Catch up with all the latest news from across the county with Oliver Leader de Saxe.
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00:00Good evening and welcome to Kentonite live here on KMTV.
00:29I'm Oliver, leader of the sacks and here are your top stories on Thursday the 2nd of January.
00:35End of the road, Kent High Street fears as new data shows thousands of closures across the UK.
00:42You can understand why a lot of retailers thought okay we've had a bad summer,
00:45Christmas isn't looking fantastic, let's call it a day.
00:48Turning back the dial, meet the strewed man who collected 200 different radios for 80 years.
00:55Everybody had a different radio and I was fascinated by radio from the age of five.
00:59And with a brand new year, Rochester residents make their predictions for 2025.
01:05Yeah yeah I predict Brentford will stay up in the Premier League.
01:07Musk and Trump will fall out big time.
01:10People are going to be supporting their high street more, shopping in smaller shops.
01:14First tonight, new data shows that in 2024 more than 13,000 stores across the UK
01:30were forced to shut their doors according to the Centre for Retail Research.
01:35With some worried that 2025 could be an even more difficult year for independent Kent businesses.
01:41Our reporter Kristen Hawthorne went down to Citybourne to find out if this year could end up
01:47being a worse one for the high street than we've ever seen before.
01:51New figures released by the Centre for Retail Research say that in the last 12 months
01:56more than 13,000 businesses closed their doors in Kent and across the UK.
02:02Independent businesses alone have suffered drastically,
02:05with a total of 11,341 having to shut their doors.
02:10This is almost a 50% increase from 2023.
02:14In 2025, these numbers are expected to rise to 14,660.
02:19There is a number of factors at play here.
02:22We have a tough economy, we know that, you know, the fuel prices, the war in Ukraine,
02:27the shipping costs and stuff is putting prices up.
02:30So that is then obviously having an impact on inflation,
02:32which means consumers are not going out and spending their money.
02:36However, we've also then seen a growth in online shopping, it continues to grow.
02:41I think we've seen another 8.5% increase in online shopping than closed on last year in 2024.
02:47And so online shopping now holds about 26, 27% of the retail market.
02:53With so many stores closing, does it mean that our high streets will die in the future?
02:58I went to Citybourne to find out how these changes have affected our high streets in Kent.
03:02I can't get my crutches, they're at home, and I lost my key.
03:07When you buy the crutches, they want £40, on eBay they're £10.
03:13So, you know, our streets don't stand a chance.
03:18After speaking to business owners off camera, many have said that 2024 was a tough year.
03:24Tops jewelers have been in business here for almost 50 years and explained
03:28why this might be and why some businesses are coping better than others.
03:33New start-up businesses, I think, are going to find it very, very tough.
03:37If you go into a business having to borrow money, you will find it very difficult to make money.
03:45If you're an existing business that's starting up maybe a new premises that
03:49your current business can cover, then yeah, it should be fine.
03:54I mean, it doesn't help when national insurance is going up,
03:58as you said, the electricity is going up, rates are going up.
04:02But if you budget and look after yourself, you'll get through.
04:07And then when the good times roll, happy days.
04:10From the increases to national insurance, minimum wage,
04:14less support for business rates and people choosing to shop online,
04:17the future of independent businesses in 2025 seems to be in question.
04:23Kristen Hawthorne, KMTV in Sittingbourne.
04:25A Mattfield man accused of murdering a grandfather from Tunbridge Wells has pleaded not guilty.
04:3659-year-old Stephen Castle denied killing 54-year-old Wayne Woodgate
04:41at Maidstone Crown Court earlier today.
04:43The body of Mr Woodgate, described by his family as a face of Tunbridge Wells that everyone knew,
04:49was found in rural East Sussex at the end of October,
04:52with police launching an appeal to find his whereabouts.
04:55The start of the date is set for the 22nd of April.
04:59That's a trial and is expected to last for two weeks.
05:05Now, while you might be listening to some of 2024's best new artists,
05:10one man in Strude has always preferred 1925 to 2025 when it comes to music.
05:15He's been collecting antiques radios for about 80 years.
05:20His collection starts from as far back as the late 1800s.
05:24He makes sure all of his devices are still fully functioning.
05:27Finnwood Derwood went to see the collection for himself.
05:31Most people today use their phones as their main source of music,
05:34thanks to modern day streaming apps like iTunes and Spotify.
05:37But it wasn't always like this.
05:39Back in the days before TV, radio was the one and only medium.
05:43You'd listen to your news on it, listen to some entertainment,
05:46music, the whole family would be gathered there in the living room.
05:49And now it's mostly used by drivers.
05:51But I met one man in Strude who wasn't giving up on the format
05:54and has over 200 different radios spanning almost a century of time.
06:00I met him in Strude while I was following up a different story
06:03and he invited me into his front room
06:05and I was surprised to see walls and walls of antique radios.
06:09Well, the collection, I've been involved with radio sets ever since I was about five years old
06:14and the main reason was that everybody had a different radio set in those days.
06:19Generally, I mean, you either had the Bakelite sets or the wooden cabinet sets,
06:24but every house that you ever went to, everybody had a different radio
06:27and I was fascinated by radio from the age of five.
06:30He went on to show me the oldest part of his collection first.
06:35This is an MP3 from 1876.
06:40This is what an MP3 would have looked like in 1876.
06:45What is it?
06:46It's one record.
06:48It's one track.
06:50Not only does he continue to maintain his collection, making sure they all work,
06:54he even fixes other people's antique radios,
06:57but is quite quiet about his hobby
06:59and hasn't ever been interviewed about what he calls his treasure trove.
07:03I asked him if he had a favourite piece of tech
07:05and even though he did say it was like choosing your favourite child,
07:08he did decide in the end.
07:10I suppose if you'd like to pick a favourite,
07:13I think it's got to be the most iconic radio set ever,
07:17the TR82 made by Bush in 1959.
07:21So as we go into the new year,
07:23Peter is more than happy to stick to his listing practices from the 1950s.
07:28Finn McDermid for CAME TV in Strude.
07:32And now for a very quick look at the weather.
07:39A cold night across the county this evening,
07:42frosty temperatures across the west,
07:44lows of minus two in Ashford and Tynebridge Wells.
07:47Still cold into tomorrow morning.
07:49Temperatures plummet to sub zero everywhere but Margate.
07:52Though into the afternoon, things will have warmed up ever so slightly.
07:56Temperatures lingering between two and three degrees with westerly winds
08:00and the outlook for the weekend.
08:02A sunny Saturday giving way to what is set to be a freezing Sunday
08:05with yellow weather warnings for snow and ice.
08:08Stay warm.
08:15And finally, with 2024 now behind us, all eyes are on the new year.
08:20So what does 2025 actually hold?
08:22What's going to happen?
08:23What's going to change?
08:24What will Kent look like?
08:26Well, we'll be out on the streets of Rochester
08:28to find out what people here in Medway think
08:31the next 12 months have in store.
08:34Yeah, yeah, I've got an expectable stay up in the Premier League.
08:36Musk and Trump will fall out big time.
08:40And why do you think that?
08:41They've both got ego size of planets.
08:44My prediction is I think people are going to be
08:46supporting their high street more, shopping in smaller shops.
08:49I think over the last few years, people have really learned to appreciate
08:53that independent businesses, how they work,
08:56how valuable they are to a community.
08:58And I think that's going to carry on.
09:01Well, joining me is our film presenter, Chris Deasy.
09:04Happy New Year.
09:06And I have to ask, Chris, what are your big predictions of 2025?
09:11Well, I suppose I have to start with Bridget,
09:13the new Bridget Jones movie that comes out on Valentine's Day.
09:16I saw the original Bridget Jones.
09:18I think I was in my own Christmas jumper to match Colin Firth
09:21just a few weeks ago, just up the road at the showcase.
09:24But the Mission Impossible film.
09:27Now, I think I broke my own record of seeing the version
09:30that came out, part one, that came out in 2023.
09:33It was a great movie, great movie.
09:35So part two will come out this summer.
09:37And of course, at the end of the year, we got the next installment of Wicked.
09:40But even in the next week, Robert Zemeckis, who made Back to the Future
09:43and Contact, has a new film called Here,
09:47where you see Tom Hanks and Robin Wright from that film
09:51looking very young and very old.
09:54So it's a sort of an intergenerational tale.
09:56Obviously, technology is going to be at the heart of that.
09:58So I think rather a lot to look forward to this year.
10:01And of course, it's a new year.
10:02And what sort of movies should we be watching around the new year
10:05to kind of get us into the mood, you know?
10:07Well, I thought of you, because when you were a guest on Kent Film Club last year,
10:11we had, of course, When Harry Met Sally.
10:13Now, I saw this at the cinema on the big screen
10:16just two nights ago in Canterbury.
10:17And what an amazing film, because we all relate to that.
10:20I mean, you know better than I do that it's up on the screen.
10:23And terrific, because you've got that sort of sense of
10:27why relationships go wrong, the different reasons why for that,
10:30but also the way that the time of the year and the seasons impact on that.
10:33It's a wonderful Christmas and New Year movie.
10:35And obviously, it kind of links in that Tom Hanks movie coming out,
10:38because Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, constant screen bedfellows, as it were.
10:43And I was wondering, with a new year approaching,
10:45what can we expect from the Kent Film Club in the coming weeks and months?
10:49Well, what I'm so excited about is we have,
10:51from such a different range of different sort of backgrounds,
10:55you know, we have filmmakers coming up on the programme.
10:57We have people who work in politics and,
11:00you know, plenty of people who have their own story to tell.
11:02We've had, we have The Last of Those with Rodri tonight.
11:05Of our own journalists here at KMTV,
11:07who have been talking about the films that impact on them.
11:10And often, I'm so surprised at the way that the films that they talk about
11:13seem to be sort of very different from their day job, as it were.
11:17So we had Isabelle last week.
11:19Rodri has some amazing choices, including one of the Star Wars films.
11:23And also, because we're not quite out of the Christmas season,
11:25as we see with the Festival of Dawn studio, it's a wonderful life.
11:29Well, Chris, thanks so much for joining me.
11:31You can catch Kent Film Club later this evening.
11:34But that's all from us this evening on KMTV.
11:38In the meantime, check out all our special programmes,
11:40such as the Kent Film Club,
11:41as well as Invictus Sport and the Kent Politics Show.
11:44But I'll see you very soon. Goodbye.