Local News

Robust action was taken last week against suspected poachers in Sheppey.

Kent Police's Rural Task Force officers attended Thomsett Way in Queenborough last Friday (21st October) following reports that poaching was taking place on the land.

Upon arrival officers witnessed four people with eight Jack Russell type dogs who were seen flushing out rabbits from the reeds before chasing them.

A 33-year-old man attempted to evade officers by running away and into a dyke. However, he was detained and subsequently arrested for breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order which was in place due to previous similar offending. Sydney Samuels, of Castlerough Lane, Kemsley, has been charged with breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order. He is due before Medway Magistrates’ Court at a later date.

Officers issued a 32-year-old man with a Community Protection Warning and a 29-year-old man was issued with a Community Protection Notice.

The warning serves as a deterrent. If this is ignored then the next time someone commits an offence they are issued with a notice. The notice details preventative conditions to prevent further offending, which includes not to trespass and/or walk dogs off leads on private land. If a notice is breached the next step is arrest.

A 12-year-old boy who was also with the men was given words of warning.

The legislation applies across seven forces which are made up of Kent, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertfordshire, Cambridge and Bedfordshire.

The seven forces work supports Op Galileo – a national initiative set up to primarily combat hare coursing and poaching. The agreement, which has been completed with the support of the Crown Prosecution Service, has allowed the seven forces to work as one when exercising certain powers. This includes sharing interactions and movements, the use of automatic number plate recognition and seizing dogs.

Kent County Council's (KCC) proposed cuts to bus subsidies were debated, for the final time, at a Full Council Meeting on Thursday (20th October) afternoon.

The public consultation prompted 2,562 responses from residents, plus 55 individual letters and 4 responses from local MPs across the county but at the meeting the Conservative-led Council decided to go ahead with the plans.

KCC Leader, Roger Gough, told the meeting that: "it was necessary to balance KCC's budget for this year but we will still spending £3.8m on buses that would otherwise not run".

The cuts come as a blow to campaigners who wanted to retain services to outlying areas of Sittingobourne with Newnham, Rodmersham, Bredgar, Tunstall, Doddington, Conyer and Lynsted now being left without any regular bus services and Teynham and Bapchild seeing fewer services.

Cllr Mike Baldock (Swale Independents) addressed the council leader directly, saying: "It's really time you started to listen to people and stopped thinking you were above the concerns of mere mortals. In the consultation, 1,050 people said they would have no alternative means of travel to one of the withdrawn services. This is going to impact on the most vulnerable: - the elderly, the young and those in rural areas."

Cllr Baldock also argued that there would be other costs to pay in the long run - in terms of more congestion more pollution and higher road maintenance bills.

The 38 scheduled services across the county will cease at the end of October. To see if your route will be affected please click here.

Arriva Kent bus drivers have announced another 13 days of walk-outs which will affect services across the county later this month and in to next month.

Drivers have already walked out on two days in September and on Thursday (6th October) and Friday (7th October) last week and Monday (10th October) and Tuesday (11th October) this week. 600 members of the Unite Union, based at Arriva Kent depots in Northfleet, Gillingham (our local depot), Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, voted by a 96.5% margin to take further industrial action.

The dates of the latest strikes will be three days from Wednesday 19th until Friday 21st October, followed by five consecutive days from Monday 24th until Friday 28th October and a further five consecutive days from Monday 7th until Friday 11th November and will affect routes in Sittingbourne.

Sharon Graham, the Unite union's General Secretary told SFM News: "Arriva could avoid the disruption by meeting workers' demands" saying the company, which is ultimately owned by the German state-run company Deutsche Bahn, "could afford it".

An Arriva spokesman told SFM News: "We have put forward a significant pay offer for our employees, which recognises the great work that they do and reflects the unprecedented cost-of-living challenge facing the region. We recognise that the strikes will mean upheaval for our customers and communities through this ongoing industrial action in the region and we urge the union to ballot on our pay offer as soon as possible."

A sinking boat was spared from going under thanks to the expertise of officers from Kent Police’s Search and Marine Unit.

Two members of the public were on board the 40-foot motor cruiser when a faulty pump caused it to start flooding near Queenborough Harbour, Sheppey, at around 4pm on Wednesday (27th September) afternoon.

Officers from the Search and Marine Unit were patrolling the River Medway on the Kent Police vessel Invicta when they were made aware of the problem by HM Coastguard, and arrived at the location shortly afterwards.

They carried out a check of the electronic pumping system and quickly identified what was wrong before helping to slow the flood and get the broken pump working again. They were then joined by volunteers from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) who used a petrol salvage pump to remove the excess water and ensure those on board could reach dry land safely.

Acting Sergeant Sam Milton of the Search and Marine Unit told SFM News: "During our inspection of the vessel’s essential equipment we found it to have one defective electronic pump and no manual pump. The fact it started to sink because of this should serve as a reminder to all boat-owners to ensure their vessels are in a seaworthy condition before being taken onto the water. Fortunately on this occasion we were able to work with our partners at HM Coastguard and the RNLI to ensure those on board were safe and that their boat was not consigned to the riverbed."