is legally required.
08:24So that means, according to the highway code, that you are expected to pay attention to
08:28the road signs.
08:29You have to remember that every single one of those PCNs is a driver who has either carelessly,
08:36recklessly or deliberately ignored the rules and put children in danger.
08:41I'm not prepared to accept that.
08:43If you do that, you will be fined.
08:45Medway Council have proposals to roll out restricted zones to nine other schools across
08:50the towns.
08:51Details on these are expected in the coming weeks.
08:54Gabriel Morris in Medway.
08:58Now in more driving news, millions of drivers using the Dartford Crossing have been mistakenly
09:04given fines, adding up to more than £4.1 million over the last year.
09:08Nearly 60,000 penalty notices have been taken back after National Highway switched to a
09:13new provider to manage payments.
09:15Well, our reporter Daisy Page joins me now with more.
09:18Daisy, how could something like this happen?
09:20Thousands of people getting these fines that aren't actually, they didn't even take the
09:25crossing at all.
09:26Well, as many commuters know, when you are crossing it, you need to pay a fee called
09:31the Dart charge.
09:32Now, this needs to be paid the night after you travel and when payment isn't made, penalty
09:37charge notice is submitted and the car can be found for an automatic number plate recognition.
09:43And it's believed that it's that recognition that is going wrong.
09:46Now it's worth mentioning before anyone is thinking about changing their route that 55
09:50million journeys were made over the tunnel, so the mistakes are quite few in number.
09:54And the National Highway have said we have resolved this issue and have seen errors reduced
09:58to less than 1%.
10:01And one woman was charged 34 times through her account for the crossing that she never
10:06made.
10:07Partly because, as we said, that number plate recognition went wrong and hers was similar
10:11with just the three and one that has been incorrectly identified by the cameras.
10:15She reportedly called the contact centre but was unable to fix it, even thinking her number
10:19plate may have been cloned.
10:22After the issue, she eventually fixed it and said she took a lot of her time and energy
10:26and she was never properly apologised to.
10:29And what have National Highways had to say?
10:32So it is believed that it's like the new company that they won the £150 million contract by
10:39National Highways.
10:41They have said to us in a statement earlier today that we regret that some people have
10:44faced this issue following the switch in the new supply in summer 2023 and customers were
10:50not charged for the penalty charge notice issued earlier this year.
10:54And this isn't the first time that it has been seen with an increase of penalty notices.
10:59They increased between October last year and last January by nearly twice as much, from
11:03190,000 to an average of 300,000.
11:07We spoke to George Holt, a Dartford councillor, to find out a bit more.
11:11Daisy, thank you very much and more on Kent Online as well.
11:15Daisy, thank you very much.
11:17Now time for a very quick break but coming up the latest sports news as Gillingham face
11:20Stevenage in the EFL Trophy tomorrow and what does Armistice Day mean to Kent?
11:25Well more after the break on Remembrance events right across the county.
11:28See you then.
14:37Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight live on KMTV.
14:59Now to sports and a kickboxing duo have been competing in Athens for the European Championships
15:05and they'll be joining us later on in Invicta Sport.
15:07But before all that, the show's producer joins me on the sofa now, Bartholomew, you've got
15:11some other news first about Gillingham's performance at the weekend.
15:14Yeah, exactly.
15:15An exciting episode of Invicta Sport to come, we'll talk about that in a moment.
15:18But first of all, I sat here on Friday previewing Gillingham's top of the table match against
15:23Port Vale.
15:24It was going to be a bit of an uphill battle, that was the kind of view going into the match
15:28but they managed to turn it around after what was seven games without a win in all competitions.
15:34Gillingham finally getting a win.
15:35It was a 1-0 victory, it wasn't exactly the game for the ages but definitely a three points
15:40that Gilles fans and the team themselves will appreciate.
15:43Jadon Clarke scored the winner in the second half with about ten minutes to go.
15:48So really it was a sign of relief for the team and we'll hear from Mark Bonner in just
15:52a second.
15:53But another piece of Gilles news today is that Kenny Jackett, the director of football,
15:56has stepped down from his role due to medical reasons.
15:59He's a man with a very distinguished career across the football league.
16:03He's been with Gillingham in that role since January 2023 and I'm sure he'll be sorely
16:07missed but much loved by the family there at Gillingham.
16:11But let's hear from Mark Bonner now, of course, manager, following that win at the weekend.
16:16Don't care that it wasn't a classic at all.
16:18I thought we were good.
16:19I thought we were worthy of the win.
16:23And I think it's a huge result against a team absolutely flying and everyone will look at
16:28their phones and everyone would have come today thinking, I hope we win.
16:32But no one would have given us a chance.
16:34And huge credit to the lads for finding that level, finding that performance, sticking
16:38together when people lose a bit of faith.
16:40It's easy to do that, but they haven't.
16:43And yeah, it's a huge result for us.
16:46And of course, that and more football news will be in Invictus Sport this evening.
16:50What else is coming up?
16:51Yeah.
16:52So as you mentioned, we've got Alex Chalk and Ben Fillingham joining us on the show
16:55this evening.
16:56They've just come back from Greece where they've been competing at the World, the European
17:00rather, kickboxing championships in Athens.
17:04They've not just been representing their local club, which is Miles Martial Arts, where they're
17:08both instructors.
17:09They've not just been representing Kent, but Team GB.
17:12And of course, after that brilliant summer that Team GB had at the Olympics, it's really
17:16good to see some of our local heroes again out there.
17:19And of course, they'll give us all the details, but I can say that we'll be having a European
17:23champion in the studio.
17:25Exciting stuff.
17:26Well, it's definitely not you from whizzing around in a go-kart at Buckmore Park last
17:29week as well.
17:30That'll also be in the show tonight.
17:31How did you do?
17:32It was good.
17:33We'll have to wait and see.
17:34That record at Buckmore Park?
17:35I don't know.
17:36I don't know about that.
17:37More practice needed.
17:38Maybe on the simulators.
17:39We'll find out more.
17:40Yes.
17:41In Invictus Sport.
17:42Well, as well as what's happening here at Invictus Sport after the break, don't forget
17:44you can keep up to date with all your latest stories across Kent by logging on to our website.
17:48It's kmtv.co.uk.
17:49There you'll find all our reports, including this one about it becoming more expensive
17:54to go to university.
17:59This is how much it could soon cost for students to attend university in the UK.
18:07Since 2017, fees have been capped at £9,250.
18:12The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has indicated that costs currently do not
18:17reflect the true value of the education provided.
18:21This increase is in response to many institutions suffering from the cost-of-living crisis,
18:26with 40% of English universities expecting to fall below the financial thresholds this year.
18:33From April 2025, we will be increasing the maximum cap for tuition fees in line with
18:38inflation to £9,535, an increase of £285 per academic year.
18:46With increases coming for those hoping to join university in the coming year, it's feared
18:51many students may feel discouraged from joining university.
18:55When people read a headline that says tuition fees are going to go up, they will naturally
19:00assume that just means their debt's going to go up, or their potential debt is going
19:03to go up, and that might put them off going to university, and that's a very bad thing.
19:09The university fee system is so completely broken, and none of the main parties have
19:17really wanted to grasp the nettle of doing a really full and proper review of how universities
19:24are funded. Labour has essentially kind of fallen into the same trap of not wanting to
19:30do that, and therefore it looks like they're just going to continue with the existing system
19:38but just at a slightly higher level of fees, and that is not the answer.
19:42I definitely think that it would discourage a lot of people from specifically selecting
19:48engineering and STEM subjects, which in themselves are very, I would say they're already difficult
19:56to begin with without prior knowledge.
20:00People are already struggling with what is the prices right now, so I think it's going
20:05to be quite a lot. I'm an international student as well, so if that happens to international
20:09students, I think definitely most of them, they're going to be so encouraged to come
20:14to university, and here they might choose another country, which is really sad.
20:19Universities have already suffered a financial hit, with many international students hoping
20:25to stay in their home countries, citing the cost of living as a hurdle. It is not yet
20:30clear how much fees may go up for international students, but what we do know is that foreign
20:35students pay around triple the fees of British students, so the impact of this raise may
20:41be felt more in international students.
20:44Kristen Hawthorne, KMTV.
20:48Now it's time to take a look at the weather forecast.
20:57Expect to see clear skies across the county tonight, with partly cloudy weather around
21:01the coastline there. Lows of around seven going into tomorrow morning. We'll see heavy
21:07rain in Margate and Dover, light rain in Canterbury and Ashford, temperatures between eight and
21:11eleven. The rain will stop towards the evening, leaving cloudy weather throughout Kent, an
21:15average temperature of around ten to eleven degrees. Moving on to the next few days, much
21:19of the same, a lot of cloudy weather until Friday, perhaps a bit of sunshine.
21:24And finally this evening, across Kent, thousands have been commemorating fallen soldiers on
21:40Armistice Day. From Kent cricket to Kent Fire and Rescue, respects were paid in a two-minute
21:46silence at 11am, as always on the 11th of November. Earlier I was joined by Dennis Potter,
21:52Chairman of the Royal Navy Association in Chatham. He told me all about Remembrance
21:57and what it means to him as well, a very special story with his father too. But first, let's
22:01look back at some of the events across the county over the past few days.
22:21Dennis, tell me more about the Royal Navy Association and its connection to Medway in particular.
22:45The Royal Navy Association, the Chatham branch, is one of the branches that make up over 200
22:53branches nationwide. We're roughly around about 22,000 members at this stage, not in
23:01Chatham, but nationally and internationally. We are veterans of serving in the Royal Navy.
23:12There are associate members as well. And being an ex-naval town, of course, you can
23:19imagine the links are very strong locally. Very strong ties, for sure. Tell me a bit
23:23more about Armistice Day, about today, what sort of events have been happening over the
23:27weekend too? The Armistice Day, of course, commemorates
23:32the 11th of the 11th, 1918, and that is the armistice that was signed to end the First
23:41World War. Over the weekend, and it started Saturday actually, for some of us at Chatham
23:48Town Football Club who had a reef lane service up there, and it was very well attended. There
23:59were around 1,500 supporters there, and the minute's silence was observed impeccably,
24:06it really was. That was on Saturday before the game. We played Dover, which is quite
24:11poignant as well. Tell me a bit more, Dennis, about what this
24:15day and what these few days mean to you as well.
24:18Well, Sunday, yesterday and today, Sunday being a remembrance service means a hell of
24:23a lot to all of us. Not just me, of course. My father was in the Second World War. I'm
24:28wearing his medals here. He was in the Royal Navy. There's so many people who we can relate
24:34to, who we pay our respects to. Remembering the fact that remembrance days, Sundays and
24:43Armistice Day, of course, they don't celebrate war, but what they do is they commemorate
24:49sacrifice. It's those virtues which affects every one of us, because we can all relate
24:55to somebody who has actually been involved in World War I, II, and recent conflicts,
25:02of course. Tell me a bit more about what's significant
25:06about this year's commemorations as well. Of course, we recognise this day every year
25:10and this weekend, but what about this year? Well, on the Royal Naval side of the fence,
25:16the obelisk at the War Memorial at the Great Lines was unveiled in 1924, so it's actually
25:25a hundred years old this year, April, and we commemorated that, as is the one in Plymouth
25:34and Portsmouth. They're all a hundred years old. So they commemorate the First World War
25:39and the outer wall was actually added in 1952, I think it was, to commemorate the Second
25:47World War. So that makes it especially poignant this year.
25:54That was Dennis Potter joining me earlier from the Royal Navy Association over in Chatham.
25:59So we've got time for this evening on Kentonite live here on KMTV. There's more news made
26:03just for Kent throughout the evening in just a few minutes' time. I'll be back with a brand
26:07new episode, as always, on a Monday of Invicta Sport. We'll be joined by some European champions
26:12right here in the studio, but in the meantime, you can keep up to date with all the latest
26:16news across your county over on our website. It's kmtv.co.uk. I'll see you in just a few
26:21minutes' time for another brand new episode of Invicta Sport. Don't go anywhere.
26:37you
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