04/06/2014 South East Today

Tonight's top stories: That is all from

Revelations that Kent's Youth Crime Commissioner had an affair with a

I am talking to the panel tomorrow her boss, Ann Barnes, to resign.

I am talking to the panel tomorrow morning. I have to talk to them

first before I make any further comment.

It's the latest in a series of controversies surrounding Mrs

Barnes, days after her appearance in a TV documentary was ridiculed.

We're live at Kent Police Headquarters with

Plans to relax crucial safety rules at Dungeness nuclear power station,

as the ageing plant nears the end of its life.

The soldier hailed a hero for saving a woman who'd fallen onto the track

And rubber tanks and plywood planes ` the amazing hoax played in Kent

and Sussex that fooled the Germans and allowed D`Day to go ahead.

embattled Police and Crime Commissioner, is facing fresh calls

to resign over her handling of revelations of her Youth Crime

Commissioner. The 20`year`old on the Kerry Boyd, has been removed from

duties after revelations she had had an affair with a marriage

counsellor. Ann Barnes is again in the spotlight just days after her

ridiculed appearance on a TV documentary. Our reporter is in

Maidstone. Ann Barnes' insistence on appointing a youth commissioner is

causing controversy once again. Yes, this is a role that Ann Barnes was

determined to create, and while she has stood faithfully bike. Her first

appointment was Paris Brown. She resigned amid controversy after just

a few days. Now this latest incumbent finds herself under an

unwelcome media spotlight. Kent's embattled Police and Crime

Commissioner speaking at a conference on cyber safety today,

but now, hot on the heels on her much criticised a period in a

Channel 4 documentary, and Brown `` and Barnes find has been more

controversy. With her Youth Crime Commissioner now suspended from

public engagement, there are questions over both their futures.

Site Kerry is going through a difficult time and we are supporting

her. I have given a full statement and I cannot make any more comments

about that at this stage. The second issue is about the Channel 4

documentary. I am talking tomorrow morning in detail with the police

and crime panel. I have to talk to them first before I make any further

comment, but thank you very much. Are you going to stand down? Are you

going to resign? Highlighted here, the two figures at

the centre of the latest regulations. Kerry Boyd, the

recently appointed Youth Crime Commissioner, and married former

county council and Robert Burgess. It is understood he acted as a

referee for her role. The questions today for the commission, what was

the nature of their relationship and did Mr Boyd disclose the

information? She performed the role very well, Kerry Boyd, and she has

worked diligently in the community and in her role as a junior Youth

Crime Commissioner. The latest controversy comes days after Miss

Barnes was criticised for appearance in a documentary. It was feared it

was damaging to the force's reputation. What is on the outside

of that room? I cannot tell you. I was not thinking I was going to talk

about the onion, as we call it. I think somebody else should probably

take over. She has made too many mistakes. One mistake, maybe, but

two, for a high`ranking person who everybody pays for, taxpayers. The

last thing in the world and Barnes should do is resign, because she

knows her job inside out. And she cares passionately about Kent and

the people of Kent. Kerry Boyd, seen here running the torch relay, was

appointed Youth Crime Commissioner in March after a year`long search.

Her successor, Paris Brown, lasted just days in the job, resigning

after making offensive comments on social media. Now Miss Boyd has been

suspended from public duties while further enquiries take place.

Tomorrow, and Barnes will face the Kent Police and the panel, that is

the scrutinising body set up to bring her to account. That meeting

will be about her decision to appear in that Channel 4 documentary, but I

suspect the issue of the Youth Crime Commissioner will also appear pretty

high on the agenda. Mrs Barnes has been criticised for a

series of PR blunders since her appointment a series of PR blunders

since her appointment 18 and Crime Commissioner. After the controversy

around the resignation of the first youth commissioner, Paris Brown, in

April last year, a parliamentary report described the appointment as

a fiasco, and Mrs Barnes was criticised for failing to carry out

proper vetting procedures. Then she was accused of a U`turn. Last week

she came in for a storm of criticism after her appearance on a TV

documentary was branded a disaster by the Kent Police Federation. We

are joined by a member of the police and the panel and a leader of the

group out Kent County Council `` leader of the Labour group. You

going to be calling for Mrs Barnes to resign tomorrow? It is important

to know I am speaking as the leader of the Labour group at Kent County

Council and at the panel meeting tomorrow I will be asking Ann Barnes

some searching questions about what has happened over the last period of

a fortnight or so, with the episodes that have happened. After the Paris

Brown resignation and the controversy surrounding that, Mrs

Barnes promised that the second youth commissioner, which she was

criticised for employing, would be thoroughly vetted and a credit to

Kent. Instead, this just looks like another embarrassing blunder,

doesn't it? That is exactly right. She said that the second one would

be vetted vigorously, and there would be no problems. Of course,

here we are again, the second episode, and a disaster for Ann

Barnes as the Police and Crime Commissioner. What has gone wrong

here? Is there a structural problem here? Frankly, you will have to ask

Ann Barnes that. But she said she had gone through the vetting process

vigorously. Quite clearly she had not gone through it vigorously

enough, because we have yet another disaster on our hands, and I do feel

sorry for the two ladies, the young people, who have put themselves

forward for such a role, and yet again, have found themselves in a

disaster position. Ann Barnes, though, was elected by the people of

Kent. Does the panel actually have any power to force her out? Can she

stay until real action? That is absolutely right and it was the

Government who quite clearly made that it would be the electorate who

would decide on Ann Barnes' feature. The panel will ask searching

questions. She can either take heed of those or she can ignore them, and

I have to say, in the past, she has not gone on board with a lot of the

searching questions about the panel have asked. Thank you.

Lots of you have been sending us your views on this story, many of

them agreeing with Andy Clark, who says...

But there are others. We would like to know what you

think. Should Ann Barnes stand down? You can join the debate on Facebook

or Twitter or e`mail. More of your views later in the

programme. In a moment: Stop treating us like

dogs, say hundreds of homeless migrants in Calais begging to be let

into Dover. The BBC has learned that a key

safety regulation at Dungeness B power station are set to relax. EDF

Energy won the plan to run two 2028 but now urging permission from the

industry regulator is needed or it would have to close next month.

The construction took more than 20 years. Dungeness B has been

generating power for the national grid since the 1980s. But time is

taking its toll on the graphite cores of the two reactors. This is

the nature of the graphite core. There are effectively 6500 of these

bricks in each of reactors and they are fully a metre high. The problem

is that the real graphite bricks inside like this one are cracking.

We have been increasing gradually graphite weight loss, there is a

postulation that over time this will lose weight. We have applied on a

new safety case to the regulator to update that safety based from 6% to

8%. That will give us another few years of generation. It is based on

the analysis of samples taken during maintenance. The office of nuclear

regulations is expected to agree to the request, saying safety will not

be compromised. The more information comes to the fore, the more we

understand what is happening in the reactor. But some experts are

sceptical. The design has always been known to be very problematic.

It is the worst of the seven stations in terms of reliability and

design issues by quite a long way. Its record has been of operation

very poor. It breaks down frequently. He does not operate at

the levels of output it was designed to do. Nearby, people had this to

say. They make out they are doing all these rules and regular shoes

for our safety and our concern, but they move the goalposts all the

time. Who is to know the truth? If you can get the power station going

for longer you will get people in employment for longer. The decision

will be made in a few weeks. Without the decision, EDF say the station

will have to close in a few weeks. Two men have been arrested in Kent

on suspicion of terror offences. The men, who had travelled by ferry from

Calais was stopped at the point of Dover last night by counterterrorism

police. They are being held at a South London police station.

An investigation has been launched after three babies being treated at

the wheel Sussex County Hospital in Brighton became seriously ill with

blood poisoning. It is believed they contracted an infection from a

contaminated drip in the neonatal unit. 15 babies across England have

been affected and one has died at Saint Thomas 's Hospital in London.

A soldier has described the moment he risked his own life to rescue a

woman who had fallen onto the railway track in Kent station.

Dramatic pictures show that he ran across the tracks into the path of a

train to rescue the woman. This is the moment a woman was

rescued after falling onto the tracks at the station. The soldier

was waiting on the opposite platform. He ran 100 yards across

live tracks to save her. She fell across the live rails.

Seeing the train on the bend, I try to pick her up and people were

shouting out, she is going to die, and stuff like that. And I thought,

I am going to get her out of the way. The woman, known only as

Barbara, and thought to be in her 60s, was taken to hospital with a

broken ankle and is recovering. The soldier is being hailed as a hero.

It is good for people not to just think of themselves for a change. A

true hero. Good boy. I should imagine there should be signs to say

you should never attempt to do anything like that. But I take my

hat off to him. Southeastern issued a statement saying while they

commend Billy for his actions, they would never encourage any passengers

to climb onto the tracks. They said the first port of call should be

station staff so they can turn the power off. I would not change

anything. I would do it again. I was hoping that if that was me and I was

stuck or I had broken my leg or in an accident of some sort, it would

be really nice if someone came to the rescue and save me. Thankfully a

happy ending all around thanks to this humble hero.

Hundreds of migrants sleeping rough in Calais in the hope of travelling

to Kent have now written to the French authorities begging to be

allowed to come to Britain, saying that they can no longer be treated

like dogs. It comes a week after riot police oversaw their makeshift

camps demolished. Our report is in Calais. It is a week after the

bulldozers moved in, but there is no sign of this situation coming to an

end. Yes, just days ago, this whole area was full of tents. They have

now been torn down but in reality, many of the immigrants have set up

what is sparse becoming `` fast becoming a new camp in the food

distribution area over there. They say their desire to get to England

remained unchanged. They say they want to be treated like human

beings, but many here in Calais believe they will only receive

proper shelter in Britain. This man from Afghanistan showed us where he

spent last night. The water is here. We need help. From the UK authority

and the French authority. So they can sort out for as a better life. A

scramble to get hot drinks. The immigrants have united in a list of

demands to politicians on both sides of the Channel. In a letter to the

authorities here in Calais, the migrants say they no longer want to

live like dogs. They are asking for a roof over their head here and also

urgent negotiations for Britain to allow them to go to England. Want to

go to England. I need to get married. I need a wife and a home. I

want to go to England. Why not claim asylum in France? Everybody wants to

leave this country. The whole of Europe, they have no right. That is

why everybody is risking their life to cross the border to the UK. The

authorities in Calais said they had to act last week because the

makeshift camps had become a public health hazard. This is what remains

today. One Kent MP says there will be no dialogue. I do not think it is

the right thing that we should negotiate with people who want to

break into the country. We want to see these people repatriated back to

their home nations as soon as possible. That many people here

freely admit tonight they will attempt once again to board lorries

bound for Kent. The question is what will happen next. Many immigrants

fear the police are going to come in and try to break up this new

settlement. The Home Office said tonight that if people have a

genuine need, they should seek asylum in the first safe country

they get to. The top story: There are fresh calls

for Kent's Police and Crime Commissioner, and Matt Barnes, to

resign, after she announced an investigation was carried out into

revelations her new youth commissioner, 20`year`old Kerry

Boyd, had an affair with a 50`year`old marriage counsellor. And

Matt Barnes is again in the spotlight just days after her

appearance on a TV documentary was ridiculed.

Still to come: How Kent and Sussex played a crucial role in the D`Day

landings by fooling the Germans into thinking Calais was the real target.

Some heavy downpours around today, with more expected in two tonight.

Join me later in the programme for the forecast.

The Government is pressing ahead with plans to change the law to make

it easier for energy companies to use controversial practice of

fracking footprint for oil in gas under homes in the South East. New

legislation announced today in the Queen's Speech would allow pipes to

be putting under properties without people's permission.

What was announced in the Queen's Speech could have huge implications

for communities across the South East. Companies would not need

permission from homeowners to grill under houses and land to shale oil

or gas. Hayward Heath lies where it is estimated there are billions of

gas of shale oil. These are just some of the views about the

Government plans to make it easier to do fracking under homes. They

have not asked and do not intend to. We are going to run out of oil and

gas from the North Sea. It is running down now. There has got to

be thought given to where it comes from in future. I personally

registered to say I did not want anyone treading under any of my

property, and I do not see why they can just do this when there are so

many people against it. But the energy industry continues to insist

fracking is safe. The process of fracking is done a mile to a mile

and a half underground. It involves a 69 inch pipe. `` a six inch to

nine inch pipe. You will not see it it or hear it. So far the

demonstrations have centred on Balkan, where there has been test

drilling but no fracking. The announcement on the Queen 's speech

may have an impact on Tory seats at the next election. The next year, if

they really push ahead with this, there will be a big shift in voting.

It is expected that the legislation will go through Parliament by the

next election. Let's go live to our political

editor, who is in Westminster. It is a highly controversial proposal, and

David Cameron has already been questioned about his support for

fracking in the Commons. Yes, and the Green MP, Caroline

Lucas, arrested during an anti`fracking protest, raised it in

the debate following the speech in the Commons this afternoon. She said

the Prime Minister was ignoring public opinion. He denied this. He

said there were studies elsewhere, including in America, where fracking

was helping to bring down the price of oil and gas. He said it was not

true that companies would just be able to go on to people's property

and frack against their will. Whether that will be enough to

placate protesters, who turned up at the Prime Minister's own

constituency home this morning, I do not know.

70 years ago this week, Kent and Sussex were at the heart of a phoney

war. It was a cornerstone of the Allied commanders' plan. The aim was

to con German commanders into believing that they would be in

Calais. It was known as operation Fortitude, and brother tanks, boats

and planes were used. As history proved, it worked.

`` rubber tanks. Five years of war, and so often,

Kent and Sussex have been on the receiving end. The countryside was

alive with troops. British, Canadian, Americans, all

nationalities. 1994 port with it the long awaited time to strike back,

a different sort of war, a war of deception. Fake landing ships. We

realised that they were not real, they were decoys. It is hard to

believe inflatable guns and artillery were on the top`secret

list in the months leading up to D`Day. It is hard to believe also

that this work. It formed the Germans into committing huge numbers

of troops into northern France, believing the invasion would come

from the wrong part of the channel. Deep below fortress Dover, this was

an important communications centre. It was used to boost messages vital

to the invasion. Vital to the deception, that is, because many of

the telephone calls, radio messages and signals were bogus. We need the

Germans were listening from a station in Calais to all our

wireless transmissions, so we had to create the impression that there was

lots of traffic going backwards and forwards. Will be used as

diversionary troops. Saddam was a teenage Army recruit. `` stand. One

day we were in Hartlepool, one day we were in Blackpool. With in a

nobody's Army. For him, the bewildering manoeuvres would still

be over. He had no idea that like so many others, he would be going into

action for the first time. They would find out whether the warplanes

had worked on the beaches and in the countryside of Normandy.

And tomorrow we will continue our 70th anniversary commemorations by

hearing from a soldier, sailor and an airman who all experienced the

D`Day landings first`hand. Going back to top story, and as

calls for Kent's Police and Crime Commissioner to resign over her

handling of revelations heard new youth commissioner had had a

relationship with a married 50`year`old counsellor. And Barnes

said 20`year`old Kerry Boyd would not be tender `` undertaking any

public duties due to the investigation. The first youth

commissioner also resigned. One viewer says there is a witchhunt on

Ann Barnes by the media, and if Kerry Boyd has been doing a good

job, the revelations are irrelevant. Another viewer says, nobody wanted

this post created. Ann Barnes has damaged the reputation of the police

and they will have difficulty rebuilding trust. Another viewer

says, she has no idea what she's doing. ?1.5 million a year to run

the office. What a waste. One viewer, one mistake over the first

youth commissioner could be forgiven, maybe a second over the TV

programme, but a third strike means she should resign. Another viewer

says, she does not know her role within Kent Police and she has

failed twice with the youth commissioners. She says some young

people might actually be able to handle the job without the scandal.

Another viewer says the money paid to Ann Barnes and her team would be

better paid to police on the street. Time for the weather.

Not as wet as we were thinking. Yes, there has been rain but brightness,

too. Heavy downpours this afternoon but not that widespread. Still some

fairly heavy downpours and more on the way into tonight. Also some

sunshine. Temperatures 14 and 15 degrees. Heavy rain again for a

time. That will clear out of the way. As we go through tonight, clear

spells developing. Temperatures dropping to eight or 9 degrees as we

start the day tomorrow. Generally, a dry and bright day but still a

chance you could catch a sharp shower. Tomorrow feeling warmer than

today. Highs in the mid`20s. `` in the mid teens or early 20s. Through

tomorrow night, we should be staying dry. Clear skies and temperatures

once again. Perhaps eight or 9 degrees. Holding up in double

figures on the coast. For Friday, humid and murky air. Temperatures

quite warm. It is going to be staying dry mostly. But then into

Saturday, we will see some heavy and thundery downpours. The area of low

pressure is out to the West and things are turning unsettled. Hit

and miss. We have Met Office warning for some quite heavy rain during the

day on Saturday. It clears out of the way quickly and at the moment we

are expecting Sunday to stay mostly dry. Then into the week, a dry start

to Monday. It does not stay that way. It does turn rather wet. But

holding on to the slightly warmer feeling there.

That is it from us for this evening. Back at 10:20pm good night. `` and

8pm.