25/01/2017 South East Today

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

Tonight's top stories: Two centuries of military tradition under

threat claims an MP, as a petition's launched

to save a Kent barracks the Government plans to close.

We're live at Invicta Barracks in Maidstone.

Grammar schools may ask parents for hundreds of pounds

a year headteachers warn because of concerns

Also in tonight's programme: The smartphone app pioneered in Kent

that is helping relieve pressure on A departments.

The time-travelling photographer who's created a series

of images of Tunbridge Wells, now and then.

The Sussex exhibition which aims to explore how people interact

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 to try save it is launched

Helen Grant says shutting Invicta Barracks in Maidstone

would have a detrimental impact on the town.

The closure was announced last November as part of a swathe

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

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

Our state has failed to adapt. It is inefficient and costs ?2.5 billion a

year to maintain and 40% of our built assets are more than 50 years

old. 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

personnel and their families. They say there will be better facilities

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

network. 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

Gurkhas, so that's a concern. I think the Gurkhas are very decent

people and well liked here. So you'll be sad to see them go? Yes.

So it is to be closed in ten years? It is not so good. The clock is

ticking towards closure. Simon in in Maidstone now -

Simon, how likely is Helen Grant's Well, she said she will fight to the

end and is planning to present the petition to the Ministry of Defence

by Easter time. She said she does not want this barracks to go and be

replaced by thousands of houses. But there is a form on this because a

barracks in Canterbury has been and housing is earmarked for that site.

The Connacht barracks in Dover has been closed for that reason, too. So

you can see the direction of travel for the Government, so she may have

a tough fight. The head teacher of a Kent Grammar

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

of almost ?200 a year Cranbrook School says it's due

to consult with parents This comes as the Grammar

School Heads Association of its members will be the biggest

losers under planned That's despite Government plans

to create new grammar schools. 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 it, particularly sporting

and creative, sometimes in supporting individual students with

special needs, we will need parents to help us with our annual giving

scheme. This school will ask for voluntary amount of

?180 a year. According to the grammar school heads Association,

103 of the 163 grammar schools nationally will lose funding under

the proposed formula. Eight will lose out in Kent and four are set to

lose almost 3%. School funding has become a hot issue. Every secondary

headteacher in west Sussex wrote to their MP asking for short. The

addressed and warned of shorter school days and bigger classes. On

average, schools facing cost increases of about 8% over the

course of this Parliament. Schools are winning will receive at most

around 5.5%. It is not fair, because not everyone has that money. People

work hard to get into grammar schools and sugar free schooling

like everyone else. I would be happy to contribute, I think it is a

nominal amount and worth it. 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. It's hard to see grammar schools

as needing more money when you compare them to schools

in disadvantaged areas. Absolutely. There is only one pot of

cash, so grammar schools want more, are they taking from schools who may

have more less well off people's? The grammar heads Association says

they need a minimum funding for everyone and many grammar schools

are not getting out. Grammar are funded at the same as nonselective

is, but it may be that some of the parents of grammar school pupils

from more middle-income families. But today, I was told there is lots

of support for grammar schools from the Government, incentives and money

for expansion, but when it comes to the court funding, all schools are

in the same boat. Coming up: how a third of Kent

Police time is now spent dealing with people undergoing mental health

issues. Extra funding has been pledged to help.

A new smartphone app pioneered in East Kent to help ease pressure

on A departments has proved so successful it could be rolled

It allows patients to compare waiting times at A E departments

The app also shows people where their nearest urgent care

centre is, and the quickest route to get there.

It's been used more than 25,000 times in its first month.

Peter Whittlesea is at the William Harvey hospital in Ashford.

A are expensive to run and staffed by specialist to can deal with any

eventuality. If you have a minor injury, you not only cut the waiting

time here, but also save the NHS money.

The crisis in A is a national problem. As more and more patients

turn up at hospitals, waiting times have soared. We need to go to A I

can't, I will be there for hours! I've got a wedding to go to. I have

a nap on my tells you the best way to go. This advertiser is the new

app. Their ages -- fame is Tuesday knowledge a and free up resources in

A and cutting waiting times. This has been in operation in East Kent

for a month. We've had 20,000 users and already, we are detecting

slightly less demand in A and more demand in the minor injury units.

The ambition is to get this accepted nationwide and help the whole of the

NHS, not just the NHS hearing East Kent. How does it work? It at the

latest information on waiting times and patient numbers at all nearby

minor injury unit and A departments. It also calculates

travel time from your location. By combining information, it provides a

list of the best places to go to. I've not been here before and it was

number one on the list for less waiting time, so here we are. How

did it work? Came in, registered, were seen within ten minutes and now

we are ready to go home. It is quicker than A Also, we are not

using up services needed for more urgent cases. Did you believe it

when you first saw the app? No, but I do now. Could this app really

relieve the pressure on overstretched A? Increasingly, the

NHS will have to use modern technology in a way it isn't. It is

still using faxes and such. The power in your pocket to save you

time and the NHS money, it is hoped this free app will catch on.

This app is updated every four minutes so I can present it and see

the waiting time here is 21 minutes. Down other minor injuries unit, it

is just six minutes down in Folkestone. It may be quicker to

drive there to get treated if I've just got a minor injury, like a

fractured wrist. A man who carried out a series

of sexual offences against children in the Tunbridge Wells area has been

sentenced to nearly Ian Tucker's abuse of

five victims spanned His crimes came to light when one

of his victims contacted Kent Police a year ago,

which led to other Southeastern train services

will not return to normal for the rest of this week

following yesterday's The track was damaged

by the carriages and around a 50-metre stretch of railway

needs to be replaced. Passengers delayed by 30 minutes

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

amount under Delay Repay. The meeting is under way to discuss

whether Canterbury and Dover should go ahead with creating a new single

council for East Kent. A final decision will be taken, but the

public will need to be involved and approval will be required from the

Secretary of State. The merger would create the largest District Council

in the country, achieving ?6.8 million of savings over two years.

Kent Police need to undertake a "revolution" in the way they deal

with people going through mental health issues, according to the

He's announced that ?250,000 will be dedicated to help

It's estimated as much as a third of police time is now

taken up with people and cases involving mental health issues.

It comes on the day the College of Policing has issued

new guidelines for how police restrain people in crisis,

Kent Police officers now spend a third of their time dealing with

people suffering mental health problems. In this place it takes

more than half of police time. The police and crime commission now

wants revolution in the way people with issues are dealt with. It is a

pressure for vulnerable people but also officers whom though may be

trained to handle these situations are not mental health professionals.

For all the time they spent waiting with people dealing with these

particular issues, that is time they are not out and about tackling crime

or outing communities as a visible presence. This month, the Prime

Minister said mental health have been dangerously disregarded as she

launched her vision for a shared society. Left unaddressed, it

destroys lives, separates people and deepens the divisions within our

society. In Kent, this quarter of million pounds funding means

charities and community groups can get councillors for people in

crisis. If I turn up in uniform to turn -- deal with somebody with

mental health problems, I can give the perception I'm criminalising

their ill-health and I can add to that stigma and research would

suggest that makes it take longer for them to recover from a crisis it

police officers are involved. For the past year, Mind has provided

councillors in Kent Police call centres. This art group run by the

same charity is an informal setting where people can access help. They

want to extend the services to meet demand. When all the nine to five

services are shut, turn off out of hours help would be fantastic.

People can go along, meet workers, and we see that kind of one to one

support so they're not calling ambulances and presented themselves

at A, calling the police. This will not support or replace NHS

services, but provide alternative help.

A petition has been launched to try and save a Kent barracks that is set

to close as part of wider Government plans to build more housing. The

Conservative MP for Maidstone says shutting Invicta Barracks would end

two sentries of military tradition. Also, the artist who has been taking

things lying down. An exhibition celebrating the recumbent in Sussex.

And it has been a foggy and dull day today. Brighter tomorrow, but still

bitterly cold. I will have the forecast later.

Outside of science fiction, time travel is, of course, impossible -

That's 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 a 100 years

For tonight's Special Report, Chrissie Reidy

I have. What is extraordinary when you look at the photos of then and

now, yes, there is far more traffic around now, and of course, people

were wearing different clothes at the turn of that century, but

architecturally here, it is very much still intact. If you take this

book shop, it has been here since 1898 and the front is very much how

it was in 1900. 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 Certainly an interesting take,

contrasting the past and present. Of course, Tunbridge Wells was very

much the place to be at the turn of the 20th century and I think what

this book highlights is how rich in history the spa town of Tunbridge

Wells still is. Thank you. It's An Art Show With A Big Title -

In A Dream You Saw A Way To Survive And

You Were Full Of Joy. Curated by Turner Prize-winning

artist Elizabeth Price, it features some big names

including Henry Moore, the Lumi re Brothers

and Bridget Riley. As Piers Hopkirk

reports, the Exhibition at the De La Warr Pavillion

in Bexhill on Sea aims to explore how important it is for human

beings to lie down, weather sleeping, working,

mourning or dancing. A's an extraordinarily eclectic mix

of art and artists, linking the historical with the contemporary.

The brainchild of Turner Prize winner Elizabeth Price, it is an

examination of a very specific artistic device. The reclining human

form. The show opens with images of sleeping. When you look at the image

of a sleeping figure, you think of what they may wake up to do, but

also you think of the internal life and their dream world. So I guess

one of the ideas of the narrative in the exhibition is that as we go

through it, maybe we can pursuing through the dream logic of the

sleepers we encounter at the beginning. Featuring the work of

more than 50 artists, a Rangers from woodcuts to video installations, the

subjects from the homeless and downtrodden, to royalty. This giant

plaster cast of Eleanor of Aquitaine is on loan from the Victoria and

Albert. What is interesting about this, is the way in which the figure

is presented so benignly, so peacefully, the way the fabric is

contoured round her body, very languidly and gently, as though she

might move or stir one leg. Behind-the-scenes, work on

exhibition continued today ahead of its opening this weekend. This

exhibition is an enormous privilege for us to host and we been working

with the Hayward touring exhibitions in order to post it here at the De

La Warr Pavillion. What's extraordinary about it is the great

range of types of work in it. It is an amazing chance to see this great

swathe of practice across history telling a particular story that

Elizabeth has devised. The exhibition runs until May.

Brighton and Hove Albion are back on top of the Championship table

after a 1-0 victory over Cardiff last night at The Amex.

The Seagulls were frustrated by Cardiff for much of the match,

until Tomer Hemed smashed in the only goal in the 73rd minute.

Chris Hughton's side are now two points clear of Newcastle.

Visually-impaired skier Millie Knight from Canterbury

and her guide Brett Wild have won Downhill Gold

on the opening day of the World Para Alpine Skiing

The 18-year-old, who was GB's youngest athlete at the 2014

Winter Paralympics, completed the course in just over

one minute, 13 seconds to take Gold by over a second

Sussex rugby star Dylan Hartley has been confirmed as England's captain

for the Six Nations, two days after his six-week

suspension for hitting an opponent ended.

The 30-year-old, who grew up in Crowborough and played

for the town's rugby club, was shown the third red card

of his career for striking in December last year.

Eastbourne's Johanna Konta is out of the Australian Open

after being beaten in straight sets 6-2 6-3 by former

Konta went into the quarterfinal in the form of her life,

but came up short in her first meeting with Williams,

The world number two was just too strong

the British star's nine-match winning streak to an end by knocking

I think she played at a higher level than I did today and I think she is

one of the best of all time, so I think, yeah, I really

enjoyed my time out there on court against her and

Well, I hope I can bring a lot away from it and

things I'll be able to reuse and hopefully get

And if she does, she will take heart from the fact the

American did not have it all her own way in this match.

Having lost the first set, Konta fought

even harder, managing to break Williams's serve.

It's that sort of form which prompted her opponent to describe

her as an Australian Open champion of the future.

Playing really well and I think it's so important.

This has been coming for her for

She's been wanting to win grand slams and to do well.

was the best experience of her life and by reaching the quarterfinals

here, she could well retain her position in the world's top ten.

It has been very foggy today. Yes, lots of fog around today causing

real problems. But it should be shifting in time for tomorrow, but

it will stay bitterly cold. Earlier today, dense mist and fog patches

didn't even clearer in many places and there was a good deal of cloud.

The dull, cold there. It will change tonight. The winds start to pick up

from the South East, so bitterly cold air from the near continent.

Overnight tonight, we see clearer skies around and temperatures are

once again falling to around -2 or -3 in rural spots. We should avoid

much of the mist and fog thanks to the winds. First thing tomorrow,

bitterly cold and blustery. As you can tell, those winds will pick up

as we head through the day. It will be bright, and by the afternoon,

temperatures do well to get above three degrees with the wind chill

factor though, it will feel more like freezing. As we go from

Thursday to Friday, a bit of a shift. The winds go back to south

westerly direction, so it will be a little less cold. Overnight

temperatures will still drop to minus one degree in more rural

spots. Just above freezing along the coast. Friday, we will potentially

see patchy drizzle and it is less cold. Highs of 8-9 . The unsettled

at the weekend. Rain on Saturday, but dry by Sunday. Sunshine

tomorrow, but wrap up warm. Thank you, Rachel. I will be by

later. Goodbye.