Kent weekly round-up: 15 June - 21 June 2024
The direct train service from Tonbridge to Gatwick stopped in 2008
- Published
The story about rail travellers calling for the reinstatement of a direct train service from Kent to Gatwick Airport proved a popular read this week.
A variety of local issues featured on the BBC News website, BBC Radio Kent and BBC South East Today.
We have picked five stories from the past week in case you missed them.
'Man's best friend' is actually a duck
Mark Colyer has raised his duck, called Dog, from a hatchling
They say a dog is man's best friend, but for one Kent man his best pal is a duck - called Dog.
Mark Colyer, from Gillingham, takes the duck everywhere with him and friends have started calling him 'mad duck man'.
He said: "It all started when my boss let me keep duck eggs and I put 12 in an incubator. They all hatched but one kept following me around like I was his mum.
"I tried to leave it but he started crying so I decided to take him home just for one night - but that was five years ago!"
Father of boy killed on road backs speed campaign
William Brown's son died after being struck by a vehicle on the A259 Sandgate Esplanade
The father of a seven-year-old boy who died in an accident in Kent has backed a national campaign calling for measures to reduce speed on roads near schools.
About 80,000 children from more than 720 schools across the UK will later be taking part in a 'Kids Walk', external, which has been organised by road safety charity Brake.
The campaign comes after figures obtained by Brake reveal more than 500 children aged between four and 11 were injured or killed on roads in Kent, Surrey and Sussex in 2022.
William Brown Snr, whose son William Brown died in Folkestone in December, said: "If I could go back now, I would have said to him a million times, ‘son, you can’t go in that road. You can’t go in any roads."
Residents protest at site for asylum-seeking children
Locals say they are frustrated with the lack of consultation from the local council
Dozens of residents staged a protest at a site which is to be used to house unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) children in Kent.
Kent County Council (KCC) recently approved plans for the reception centre at Edward Moore House, Trinity Road, Gravesend.
The protesters said they were frustrated with the lack of consultation from KCC and that the centre was in the wrong location.
The council said it was legally obligated to accommodate UAS children.
'My son was given wrong medication dose at school'
Tadhg,17, is non-verbal and has Tourette's syndrome
A mother has said her non-verbal autistic son was given incorrect doses of medication and absconded multiple times from a residential special school in Kent.
Leanne Manser told BBC South East she is concerned for other children in residential care at Bradstow School in Broadstairs.
Wandsworth Council, which maintains the school said it was "determined to deliver improvements" for its children and their parents.
Kent County Council (KCC) has written to parents to tell them it had "ongoing concerns" that "avoidable mistakes" had been made in the home.
Child rapist jailed after 15 years of abuse
Grant Venamore has been jailed for 16 years after being found guilty on 11 counts
A man who raped and abused children in Kent for more than 15 years has been jailed.
Grant Venamore first attacked two children, from Tunbridge Wells and Paddock Wood, in the 1990s. One of the children was just four years old when the abuse began.
Venamore, now 48, of Stroud Road, South Norwood, London, denied any wrongdoing and the case went to trial at Maidstone Crown Court.
He was found guilty by unanimous verdict of 11 counts relating to the sexual abuse of children and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
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