Join Abby Hook and Bartholomew Hall with all the latest news for Kent, in the morning!
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00:00Kent's dedicated local TV channel, KMTV, stayed on air to bring the latest public health warnings
00:25and lockdown guidelines, as well as telling the local stories that would have gone unheard
00:30otherwise. Well, I've been speaking with those reporters and editors who were here at the time
00:34to find out what it was like to keep KMTV broadcasting during an unprecedented time
00:39and how things have changed since. During the pandemic, nearly all of us increased the amount
00:44of time we found ourselves in front of a screen. Here at KMTV, making sure the screen stayed on
00:50when everyone was forced to go home was vital. I think like everybody, we were trying to react
00:58to what the government was saying, but we very quickly adapted and ended up having a remote
01:05gallery and we ended up winning awards for our innovation. Thanks to some technical handiwork,
01:12the KMTV channel stayed on air with the usual gallery left empty. Reporters, interviewees
01:17and presenters all able to continue broadcasting from the safety of their homes.
01:26Hello and welcome to Kentonite, live on KMTV on Monday the 23rd of March. I'm Louisa Britton,
01:33as you might have noticed I'm not in the KMTV studios, I'm at home. We said goodbye in the
01:38office and we just didn't really know when we were next going to see each other and yeah,
01:42we went completely remotely for the foreseeable. I remember just hoping that my neighbours wouldn't
01:49pop their heads over the hedge or that my dog wasn't going to get interrupted with the
01:53broadcast as well because she was in the garden. I didn't realise until afterwards that she was just
01:57sat there looking at me. But first this evening, we're being warned to be extra vigilant as
02:02criminals in Kent are using the coronavirus crisis to scam people out of hundreds of pounds.
02:07As lockdown went on, viewing figures showed adults spent an average of 45 hours a week
02:12watching TV and online video content, demonstrating just how vital a role public
02:18service broadcasters played in keeping people informed. Social distancing is something you
02:23will have heard a lot recently. At a really difficult time for everyone to find ways of
02:29creating content and educating people about all of those ongoing changes and answering those
02:38those really burning questions that people had. And to do that creatively was quite exciting
02:44really. And you know, there's no excuse for not putting content out and putting good quality
02:49content out. You can still do that remotely. You can use those resources at your disposal.
02:54It's a lot more egalitarian now. With almost every school, university or office turning to
03:01video calls to host their meetings and lessons, talking heads like these became a lot more popular
03:06on TV too, with technology quickly developing to allow contributors to log on from their own
03:12devices in the comfort of their own home. I think you're on mute. Ten years ago when we first were
03:19setting up KMTV, trying to get a video call system into our gallery was tens of thousands of pounds.
03:28Now it's available to us within seconds. To this day, our viewing figures around that first lockdown
03:34and that was certainly in that first week of the lockdown, are the highest viewing figures that
03:38we've ever had. I think that re-engaged the public as well, with them understanding how
03:44important it is to have free-to-air content for them to access. Five years later, that resilience
03:50has shaped the way we continue to communicate as a channel, keeping Kent's stories alive
03:55however they're told. Bartholomew Hall for KMTV. Now in 10 days time, one man from Deal will have
04:03completed his 10th marathon. Simon Graydon is doing it for a children's charity after working
04:09in the education sector here in Kent for 25 years. Yeah, he'll be raising money for BECOME, who
04:14support children in care and care leavers, and he believes a huge barrier for young people is the
04:19lack of understanding and the misconceptions surrounding the care system. Well his journey
04:23starts today. Just before he sets off, he's actually joining us on the line now. Simon,
04:28have you done your stretches? Wow, you looked the part. You are ready to go. How are you feeling?
04:35Excited, nervous. I admire your optimism, Abby, that in 10 days time I'll have completed it,
04:41but I'm sure I will. Yeah, I'm just excited now really to get started. It's been lots of
04:48training to get to this point. I've got to the start line in one piece, which is the first
04:52achievement, and now ready to go. So starting in about an hour and a quarter, nine o'clock.
04:58Amazing. For the first of ten. Amazing. Yeah, I can imagine that mixture of real nerves and excitement.
05:04We have every faith in you. We're going to be following your journey as well. You spoke to us
05:07just before when you decided to do this, and then have you back on when you're set and ready to go.
05:12Who's going to be there at the start line with you? Do you have sort of support along the way?
05:16So my wife's coming along to see the start today, and then a friend's going to join
05:21sort of halfway through today to run the second half with me, and then I'm doing the park run
05:26course in Deel tomorrow, so there'll be lots of people around there. So yeah, people kind of
05:31jumping in and out as the week goes on, and then obviously 30,000 people at Brighton a week on
05:36Sunday, including my sister who's running it as well. So yeah, there'll be times when I'm on my
05:42own and times when there's friends and family helping me out along the way. So yeah, it's
05:48going to be an exciting 10 days. Just kind of treating it as one marathon at a time really, I
05:54think is the only way to do it. Well, we can see on the screen here that you're no stranger to
05:59running. You've done your fair bit of courses in the past. Tell us how this challenge in particular
06:05came about. So as you say, I've been working in education and with children in care for
06:12over 25 years now, and I just really feel their stories and their journeys aren't understood
06:20enough probably by the wider public, and even perhaps by people within the sector sometimes.
06:26There's 100,000, well over 100,000 children in care in the UK. Loads and loads of barriers that
06:32they face on a daily basis, and they just need adults to be there hearing their story and
06:38listening and helping the best they can, and that gives them a chance to move forward and follow
06:43their dreams just like every other child would, and kind of the opportunities we would give our
06:48own children, I think, becomes a fantastic small charity, you know, campaigning. We've got various
06:56campaigns, one about the fact that children are placed too far from family and friends and schools,
07:02which is the Gone Too Far campaign, and the other thing is lots of these children in care are
07:09forced really to be very independent, and perhaps they're not quite ready at an age that,
07:14you know, we wouldn't expect our own children to go out and live independently and manage
07:18their lives, and that's a campaign called End the Care Cliff. So as much as it's about raising money,
07:24I've got a Just Giving page, I'll plug that, where I'm updating on how, where I'm running every day,
07:30and how each day has gone, but it's about raising money and around, as importantly for me, awareness
07:38of, you know, the sector and the system and the changes that need to happen really to improve
07:46it for those young people. And of course it's something that you've, you know, you've worked 25
07:50years in the education sector, you've dealt with many of these stories firsthand, how much is,
07:55how much does that kind of push you on to do challenges like this and to raise the money
08:00after having, you know, had that firsthand experience? Yeah, I mean, undoubtedly times are going to be
08:07tough at various points over the next 10 days, there will be times when it's, you know, my feet
08:12are going to be sore and my legs and everything else probably, but just thinking about, you know,
08:16those young people that I've worked with and the adults, there's some amazing adults working in
08:21the system that really, really are doing their best as well, and all those fantastic people that
08:26sponsored me so far, that's what's going to drive me forward to be honest. A speed limit which
08:31dropped temporarily from 70 miles per hour and 50 to 40 in October 2023 has led to thousands of
08:38drivers receiving penalties for speeding along the A20. Well, one driver received nine fines,
08:44which impacted his career and has since been left struggling to find a new job. Well,
08:49joining us now is Daisy Page to tell us more about this. Tell us the situation on the A20.
08:54So yeah, thousands of drivers received penalties for speeding along, as you said, the A20. Now,
08:59this was due to speed limits dropping temporarily from 70 and 50 miles per hour to 40 miles per
09:04hour, and this happened in October 2023, so we're looking back at a couple years now. The
09:09restrictions were between Crittles Corner roundabout and Sonley services. While a temporary
09:15limit was put in place, it was understood that more than 60,000 notices of intended prosecution
09:22was issued to motorists for speeding by the Metropolitan Police, so that was 60,000 notices,
09:27which it just shows the size of this. Many have said that they were unaware of the speed and
09:32restrictions changing and claimed that they were inadequate and small signage, and others have said
09:36that there was conflicting signs with at least one 50 mile per hour marker still being up until
09:41January the 24th in 2024. It is for the incorrect sign on the approach to the BM garage was placed
09:50by a third party and the Met Police previously confirmed that it was investigating as an attempt
09:55to pervert the course of justice, but no culprit was identified and the case was closed. Drivers
10:00have been calling for their NIPs to be revoked for the last year, but the Met Police have said
10:05they are insisting that they will not be cancelled and any appeals that will need to be challenged in
10:10the court. And of course, tell us about this driver in particular then, who nine fines has
10:16now been left not being able to find a job. Yeah, so his name's Thomas Wood. Obviously on the screen
10:22behind us we can just see some of the letters that he was sent through. Now he received these
10:27between December the 31st in 2023 and January 9th in 2024, so not a big time frame at all.
10:34His fines was for speeds between 45 miles per hour and 49 miles per hour. He claims that he was a
10:40victim of the wrongly placed sign, which was the 50 mile per hour sign, which he said that he abided
10:46by, but unwittingly causing him to exceed the new 40 miles per hour limit. He went on to say that
10:54he was shell-shocked. He also was a driver for a living and he just knew that his career was
10:59finished. He said that he felt stupid, even though it wasn't his fault. A spokesperson for the Met
11:06said its prosecution team had taken legal advice and where the 50 mile per hour sign was, it should
11:13have not impacted the enforcement of the 40 mile average speed limit, which I thought was really
11:18interesting. They claimed if someone was traveling at 40 miles per hour and sped up to 50 after,
11:23seeing the now removed sign, their average speed of the section covered by the cameras would not
11:28have resulted in a speeding ticket. But drivers, including Thomas, are disputing this. Due to the
11:33number of NIPs issued, Thomas was unable to appeal them with the Met Police and was sent to Bromley
11:38Magistrates Court, where he received 15 points on his license and six months driving ban. As a result
11:44of this, he was forced to step down from his manager job and now with his lack of experience
11:49in different fields, he's struggling to find a new role and career.
12:05Controversy is broken over a new illuminated sign to commemorate the life of a seven-year-old boy
12:11who was hit by a car in Folkestone in 2023. Oliver Leder de Sacks has this report. 32 flats being
12:18created right in the heart of Folkestone, but not without a sign of controversy. Boarded up
12:24for the past year, the Queen's House is currently being converted into affordable accommodation
12:31by William Brown Senior, in memory of his son who died after being hit by a car in 2023. But a
12:39planning application for an illuminated sign on the building has faced backlash from the
12:44neighbouring town council, and it's all to do with this picture of William Brown Junior.
13:14Thousands of people all helped rally together to make the best out of a bad situation and allow
13:20Will to be buried where he was, and I just think that that image of Will shows an image of public
13:27togetherness. In planning documents, Folkestone town council states that they support the
13:32illuminated sign and the commemoration in the naming of the building, but feel the inclusion
13:39of the photograph, however lovely an image it is, doesn't strike the civic tone needed.
13:46The town council also highlighted that the illumination should be on a timer to be turned
13:52off overnight for the sake of neighbours and occupants. But while William Brown Senior has
13:58no issue with keeping the illumination to a minimum, he's been left baffled by the other
14:05objections. There's no one really spoken up and said that, you know, they're finding it offensive
14:11or they don't like it in particular, and we've gone through all the necessary due process to get
14:16the planning permission to do this, so I don't really understand why the town council would
14:22stand up and go, do you know what, no, you're allowed the name, but you're not having an image.
14:28The sign may already be up, but a decision for whether this can remain in place
14:34now rests with Folkestone and Hythe district council. Oliver, leader of the sacks for KMTV.
14:42Lights, camera, plaster, not this time because he's trading in the tools for takes and calling
14:47action on his film career. Luke Mayers from Folkestone has turned to directing and now has
14:52his first film streaming on Amazon Prime. The gangster movie called A Brother's Bond even has
14:57a cameo role from retired boxer Joe Egan, who sparred with former heavyweight champion Mike
15:02Tyson. Well, Luke joins us on the line now to tell us more about his path to Hollywood. Luke,
15:07thank you very much for joining us. Tell us how it all started.
15:13Well, it started, I was an extra on a few films and I've looked around and I thought I'd love to
15:20get involved in this somehow, so I thought, I broke it down and I thought I could actually
15:25possibly do this. So I'll write a story and I literally just kept working on the next steps,
15:32the next steps, and then at the end I had a film. It was amazing. So yeah, I've done that and then
15:40I've done the film, got it on Amazon. That was two years ago. I had a film called On Top,
15:45it's still on Amazon now. And then I finished and I thought, oh, I've done it. Wow. And then
15:50everyone said, what are you doing next? What are you doing next? And I thought, well, I weren't
15:54really planning on carrying this on, but as everyone was behind me, why not? I mean, I love
15:58doing it. So yeah, I'm just carrying on. And now I've got my second film on Amazon called A Brother's
16:04Bond and everyone's really happy with the development in my directing abilities and my
16:10producing. And I've got a third one that's in writing at the moment. Yeah, it must take a bit
16:18of a village though, and it's not a one man band thing as you're plasterer before. And I imagine
16:23you can go and do that pretty much on your own. But this, this takes a lot of people,
16:26not only the actors we can see here, but the production, the filming, the editing as well.
16:31So how'd you go about gathering a team behind you? Well, I wouldn't say I've done it all myself,
16:37because obviously all the actors in it have all had a tremendous part in creating this project.
16:42But I did have to dig deep and get involved in every aspect of the journey. I've had to carry
16:48around the microphone, setting them up, directing, even starring in it, because obviously
16:54the budget we had, I had to just do everything I could, even the editing. After the film was shot,
17:01I spent many, many, many months upstairs editing, not really going out doing anything,
17:08just grinding away until I finally got to the end. And yeah, I mean, I did, I had to do a lot
17:14of it single-handedly. But now, of course, I've got two reactors in the film that really helped me
17:20in my vision. Definitely. But now, you know, your films are up on Amazon Prime on the streaming
17:26platform alongside some of the biggest blockbusters of the year. So that must feel great. Tell us
17:31about A Brother's Bond then. Tell us about the film. What can people expect?
17:36Right. So this one's based on two brothers, Tom and Danny. Tom is like a bit more calm and like
17:44a bit more collect. And then Danny's a bit erratic. He's a bit snappy. But they get entangled
17:52in the criminal underworld and they go beyond the point of no return. And they both really figure
17:57out who they truly are. And they have to deal with the pressure surrounding them. And yeah, it's
18:07quite incredible, the journey they go through. It's a really good structured film. I'm really
18:11proud of the writing and everything in it. And it's definitely one to watch. You've got to see
18:18it on Amazon Prime, really. What is it about it that you hope people sort of learn from it and
18:24take away? What do you want someone who's sitting down to put it on their TV? What do you hope they
18:28take away? And what do you hope they sort of enjoy throughout? Well, you've got like the classic
18:34gangster kind of film, but it's got a unique sprinkle of humour in it, which I've very carefully
18:41added into it. I haven't just done it like in a tacky way. I've tried incorporating it so it's
18:46actually believable and actually funny as well. So I think that kind and I've got a slight different
18:53kind of style of filming, which I haven't really seen anywhere. So you'll have to see it and give
18:58some feedback. But I think it's definitely 100% one to watch. If you like that kind of film,
19:05give it a watch. And it just goes to show like what you can do if you really do try and produce
19:12a movie like this. It sounds like people say I couldn't do a movie, but if you break it all down
19:17and you just take your time, you can actually achieve something very fantastic. It's a brilliant
19:22underdog story, you know, from being a plasterer to now being a multi-filmmaker. I mean, what's
19:28next for you? Who are you taking on next? Well, literally, I've got a story that I'm just about
19:34to turn into a script. I'm just doing some finishing touches. With the casting, I'll have
19:40to sit down and just discuss about who I think is going to be good for that character. Sunday is,
19:47of course, the big day where we can share our appreciation with our mums for all the times they
19:52have supported us. But with the ever-rising costs, how can we celebrate while being mindful of our
19:58pockets? Well, joining us with some beautiful flowers that I have a sneaky suspicion we're
20:03about to arrange. Daisy Page, what a beautiful name to be organising flowers as well. What have
20:09you got for us? What are we doing? So I thought when I was a student, I always found Mother's Day,
20:14you want to give your mum as much as you can back. So see a lot of our mums, maybe even
20:19grandmothers, aunties support us all the way through our lives. But obviously, flowers when
20:26you go into stores, especially around celebrations, can start to get a little bit pricey.
20:31So I found as a student, one way of maybe getting a bit more for my money is buying the cheapest
20:38flowers and arranging them myself. And now it obviously doesn't come in the nice paper. So I
20:43found a way of doing that is using jars from around my house. And now I literally raided my
20:48cupboards yesterday to find some jars to show how realistic this can be. So I've got an old pickle
20:53jar, an old jam jar, and a big jar there, which was used for apple juice as well. And so we've
21:01also got some flowers. And now the way that I always try and spread it out to get the most for
21:06my money is that I'll go to the stores, obviously, you tend to have those big bouquets, they can range
21:12up to £15. I saw that in the store yesterday. And I was like, well, that's a lot of money.
21:17So sometimes you might need to rummage through, obviously, to find those cheaper ones. And I
21:21managed to pick up some of these for £3.50, daffodils for £1. So it's a bit more cheaper,
21:26and then we can arrange it to look as beautiful as well. And also, if you're buying three different
21:30bunches that are not as pricey, you're probably going to get double the amount of flowers and you
21:35can give one bunch to your mum or somebody else that's important to you. For me, I have a mum and
21:40a stepmum, and they both have meant so much to my life and my upbringing as well. So I celebrate
21:44Mother's Day with them both. Yeah, that kind of thing would be lovely for someone like me.
21:49I think that's especially a thing, a lot of when it hits Mother's Day this weekend,
21:52as you said, a lot of people won't be celebrating with just one person,
21:55they'll be celebrating with many. So this is a nice way that we can fill free jars today,
22:00and then we'll have free gifts to give for a bit more cheaper as well.
22:04I've got to say, just from the couple of minutes that they've been here, I can already smell them,
22:08because you bought some lovely flowers in. So take us through what we're going to be doing today.
22:12Cool. So if you'd like to pick a jar each, firstly. What I've done as well,
22:15I have decorated them slightly, and this was just things I wanted to keep as realistic as possible.
22:20So I had some ribbon and I had some twine in my house. So I managed to just decorate those
22:25really quickly. It did only take me literally 10 minutes this morning to do.
22:30I'm going with the big one. I like the design of that one.
22:32I do like this, this is lovely. Perfect.
22:34No glue on this or anything, you just...
22:36No, literally just knotted it right at the back there.
22:38And put it together.
22:39And then when you're done, you can use it for something else as well.
22:41You can actually use it. I brought in a candle, a little tea light holder.
22:45So once it's used, you can put a little tea light in there and it can be reused for that.
22:50For my birthday, I'd done loads of these jam jars and had them dyed around, just a nice lighting.
22:55So what I've done, I've prepped a couple here, but I'm going to give you a stem of flowers each.
23:00I can go in our smaller one. And then what we're going to want to do,
23:03obviously we've got a lot of leaves here. I always come here and make a mess.
23:06So we're going to want to start taking these leaves off.
23:09Can I tell you just a fun fact before you see how good my skills are?
23:13I actually was a florist before I was a journalist.
23:16Oh, so you've got some skills to be showing us.
23:19Just saying.
23:20Yeah, I loved it.
23:21We've got an expert with us.
23:23Yeah, I was like, oh no.
23:26I don't know how good I was, but I loved it. It's so therapeutic and spending all day
23:31surrounded by flowers and putting them together. Beautiful.
23:34And I suppose tidying them up as well.
23:36So obviously, Bartholomew, you've got a bit of a smaller jar.
23:39So what you're going to want to be doing is having a look at your leaves,
23:43say this one, and then just pulling them off.
23:45We don't need any scissors.
23:46And we've got a bit of a collection here going already, which you can have a look at.
23:49Abby, we've got some here as well that you can have a look at.
23:52I know orange is your favourite colour.
23:53Orange is my favourite colour.
23:54So we can grab some of those.