Catch up with all the latest news from across the county with Bartholomew Hall.
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00:00on KMTV. I'm Bartholomew Hall. Here are your top stories on Wednesday, the 19th of March.
00:31Hordes of rubbish. 35,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste will finally be removed from
00:37Hodeswood. Fearful for the future, break-in at a Chatham wholesaler leaves them £100,000
00:44out of pocket and swapping the coins for cash in Kent. Experts say your passion project
00:51may turn memories into money.
00:55But first this evening, former Deal resident Andrew Griggs was sentenced to life in prison
01:01in 2019 for the murder of his wife in 1999. He's now been back in course again, this time
01:07for admitting guilt in asking for his own son to dig up his wife Debbie's remains. He
01:13appeared at Canterbury Count Court via video link against the charge of perverting the
01:18course of justice. Finn McDermott joined me on the sofa earlier to discuss.
01:23Finn, take us through the latest development on this case that's been going on for quite
01:27a few years. Yeah and we've been covering it during that time and the latest line we
01:31have is that Andrew Griggs, he appeared at Canterbury Crown Court via video link from
01:37His Majesty's Prison, Isle of Wight and admitted that between November 2019 and October 2022
01:43he asked his son Jake Griggs to dig up his own mother's remains and remove part of her
01:48before he travelled to another country and sending the sample and a letter claiming to
01:53be Debbie from the UK. And just give us a bit of context because as you say we've been
01:58covering this for quite a while. Take us back to some of the original parts of the story.
02:02Well it's quite a complicated and convoluted story but it all started when Debbie Griggs
02:08was found missing from her home in Deal in 1999 and only days later her car was found
02:13abandoned about a mile from the house. Now they did recover blood from the vehicle but
02:17there was no other trace of her which left detectives unsure if Debbie was even alive.
02:22Now fast forward to 2019, so 20 years later, Andrew was charged with murder and of disposing
02:28of the body and that decision came about because at that point they hadn't found a body but
02:33it was because of evolving case law in instances where the body of the deceased wasn't found
02:38and new proof of life investigations that showed there was overwhelming evidence that
02:42Debbie wasn't alive. Now at the time it was reported one of the most aggravating factors
02:47of the case against Andrew was the concealing of where Debbie's body was. Then in 2022,
02:53now this was only a few months after Andrew who was serving time in prison at this point,
02:58attempted to overturn this conviction and Debbie's remains were found buried in the
03:03garden of his Dorset home and that leaves us now with the new information that Andrew
03:08Griggs pled guilty to perverting the course of justice when he admitted to asking his
03:13son to dig up his own mother's remains.
03:16And tell us what is to happen next now that he has pled guilty? I suppose sentencing would
03:22be somewhere in the future?
03:23Yes, so we don't know exactly at this stage what the sentencing will be. He's expected
03:29to be sentenced later this year. He was already imprisoned for life back in 2019 for murder.
03:35Now it is possible to gain multiple life sentences or a life order which means you can never
03:40be released from prison except in extremely exceptional circumstances. So we can only
03:45speculate at this point whether he will be given a certain sentence but he does, like
03:49I say, already have a life sentence and we won't know for certain until later this year.
03:53Finn, thank you very much for those details.
03:56Now, villagers in Ashford are set to endure what's been described as a necessary evil
04:01stench for the next 18 months with 35,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste being removed
04:07from Hodes Wood. Well, some 20 lorry loads a day are expected to begin clearing the site
04:12but it will take until the late summer of 2026 until the work is completed. Kristen Hawthorne has more.
04:19For far too long, Hodes Wood in Ashford has been used to illegally dump tonnes of waste,
04:2535,000 to be exact, but this could soon change. In a letter sent to locals this week, the
04:31Environment Agency shared their plans to close roads in the area on March 25th to gather
04:36equipment. They will then start removing the waste in spring. Despite plans to have 20
04:41vehicles moving the waste daily through Hothfield, they say this project won't end until late
04:46summer 2026.
04:48There's actually 35,000 tonnes of treated waste on that site. It's covering several
04:55acres and it stands around 12 feet high. It's enormous what's been done there. The lorries
05:01will come in day and night. It's a massive operation to get that site filled with that
05:06level of waste and it's going to take time to clear it as well.
05:10So what kind of waste has been piling up here?
05:13It's really difficult to be able to describe exactly what's there, but from the images
05:18and the drain images that we've seen, it looks like shredded and treated waste.
05:22Although the removal may cause disruption due to closed roads and moving smells, the
05:26outcome will be positive, giving residents access to fresh air.
05:30The smell from the site already is quite strong. I was talking to a reporter and a camera crew
05:37who have been up there filming on site and the cameraman told me that he actually threw
05:42away the shoes he'd been wearing because he couldn't get the stench out of them after
05:46being on site. So taking it away probably will cause that level of disruption, but at
05:52the moment, if you go to Hodes Woods, you can't get away from it. So by taking that
05:56away, hopefully in the long term, the community will be able to breathe clean air once again.
06:01But despite the clean-up effort, the future of Hodes Woods remains uncertain, as years
06:06of fly-tipping have left permanent scars on the land.
06:09Nature does have the most remarkable power to heal itself. Unfortunately for Hodes Woods,
06:13that site will never be restored. It's ancient woodlands and the soils and the way the woodland
06:19works, that will never be how it once was again. But we can restore it to some extent
06:25for nature, and what we'd like to see is for the Environment Agency to put a nature
06:30restoration plan in place for the woodland so we can get some kind of normality back
06:35for the location.
06:37In a statement, the Environment Agency said that a criminal investigation continues in
06:41order to bring before the courts more waste criminals using Kent as a dumping ground for
06:45waste for profit. The steps following the removal will be efforts to regenerate the
06:50site so that both residents and wildlife can breathe fresher air.
06:54Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV.
06:58Interesting one. Now, in less than two weeks, businesses across Kent and the country will
07:02be contributing more towards national insurance for their employees. It means for a total
07:07worker, by earning £25,000 a year, employers will be paying a little over £800 more.
07:15Well, joining us on the Kent Morning Show earlier was Philip Thorley from Thanet pub
07:20firm Thorley Taverns.
07:22This is a really, really dangerous situation for retail and hospitality. For us, we're
07:28a small pub company. We have 400 people over 18 sites in what I like to call the Mediterranean
07:34of Kent, the hot bit down the bottom with the lovely beaches and the nice weather.
07:39But for us, it's going to mean £8,000 a week minimum on our wage bill. And I think
07:46that financially, that's going to be a bigger cause and a bigger threat to our business
07:52than the financial threat that was caused five years ago by COVID.
07:56Well, with that in mind, let's have a look at the government's response. The Chancellor
08:01has vowed that the government will never have to deliver a budget like this again.
08:05It's not going to be easy for businesses, so they have admitted that. They have said
08:09that it sidesteps their promise not to tax working people directly. What's your take
08:15on that response? You know, they're saying that it's going to be short-term pain, you
08:21know, a long-term gain for what you said, a very different situation from five years
08:25ago as well that they're facing.
08:27I was running my first pub when I was 18 with my then girlfriend, now wife. And I think
08:33this is the worst budget that I've seen for young people, for part-time jobs, for jobs,
08:40for training and investment that I've seen in all of those years. I can't see, I know
08:46that the government packaged it up as a budget for growth. I've got many friends who have
08:51got businesses and I have not spoken to one person who has said this is a budget for growth.
08:57It is going to be punitive and I think that this time next year, sadly, I will have less
09:03young people working with us. I think we'll have less part-time people working with us
09:07and there'll be far less than 400 people. Our number one thing is we've got to get it
09:12through. We've got to get our business through for ourselves, for our people and for our
09:17customers. I think everybody saw when we came out of COVID, the most important thing people
09:22wanted to do was get together and socialise and the pub creates that platform for it.
09:27So we're more than just businesses, we're hubs of communities and I think the government
09:32have got this drastically wrong.
09:34So what alternative would you suggest and are you writing to your MP about and to ministers?
09:41What suggestion would you make?
09:44I'd say make a U-turn on this. We had a parliamentary conference only about six weeks ago.
09:51Polly Billingham, our MP for the area down here, I invited her to come along and good
09:55for her, she turned up. But I have to say, her and her colleagues who turned up got one
10:00message from everybody. Make a U-turn on this because you're making a drastic mistake.
10:05It's really bad for business, it's bad for jobs, it's bad for the economy and it's bad
10:11for young people. Where is the good, where is the growth? No one can see it.
10:16And some people may think this is the end to their business, other people are looking
10:20to freeze recruitment. Where do you see Thorley Taverns going or is it too early to say?
10:25I think that we've been going 50 years, so we're a pragmatic business and we're one which
10:30inwardly invests. But I think that we're going to have to cut our investment plans, we're
10:34going to have to cut some of our training plans and recruitment plans. So reiterating,
10:39sorry to repeat myself, but I think it's just going to mean less jobs and less investment.
10:44And that's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for us, not a good thing for our consumers
10:49and it's not a good thing for our local area. You know, pubs are parts of the community
10:54and the quality of the food and beverage that you get in any area is exactly equal to the
11:00quality of life in that area. It's really important that pubs are invested in, that
11:06are looked after and we, and retail, I'm going to put retail in that as well because you've
11:11got a lot of the shops in the high street are going to suffer the same things that we
11:14are as well, that it is really anti-young people and anti-jobs.
11:20And there's plenty more that can be read on that story by heading over to Kent Online
11:24with their feature article today. There's plenty more from our guests there about why
11:29the cost of a pint may be going up, but you can also read as to why bus services might
11:34be cut and why some recruiters may be left putting, well why firms may be putting some
11:39recruitment on hold. Yeah, that report over on Kent Online for you to read. But now it's
11:44time for a break from us. When we come back we'll have plenty more, including all the
11:47latest health headlines.
15:05Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight live on KMTV. Now a shocking break-in at a Chatham
15:16wholesaler has left the family business £100,000 out of pocket. Those behind Kent Wholesalers
15:23say the burglary has left them fearful for their safety, whilst Kent Police says it's
15:28appealing for any further information. Oliver Leeder-Sacks has the details.
15:36A sight no family business wants to see, but the reality for one Chatham Wholesalers. Masked
15:44men breaking into their business and stealing tens of thousands of pounds of stock. For
15:51more than a decade, Kent Wholesalers have built up their business on Second Avenue.
15:57But all that came tumbling down in the early hours of last Wednesday, with this gang of
16:02eight stealing hundreds of vapes and generating losses of £100,000. Footage even shows the
16:10crew packing stolen stock into the back of a white van.
16:16The aftermath was plain to see and the family who owned the business did not want to appear
16:25on camera, afraid of reprisals and how organised the criminals were. But the break-in is set
16:32to be costly if the stock is not returned. The family never thought they would need insurance
16:40and they believe their stock is now on sale on Chatham High Street. Forensics teams have
16:46been at the scene and Kent Police say they are continuing to investigate the burglary
16:51with the force appealing for anyone with information to come forward. But that will be little comfort
16:57for a business faced with the prospect of having to start again. Oliver Leeder-Sacks
17:05for KMTV in Chatham.
17:10Patients who have been prescribed drugs for movement disorders, including Restless Leg
17:15Syndrome, say side effects are leading to compulsive behaviours such as gambling. Restless
17:20Leg Syndrome is described as the overwhelming urge to move one's legs and in extreme cases
17:25patients can be prescribed medicine known as dopamine agonist drugs. Well, to talk to
17:30us more about this and other health headlines, KMTV's health expert Dr Julian Spinks joins
17:35us on the Kent Morning Show earlier.
17:37The basic thing is that there's this intense need to move your legs. It's irresistible
17:42together with some unpleasant sensations and it comes on when you rest and it's worse in
17:47the evenings and overnight so you can end up waking repeatedly and it disappears again
17:51in the morning just as you've got to go to work and it's too late to get any sleep. It
17:55has major impacts on people including things like difficulty concentrating, depression
18:00and so on. Now for some time the main group of drugs that were offered first line were
18:05dopamine agonists and they have problems. The first is that it can accelerate the deterioration
18:11of the disease but the thing we're talking about particularly today is Impulse Control
18:16Disorder, the compulsion to do things and it can be compulsive gambling, it can be overeating,
18:22it can be sexual problems and so on and this can affect up to one in five people who are
18:28taking those drugs. So it's a very high risk side effect and can be absolutely devastating
18:35for those people who suffer from it. There's often side effects linked to drugs and they're
18:40more often than not and you hope that they're often stated but what is the link between
18:46the drug and those compulsive behaviours? What does it do about the brain and the body
18:52that makes those behaviours more prevalent? Dopamine agonists act like dopamine which
19:00is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that signals between nerve cells and in the brain it does
19:06a number of things. One thing is to do with movement control which is why it's used for
19:09Parkinson's and restless leg syndrome but also it's part of a mechanism that tells you
19:14that maybe you should do something again if you've had a good outcome to something. So
19:18if you go on a roller coaster and you really enjoyed it then this bit of the brain will
19:22actually say well you should try that doing that again. Putting the dopamine agonist in
19:27and that turbo charges that effect and so people then start to get repetitive behaviour,
19:32compulsive behaviour and it's something that they find incredibly difficult to resist and
19:37unless they realise that it's down to the drug they can end up doing things like losing
19:42tens of thousands of pounds, losing houses, jobs, marriages and so on and so we don't
19:48want this to happen. Like all drugs yes there are side effects but what's been not well
19:53done in the past is people have not had a discussion about the risks as well as the
19:58benefits of the drugs when they're prescribed because people need to be able to make a decision
20:02whether they want to go for these drugs or not. And there's been some criticism about
20:06the amount of warning that was given to patients, some saying they're disappointed their GPs
20:10didn't warn them enough. How do you think that happened? As a GP myself I know it's
20:17impossible to know everything about everything so we do depend on looking things up and until
20:23relatively recently these drugs were first line, they're now second line and warnings
20:28have slowly appeared over a number of years but unless you're reading right through the
20:33data sheet for the drug you may not spot it and likewise the drug manufacturers will say
20:39well there's leaflets inside these packets so patients can read that. Well I hate to
20:43say it but the tablets I take for my diabetes I can't remember the last time I took out
20:46the leaflet and read it. It tends to go in the bin and then I start taking the tablets
20:50and I think that's an experience an awful lot of us do and they read it the first time
20:54they've had it but not every time and they do tend to trust their doctor so one of the
20:59things that Restless Leg Syndrome UK is pushing for is better training both at medical school
21:04level and at GP training level. Believe it or not there's nothing in the GP training
21:10curriculum at the moment although the Royal College of GPs are introducing that later
21:14this year. Time now to take a look at the weather.
21:21Alright let's start with what it's looking like this evening. It's going to be warmer
21:24throughout the evening with clear skies near Dartford, slightly cloudy in the rest of Kent.
21:29Waking up in the morning though to cloudy overcast skies dropping to around 6 degrees
21:34in terms of the temperatures, low winds as well. However it will be a lovely warm afternoon
21:38again, temperatures as high as 18 and not a cloud in sight. Here is the outlook as we
21:44head towards the end of the weekend. Lovely, lovely temperatures of 18 degrees all around.
21:49Clear skies until we get to Sunday where we will get a little bit of clouds.
21:59Always exciting this time of year to see 18 degrees in the outlook as well. I know tomorrow
22:04is the start of spring officially as well so lots of bright things to look forward to.
22:09But now about a third of us consider ourselves antique collectors with rare coins being the
22:14most commonly kept item. But now experts are saying it could be just more than a passion
22:19project as we could be making a bit of cash from our precious and rare collections too.
22:23In fact the average collection of antiques is estimated to be worth more than £2,400
22:29today with some believing that could triple over the next 25 years. One of those experts
22:34Izzy Bulmer joined us on the Kent Morning Show earlier.
22:38My background is in auctioneering so I would always say go to an auctioneer. They've got
22:42experts there who will identify what is and isn't valuable and because they take a commission
22:47from the client it is in their interest for it to sell for as much as possible. That being
22:52said, auction houses, there are certain items that simply won't sell at auction houses and
22:56you are then going on online marketplaces to sell those products. I would seek the advice
23:03of experts, ask antiques dealers, ask auctioneers, get the best advice you can in the same way
23:10that you would do your research for anything.
23:15And I know obviously we've mentioned that online platforms are so much popular so you'd
23:18think that maybe antiques would be kind of receding in popularity but actually it's just
23:23growing and there are so many different places that you can go to to find antiques and find
23:27that special thing to put in your home, right?
23:29Yes, absolutely. You've got antique shops, you've got fairs, you've got car boots, you've
23:34got auctions. There is just a huge array of places exactly like that. You can sit at home
23:40and be online and find lots of beautiful items and have them all posted to you or you can
23:45enjoy the thrill of going out and hunting for them.
23:48Is there anything you found in your attic that you were surprised by and managed to
23:53make a nice little fortune off of?
23:57Do you know what? I wish I could say yes but no. My family items are all really quite valueless
24:06unfortunately.
24:08Sentimentally priceless.
24:11Hey, do you know what? My granny passed away a few years ago and she really didn't have
24:15very much valuable jewellery but she had a gold Victorian wedding band which, if I'm really
24:20honest, the best thing to do with that is to scrap it and at the moment the price of gold has
24:24reached an all-time high. However, the antiques nerd in me just cannot bring myself to scrap a
24:31Victorian wedding band. I was like, it's 130 years old and someone has worn that on their
24:36finger for their life. So yes, I didn't think I was a sentimental person but perhaps I am.
24:43It's amazing what can be meaningful to people, whether its value is high or not.
24:52But what would you say, Cam, you said that your...
24:57Yeah, we were talking about this. Izzy was saying just before we came on air that her
25:02partner's got, it was like a converted ring.
25:05I think it's a six-pen that's been converted into a ring but your one's mine.
25:09My grandad's got the tale of a Nazi bomb that landed in his garden during World War II and
25:16that obviously has got the sentimental value in that it's part of his family history but it's
25:22also got that amazing historical value as well. So we come back to that point about collecting
25:30and hoarding and stuff but if there's moments that have happened to you in your life and
25:33there's real pieces of history, it's definitely worth keeping those, isn't it?
25:38Yes, definitely. I think it comes down to two things, whether you're, are you keeping it
25:44for the sentimental value, for the historical value, for the story that's there and is it
25:50an item that you enjoy looking at or are you keeping it because you're hoping it's going
25:54to go up in value and that's where your head and your heart, if you're hoping it's going
26:00up in value, you need to be ruled by your head rather than by your heart and you do
26:05want to seek the help of experts and if it is something where you're doing this to make
26:11money, there are a lot of mistakes you can make and you do have to be very careful and
26:15it might just be more sensible to open up a savings account, pop your money in the account
26:19and you can see every year that it's going up by X amount and that's guaranteed.
26:24Antiques, unfortunately, simply aren't guaranteed in that way.
26:29What a great discussion there. I know that my dad has a collection of coins that has
26:34always been with the family and I was always told I wasn't allowed to go anywhere near
26:37it so I'm sure that's worth a bit of money nowadays.
26:39Well, that is it from us on Kent tonight. We'll be back same time tomorrow.
26:42Don't forget, Kent Morning Show from 7 o'clock tomorrow. See you then. Bye bye.
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