Catch up on all your latest news from 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
00:26top stories on Friday the 10th of January. Private school overhaul. Parents panic after
00:33government introduces VAT on school fees. For very many of our children they've come
00:39to us from poor experiences in state schools where they haven't been able to cope perhaps
00:44in bigger classrooms. 48 hours and counting. Hospital wait times hit new highs in some
00:51parts of Kent. There is some kind of blockage, some challenge in the system which means they
00:58can't just go back home. Don't stick the kettle on. Kristen's got all the motoring myths you
01:05should avoid during this icy interval. If you're using all these myths to try and clear
01:11your windscreen, you're putting all sorts of potatoes all over it, toothpaste, stuff
01:15like that, you are going to smear it, you are going to put greases over it. Good evening.
01:31Could private schools in Kent have empty classrooms this year after a new 20% tax has pushed them
01:37to increase school fees? Previously independent schools were exempt from VAT but Chancellor
01:42Rachel Reeves announced the tax to help fund state schools. The King's School in Rochester
01:47say they've seen less students walking through the doors. Xenia Nakvi has more. The library
01:52and playing fields at the King's School in Rochester may look empty right now but is
01:56this a sign of the future to come? Announced last year in the Labour budget, Chancellor
02:01Rachel Reeves announced that private schools would be subject to major changes. As of 2019,
02:06Kent had the third highest number of private school pupils in England but as of the 1st
02:10of January, schools are no longer exempt from VAT charges which means they now have
02:15to charge an extra 20% more in school fees. Headteachers agree that state schools here
02:20in Kent are facing enormous pressure which only adds to waiting lists here in the county.
02:25We know that a number of children have left the school at Christmas time, pre-VAT, but
02:31now that the application of VAT has been put in place, there are children who have left
02:36so it has had a big impact on some families. The grammar school places are generally fairly
02:40full. We know that some children have applied to local state schools but we also know that
02:45they haven't been able to get in because the places aren't available at this stage in the
02:48middle of the year. But one parent whose child previously failed to secure a place in a local
02:52state school is committed to private schooling. For me personally, the cuts I've had to make
02:57are definitely in holidays or where we holiday or how frequently we go on holidays. I've
03:04mentioned about my home. I live in a modest home. It's not big by any standards and that's
03:11a decision that I've made because, again, I've wanted to prioritise education for the
03:16children. I also worry about the wider school community, not just my children's peers and
03:22the affordability of them because my children have formed these really tight bonds and friendship
03:27groups. But the King School is only one of many independent schools across Kent reeling
03:31from this new policy. The headmaster at Gadds Hill School around the corner, which is located
03:36at the former country home of Charles Dickens, worries the policy will disadvantage smaller
03:40independent schools even more. An additional problem with this policy is that it's the
03:45smaller independent schools which are going to be most hard hit by the advent of VAT on
03:52fees. I think the wealthier, more perhaps elitist independent schools, private schools,
04:01will be better placed to be able to swallow the additional cost of VAT. For very many
04:06of our children, they've come to us from poor experiences in state schools where they haven't
04:12been able to cope perhaps in bigger classrooms. However, Rochester locals were divided. Some
04:18people can afford private education. Why should they pay more for it for the fact that the
04:27government aren't funding state education? You know, students who come from lower economic
04:31backgrounds are given, you know, more support within their schools. But I think the state
04:38court, state sole system does need a lot more money ploughed into it. Some think it will
04:43serve the government's mission to level the playing field, while others think it's a step
04:47too far. Xenia Nakvi for KMTV in Rochester. Fire investigators are working to understand
04:55why a double-decker bus burst into flames in Sandwich today. This was a scene in East
05:01Kent this morning where part of the A256 East Street bypass was closed for more than four
05:06hours and emergency crews worked to put the fire out. Other witnesses reported hearing
05:11what they described as an explosion. A spokesperson for Stagecoach confirmed the bus was travelling
05:16out of service time with no passengers on board. The driver luckily wasn't injured.
05:24Wait lists and wait times. The cold weather has the NHS snowed under here in Kent. More
05:29than 2,500 people waited 12 hours or more for a bed in December, the worst month on
05:35record. It's being blamed on the mass increase of flu cases this winter, as well as having
05:39nowhere for patients to go once they leave hospital. Finn McDermott joins us live now
05:44from outside Medway Maritime Hospital. Finn, could you break down exactly what's going
05:50on with hospitals with these extremely long wait times that we come to unfortunately expect
05:56when the weather gets colder? Well, to be honest, Abby, if you're looking for a bed
06:02in the hospital behind me here, you could be looking at more than a 12-hour wait time.
06:06That's enough to watch Frozen seven times in a row. And it's not just Medway. In A&E
06:13departments across Kent, patients are having to wait for 12 hours or in some exceptional
06:17cases more. I believe her name was Sam Fox from Whitstable was at a Margate hospital
06:23and she had to wait 48 hours to get a bed there. 48 hours to get a hospital bed. That's
06:30a long time to wait when the hospital hope that it's only a couple of hours that patients
06:34are sitting waiting. Where's the worst part in the county then? You mentioned Whitstable
06:39there. Well, arguably it's at its most severe, I would say, in East Kent, especially compared
06:46to a few years ago. Back in December 2019, the East Kent NHS Trust reported they only
06:52had 12 instances of patients having to wait 12 or more hours. Now that's changed to 1326
07:00patients last month. In Medway, it was two back in 2019 and now it's 771 patients who
07:06weren't able to go without a bed. And what are the health experts saying? We're hearing
07:10a lot of these problems because there's just nowhere for patients who could leave hospital
07:16to go really. What have the experts been telling you? Well, the experts have been mostly
07:21saying that it's down to two major factors, simply a lack of care provision for people
07:25to go after they've had their hospital bed and after they've had their treatment, and
07:30also just a massive increase in the amount of flu cases. Earlier, I spoke to Kent County
07:35Council's cabinet member for adult health and public health earlier. If any of those
07:41different discharge pathways, as we call them, are blocked, not available because there's
07:48not a skilled care worker, or maybe there's not the equipment, then it becomes challenging.
07:55And fundamentally, all of the solutions I'm working on with my colleagues in the NHS in
08:04Kent and Medway are about relieving some of those blockages in the system which prevent
08:10people returning home. That was Dan Watkins from Kent County Council speaking earlier
08:16to Finn, who joined us live from Medway Maritime Hospital there. Next this evening, two men
08:21have pleaded not guilty after a man was stabbed in Canterbury. This was the scene the morning
08:26after the body of Samara Garez-Gahair was found in Canterbury High Street. Back in October
08:32last year, a large part of the high street was cordoned off. As forensic teams worked
08:36on the scene, Samara was found at the junction between High Street and St Margaret Street
08:41by police after they were called around 11.30pm. Despite efforts to save him, he did die at the
08:47scene. Today, two men appeared at Canterbury Crown Court and were remanded in custody,
08:52while our reporter Ronnie Glaston joined me earlier with more. So Ronnie, you've been at
08:56Canterbury Crown Court today. What can you tell us? So today, the court was hearing about pleas
09:03entered from the accused in regards to the case of the death of 23-year-old Samara Garez-Gahair.
09:10The court heard pleas from 24-year-old Kamal Ibrahim and 31-year-old Mohamed Hagar. Samara,
09:21also known as Sammy Garez-Gahair, died by a stab wound in the late hours of October 10th
09:28in Canterbury High Street by St Margaret's. The court first heard from Kamal Ibrahim and
09:37was asked to enter his pleas for the following charges. The murder of Samara Garez-Gahair,
09:43being in possession of a bladed or sharply pointed weapon, described in court as a fixed blade knife
09:49with a green handle, and an assault causing actual bodily harm to James Highwood on the
09:55same occasion. With each charge read, the accused shook his head as he entered the pleas of not
10:02guilty. Shortly after, the court heard the following charges against Mohamed Hagar,
10:08the murder of Samara Garez-Gahair, and being in possession of a bladed or sharply pointed weapon.
10:15The defendant fidgeted, crossing and uncrossing his arms as the
10:19charges were read against him, and with each, he too entered a plea of not guilty.
10:25And why were these pleas entered separately? The pleas were entered separately due to a delay of
10:30an interpreter. The court heard from the co-defendants individually. Both were being
10:36assisted throughout the hearing by interpreters, one for Arabic and one for Sudanese Arabic.
10:43The judge felt it would be best since English is neither of the defendant's first language,
10:48for each to be arraigned with interpreters present. A pre-trial review hearing is set for
10:53the 28th of February and trial is set to begin on the 31st of March, expected to last between two
11:00and three weeks. At this time, both men have been remanded in custody and we will be following the
11:06case as it continues. Ronnie, thank you very much for those details. And just before we go to the
11:12break, a quick look at what many residents across Kent woke up to this morning. Sub-zero temperatures.
11:18Freezing fog was seen in parts of the county, with some areas registering minus four on thermometers.
11:23The cold weather's set to stay for the next 24 hours and drivers are being warned about icy
11:27conditions on the roads. Be careful this weekend. Amada, climate's on the way next week though and
11:32we'll have a full weather roundup in the show later for you. And Kristen's been dispelling all
11:36the myths about defrosting your car too. Her expert guide coming up after this very short break.
11:42We'll have more news. See you then.
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15:12Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight live on KMTV. Now a new report has found Medway Council's
15:17responsibility to provide support and access to adult social care requires improvement. The Care
15:23Quality Commission's report is a first for the local authority, with concerns being raised about
15:28staffing problems leading to wait lists and backlogs. But Medway Council say they're on
15:34the pathway to improvement. While our politics producer Oliver Leader de Sacks was at the media
15:38briefing earlier today. Oliver, explain this report to us. What is it? So Abby, this report
15:44you can see on your screen right now, it's an interesting one. The Care Quality Commission
15:48is looking into all the local authorities and how they deliver adult social services,
15:53as care homes or post hospital support, such as assisted living, all these things that kind of
15:57impact our day to day life. If you have these additional needs, for example, and they basically
16:02score out of nine different areas. And obviously, this report comes from CQC assessment from last
16:08year around March time. And while there are lots quite a lot of positives in this report, lots of
16:13things that Medway Council would be quite happy about, there's also a few negatives. It's been
16:17quite a mixed bag as reports go. And it's something the Commission has been talking about a bit
16:22earlier today. As a whole, we found a local authority that under its new political leadership
16:27has actually been identifying where they need to improve, has a good grip on what they need to do.
16:33They've focused on adult social care, and they've been investing in their improvements. And we found
16:39a passionate staff team who are really keen to do a good job and provide safe care for people
16:44in Medway. But it was a, it is a local authority that does have challenges. There are staffing
16:50challenges, recruitment challenges there. And that's impacted on their ability to deliver a
16:55consistently good service. So how well is Medway doing in the grand scheme of things?
17:01Well, Abby, to be honest with you, from what we know, there are six different areas that require
17:06improvement on this report. There are three that are up to a good standard. But from what Medway
17:12Council have been saying, they are on the pathway to making these vital changes for more accessible
17:18IT infrastructure to more safeguarding training for staff. The big issue, though, appears to be
17:23staff recruitment. That's a big drive between these wait lists for assessments, between these
17:29backlogs. And I spoke to Deputy Leader of the Council, Theresa Murray, earlier today. She says
17:35things are getting better at pace. The waiting lists have improved. In fact, the waiting lists
17:41of financial assessments, which at the time the report started 10 months ago, was 181 days,
17:48is down to zero because we've put in a brand new team to actually do that work, because we've
17:53invested two and a half million into the service, because without that, we wouldn't have been able
17:57to make the improvements. Yes, recruitment is an issue, but we've seen seven new social workers
18:02having previously not recruited a single new social worker for a whole year. We've got social
18:08work apprentices. We've got newly qualified social workers from our universities coming on stream.
18:13And we're starting to see agency staff take permanent posts because I think they've got
18:18confidence that the improvements we've made are going to continue. But of course, Oliver,
18:23it's not the only Medway political news today. It doesn't stop coming. Oh, Abi, you know,
18:27I know you're sick of it, but I had to sneak it in there. Devolution. It's been across our
18:33headlines all week. How are we going to have a new mayor? How are we going to reorganise
18:38our councils? And obviously, Medway Council plays a massive part in it because it's Vincent Maple,
18:44the leader of the council, and also Richard Goff, that has the right to government, which they both
18:47did today, to ask to be put on that priority list, which would mean we get a mayor a lot sooner,
18:52as early as next year. But it raises a big question, which I had to ask Vince earlier on.
18:57Why? Why do we want to be on the priority list? For me, it's about getting access to those
19:03resources, the ability to change really important things for people's lives. So if you look at
19:08Greater Manchester and the great job they've done, Andy Burnham and his team have led on public
19:12transport, the residents of Medway and Kent deserve similar decent public transport. That's
19:17the sort of change a mayor could bring about. And of course, Oliver, you had Vince Maple on
19:22the politics show tonight. Catch up on our website. Lots of discussion there. Thank you very much.
19:27Now to sport. Gillingham's new manager, John Coleman, says he's been surprised by the ability
19:32of the team as he prepares to take charge of his first game at Priestfield tomorrow. The new boss
19:37has spent the week familiarising himself with the new club, taking training sessions and looking back
19:42over recent matches. This Saturday, the Gilles will be up against Fleetwood Town, who sit two
19:46places below them in the League Two table. Well, here's the new boss speaking ahead of the match.
19:51These players, they're in a good club, a forward-thinking club that is structured very,
19:56very well. And we should be performing better than what we have. And that's no slight on the
20:00previous managers. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck. Sometimes things just bounce in your
20:05favour. So what I want on Saturday is our fans to be there when the final whistle goes. There's
20:12nothing more soul-stirring than that. You haven't delivered enough to keep the fans there for the
20:1790 minutes or the 97 minutes or whatever it is. And I think we've got a duty to make sure that
20:24every person who pays their all-day money to get on on Saturday gets
20:28maximum value in a day for the duration.
20:32You can keep up to date with all your latest stories across Kent by logging on to our website.
20:36It's kmtv.co.uk. There you'll find all our reports, including this one about a man in
20:41Strood who's been collecting antique radios for more than 80 years.
20:45Most people today use their phones as their main source of music,
20:49thanks to modern-day streaming apps like iTunes and Spotify. But it wasn't always like this.
20:54Back in the days before TV, radio was the one and only medium. You'd listen to your news on it,
20:59listen to some entertainment, music, the whole family be gathered there in the living room.
21:03And now it's mostly used by drivers. But I met one man in Strood who isn't giving up on the format
21:09and has over 200 different radios spanning almost a century of time.
21:15I met him in Strood while I was following up a different story and he invited me into
21:18his front room and I was surprised to see walls and walls of antique radios.
21:24Well the collection I've been involved with radio sets ever since I was about five years old and
21:29the main reason was that everybody had a different radio set in those days.
21:34Generally, I mean, you either had the Bakelite sets or the wooden cabinet sets but every house
21:39that you ever went to, everybody had a different radio and I was fascinated by radio from the age
21:44of five. He went on to show me the oldest parts of his collection first.
21:49This is an MP3 from 1876. This is what an MP3 would have looked like in 1876.
22:00What is it?
22:01It's one record. It's one track.
22:05Not only does he continue to maintain his collection, making sure they all work,
22:09he even fixes other people's antique radios but is quite quiet about his hobby
22:14and hasn't ever been interviewed about what he calls his treasure trove.
22:17I asked him if he had a favourite piece of tech and even though he did say it
22:21was like choosing your favourite child, he did decide in the end.
22:25I suppose if you'd like to pick a favourite, I think it's got to be the most iconic radio set
22:31ever. The TR82 made by Bush in 1959.
22:36So as we go into the new year, Peter is more than happy to stick to his
22:40listing practices from the 1950s. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Strude.
22:46You can listen to our sister station KMFM 200 times all at once to get the travel
22:51updates and the weather. But let's take a look at the forecast now.
23:00It's looking very cold tonight with temperatures reaching minus three in Dover and Tunbridge
23:04Wells. Skies are clear, a few clouds in north east Kent though. Tomorrow much of the same,
23:08temperatures dropping down to minus three down in Dover, minus two in most parts of the county
23:14though. And warming up into the afternoon, a bit of mist in places, but the sun should be out,
23:20taking off that chill. And here's your outlook for Kent, the sunshine on Sunday as well.
23:24Monday looking a bit cloudier, the same on Tuesday, but warming up to highs of nine.
23:29And with that chilly weather sweeping over the county, you might be getting cold feet and even
23:34colder wheels about travelling around this weekend as we're faced with the age old nightmare,
23:39defrosting our cars in the morning. It took me about half an hour this morning.
23:42And as Kristen Hawthorne has been learning, slipping and sliding isn't the biggest pitfall
23:46to make when it comes to ice and your vehicle.
23:51Onions, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes,
23:56tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.
23:58Onions, toothpaste, potato juice, what do all these things have in common?
24:03Well, these are all weird and interesting ways you can apparently de-ice your car.
24:09More well known methods include pouring boiling water on the screen or using a card to scrape
24:14off the ice. But these are also myths that can in fact damage your windows.
24:19So to find out the best and most efficient way to de-ice your car, I spoke to the AA.
24:25We are all about basically back to the basics, you know, not trying all these myths that are
24:30out on social media, things like that. We've seen people using hot water in bags,
24:36boiling water over the windscreens, everything like that.
24:39No, just your standard ice scraper, start your vehicle, get your heater fan on and get it
24:46de-misted that way is the safest and best way to do it.
24:49Biggest worry, if you're using all these, you know, myths to try and clear your windscreen,
24:53you're putting all sorts of potatoes all over it, toothpaste, stuff like that.
24:59You are going to smear it. You are going to put your greases over it, juices over it.
25:02It's when you do come to use your windscreen wiper,
25:05it's just going to smear whatever you're trying to clear.
25:08It's just going to be like an oily substance.
25:10Another thing that a lot of us like to do is leave our engine running with the hot air on
25:14while we go to the front and scrape the windows. But if you're on a public road
25:18and you leave your engine running, this is actually illegal. So what are we meant to do?
25:22Yeah, so go out to your car, you know, get it started.
25:25Firstly, make sure you've got plenty of petrol and diesel.
25:27If you've got an electric car, make sure you've got plenty of range for your journey.
25:31Get the engine started or turn your EV car on.
25:33Get the heaters on, start the de-misting process and then what you can do
25:38or what we're asking drivers to do is not shut the door because, you know,
25:41we don't want keys getting locked in the vehicle and to not walk away from the vehicle,
25:46even because leaving a vehicle running, you know, it can be illegal to do that.
25:50So do these, go do your other checks while you're waiting for your car to de-mist.
25:54They were saying stick to the basics, a little ice scraper, wear gloves if you need to,
25:59because obviously we understand it is cold while you're doing it.
26:03But yeah, definitely don't be trying these myths out.
26:05What we're advising drivers to do is obviously, you know, no one predicts the breakdown,
26:10no one expects the breakdown, but just be best prepared for if the worst was to happen.
26:14So make sure your vehicle's packed correctly.
26:16So to conclude, the safest and most efficient way to defrost your car is by keeping it simple.
26:23Using a de-icer spray, putting the air on with the engine running,
26:26gently scraping off any snow or excess ice
26:29and doing some car checks while waiting on the windows to clear.
26:33So good luck out there.
26:34Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV in Gillingham.
26:39That's very good advice from Kristen there.
26:41Maybe she can de-ice my car in the morning.
26:43That's it from us this evening.
26:44Have a wonderful weekend.
26:45Bye-bye.
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