Local News

More than 700 cannabis plants have been seized from a property in Sheerness.

Officers from the Swale Community Policing Team attended the house, in New Road, yesterday afternoon (Thursday 16th May) after receiving concerns the address was being used to grow the substance.

Inside officers uncovered a large cultivation spread across numerous rooms, along with evidence to suggest electricity was being illegally abstracted to help grow the plants.

A 23-year-old man from Sheerness and an 17-year-old boy of no fixed address were arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis and abstracting electricity.

They remain in custody as enquiries continue.

Ten charges relating to the theft of fragrances, cleaning products and groceries from various shops in Sittingbourne have been made against one woman.

Michelle Bull is alleged to have targeted stores in the High Street, Eurolink Way, Northwood Drive, Quartz Way and Sheppey Way in Bobbing, on ten occasions between Friday 8th February and Friday 26th April.

The combined value of items stolen is reported to be worth over £1,400.

The 30-year-old, of no fixed address, has been remanded in custody to appear at Medway Magistrates' Court today (Friday 3rd May).

More than 400 vehicles were speed checked by Kent Volunteer Police Cadets on Saturday (27th April).

The cadets, based with the force's Sittingbourne troop, attended four locations across Sittingbourne and Sheppey for a day of road safety checks.

Each used speed guns to record a vehicle's speed and provided words of advice to drivers who had been stopped due to their speeding.

The roads checked were Woodstock Road in Sittingbourne, Chestnut Street in Danaway and both Scocles Road and Minster Roads, in Minster-On-Sea.

The highest speed registered was 43mph in a 30mph zone.

Police Constable Mat Booth, who accompanied the cadets for the speed checks, told SFM News: "The cadets did a fantastic job and learned a lot about road safety, and interacting with the public, in the process. Their efforts led to numerous motorists being challenged for their manner of driving. Throughout the course of the year we will continue to get the cadets involved in community initiatives to help develop their knowledge of policing.'

The Kent Volunteer Police Cadets scheme opened in September 2016 and is a uniformed organisation supported by Kent Police for young people aged 13 to 17-years-old.

Cadets meet once a week for two to three hours during term time and in addition volunteer three hours each month to help with a community based project.

For more information, visit: www.kent.police.uk/kcsn-archive/kent-volunteer-police-cadets.

Pic: L-R Cllr Hampshire and Cllr Baldock speaking to Jeremy Dufour, Engineering Project Manager

Swale Borough Council members were treated to a tour of South East Water's water main replacement site in Borden last week.

Borden and Grove Park ward councillors Nicholas Hampshire and Mike Baldock met engineers replacing more than a mile of burst-prone water mains in the village. The old cast iron pipes in Pond Farm Road and Wises Lane, laid in the 1950s, are being replaced with flexible plastic pipes with a lifespan of more than 70 years. To date, water workers have replaced almost 85 per cent of the pipework with just 300 metres of pipe laying remaining in Wises Lane.

Pond Farm Road and Wises Lane have been closed in sections during the work, which began in January and work is due to finish by the end of June although residents will be able to access the road for local elections on 2 May and the Sittingbourne 10k running race on 19 May.

Jeremy Dufour, Project Manager at South East Water, told SFM News: "I would like to thank Councillor Hampshire and Councillor Baldock for taking the time to visit the site of our £520,000 water main replacement project in Borden. The team on site have made excellent progress, with more than 1.5 kilometres of water main laid and already in use, supplying villagers with top quality crystal-clear tap water. As we reach the final stages of our project, I would encourage residents to visit our website corporate.southeastwater.co.uk/Borden for further information and regular progress updates."

Councillor Mike Baldock, member of Borden Parish Council and Swale Borough Council, told SFM News: "Many of my constituents were understandably concerned about this project after various other utility companies have carried out work in the village in the past. I am really pleased to say that this project has been handled well, with excellent communications and a ready response to any queries that arose."

This work forms part of a £424 million investment by South East Water between 2015 and 2020.