BBC Live: Kent - as it happened

1. Updates on Tuesday 25 July 2017

That's it for Tuesday

Bob Dale

BBC Live reporter

That's it for us for today, thanks for spending time with us.

We'll be back bright and early at 06:00 BST tomorrow, staying with you all the way through to 22:00 BST, with all the latest news, sport, weather and travel.

You can get in touch on Twitter, on Facebook or by sending us an email.

Teenager's hope for tumour treatment

The family and friends of a Kent teenager are trying to raise £120,000 so she can have experimental treatment for a rare brain tumour.

Teenager's hope for tumour treatment

'I just had total meltdown'

Bob Dale

BBC Live reporter

A hospital has apologised over a series of cancelled operations which have left a woman bedridden.

Chris Curran says a six-month wait for an operation has left her bedridden

Umbrellas needed tomorrow

Rachel Mackley

Weather Presenter, BBC South East

Don't be fooled by any early sunshine.

Here's my forecast.

the weather with Rachel Mackley

Teddy bear refugee animation wins award

School exclusions in Medway among highest in England

The number of school exclusions in England is at its highest level since 2009, with Medway making the top 10.

School exclusions in Medway among highest in England

Rat infestation leads to heavy fine

Bob Dale

BBC Live reporter

The Kent brewery Shepherd Neame has been fined £160,000, after rats infested the kitchen of one of its hotels.

Environmental health officers from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council visited the Royal Wells Hotel several times, following complaints.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Shepherd Neame closed the kitchens voluntarily.

The council's investigation found the hotel failed to act on advice given by its pest control agency.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Shepherd Neame pleaded guilty to four charges of food hygiene offences and was also ordered to pay £9,988 in costs.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Rat droppings on a food container

The company says it's carried out a thorough review of its systems and the hotel now has a new management team.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Grease on a warming cupboard

This disregard for even the most basic standards of hygiene and food safety put people's health at risk. Whilst I acknowledge their apology, I think it entirely reasonable that the owners should be held to account and fined."

Dr Ronen BasuCabinet member with responsibility for Sustainability, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Edge of drain gully

We wholly accept today's ruling. This incident should not have happened and we have done everything within our power to ensure it will not happen again."

SpokesmanShepherd Neame Ltd

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Drain at the Royal Wells Hotel

Loud and proud

John Young

Reporter, BBC South East Today

Here's Brighton Gay Men's Chorus celebrating half a century since a very significant change to the law.

Brighton Gay Men's Chorus celebrate 50 years since homosexuality was decriminalised.

'He'd been shot seven times... four pellets remain in his skull'

The animals killed or maimed by the irresponsible use of airguns, with the South East one of the worst areas of the country for attacks

The south east is one of the worst parts of the country for reports of airgun shootings

Accused 'had no reason to hurt baby'

Car fire on M25

There is severe disruption on the anti-clockwise carriageway of the M25 between junctions three and two.

Three lanes are closed due to a car fire.

A week of festivities in Ramsgate

Stuart Maisner

BBC Live reporter

The Ramsgate Festival has been launched - a week of music, art and cultural events in Thanet.

Ramsgate Festival gets under way

'Wait till she shows you how she can bat'

Bob Dale

BBC Live reporter

From being the only girl in a boys team in Sandwich, to being Player of the Tournament in England's World Cup winning side, opening bat Tammy Beaumont is putting women's cricket on the map.

Dover's Tammy Beaumont wins World Cup and is Player of the Tournament

People smuggling by air and water

Colin Campbell

Special Correspondent, BBC South East

Migrants trying to cross the Channel are using increasingly sophisticated and desperate methods, with attempts foiled in the air and on the water this week.

Migrants are using land and sea routes to try to get into Kent

£500k in cash seized at Channel Tunnel

Kent Police

An investigation has been launched after cash believed to total about £500,000 was found in a secret compartment of a van at the Channel Tunnel.

Officers seized the money, which consisted of both Euros and pounds sterling, after searching the white Mercedes Sprinter shortly before 13:00 BST on Friday 21 July.

Two men aged 29 and 39, both from Liverpool, were arrested on suspicion of money laundering but have since been released from custody pending further enquiries.

This is a significant seizure of cash that demonstrates our determination and commitment to ensure crime does not pay. We are actively investigating the circumstances of this discovery while continuing to disrupt the ability of organised groups to profit from crime.’

Det Insp Annie ClaytonKent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate

Southern satisfaction: Travelling in the right direction?

Tom Darby

BBC Live reporter

After 15 difficult months of industrial action and the resulting bad PR, Southern's owners will no doubt be looking for a win.

Today's National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) results probably aren't the victory Southern's looking for - and whilst the company is keen to seize on the fact that it has seen an overall improvement in satisfaction, it's still being outperformed by all of its competitors on almost every measure of customer approval.

Although most news reports today focus on the overall satisfaction score of passengers, the survey does break results down into key areas of performance, allowing us a useful insight into what passengers are thinking about their rail services and where the problems are.

BBC

Punctuality

At 57% Southern has the lowest levels of satisfaction by quite a long way, second from bottom is Thameslink at 65%. This won't make for happy reading as both franchises are run by the same parent company, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR).

By comparison, the majority of train operators on this list received a satisfaction score somewhere in the 80s or above.

This does, however, represent an improvement for Southern - scoring 5% higher than it did this time last year.

The survey also measured separately how rail users felt about the way operators dealt with delays, Southern is bottom of that table too.

Satisfaction is low across all train companies on this particular issue. The results do still compare very unfavourably for Southern in spite of this: 28% of passengers were happy with how Southern deals with delays, and a further 40% said they're dissatisfied, one of the few examples on any of these tables where dissatisfaction was higher than satisfaction.

Compare that to the top performer Grand Central, which saw 81% of its customers satisfied and 6% dissatisfied.

Getty Images

Value for money

Southern is at the bottom of this table too, but this time it has some company with two other operators sharing a satisfaction score of 38%.

Unlike the punctuality figures, when it comes to value for money passengers across the board don't seem to be too happy about what they're paying to travel.

The top performer again was Grand Central at 78%, but that's unrepresentative of most other operators' results, with most scoring somewhere in the 50s.

BBC

Cleanliness

In almost every area of this survey Southern's performance has either improved or stayed the same, with the exception of cleanliness.

The NRPS asked passengers for their thoughts on upkeep and repair of the train, cleanliness of the inside and cleanliness of the outside.

The survey shows how the most recent figures compare to the last two surveys, and from that we can see that these three measures of cleanliness were improving across Southern only to backslide in the latest results.

If you want to read more, you can find the full results of the survey here.

Sunshine before the rain

Kate Kinsella

BBC Weather

Enjoy any sunshine you can this afternoon as there's plenty of rain on the way tomorrow.

Weather 1330

Thinking of buying a dog? Be careful who you get it from

Calls to the RSPCA complaining about unscrupulous puppy sales have risen in the South East.

Complaints about puppy dealers in the South East are rising