Kent Current

Stratford International has never handled an international passenger. Yet it could get cross-Channel trains before Ashford and Ebbsfleet get theirs back. We look at why London is moving ahead while Kent remains stuck. Plus flying robots at Lydd and monsters invade Maidstone.

KIAD students once spent 100 days turning a derelict four-storey school into a vast photography exhibition. Their former lecturers, Kevin Liggett and Phil Gomm, discuss ridiculous ambition, creative education and what happened next.

The government decided to abolish KCC, then paused the scheme while it reconsidered. KCC is now taking ministers to court over that original decision. There is some legal logic behind the circularity, but still no answer on what happens to Kent’s councils.

Two parts of Maidstone’s public estate could become 654 homes after Kent Police shrank its headquarters and KCC changed its mind about spending £20m to make Invicta House its main base. Plus, international rail is back on the agenda, a driverless bus in Margate, and more.

We’re hiring two paid freelancers to work with @kentcurrent.news and @localauthority.news until March. We need help growing our readership and subscriptions, and developing stronger sponsorship and advertising partnerships. Both roles are mainly remote. Applications close on 14 October.

Nearly 40,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste have been removed from Hoad’s Wood at a public cost of £15.5m. The woodland is now clear, not restored, while other Kent mega-dumps remain. Plus, Medway’s police complaint, £13.7m roundabout overspend, Bluewater cockroaches and more.

Kent and northern France are two parts of the same chalk landscape, divided when a flood helped create the Channel. Now they want to become a single UNESCO geopark. Plus, KCC writes off £700,000 on a cancelled waste facility, and Otterpool Park takes another step towards existence.

National Highways calls the Lower Thames Crossing Britain’s greenest road. The claim mostly covers construction, with low-emission machinery and a binding carbon limit. The traffic is more awkward. Plus, Kent’s reintroduced beavers leave their enclosure after 23 years.

Rob Shepherd and Chris Broderick wrote a musical for a major Korean theatre company. It reached Seoul, then disappeared. Four years after Broderick’s death, Franz & Marie is in London. In our interview, Shepherd discusses bringing their work back without his friend.

We’re hiring two paid freelancers to work with @kentcurrent.news and @localauthority.news until March. We need help growing our readership and subscriptions, and developing stronger sponsorship and advertising partnerships. Both roles are mainly remote. Applications close on 14 October.

Sevenoaks’ plan allocates 714 homes to a former golf course by Knockholt station. Yet councillors rejected a 660-home scheme, half affordable, despite officers backing it. Plus, the far right visits Dover once again, Operation Brock’s £1.4m bill, and lots more.

Southern Water has had an expensive year, with £9.5m in pollution fines in Kent. Most offences happened years ago, so has anything changed? Evidence shows improvement, but recent inspections are less reassuring. Plus 122 councillor complaints, bleak housing figures and more.

Five days after the Grand Burstin fire, engineers fear part could collapse, 90 neighbouring flats remain off-limits, and there is no reopening date. Plus a Conservative by-election graphic ages badly, and Maidstone reaches for the vaccum during an invasion of tiny bugs

Alan Baldock leads Canterbury City Council without a majority after Labour’s deal with the Lib Dems collapsed. In our interview, he discusses what went wrong, working with Rosie Duffield, defending unpopular Labour policies and Canterbury’s future under reorganisation.

Kent’s bison finally have twice as much woodland to roam. It required £1m, two bridges and 43km of fencing, partly because British law still treats them as dangerous wild animals. Plus an inaccessible rail footbridge, whales in the Thames and more from around the county.

Kent’s SEND system has escaped its worst inspection category, but support still depends too much on where families live. Plus questions for a Reform councillor over a far-right-linked Facebook group and what KentLive’s closure means for local news.

For logistics firms, Kent offers London access, motorways, Channel crossings, plenty of workers, and lower wages. The boom brings investment, but raises a harder question. How much does the county get back for becoming the place where everyone else’s goods wait?

Adipat Virdi is using immersive storytelling to explore Medway’s Sikh history. In our latest interview, he discusses faith, identity and belonging, his move away from architecture, and why audiences should become part of the story.

KCC created its highest civic honour in 2011, then spent 12 years giving it to nobody. The Brigade of Gurkhas is set to become its second recipient. We ask what the Freedom of Kent actually allows you to do, and why the names on its short list matter more than the privileges.

Kent spent 18 months working towards council reorganisation. Once ministers chose a four-authority map, councils had 47 days to recruit staff and begin implementation before being told to stop. We examine why it stopped and the expensive uncertainty it left behind.

For ten days from Friday, rarely seen parts of Kent will open for free. We searched the Heritage Open Days programme for visits worth planning, from a former cross-Channel railway station and Napoleonic tunnels to a medieval town hall admitting eight people at a time.

This is the report by @kentcurrent.news I raised in the House with @sarahjonesmp.bsky.social The way local people flagged up that suspicious activity the night before is a credit to them. We must ensure the lesson is learned by police forces if this happens again, whatever part of the country

Kent can play Italy in F1 or Sokovia in The Avengers, but is rarely trusted to play Kent. We look at the films that give the county more to do than supply a convincing castle.

Kent Police made no arrests when about 200 masked far-right activists blocked Dover for hours. It still calls the action spontaneous, despite evidence that people involved gathered nearby the night before. We examine what happened and why the force says its response was proportionate.

NHS Kent and Medway has tightened arrangements for autism and ADHD assessments without knowing how many patients will be affected. We investigate what changed, why the NHS cannot provide basic information about those waiting, and what happens now.

Sam Cox has turned doodling into a business spanning sculptures, music, a documentary and even Kleenex. In our interview, Mr Doodle discusses his goal of drawing one million doodles, covering his home in them, and how fatherhood changed his relationship with work.

Maidstone has long been Kent’s default centre because County Hall is there. With KCC on the way out, that claim becomes less obvious. We considered Medway, Canterbury, Ashford, Bluewater and Detling. Readers nominated several more places, which rather proved the point.

Nine extra Green votes turned third place in 2023 into victory in Dover, as Reform and Restore reshaped the field around them. We examine what the result shows, plus a mystery housing proposal for County Hall and KCC’s communications deputy being left out of the loop.

Martin Latham opened Waterstones Canterbury and spent 30 years behind bookshop counters. In our interview, he discusses why bookshops still matter, resistance to algorithms, hiring staff with werewolf questions and the day Umberto Eco worked in the basement. www.kentcurrent.news/publishers-a...

Saturday’s far-right march at County Hall in Maidstone was presented as a protest against illegal migration. Its speakers demanded the removal of 15 million people, explicitly including legal migrants. We examine the shift and the false claims used to justify it.

The Gravesend to Tilbury ferry crossing dates back to Roman times. Gravesham MP Lauren Sullivan wants it restored. In our interview, she also discusses parliament, AI and her route from science to politics.

International rail competition is finally coming, but Virgin’s planned Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam services would pass through Kent without stopping at Ashford or Ebbsfleet. We examine what happens next.

Like many people, I only recently realised what a mess the water “grid” is, with the result (as set out here) that only portion of the residents of Kent have the misfortune to be obliged to pay for South East Water. The author is quite right that it is absurd.

Kent has a drought, but no single hosepipe ban rules. Five suppliers, disconnected territories and nearly 200 years of inherited boundaries mean households a few miles apart can face very different restrictions.

Christine Rayner went from the Chatham News newsroom of the 1970s to editing six Kent papers and teaching journalism. In our interview, she discusses reporting, court coverage, political pressure and what has been lost as local newsrooms shrank.

Conservatives, Reform and Restore Britain are fighting a rural Dover by-election, featuring John Cleese, AI cliffs and a debate over counties on envelopes. Plus the rest of the week across the county.

Kent’s proposed fire cuts have been defeated. The stations survive, politicians fight for credit, but do the underlying problems remain? Plus four new councils officially get the thrilling names of North, West, Mid and East Kent.

Anton Vamplew went from Captain Cosmos on Radio Kent to Blue Peter astronomer. He discusses August’s eclipse and meteor shower, why Pluto is still a planet and how to start stargazing without wasting money.

Northfleet was promised 3,500 homes, a stadium, parks and 1,500 jobs. An inquiry found little evidence that most would happen. Plus Margate’s art boom, a critical incident at East Kent hospitals, and lots more.

KCC’s efficiency department is gone. DOLGE is now a council-wide strategy with no savings target, no new powers and closed “star chambers” at its centre. What changed, and how will anyone judge its success?

For Reform run Kent County Council @kentcurrent.news are doing a good job. Obviously infinitely better than the local Reach Plc crap. Kent Online, which is Iliffe Media, is less bad but it's only the small independent outfit that's actually doing any proper political scrutiny

Margate writer-director Martin Stirling has made viral charity films and directed Javier Bardem. In our latest interview, he discusses purposeful filmmaking, his feature project, life in Margate and advice for young filmmakers.

KCC is seeking another £7.5m for its finance and payroll overhaul, taking the expected cost to nearly £38m. Payroll is still in testing, with no launch date, and nobody has begun assessing what happens to the system when KCC disappears in 2028.

More boys are passing the Kent Test around Maidstone than local grammar schools have room for, leaving KCC with a £7.2m problem. Plus a Folkestone-to-Sheppey council, six-hour border queues and a far-right Dover march that fell rather flat.

Writing about yourself is harder than writing about anyone else. @iaindale.bsky.social discusses his autobiography, Kent politics, his abandoned Tunbridge Wells candidacy, changing views on immigration and why he wanted to write about failure as well as success.

KCC is keen to stress it did not approve quarrying in Oaken Wood. This is true. But it did vote to keep the site in its minerals plan, declaring it acceptable in principle for extraction. We explain what the close decision actually changes, and what happens next.

Rich Lehmann almost didn't agree to this interview. The former KCC Green group leader speaks publicly for the first time about the mental health crisis that led him to step back from frontline politics, and why he believes people shouldn't be shamed for talking about poor mental health.

KCC introduced the national anthem to council meetings. Councillors immediately found a loophole, sang four verses instead of one, and the live subtitles decided they were performing The Star-Spangled Banner. Plus missing documents turn up, another water failure, a £7m sewage fine, and lots more.