07/02/2012 South East Today

Welcome to South East Today. I'm Polly Evans, and I'm Rob Smith.

Tonight's top stories: Kent war hero Colonel Tim Collins

outrages the Police Federation by saying he would only want to be

Police Commissioner part-time. suggest that one person could do

that on a part-time basis is nonsense. It is a full-time job.

Intensive support for mums of intensive care babies - a self-help

group set up by a Sussex mother terrified by her experiences.

Also in tonight's programme: What the Dickens is going on in

Kent to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the great man's

birth? Keeping kids safe on the internet -

the Sussex office monitoring one of the most popular websites for

children in the world. And defending our shores - an

unremarkable radar station with a remarkable history in World War Two

Iraq war hero Colonel Tim Collins has outraged the Kent Police

Federation by saying he would only do the role of Police Commissioner

part-time. 11 people have put themselves forward for election.

The Police Federation, representing rank and file officers, it says

this is insulting. He is the former army officer at

famed for his rousing battle speech during the first Iraq war, the

first to throw his hat into the ring for the role of Police

Commissioner. But Tim Collins says he will only do the job if he can

do it part-time. It would be a part-time role for me. Others might

see that different a. But the reality is, we have got a very

effective chief constable with a good team. They can do the policing.

We need someone to listen to the public an interface with them.

Please welcome to our conference Colonel Tim Collins. He was

revealed as a candidate by the Home Secretary in October, but some say

his desire to do the job part-time is an insult. We have got a police

authority that comprises of 16 people. To suggest that one person

can do that on a part-time basis is nonsense. It is a full-time job,

and if he wants the job, he should commit to that full time. Police

Commissioners will have a range of powers. They will decide policing

strategy, said the budget, a point and dismiss the chief constable.

Tim Collins is one of 11 individuals who have registered an

interest in this role. Like all police forces, Kent is overseen by

a police authority. But in November, that will change with the election

of a single commissioner. There is not a single requirement that this

should be a full-time job. It is a big role. But it will be up to

local figures to say how they want to go about it, full transparency

should they have other interests, and let us decide by local people.

Match fit is the way Tom Collins describes the police. Police and

crime commissioners, elected by the public, to serve the public, has

got to be the way forward. The police authorities, wasting public

money, have to go. And you can do this on a part-time basis?

believe so. It is existing work commitments which Colonel Collins

says limits his availability. Baker Police Commissioner is a decision

the public will face in November. - - Bay Police Commissioner.

Let us speak live to the Conservative MP, Mark Reckless. He

is so enthusiastic supporter. Thank you for joining us. As we heard

there, this is a role being done by 16 people. Is this a part-time job?

It is a serious role and a big commitment. I used to be on the

Police Authority, and I think it will be different having an elected

Commissioner. You have got one person with a mandate. He or she

can collect a deputy. It will be a different way of managing this

situation, and will bring the police closer to the public. But it

is a big role. We heard Nick Herbert saying it is a bigger role.

Can there be done part-time? It is not for me to answer that question.

It is the people of Kent to get to decide. Tim Collins has said what

his commitment will be. He has set out his stall, and all be for the

electorate to decide. But it is a technical role with

responsibilities. With all due respect, are the electorate the

best placed people to decide what a Police Commissioner should be

doing? I believe they are. The chief constable will be in charge

of operations, but the Police Commissioner will probably set the

budget, and the policy and priorities for Kent Police. You

will need skills like finance, IT, knowledge of the police. You will

collaborate with other commissioners. What you want to see

the police are going. It is crucial the public get a voice in what they

want their priority is to be a. That is what we will get through

these elections. I am really looking for to the vote in November.

A mother, who had to cope alone after her daughter was discharged

from intensive care, has set up a support group for women in a

similar situations. Michelle Foreman says looking after her

daughter alone was "terrifying". Kyeira was just a six-week called

when a condition started causing her breathing difficulties. -- six

weeks old. She was transferred to intensive care in London. A week

later, she was home, but for her mum it was not the end of her

concerns. That your child has been critically ill. When you get home,

they are ready to go home. As a parent, you do not know where to

pick up again. You do not know everything it your child does. You

become anxious and worried. group she set up aims to support

other parents. It will also have a website, offering advice from

doctors. It is an amazing idea. Having a sick child is very

traumatic for any parent, and when their child is ill, the staff's

priorities... While we try to support parents as much as we can,

sometimes, energies are diverted to that child. Michelle cannot praise

and of the medical care Kyeira received in hospital.

In a moment: The Army chaplain still working after 67 years'

Parents of children who spend time on the computer need to know their

child is in a safe environment. Experts in online computer safety

gathered in Westminster to discuss the issue. Club Penguin has 150

million users worldwide, and a European monitoring team is based

in Brighton. Back home in Brighton, and straight

into a fantasy world of games and chat, where each child is a penguin,

chatting online. Let us go to the Plaza and see if any up our friends

are there. But how do their parents know that one of those friends is a

grown man? The children don't know it, but there chap is being

monitored. And what filters are so strong. -- and were failed to us.

Illegal words are flagged up in red numbers. This was staged for us to

illustrate the point, but as we were filming, a real incident

happened. A child just mentioned drugs, so we removed him from the

server. Other children's website claims similar protection. They are

after all businesses with profits to make. Upstairs, the Germans are

hard at work. But can they global team of 200 really monitor hundreds

of thousands of online chat? one thing we say to parents is -

make sure you instil in your children not to share personal

information online. That is impossible to do within a Club

Penguin. That is quite a claim. and we are very confident in our

moderation tools. The most important thing for parents is to

make sure that if children are online, particularly at this young

age, they are not unsupervised, and you are involved in what they are

doing. That is assuming you can tear them away from it for a few

minutes, of course. John it joins me now from Brighton.

There is a big push to promote online safety. That is right. The

BBC has done research that suggests boarded the centre of young people

are unaware that when they put their details online, there are

there for good. So the BBC has launched a campaign this week:

Share take care. You can find out more details on our BBC Sussex News

website. Thank you.

A motorcyclist and pillion passenger have been badly injured

in Brighton after they hit a lamp post and collided with a bus. The

incident, on Ditchling Road, happened just before 4pm, causing

long traffic delays in the area while the emergency services were

on the scene. Figures released today show that

Kent's town centres are continuing to suffer in the downturn. The

Local Data Company's report shows 36% of shops in Margate are vacant

for the second year running - that's the second highest rate in

the country. The figure for Dartford is 27%, and in Chatham,

it's 24%, up 3% in the last six months.

Work has begun this morning to deal with the aftermath of the closure

of the Thamesteel plant in Sheerness. A Kent County Council

task force is meeting for the first time, bringing together MPs,

councils, central Government and educationalists. But the council

says it's still hopeful a deal to bring a multi-million pound wind

turbine factory to the island could come to fruition.

Today is the two hundredth anniversary of Charles Dickens

birth, widely regarded as one of the most brilliant and influential

writers there have ever put pen to paper. And his outlook on life was

very much influenced by his upbringing in Kent. The Kent Film

Office says and the last five years, Dickens inspired programming has

brought in over one Point �7 million. 60,000 people came to the

Rochester summer Dickens Festival, and 80,000 to the Christmas

Festival. Sara, 200 years on, and he is still hugely fallible to

Medway? Yes, he is. -- valuable. Much of it inspired by his times in

Kent. A survey for the BBC shows that brand Dickens brings then over

to London million pounds a year in films, and books. He is worth more

At this church, his 200th anniversary is marked with flowers.

But it is Rochester, Chatham's neighbour, which has benefited most

from its connection with him. Around every corner is a reminder

of the inspiration he took from the town's buildings.

This group of French students is one of many tours making its way

through the streets here. There is everything here, almost

intact. And the more you look around, the more you find. You have

the impression that you live in another century. You could believe

that you're actually in his steps. The biggest crowd-pullers are the

festivals, one in the summer and one at Christmas. The streets

throng with different nationalities. But the 200th anniversary is also a

draw. A New York arts programme has been visiting today.

We check that all the spot where he rode Star of his greatest works,

Great Expectations, where he started to work on other pieces as

well. Rochester may be awash with

charming architecture, but there is little doubt it is the Dickens

connection which brings in the visitors.

Dickens is the great magnet to Rochester. Without the tourists, I

think it would die completely. The shops survive entirely on the

Dickens trade. Inspiration for scenes in the

Pickwick Papers were taken from here. A reading that marked the

occasion. This town may have inspired Dickens, and today it gets

to thank him for helping keeping it alive.

He arrived in here as a five-year- old. He came back as an adult and a

writer, and it is said that he always regarded this as being his

home. He may not have been born here, but the people of Medway

claim him as they ran, and all the celebrations taking place over this

week will show just what they do think of him.

Thank you. On Friday's programme which will be

live at Rochester Cathedral for our showing of David Lean's film, to --

Great Expectations. Kent Police Federation have a lack

-- reacted angrily to a claim that Colonel Tim Collins could do the

job of police commissioner on a part-time basis. 11 people have

said they will stand for election. Coming up, how Turner's inspiring

children in the town that inspired him, Margate.

If radar developed from experiments in England in 1935.

At remarkable radar. How will the - - how these anonymous buildings

played a vital role in protecting For some, after a lifetime of work,

thought it might turn to retirement. But Canon Bill Peters is not. He is

the only chaplain who served in the second world war to still be

working. It is 67 years after he signed up. He has no plans to

retire. 70 years ago, he was the country's

youngest on a chaplain. Today, he is the last surviving. He was sent

to North Africa just after Germany suffered heavy losses.

The casualties, they were tremendous. If you were around

there, there was just acre upon acre of men who had been killed.

Can fighting ever be justified? Canon Bill Peters says it can be.

War, of course, is always evil. But Walker -- but sometimes it is the

lesser of two evils. Sometimes you are only faced with two evils and

choose the letter of -- last surf, and if you have done this you have

done no wrong. While in Sussex, the Queen would

worship at the church he was in charge of.

I used to order the Sporting Life for the Queen!

A sports fan, he has supported Brighton and Hove Albion for more

than 80 years. He even played a match for them, but broke his leg.

He also played cricket for Sussex, but says his greatest achievement

was his marriage and his family. My family are so dear to me, and

The celebrated artist JMW Turner was 11 when he first set foot in

Margate at the start of his creative life. Today, who more than

100 children have been making their artistic debuts in the busy and

that now bears his name. They are pupils from four schools

in the town, but until now have had little contact with cultural groups.

So they have been working with local artists to come up with their

original pieces of art. And icy wind lashed Margate today.

Hurrying to take refuge from the biting cold, the next generation of

artists. They have worked for months on their sculptures, and

today it is this kind of work they will be up against. But it is not

quite ready yet. Finishing touches are being put on.

For I cannot wait for them to see their work actually installed up

here. Many of them will never have been to an art gallery, and it is

great that we are giving them the opportunity to have a look at the

art, and more than that, they get an opportunity to respond to it and

become artists themselves. They seem committed to doing just

that. Using the time left before their first show to find some

inspiration for their next. For it is pretty hard for these

children to emulate the master. But, to be honest, they do not need to

go, because they have got their own body of the original work. They're

all going to go through those doors and see their work on the walls for

the first time. Finally, the wait is over, the

suspense is lifted. But what do you think?

I am proud of what I did. It feels good for my work to be surrounded

with everyone else's. This has opened the world of art to

the children, had given them a whole new experience. They have

really thought about art in more than just pictures.

It is quite exciting, but also a bit nerve-racking. So many people

will see it, and we do not know what they will think.

I feel happy and proud of myself, that I work is in public.

And public it is. And if you want to catch the

exhibition, it is honoured at the Turner Contemporary until February

19th. Crawley Town's match against

Charlton definitely goes ahead tonight after around 100 tons of

snow was clear from the pitch at the Broadfield Stadium. Crawley can

go back to the top of League Two with victory over the visitors.

A Kent radar station was played a vital role in defending Britain in

the second world war could be yours for the price of a semi-detached

house. RAF Dunkirk, near Faversham, is being sold at auction. It was a

radar station which was built to provide early warning for the

Thames estuary and London against bombing raids, and to give the RAF

time to get Spitfires and hurricanes airborne.

Radar had developed from experiments begun in England in

1935. If I 1937, there was a chain of stations across the country for

detecting aircraft. One of those was RAF Dunkirk.

During World War Two, a radar technology meant incoming air raids

could be spotted at least 30 minutes before a German attack.

RAF Dunkirk is one of only five surviving radar stations in Britain.

These radar stations were what contributed to the winning of the

Battle of Britain. Without the radar stations picking up the

German bombers coming in over the Channel, we would not have been

able to get our fighters to the right places at the right times.

The building on the left... Now the derelict station is going

under the hammer. Bidding is expected to fetch around �140,000.

This is a property that you categorise as unusual. There is a

transmitter block, there is what is known as a Type 55 blogs, which is

the building to my right hand side, and there is also an airier further

over on to one of the side of the site, as well as a number of

pillboxes. It is hoped whoever wins the

auction will preserve the historical value of the site.

Bidding gets under way later this month.

They are compact inside! I feel it could be a bit chilly

Every time I'm upon the weather chart for the temperature, it gives

me goose bumps. -- I look at the weather chart. It will be very cold

this evening. Not only the cold, temperatures will be bad, but there

will also be some snow heading our way from the North Sea. We had a

weather front coming in over the weekend, but with the snow now

coming from showers, they are quite hit and miss. So some of us could

see a lot, but I think that will be the worst and most were not see any

at all. But there will be some out there, and with the air being so

dry, at least we do not have to worry about freezing fog, neither

problems with ice. So a little bit of good news! Through tomorrow

morning, still that risk of a few more flurries. They could be a hint

of sunshine in the afternoon. I would say a very cloudy day, and

temperatures will be starting well below freezing. It will be feeling

well below freezing. Another very bitter day, and it does not chains

as we go into their stay. -- change. No more weather fronts on the cards

for now, Andes and as we going to Friday. In the south-east, we are

holding on to the cold weather. Elsewhere, some are milder

temperatures are starting to push in, but in terms of us, there is a

chance that we could keep this cold weather for at least another

fortnight. So we could have another two weeks of these cold, icy

temperatures. Only a few flurries of snow tonight. You would think

there would be more sheep in the fields, maybe you should check...

Oh, it has gone! I will show you It is the 200th anniversary of the

birth of Charles Dickens, and those words of Oliver Twist asking for

more food are as well known now as they were in the 19th century, as

we discovered in Broadstairs today. Child as he was, he was desperate

with hunger, and reckless with misery.

He advanced to the master, and a somewhat alarmed at his own

temerity, please, sir, I want some more.

The master was a fat, healthy man, but he turned very pale. He gazed