25/01/2017 South East Today

Today's main headlines in the South East: Two centuries

of military tradition under threat claims an MP as a petition's

launched to save a Kent army barracks.

We're live at Invicta Barracks in Maidstone.

Grammar schools may ask parents for hundreds of pounds a year head

teachers warn over concerns about funding changes.

It's been foggy and cloudy but it will be brighter tomorrow.

The Government's been accused of breaking more than two centuries

of military tradition with plans to close a Kent army barracks,

as a petition's launched to try save it by a Conservative MP.

Helen Grant says shutting Invicta Barracks in Maidstone,

would have a detrimental impact on the town.

The Government is aiming to build more than 55,000 homes on former

Hundreds of years of military history is set to come to an end

when the army march out of Maidstone for the final time in

Launching a petition against the closure,

the local MP says it will have a huge impact,

particularly on the Gurkha soldiers who served there.

800 soldiers and their families will have to move.

There will be a huge impact on the town, not just

And there will be a break in 200 years

The barracks were first established in Maidstone

in around 1797, with the threat of Napoleon across the Channel.

The site's been home to the 36 Engineer

Regiment since 1959, but it was announced late last year

It is inefficient and costs ?2.5 billion a

year to maintain and 40% of our built assets are more than

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said the sale forms part of

a better defence estate strategy and ensure a modern estate fit for

They say there will be better facilities

to train Armed Forces and more stability for those in the military

In Maidstone, not everyone see the logic.

A shame, because it has been here a long time.

I haven't got a clue what will happen to the

I think the Gurkhas are very decent people and well liked here.

The clock is ticking towards closure.

Simon, how likely is Helen Grant's campaign to be successful?

She says she will fight to the end and she plans to give the petition

to the Ministry of Defence by Easter. She doesn't want to see the

barracks along the road here turned into thousands of new houses, but

there is precedent for this. The barracks in Canterbury has been

closed recently and was earmarked for housing. And the barracks in

Dover has also been shut down with houses planned for there also. So

you can see the direction of travel. Tonight she's been boosted by the

former head of barracks here who says the decision to shut it is

unsound. The head teacher of a Kent Grammar

school says they'll be forced to ask parents for a voluntary contribution

of almost ?200 because of Cranbrook School says

it s due to consult It comes as the Grammar School Heads

Association says the changes which are due to take place in 2018

to 2019 will mean 60 grammar schools will gain under the changes,

but 103 will lose money, Our education correspondent,

Bryony MacKenzie, has more. Held up as an example of educational

excellence by the Government, controversially given

the money for expansion, but is the financial rug

being pulled from underneath some of the best performing

schools in the country? We are very perturbed

about the scale of what is proposed. Unfortunately, in order to do some

of the things we've traditionally offered, particularly

on sporting and creative fronts, sometimes in supporting

individual students with needs, we will need parents to help us

with our annual giving Cranbrook will ask

for voluntary amount of According to the Grammar

School Heads Association, 103 of the 163 grammar schools

nationally will lose funding under Eight will lose out in Kent

and four are set to School funding has

become a hot issue. Every secondary headteacher

in west Sussex wrote to their MP asking for

funding shortfalls to be be addressed and warned of shorter

school days and bigger classes. It is not fair, because not

everyone has that money. People work hard to get into grammar

schools and should be Grammar schools have

far fewer disadvantaged children, which is all

funding is formulated. The Department for Education

says the new formula is based on need rather than postcode

and is fairer for all. Claudia Sermbezis has

been following this Claudia, it's difficult to argue

grammar schools need more money if you're comparing them to schools

in disadvantaged areas. And especially because there's only

one pot of money so if grammars want to take more, will they take it from

schools where there may be poorer pupils? Both grammars and

nonselective schools are funded in the same way. The grammar schools

heads Association says there should be minimum funding for everyone. But

many grammar schools are not getting this. Today we spoke to several

headteachers and they say they're getting mixed messages. A lot of

support from Theresa May's government, but when it comes to

core funding, selective and nonselective schools are in the same

boat. Four Kent councils have confirmed

they are to move ahead with a merger plan under what has been hailed

as one of the biggest shake-ups At a specially-convened meeting,

Dover, Canterbury, Thanet and Shepway councils said the merger

would help improve services Critics of the proposal

say council tax bills for some in the new combined

authority could increase. Southeastern train services

will not return to normal for the rest of this week

following yesterday's The track was damaged and around

50 metres of railway Passengers delayed by 30 minutes

or more as a result of the incident can claim double the normal amount

under Delay Repay. Outside of science fiction, time

travel is, of course, impossible - Because photographer

Jonathan Bolland has teamed up with local historian Ed Langridge

to capture a series of startling images that match up pictures

of the town taken 100 years ago A time travel tour

of Tunbridge Wells with early 20th-century photographs

merged with modern day. A couple of my photographs

will show people in Edwardian times, for instance,

walking down the high street and walking past some

cars in modern day. So, it's in the context

of how people's lives have changed in terms of,

say, Only possible because

so much of the town's What resonates is the fact

he hasn't changed. You put that picture

against 100 years ago You've got advertising

signs, yes, but After receiving positive

feedback from the few that were posted online,

Jonathan decided to explore further. You go out and take

the equivalent photograph the site you are and it is a bit of

a transposition in our photographic software to layer the

photographs together. And you take elements out of one

photo and put them on the other. Wandering round the streets

of Tunbridge Wells, it's a chance to You look at the buildings and wonder

who's walked through here. It's gentry who used

to live here, isn't it? And now, you know,

you just can't quite picture it, but to seeit like that,

you can actually see what it was Over 100 years may have

passed since the original photos were taken, but with a little

help, the town's rich heritage has We'll have the national

weather in a moment. First, here's the forecast

for the south-east with Rachel. Good evening. Problems with dense

fog over the last couple of days. Tonight, bitterly cold winds from

the south-east so blustery tonight. Temperatures fall well below

freezing. We should stay fog free. Heading through the day, it will be

blustery. A good deal of sunshine but it stays bitterly cold. Here's

the outlook: take a look at the Outlook towards

the weekend. Good evening. If you think it was

cold today, for many it will be colder still tomorrow. Cold even

when we have the sunshine today. This was one of the wonderful

weather watcher pictures we had sent in from Cornwall. It contrasts with

a cloudy and foggy eastern half of the country, and a bank of cloud.

Still foggy, but it is starting to lift. It is being pushed north and

west, this bank of cloud. That will continue through the night. We will

still have some fog sitting on the hills. Even with the cloud, it will

be a cold night, with temperatures away from the far north and west

falling to freezing. In the countryside,