Catch up with all the latest news from across the county with Abby Hook.
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00:00Hello, good evening and welcome to Kent Tonight live on KMTV.
00:28I'm Abbey Hook, here are your top stories on Wednesday 11th December.
00:33False front. More than 90% of Maidstone businesses are lying about food hygiene ratings.
00:40Did you know it's not against the law for businesses to display an old rating or an
00:45incorrect rating which might be higher than they actually have.
00:49Kent farmers fight back. Westminster brought to a standstill again as hundreds of tractors
00:56roll into Downing Street.
00:57For the last 70 years we've been trying to grow the size of our farm and if we have to
01:02sell land off, all that work over 70 years will be for a waste of time.
01:07Barking up the wrong tree. Warnings to pet owners as Kent gets Christmassy.
01:24Making a mockery of the system and misleading the public.
01:27The reaction as we reveal the Maidstone businesses lying about their hygiene rating.
01:32A KMTV investigation has revealed more than 9 in 10 establishments with lower ratings
01:38are either not displaying them at all or inflating their certificates.
01:42Experts say these businesses are increasing environmental health concerns.
01:46Yet one takeaway, displaying the wrong score, told us it's not a big deal.
01:50Our investigation has added to growing calls for mandatory displays of food hygiene certificates.
01:57Local Democracy reporter Gabriel Morris has this special report.
02:01It's a scheme designed to help you make informed choices about where to eat or shop for food.
02:06But can you trust the ratings displayed in the window?
02:10Our investigation in Maidstone town centre uncovered discrepancies with only one business
02:15with a lower rating displaying the correct score.
02:19You've probably all seen these stickers before. It's the rating which the local authority
02:24inspectors have given a food outlet. It's between 0 and 5. 5 being the best, 0 being
02:30the lowest. However, did you know it's not against the law for businesses to display
02:36an old rating or an incorrect rating which might be higher than they actually have?
02:41At the start of December, 22 outlets in Maidstone town centre had a food hygiene rating of 3
02:47or below. We found 12 of these businesses displaying no rating at all, 7 showing an
02:54inflated score and 2 claiming they were awaiting inspection when they weren't.
02:59Altogether, 95% of these businesses were not displaying their most recent certificate.
03:06To me, it is cheating. It's trying to fool the public. I mean, the system of food hygiene
03:13ratings is there to inform us but also to protect us. So those businesses that score
03:20highly, the 4s and the 5s, are doing really very, very well. Those with the lower scores,
03:25particularly the very low scores, the 0s, the 1s and 2s, they basically have some major
03:31issues in terms of the ability to keep their premises as they should be in terms of safety.
03:38I think we have a slight issue with the end of that report there from Gabriel,
03:48but we've got lots more of that to come in the second half of our programme tonight. Gabriel
03:51joined me here to go through all those details as well, looking at this investigation and naming,
03:56in fact, some of those restaurants. But KMTV's health expert Dr Julian Spinks joins me now to
04:01talk about this from a health perspective because that's what it really all comes down to. It's how
04:06these restaurants are looking after their customers. What are the dangers of an eatery
04:11that scored badly and perhaps one that we will hear about in his report that had a score of 0
04:16or 1 and was showing a 5? Yes, I think this is terrible. When I go out, I look for those high
04:22ratings and they're because that will reduce your risk of getting gastroenteritis, food poisoning,
04:28which at the least is unpleasant and has you off work and so on. And at its worst, for some people,
04:35can be quite dangerous. People can dehydrate and die or end up in hospital because of it. So,
04:41we must be able to be confident that when we're going to eat somewhere that we're going to be
04:46safe. Now, the ideal thing would be that everybody and every restaurant was 5, but the process should
04:51at least be informing us. How do we change that? Other than having the correct ratings, does there
04:58need to be some serious punishments? Of course, it's not illegal to show a rating or show the
05:04wrong rating, but does that need to change? It definitely needs to change. We can't have a
05:09situation where people can put out a false rating. The whole point about the ratings were to actually
05:14drive improvement because the idea was that you had to put something that we're actually not very
05:19good out on the door. It meant people wouldn't come and it encouraged you to improve your hygiene.
05:25It's fairly simple stuff and it's amazing that we still actually got restaurants that are not
05:31meeting it and if they're actually covering up the fact they're failing, that's not acceptable.
05:36Julian, thank you very much for those details.
05:41Next this evening, CCTV footage has emerged of the moment a shop owner leapt into action. That
05:48was when a suspected armed robber entered his shop in Gillingham. Armed police were called to
05:52Twiddle Green shopping parade on Tuesday afternoon following reports of an attempted robbery.
05:57The store owner, who did not want to be named, claims the hooded man waited in a queue with
06:02around five other customers before revealing a pistol at the post office counter and demanded
06:07money. It's understood nobody was injured and the suspect left the scene empty-handed.
06:12Investigators are continuing to appeal for witnesses.
06:17Five lions rescued from war-torn Ukraine are set to have a dedicated enclosure and rescue centre
06:22built for them near Ashford. It comes as the Big Cat Sanctuary in Smardon has reached its
06:27fundraising goal of half a million pounds. The money will go towards transportation,
06:32vet costs and finishing the construction of the enclosure, which bosses hope will be opened in
06:37January. Three-year-old Una has already begun her new life in Kent after arriving in August.
06:42Meanwhile, the other four, Rory, Vanda, Armani and Lira, are currently being held in Belgium
06:48whilst their new home is being completed.
06:51Chaos in Westminster today as farmers from Kent and across the country descended on Downing Street
06:56to protest against the government's inheritance tax increase again. Tractors lined the streets
07:01of Whitehall to send a message to the government to try to force a U-turn on the controversial
07:06policy. This follows a similar protest last month and farmers show no sign of backing down.
07:11Aidan McNamee has more.
07:14Westminster is usually abuzz with tourists and politicians, but today,
07:17I'm in Whitehall and if you can't hear, the farmers are making an absolute racket behind me.
07:23Farmers from Kent and across the country have come out to protest the government's controversial
07:28inheritance tax hike on farms. One thing that is palpable is the anger against Labour Party,
07:33against Keir Starmer and against Rachel Reeves.
07:36To recap, back in October as part of the autumn budget, Rachel Reeves introduced a 20%
07:41inheritance tax hike on farms. This is the biggest tax hike in the history of the UK.
07:47The government has now imposed a 20% inheritance tax on any farm assets over a million pounds.
07:53Previously, farms had been exempt from any inheritance tax.
07:57But how can we say to the next generation, before you even start work, you'll be paying 10 years
08:03of tax burden? It's the only word I can think of is fast without losing my temper. Three meetings
08:10with my local MP, new Labour MP, I asked him on behalf of the Swale and Sheppey farmers,
08:17and an hour later he voted for it.
08:20I'm a fifth generation farmer. I mean, as it stands at the moment for our family farm,
08:26we potentially could have a tax bill for 1.2 million. We would have to sell land
08:31to be able to pay the inheritance tax. Now for the last 70 years, we've been trying to
08:35grow the size of our farm. And if we have to sell land off, all that work over 70 years will
08:41be for a waste, waste of time. Never missing an opportunity to jump into the political fray,
08:46Nigel Farage made an appearance.
08:47I think there's a silent majority on the side of the little man and woman
08:51against the giant corporations. We actually have a connection
08:54with the landscape. One of our MPs is actually a full-time farmer. So we have some understanding
09:00of this. Sadly, there are too many in the big parties who are just so disconnected
09:05from the English countryside.
09:06Listen to the farmers. This grief tax, this family farm tax is a catastrophe. It's destroying
09:12investment, destroying the opportunity to grow more British food, reducing jobs,
09:17absolute catastrophe.
09:19But despite the protest outside, Keir Starmer refused to back down on the policy when
09:23challenged by Ed Davey at Prime Minister's Questions.
09:25We put £5 billion into farming over the next two years. That's a record number under the
09:31budget. In a typical family case, the threshold is £3 million. And therefore the vast majority
09:38of farmers will be unaffected despite the fear-mongering of the party opposite.
09:43For now, the protests roll on. Aidan McNamee, KMTV News.
09:49And finally, with two weeks to go until Christmas, many homes across Kent will probably by now
09:54have been transformed with decorations, trees and treats. But whilst we're all busy bringing
09:59in the festive fun, pet experts are warning many of those Christmas additions to our homes
10:04can be a huge risk to our furry friends. Well, earlier I was joined by our reporter
10:08Bartholomew Hall, but a very special guest, KMTV's office dog Luna, to go through some
10:13of those warnings.
10:16Our office dog Luna and Bartholomew join me here now to tell us how we can keep our pets
10:21just like Luna safe at Christmas.
10:23Yeah, that's right. So we'll start with decorations. Obviously, there is lots of choking hazards
10:27when it comes to things that you can put on your trees, things you can put around the
10:30house. The animal charity PDSA say that you should skip out on baubles and skip out on
10:35tinsel entirely, because any animal that thinks that something could be a toy, just like Luna
10:40is on me right now, on her lead, yeah, it could be a choking hazard. So do watch out
10:45for that, as well as lights obviously could be a shock hazard as well. So make sure you've
10:49got any cables put away nicely.
10:51Move on to food. Obviously, chocolate is well known as a toxic food for dogs, but there's
10:57also some lesser known festive ones. So if you're hanging up any holly, ivy or mistletoe,
11:02make sure it's secure and well away out of your dog's reach.
11:06And one more thing to mention is stress. Of course, you can have lots of people around
11:10at Christmas time, so make sure that you're keeping the same routine. If you're going
11:13to do, if you usually walk your dog in the morning, make sure you stay with it. And it's
11:16a fun thing to do as well with the whole family. Get everybody out first thing in the morning.
11:20Looks like Luna's ready to go.
11:22You've said the double word now, so yeah, she's ready to go.
11:24All right, Luna, we'll go for a walk, yeah?
11:26We will.
11:26Let's go for a walk.
11:27All right. Thank you very much.
11:31We did, in fact, take her out for a walk after that. She was so good and patient recording
11:34that earlier. Well, that's it from us this evening. You've been watching Kent Tonight
11:38live here on KMTV. I'll see you at 8pm for more news from right across Kent. See you
11:43then. Bye-bye.
11:54Bye.