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00:00Hello, good evening and welcome to Kentsonite live on KMTV.
00:29I'm Abbey Hook, here are your top stories on Thursday the 13th of June.
00:35Ed over heels Lib Dem leader faces obstacles on Kent campaign trail.
00:41I think it really is important that people have greater access to green spaces.
00:45The Liberal Democrats take a very different approach which should really reassure people
00:48worried about the green belt.
00:50Catscan Medway charity pushes microchipping legislation all the way.
00:56I mean we're only a small cog in a massive part of a massive machine that's actually
01:00made this work.
01:02And Kent in Paris, we've got everything you need to know about our county's Olympic heroes.
01:18First tonight, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has brought his electoral campaign to
01:22Tunbridge Wells where polls are neck and neck.
01:25The leader and parliamentary candidate Mike Martin for the target seat have been attempting
01:29an obstacle course this afternoon as part of the party's now famous political stunts.
01:35Well, our reporter Oliver Leader de Sacks is on the scene now recovering from a few
01:39obstacles himself chasing Ed around the course.
01:42Oliver, what can you tell us from today?
01:46Honestly Abbey, I should be in Victor's sport for the amount I ran around today chasing
01:49off the Liberal Democrat leader and his parliamentary candidate.
01:54And although he did stumble a bit throughout his obstacle course here, lots of running
01:59around on his part, he did bounce back a bit like the polls have bounced back in Liberal
02:03Democrat's favour earlier this week when they launched their campaign.
02:06They saw an increase in their point percentage, a vote share in some polls at YouGov earlier
02:11this week when they launched their campaign which sees a lot about green spaces being
02:16mentioned.
02:17Obviously as you see around me on a very rainy day in Tunbridge Wells, lots of greenery and
02:21it is a very rural county.
02:24We are part of the Greenbelt here and also an area of natural beauty, the High Weald
02:29area of natural beauty in fact.
02:32So wildlife, housing, big issues as well as access to green spaces.
02:38But we have heard in this local area just near Buell Water about campsites being a disruption
02:44to local wildlife and I put that to Ed.
02:48Is his party doing enough to bridge the gap between recreation and conservation?
02:53It's a really important balance to strike and the way you do it is you work with the
02:58local community.
02:59You work with the environmental experts.
03:02I think it really is important that people have greater access to green spaces.
03:06The Liberal Democrats take a very different approach which should really reassure people
03:09worried about the Greenbelt.
03:11We take a community led approach so the community is very much at the heart of that and it means
03:16that you deal with the infrastructure issues, whether it's social infrastructure or the
03:19physical infrastructure at the same time and you get the housing that the community needs.
03:24Where our approach has been applied in this country and elsewhere, it's been fantastic.
03:29It's produced great quality housing but in places that mean the environment can still
03:35be protected.
03:36This is possible but not under the Conservative approach where the developers hold all the
03:42power.
03:45It's not just about the manifesto here.
03:48Obviously he's here on behalf of his parliamentary candidate, Mike Martin.
03:52Tunbridge Wells is a target seat.
03:53They're hoping to bridge the gap with some of those Conservative voters who have voted
03:58Conservative for a long time.
04:01Neil Mahapatra has recently come out as a local candidate in the profile to the KM,
04:06slightly critical of Rishi Sunak in it and it's going to be a tightly fought contest.
04:11There's very little in it and I asked Mike Martin earlier today if he's the right man
04:16for the job to turn that polling gap around.
04:20Some polls are saying that the Conservatives are slightly ahead of the Lib Dems.
04:24Other polls are saying the Lib Dems are slightly ahead of the Conservatives.
04:27All of this is less than 1%.
04:29It's within the margin of error.
04:31Basically Tunbridge Wells is too close to call.
04:34It's neck and neck.
04:35You've got two choices.
04:36You can vote Tory or you can vote Lib Dem.
04:38None of the other parties can win and no matter who you are in Tunbridge Wells, most people
04:44look at that choice and think that they want change, they want a fresh start and a fresh
04:48start in Tunbridge Wells means voting Lib Dem.
04:52Oliver thank you very much for all the latest.
04:57Now next this evening, microchipping cats has been made mandatory this week but a Medway
05:01animal charity played a huge part in getting the legislation through.
05:06Animals Lost and Found in Kent have been campaigning for around six years for the law to be brought
05:10in line with the rules for dogs.
05:13They're joined by many animal welfare charities trying to stop the increasing number of pets
05:18being abandoned across the county.
05:20Natasha says the rescue sector is bursting at the seams but this is a step in the right
05:25direction.
05:27The Medway charity that turned a dream into legislation.
05:31Natasha and her partner Dee started Animals Lost and Found in Kent after their cat went
05:36missing.
05:37They've played a crucial role in making microchipping cats mandatory across the UK and the legislation
05:44came into force this week.
05:47This is where it all began for Dee and Natasha ten years ago in their mission to help rescue
05:51and protect cats right across Medway and Kent but it's been in the last six years where
05:56they've really been pushing that all cats in the UK get microchipped.
06:00Currently about 25% aren't but they hope with this new legislation those numbers will start
06:06to change.
06:07I mean we're only a small cog in a massive part of a massive machine that's actually
06:12made this work.
06:13Then when it came to how strongly we felt about the microchipping legislation and it
06:19needing to be changed to cats too, we did get a bit of a back from it but people saying
06:26actually you can't govern this, it's not going to work and dogs are bigger than cats
06:30and you know cats are free roamers and what about the feral?
06:33If your cat is chipped, it comes home, it's as simple as that because you don't own the
06:37animal, you own the chip.
06:39It's exactly the same really technically as a car and a logbook, you own the logbook not
06:44the car.
06:45And if you're not logging your pet, well you could face a fine of up to £500.
06:50National charity Cats Protection say the deterrent is working, despite record numbers
06:56of animals being rescued and microchipping being a challenge to police.
07:01This isn't about trying to fine people or make money from people, this is more about
07:04trying to encourage people and show how important it is that they have their cats microchipped.
07:10So I think when people are found to not have their cats microchipped, they'll be given
07:14a notice and have 21 days to go to the vet and get their cat microchipped and this will
07:19cost between, depending on where you are in the country, £20 and £30.
07:23And that money means volunteers like Natasha can check on any lost or injured cats.
07:28So you have to really go over the entire animal, right around, I always start here and I go
07:34down and then I go down the other side and I do it slowly.
07:38I go in with the mindset of there's a chip there, I need to find it, where some people
07:42just go oh they're not chipped, it's not good enough.
07:46I always try really hard and the other volunteers try really hard to make sure that that animal
07:49is scanned properly and thoroughly.
07:52Unlike dogs at eight weeks, cats must be microchipped and registered by the time they're 20 weeks
07:57old, with contact details stored and kept up to date in an approved database.
08:02And just like the paw prints in the concrete when this place was built, Natasha's push
08:07for this legislation is now cemented in the heart of what they do.
08:12Abbey Hook for KMTV in Medway.
08:16Back to politics now and three weeks until voters across Kent head to the polls.
08:20Earlier I sat down with political commentator Rob Bailey to ask him what he thought of the
08:24Labour Party's manifesto they launched today.
08:27Well a lot of people have been looking for where the big narratives of this election
08:31are going to come from, from both parties to be honest.
08:33But as you know, a lot of people have been looking at Labour and saying what do you actually
08:36stand for, what is it you're doing in this election?
08:39But this really was kind of the Radiohead manifesto launch in that no surprises.
08:43And Keir Starmer has been very clear about that.
08:45He wasn't going to make any new policy announcements today.
08:48He was as good as his word.
08:49It's told us everything that we already knew about a lot of Labour's priorities on clean
08:53energy and on what they're going to do with education, which they've been talking about
08:57already on the campaign.
08:59So maybe the biggest thing that we've learnt today is just how far they're willing to go
09:04to chase the Conservative voters that they believe are disaffected and that may mean
09:08that there may not be a single safe seat in the country for the Conservatives anymore.
09:13And that's all in this growth kind of push that they've been on today.
09:17It was almost reminiscent of Liz Truss when she was campaigning to be Conservative leader.
09:21All she would talk about was growth.
09:22And that's really what Labour are doing today.
09:24They're saying you can trust us to be the party of growth.
09:28The big question, of course, is whether Conservative voters who are having a waiver are willing
09:33to listen to him and whether they'll believe him.
09:35And in particular, will our Kent voters believe him?
09:38When we're looking at those particular things, one that stands out, commitment to planning
09:43reform as well.
09:44What would that look like for the county?
09:45And this is a big part of the whole growth narrative because planning reform is about
09:49building one and a half million homes.
09:50That's what Labour are pledging to do.
09:52It's about creating new businesses.
09:55And yes, absolutely, there'll be big concern about that because the way that Labour are
09:59talking about doing it is by trying to make it easier to build houses or to build developments
10:05in certain parts of the country which currently are protected from development.
10:08And that includes what they call urban brownfield sites.
10:14And sometimes parts which are classified as urban, even though when you look at them and
10:18think, well, there's lots of trees and grass around there, places like car parks, things
10:21like that.
10:22There's been a lot of controversy in Kent before now about the potential for new planning
10:26regulations making it easier for businesses to build new headquarters or for small housing
10:31estates to appear in places which, on paper, aren't countryside.
10:35But you look at them and you think, that's the garden of England there.
10:39And so people will be concerned about what this means, about what could happen in terms
10:42of villages growing, new towns in the countryside, and what that might mean for the character
10:47of Kent.
10:48And of course, this all comes off the back of the second round, let's call it, of the
10:52head-to-head with these leaders on Sky last night.
10:55There was a key moment where Sir Keir Starmer looked a little bit flustered at being accused
10:59of being a robotic politician.
11:02What was your takeaway from that?
11:03We were discussing Rishi Sunak's blunder with D-Day leaving early, but does this sort of
11:09match on par if we're looking at gaffes from our potential leaders?
11:14It certainly doesn't match on par, but it's interesting how you've got a lot of focus
11:18on personalities in this campaign, and I think both parties would be quite honest that they
11:21don't have the most charismatic leaders.
11:24Rishi Sunak is robotic at times as well.
11:27I think one of the interesting things, obviously he stuttered on that question, it didn't look
11:30fantastic, but one of the things that a lot of people might have responded to yesterday
11:34was a question earlier on in which he was asked what's his biggest fear about becoming
11:38Prime Minister, and he talked about wanting to protect his children, his teenage children
11:42who he never brings into the media limelight, and I think a lot of people would understand
11:46that.
11:47I think that was a kind of moment that was quite relatable.
11:49For a full list of candidates across Kent, including in Tambridge, Wales, where Oliver
11:53was earlier, you can head to Kent Online.
11:56See you after the break.
11:57Thanks for watching.
11:58See you after the break.
11:59Thanks for watching.
12:27Thanks for watching.
12:57Thanks for watching.
12:58Thanks for watching.
13:27Thanks for watching.
13:28Thanks for watching.
13:57Thanks for watching.
13:58Thanks for watching.
14:27Thanks for watching.
14:28Thanks for watching.
14:57Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight live on KMTV.
15:16Now to sports, and with just weeks to go until the start of this summer's Olympics, Team
15:20GB has been busy announcing the squads that will head to Paris to represent our country,
15:25with lots of Kent names among the lucky few.
15:27Well, to round up who to look out for from across the county, I'm joined now by a sports
15:31reporter, Bartholomew Hall.
15:34Euros tomorrow, lots of announcements this week, we've been talking all about the manifestos
15:38and politics, but the sports now.
15:41What's to come?
15:42Well, what's to come is a really packed summer full of sports.
15:44As you say, the Euros kick off tomorrow, and then in just 43 days' time, all eyes to Paris
15:50for the Olympic Games.
15:51Now, Kent Online and here on KMTV and on Invicta Sport will be following it very closely
15:56with all of our Kent representatives, so here is who to look out for.
15:59We'll start with rowing, Emily Craig.
16:01We spoke to her a few weeks back on Invicta Sport.
16:03You can see her on the screen here.
16:05She takes part in the double women's skulls alongside her partner and world number one
16:10Imogen Grant.
16:11Now, these two have been unstoppable since Tokyo 2020, haven't lost a single competition
16:17they've been taking part in together, but they do want to make sure that at this Olympics
16:22they get home with a medal because at the Tokyo Olympics, it was heartbreak for them.
16:26They got a world record in the kind of heats, and then when it got to the final, just missed
16:32out on a podium by a photo finish.
16:34I know, so I was talking to her a few weeks ago, and she was telling me that that pressure
16:39is really there, but obviously to get that medal for the country means everything.
16:43Now, let's move on to gymnastics.
16:45We found out both gymnastics squads today, Gravesend's Georgia Mae Fenton.
16:49Now, she is getting her first full Olympic nod.
16:53Obviously, you see her on the screen here, too.
16:55She was a traveling reserve at Tokyo, didn't end up getting the chance to compete, so she
17:00says that being in the full squad this time is an absolute dream come true.
17:05One person who didn't make the pick, we mentioned him on Invicta Sport, we went to meet him
17:09during his training was James Hall from Maidstone Pegasus Gym.
17:12You can see him training here.
17:13Now, he was in the full squad at Tokyo.
17:16This time, he will be traveling, but just as a reserve, and he even told us that this
17:20is likely to be his last Olympics, so I wonder if that will change, you know, getting that
17:25kind of, you know, that bite for it once you're there at Tokyo.
17:29Maybe he'll want to add a few more years onto it to be in that squad again.
17:32Now, there are a few more names to go through.
17:34We can list through some of the others.
17:35Freya Black from Tunbridge Wells, she'll be sailing.
17:38We've been following her journey throughout the past few months.
17:41And also Sevenoaks swimmer Eva Acaro.
17:43She is making history as the first black woman to swim in the Team GB squad, and you can
17:49see her finishing second in a recent event here on the screen.
17:53Now, there are loads more names we could go through, especially with our Paralympic representatives
17:57here in Kent.
17:58We have quite a few Paralympians that will be representing us at the Olympics this year.
18:02But if you want to keep up to date, as I said, Kent Online Sport on their sports page, they
18:08have a dedicated Olympics tab, which you can keep up to date with all of our entries
18:13throughout the summer.
18:14It sounds like an Olympics, you rattling through all their names, I'm very impressed.
18:18Lots to look out for there.
18:19Bartholomew, thank you very much.
18:22Now it's time to take a look at the weather forecast.
18:31Tonight expect some rainfall across the county, lows of 13, highs, lows of 11 even, highs
18:35of 13.
18:37Friday morning is a bit sunnier, however, still that wet weather sticking around for
18:41June.
18:42Not many people too pleased with that into the afternoon.
18:44It does get warmer and drier, highs of 18, a bit of rain over in Margate though.
18:49And now the outlook for the rest of the week.
18:52Sun continues right into the weekend, but sticking with that wet weather, a really mixed
18:56picture.
19:05Dozens have descended onto the historic Dockyard in Chatham today to commemorate 80 years since
19:27D-Day, a day where troops from the UK, US, Canada and France landed on the coast of Normandy,
19:34marking the start of a campaign to liberate North West Europe from Nazi occupation.
19:39You turned up and you found yourself at Chatham or Portsmouth or Devonport or Aldershot if
19:46you were a soldier and you just got on with it under the instructors who barked at you
19:5324 hours a day.
19:54They were ordinary people like you and me who came from every trade and none and they
20:02played their part in preventing England or Great Britain from becoming a German satellite.
20:13Here we're at the National Destroyer Memorial.
20:16Destroyers were so important throughout the World War, both starting off with the evacuation
20:23of Dunkirk in 1940 and then four years later, escorting the ships, escorting the invasion
20:31fleet.
20:32So many other ways in which they were involved in the war.
20:35So this is a very, very important and poignant place to be.
20:38The HMS Cavalier is the last remaining destroyer from the Second World War and those who've
20:43come along today have also come to watch this D-Day peace flag being raised and this is
20:48to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
20:52The Cavalier was launched in 1945.
20:55It wasn't involved in D-Day but was involved in the conflict and it's now preserved at
21:01the historic dockyard.
21:02The ship represents the 142 destroyers which were lost in the conflict and the estimated
21:0911,000 lives lost on board.
21:12Recognising it, commemorating the sacrifices of our troops, men and women, who did so much
21:19for us at the D-Day landings and it's really important to make sure that we keep those
21:26memories alive, we keep the education.
21:29Celebrate what was an amazing achievement in our history.
21:33I wanted to obviously remember the people who gave their lives and really just get the
21:37community together and remember their sacrifice and the role that we played here in Medway.
21:42Today's a day to remember the lives lost on the beaches of Normandy as thousands fought
21:47to liberate Western Europe from Nazi Germany.
21:50Those here today hope the bravery of the Allied forces will be remembered for years to come.
21:55Sophia Akin for KMTV in Chatham.
21:59Now straight after Kent tonight, straight after Kent tonight we have a brand new episode
22:03of Kent Film Club where we look at the impact certain films have had on our guests' lives.
22:08Well to give us an idea of what's to come and some of the latest film news and what's
22:12coming out that we need to be watching, the show's presenter Chris Deasy joins me now.
22:16Now we've got a great one on the screen here, Inside Out 2, I've seen the first one, yet
22:22to see the second one.
22:23Will you be watching it tomorrow?
22:24Well yeah, it comes out tomorrow so I suspect at least one of my children might want to
22:27see this on the weekend.
22:29I think that's the thing about children's films because I saw If with, I saw it twice
22:33with different children and one wanted to see it and of course the other then wanted
22:36to see it.
22:37On the basis of the themes, in that case it's actually a really good way of dealing with
22:42issues around grief and loss and death but tailored towards a young audience.
22:47But there's also something in there for the parents, for the grown-ups, who actually can,
22:51particularly in an age of, you know, before social media, because I know I grew up in
22:56the 80s and 90s before we had Facebook, before we had WhatsApp, and so films that sort of
23:00deal with that lost innocence, that sense of there may be once, you know, we always
23:04talk in films about the golden age that may or may not have been and of course that's
23:08very big as a nostalgia trope.
23:10But that sort of notion of imaginary friends links very much with Toy Story as well.
23:14That sense about what have we lost and in some of these films of course they anthropomorphise,
23:21that's the word, toys and non-human characters, give them human expression and of course that
23:27really resonates with a young audience.
23:29It's wonderful for the educational purpose as well because a young person will watch
23:32this film and think, and will love the characters, will be drawn to, you sort of see these big
23:37eyes, the animations, these are all huge key tick boxes, the colours, but also connecting
23:42colours to emotion as well, I suppose it's a way of helping to process.
23:46And there's always that sort of drip fed throughout films, that adult humour as well, to keep
23:51the parents sort of entertained behind the scenes as well and you mentioned Toy Story
23:54when we watch it growing up, we have a certain view, we think, oh our toys come to life but
23:59really that's resonating somewhere in the back of our minds that I suppose we can look
24:02back on with nostalgia, something you look at all the time when we're older and realise
24:06actually that's what that film was telling me.
24:09Absolutely because we all have that, that there's something from the past that at one
24:12point was really precious to us and then we grow up or think that we grow up and then
24:16of course those films are very good at presenting it from the point of view of those toys themselves
24:21because that sense of loss is something that we all feel in different ways and of course
24:24it's about empathy because obviously in those films those toys come to life but there's
24:28something that we can all relate to in that, we've all had people that at one point meant
24:32something to us, in fact actually I saw a film that was made in Herne Bay and I saw
24:36it in Herne Bay on Tuesday, Tell That to the Winter Sea, which although not a children's
24:40film is about some school friends from 15 years ago who are now in their very early
24:44thirties and they're looking back on the relationships that they did or didn't have, it's told from
24:49the point of view of a same-sex couple but one of them is now marrying somebody who's
24:53heterosexual and it raises all these questions about the past that we thought we knew and
24:57the people we thought we knew and what happens when we grow up but we often grow up at different
25:01times so actually the link with Toy Story is actually quite acute there, that we often
25:05grow up in different ways and we diverge from one another as much as we grow together at
25:12different stages but maybe there is that sense of a possible return.
25:16And another prong to this conversation I suppose is those films that present ideals
25:21and beauty standards and we had this sort of conversation when we were talking about
25:25Barbie when that was such a huge thing but I mean some of those Disney films that present
25:31these princess characters that all young people can aspire to and want to be and want to be
25:36like but it's how achievable that is and sort of putting people on a pedestal and it
25:41sounds so silly when we talk about it but innocently watching this we take sometimes
25:45a different message from that and perhaps can feel like we're comparing ourselves to
25:48these princess characters as well as appreciating them.
25:51Well that's why the Barbie film which of course we talked about a great deal last summer was
25:55so powerful because you had the different gradations of Barbie, you know the weird Barbie
26:00for example as well as the more archetypal feminine Barbie and I think I know people
26:05who resonated with different parts of that, men as well, we had a male guest on the Kent
26:09Film Club who thought it was one of the best films he'd ever seen so that's why, so it
26:13actually transcends issues of gender.
26:16Amazing Chris and very, very quickly what's coming up this evening?
26:19So we have a wonderful episode of Kent Film Club tonight and you'll have to wait till
26:23six o'clock to see what that is but we have Catherine Shannon, I'll just say that much,
26:26who's a local filmmaker, very powerful with the BBC and BFI and one of the films is Seven,
26:31it's quite a dark undercurrent but also she worked with Anthony Minghella and one of her
26:35films is The English Patient.
26:36Wow, I don't know how you keep it all up there Chris with all the films you watch, thank
26:39you very much.
26:40That's all we've got time for for Kent tonight, handing over to Chris now, I'll see you soon,
26:44bye bye.