Kent

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Two men who stole multiple cars across Kent have been jailed for almost three years.

Mason James, 25, and Malcolm Royden, 55, admitted to stealing four high value vehicles from driveways and attempting to take a further three between December 2024 and January 2025. The pair, wearing dark clothes and balaclavas, targeted homes overnight at locations including Maidstone, Medway, Ashford and locally here in Swale.

The Environment Agency have issued a Flood Alert for the Isle of Sheppey and the coastal areas from Kemsley to Seasalter for tomorrow (Tuesday 11th October).

A high spring tide and positive tidal surge is expected to affect the coast overnight tonight and in the early hours of tomorrow. Tides will be at their highest between midnight and 04:00 BST on Tuesday morning.

Swale Borough Council is writing to local Kent County Councillors to ask them to oppose £2.3 million of cuts to homelessness support.

The proposals to stop funding Kent Homeless Connect are part of Kent County Council’s budget proposals being discussed  next Thursday (10th February).

Conservative candidate, Matthew Scott, has held onto the position of Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent. 

He beat Labour’s Lola Oyewusi and the Liberal Democrat’s Graham Colley, with 56% of the vote. 

This will be Mr Scott’s second term as the PCC for the county, having been elected in 2016.   The results, declared this lunchtime (Monday 10th May) in Dartford were:

Matthew Scott (Conservative): 237,278
Lola Oyewusi (Labour): 103,807
Graham Colley (Lib Dem): 69,464

There were 420,422 votes cast, with 9873 spoilt papers.

The Met Office have issued a Yellow Warning regarding a band of heavy snow that may bring disruption, as it moves eastwards across the county, tomorrow (Saturday 16th January).

They warn that people should prepare for:

New figures released by Public Health England (PHE) show that the Borough Of Swale has seen 90 new COVID-19 cases in a week - one in six of all positive tests recorded in Kent as a whole.

This recent outbreak has seen the infection rate jump to more than 200 in three areas on the Isle Of Sheppey, compared to a county average (Kent and Medway) of 49.4 per hundred thousand.

Five of the island's wards appear in the Top 6 of the county's hotspots:-                                                                            

Local bus company Arriva Kent have announced that they will be running more services from next Monday (1st June) - but passengers will be advised to wear face masks when social distancing isn't possible.

Kent MPs have welcomed the news of an extra £3.9 million for social care here in Kent, announced today (Tuesday 6th February) by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid.

The announcement follows a series of meetings between Kent MPs and Ministers, pressing for rising costs to be addressed in the forthcoming Local Government Finance Settlement. Paul Carter, Leader of Kent County Council, has also argued vigorously for a more generous funding settlement for the county.

Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) have confirmed that they received several calls overnight about flooding in areas including: Eastchurch, Herne Bay, Margate and Cliftonville. The majority of calls received by KFRS's emergency control room staff did not need immediate assistance. However, crews were called at 3.48am to Crown Road in Sittingbourne and used a grindex pump to move water away from some properties. They also attended an incident following a call at 6.35am.

A man in his forties collapsed and was resuscitated by staff in the gym at The Swallows Leisure Centre earlier today (Tuesday 5th April).

The Kent Air Ambulance was called shortly after paramedics arrived and landed the Borden Grammar Playing Field opposite.The man was flown to the William Harvey Hospital, in Ashford, shortly after being stabilised onsite at about 10.30am.