Sittingbourne

Local officers are seeking witnesses following reports of three purses being stolen in Sittingbourne town centre.

The thefts are thought to have taken place between 9am and 1pm last Tuesday (28th February).

The victims were allegedly targeted in separate incidents at two charity shops in The Forum Shopping Centre and Roman Square, and also a store in the High Street. The crimes were only discovered at a later stage when the victims realised their property was missing.

Monday (6th March) saw Sittingbourne get it's own hybrid car club launch - in part due to the success of the three year low emissions car club trial launched in Faversham in April last year.

Photo (L-R): Matt Hogben, Gordon Henderson MP, Angel Oduneye-Folarin and Paul Crocker

A Litter Angel has had her winning poster design put up in local McDonald’s car parks following last year’s anti-litter poster competition in primary schools across Sittingbourne and Sheppey.

It was Sittingbourne Parkrun's seventh birthday on Saturday (25th February) with event number 290 and a celebration with cheers, cake and coffee.

Parkrun legend, 82 year old John Waterman, completed his 250^th parkrun milestone as part of the celebrations.

Since the event started there has been 6,480 participants with a whopping 8,896 personal bests recorded. All made possible by 752 volunteers including four legged friends Bertie, Milo, Mollie and Blue to name a few.

A dispersal order will be in place over the weekend to tackle nuisance vehicles in a rural area of Sittingbourne.

It will operate from 7pm tonight (Friday 24th February) until 7pm on Sunday (26th February) and covers Sheppey Way, Old Ferry Road, Swale Way and Barge Way near Kemsley Fields.

The order is being implemented by Kent Police due to an increase in reports of nuisance vehicles and dangerous driving in the district at weekends. It allows officers to stop anyone involved in anti-social behaviour and move them on from the area.

A Sittingbourne man will appear before court following break-ins at more than 10 properties including a charity, in rural areas of the town and near Maidstone.

The alleged offences occurred between 30th September and 7th November 2021. Items stolen included power tools, bicycles, quad bikes, as well as valuable machinery including a John Deere lawnmower.

Oliver King, 36, of Glenbrook Grove, was arrested in a vehicle on the A2 after a short pursuit involving the police helicopter, on Monday 7th November 2022.

A convicted sex offender from Sittingbourne is starting a prison sentence after ignoring measures imposed by the courts to prevent him from reoffending.

Lewis Mortimer has been jailed for five years after he was found in possession of a haul of child abuse material, which even included a paedophile manual.

Members of an organised crime gang who burgled stables acrossthe county have been jailed.

Frank Matthews, Jimmy Price and Lewis Collins were arrested after they conspired to steal horse equipment valued at around £100,000 at up to eight separate properties between 3rd May and 17th May 2020.

UK clothing retailer, M&Co, has announced that all of it's stores across the UK, including the branch here in Sittingbourne, are set to close in April.

In a Press Statement the company confirmed that "unfortunately, we haven't received the news we would have hoped for during our administration period. As we haven't received any funded, deliverable offers that would result in the transfer of the Company's stores or staff to a potential buyer, this means that all our stores will close".

Broadband users in the Eden Village area of Sittingbourne have been experiencing outages with their broadband over the past week.

It is believed that the main Open Reach infrastructure in the area is to blame. Cabinet 77, which is the one covering the roads affected, has been relying on batteries that should operate in short power outages, to allow broadband and now digital voice services to continue to operate.