12/04/2017 South East Today

Welcome to a special edition of news teams where you are.

Welcome to a special edition of South East Today. I'm in Dartford

whether government has announced a plan to ease congestion of the

Dartford Crossing with a two mile tunnel east of Gravesend. This will

mean getting people getting places faster, businesses delivering goods

faster and more reliable commutes. It will help to ease pressure in a

place that is getting worse all the time. The decision is controversial,

it will cut through woodland and blight villages. It will not solve

the problems of Dartford, so it is a significant thing for people in this

area and beyond. Everyone has been let down. We will get reaction from

our correspondence in Dartford and Gravesham. John Millen is going to

jail for eight months. We meet the vintage Jaguar car

restorer from Sussex, who's written what's considered

the definitive manual I loved it. I'll be in my dressing

room. Kent's Gemma Arterton's new movie

about making movies. We hear from the stars

of Their Finest. Tonight I'm in Dartford and again,

as you can see, the Dartford area is pretty much gridlocked with traffic

and today the government has announced plans, ?6 billion plans

after the longest consultation of its type ever undertaken to try and

ease some of the congestion problems at the Dartford Crossing. The idea

is to build a two mile tunnel running under the Thames to the east

of Gravesend. A major project, ?6 billion, and very controversial. It

will cut through ancient woodland and across farmland and people who

live along the route are saying that their lives are already blighted.

What will it mean? The government says this is the best option for

suiting things out. When it opens in ten year time they would say that

for the half million lorries will use it every year. In a moment, we

will have reaction from Gravesham. But first our Special Correspondent

Colin Campbell reports on how this long awaited decision came to be

made. Bumper-to-bumper congestion at

Dartford Crossing this afternoon, tailbacks are a daily frustration

for drivers. Until this morning, progress on an alternative also

seemed slow but the government say they have decided. More and more

traffic through Dartford isn't the solution, people who live there know

that it is a pain already and the overwhelming view is that they want

a second crossing, downstream, that can provide better alternatives to

simply putting more people up this stretch of motorway. The route is

going to run from M25 near North Ockendon, Crossing the age 13, and

under the terms east of tills brie and Gravesend. A road will take

traffic to the A2. I think it's a good idea because the Crossing is a

nightmare. Dartford comes to a gridlock so I think it's a good

idea. It can get really bad. I don't go near the Crossing but to get home

three weeks sometimes through Dartford, it gets gridlocked. You

need something, it's a good idea and it's pointless putting another one

at Dartford because it will add to the congestion we have. There are

fears that the new tunnel and its route are going to blight

communities and the countryside. It will go through potentially green

belt, ancient woodland, it will affect the country park which is a

shame. There are alternatives. The government says it will make it

easier for traffic to get through Kent to the Port of Dover. The

option to the east of Gravesend we believe is the right one, providing

70% additional capacity on that part of the road, it will add resilience

to the road network because it will provide an eternity of route. This

company in Essex welcomed the news as it would make their job easier.

We are delighted, is the only option that would solve the congestion we

have the get to and from Kent. The slightest bit of wind on the bridge

or a problem in the tunnel, the whole area is affected for three or

four miles, gridlocked, literally, nothing moving. Going under and not

over the Thames, the government says the new crossing will create

thousands of jobs, boost the economy and reduce congestion but it's a

controversial decision, facing huge opposition. Colin Campbell, BBC

South East Today. A lot of people in Dartford are

going to be pleased with the announcement, this traffic has been

stationary close to the Dartford Crossing for about half an hour. I

can talk to this chap now, Mark. How long have you been in this traffic?

45 minutes. How long would it normally take you to get home? It

would take five minutes to get out of here and one hour to get back to

Hertfordshire but I will be here for one hour before I leave this area.

Hope it is sorted out soon. Really fed up, and we're based on this

estate and it affects us everyday. Good luck, hope you aren't still

here when we finish the programme! Clearly there is a major problem

that needs to be sorted out and that's why the announcements have

been made but it isn't without its impact on the other side of the

coin. Villages around the east of Gravesend, where the ?6 billion

project is going to go through agent woodland and farmland and people are

far from happy. Yvette Austin joins me now

from the village of Chalk. Yvette, a lot anger

and frustration there tonight? Yes, indeed, people were

disappointed but not surprised. There were two options and whichever

one was chosen, Chalk here in particular will have been affected.

That is, of course, if the Dartford scheme was rejected, which it was.

What will happen here at Chalk if it goes ahead as planned, this church

will be cut off from the parish and many homes will be blighted.

The tight-knit community of Chalk, coming together, a special Easter

week service with the Bishop of Rochester in their parish hall. News

that the crossing was coming frozen was broken here. Pipe in here for

ten years, they built in the fields behind me and now they are building

on the flood plains to the river and now they are going to put a great

brick road through as well, so where has my country gone? Totally wrong,

the wrong place, the wrong idea. When the tunnel is built, if it is,

the problems of Dartford will still exist. The task now is to try and

mitigate the effects of it as much as possible, while recognising that

in terms of the wider economy, the crossing was needed. Up to six lanes

in total white, the route is going to cross the Kent countryside and a

popular golf course, passing within a few hundred yards of homes as it

stretches from the A2 to Essex. It will come across the fields we are

on, just passing this Hamlet and then it goes off in this direction,

between the Hamlet and the park before going down past Chalk church

and under the River. Marion's historic home is blighted. The

boundary of their home is an two sides of the property. It is going

to affect not only me but the whole village, which is a conservation

area. Highways England and Kent County Council say that it is

necessary to relieve congestion at the Dartford Crossing. The

consultation revealed that 50 million journeys are made per year

with traffic volumes increasing and it showed that more than 300 times a

year the crossing is closed, partially or fully because of

incidents, after which it typically takes 3-5 hours for the roadster

clear. Campaigners in Gravesham say that this will not solve the

problems of Dartford because in part it will take so long to build. They

have fought particularly hard over the last 12 months and a possible

route going through one town has been rejected by the route is going

to impact severely on the village of Chalk. The piece and tranquil T here

will be something that we admire, not just for those who come to

admire family graves, who come here for weddings and so on. The

villagers' campaign will go on to try to ensure that the impact is

felt as little as possible. The people here were not happy with the

consultation, they wanted another route on the table which would have

involved a long tunnel running right the way under Dartford. As things

stand, they say that the route is going to take ten years to build and

a new link will be needed at Dartford and another corner of

countryside is being destroyed. Thank you. The man we were speaking

to a moment ago has moved as far as that in the cause of the time we

were hearing from Yvette. Let's talk to two people who are intimately

involved in the process of how this has gone on over the last couple of

years but from different points of view.

Well I'm joined by Adam Holloway the MP for Gravesham

From your point of view, you are delighted? Yes, this is the right

decision, I don't think there's any doubt, the traffic illustrates the

problem, too many vehicles, verging on one location. If we build another

crossing then you are going to funnel more traffic through the same

pinch point so it was right to build another Thames crossing near

Gravesend. Adam Holloway, the MP for Gravesham, you disappear with that?

It's disastrous for my constituents who are living locally to it. That's

very bad. Hopefully there will be money to mitigate it but I'll tell

you who is really disastrous fall, the people living in Dartford, who

are going to use the M25 for the next 30 years because here we have

an historic opportunity to fix the M25 and instead we are going to

spend ?6 billion building a road which will they do -- which will do

a good job for economic growth but will take less than 15% of the

traffic from here. This is a scandal. When the public realise

this is going on for another 30 years. I think is right that we give

the motorist a choice. The reason these motorists are here is because

they have no choice, we would like it soak people don't all have to

funnel into the Thames here. It will take a while to be built but it will

at long last given option for motorist instead of them all coming

through Dartford. Thank you for joining us. The M25 will always run

through Dartford. He's not a happy man! If you want to keep up-to-date

with the information, you can do so online.

A man from Kent who was responsible for an illegal waste mountain

that was estimated to total 40,000 tonnes has been jailed

In a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency,

John Millen from Murston, near Sittingbourne, pleaded guilty

to dumping the waste at the Kent site without a permit.

Standing more than ten metres high, this was John Millen's unauthorised

waste storage site near Sittingbourne. Full of concrete,

soil, plastic and metal. He had failed to respond to warnings and

requests to clear it up and so he was prosecuted. Having previously

pled guilty to environmental law, he arrived at court to face his

sentence. This is your chance to explain yourself? INAUDIBLE

He said he would answer my questions after the hearing but he did not get

a chance, the judge jailed him for eight months. The Environment Agency

says that it sends a clear message. Waste crime may not be at the

forefront of everyone's's mines, but it must be treated appropriately and

unfortunately people decide to increase their profits by not doing

that and then we will investigate and if necessary we will take it to

the Crown Court. This is John Millen's former site today where

more than 12,000 tonnes of waste remains. By the time the case came

to the court today for sentencing, Mr Millen had managed to clear 70%

of the waste on his land but the Environment Agency says the

documentation for the transfer of the waste is incomplete and they

don't know the whereabouts of 140 lorry loads of rubbish. Ultimately

the public faces the bill to deal with Mr Millen's mess. And the

transportation and disposal of the waste, its incineration, will come

at a cost that could run into six figures. It's unclear who will pay

for that. The council owns the land but did not respond to our in Currys

-- to our enquiries. Fresh talks are to be held

between the RMT and Southern Railway in a bid to resolve the year-long

dispute over staffing and driver-only trains,

the unions have said. The union have taken 31 days

of strike action over changes A judge has been sacked

for using a pseudonym to post abusive comments about cases he'd

been involved in. Jason Dunn-Shaw, who worked as both

a barrister and part-time judge in Kent, commented on online

newspaper articles about the cases, calling one man a 'donkey',

while others were labelled stupid. Tonight he claimed his

account had been hacked. The mental health trust serving Kent

and Medway has been rated Just two years ago it was assessed

as "requiring improvement". The Care Quality Commission

said Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership is now

good overall and outstanding for being caring, but still has

serious safety issues it Our Health Correspondent

Mark Norman reports. A ward meeting at the acute

inpatient unit in Maidstone. Inspectors described staff

at the Kent and Medway Mental Health Trust as dedicated and committed

and for their boss, achieving a good from the Care Quality Commission,

is recognition of their work. There is a genuine sense

of commitment, warmth and I think also an ambition now to really get

things that perhaps have needed sorting out for quite a long time

to where they need to be, But alongside the progress

and praise, the inspectors have They describe high caseloads of work

for staff affecting patient safety, accommodation and they even saw bed

frames that patients could use We did escalate them to the trust

during the inspection and the trust took immediate action to remedy

those issues and I think we are confident that the changes

would be embedded and we will go back in the near future

to ensure that those For me as chief executive that's

been very important, that what the CQC told us

were things that we were already working on, and that's not to deny

the seriousness of them. But we've got to solutions

for all of them and that's Kent and Medway are one

of a number of improving NHS Their boss tells me

they want to be rated It's been announced

that the new Lower Thames Crossing will be a two-mile tunnel

to the east of Gravesend. The ?6 billion project aims to ease

congestion at Dartford, but has been met with a mixed

reaction. We hear from the Kent

star of silver screen, Gemma Arterton, whose latest movie

is all about making movies. And after a cloudy start to the day

we eventually saw some sunshine but tomorrow the cloud is going to

return. Join me shortly for a full forecast.

Starting modestly in a barn near Battle in East Sussex,

Chris Keith Lucas has seen his hobby of restoring cars grow

into the world's leading specialist in Jaguar Sports and Racing Cars

He's now written a definitive manual on the iconic D Type Jaguar car.

The D Type Jag was created as a racing car in the 1950s

to carry on the company's success on the track.

There were only 87 produced during that time,

In fact, a 1955 D-Type was sold at auction last year

for ?17.5 million making it one of the most expensive

by some of the world's best vintage cars.

Are you enjoying yourself? I'm loving every minute, as you can

imagine. Around 30, or 40 of these D Types remain in the country that we

know about but unfortunately, only people with very deep pockets can

afford them but thankfully, the Jaguar D Type manual is a lot more

affordable. Last year was a Jaguar victory and

today they won with separate Jaguars. In the Le Mans race in the

1940s, Jaguar dominated the cupboard is on, the track is a place where

careless talk costs lives. The leading Jaguar was driven by John

Flockhart. Here in Battle, to mark the 60th anniversary of Jaguar's

pioneering car, a Haynes manual has been written dedicated to the

machine. It's not going to tell you how to build or repair your own D

Type but it explains the thinking behind the design of it, the

construction of one, and I've been fortunate enough to be able to watch

one being rebuilt from the ground up. The D Type Jaguar is often

described as a plane without wings, which isn't surprising because the

men who designed her came from the aeronautical industry, their sole

purpose was to win the 24-hour Le Mans race. Jaguar's first, second,

third, fourth and sixth. # Riding along in my automobile

# My baby beside me at the wheel # I stole a kiss at the turn of a

mild # My curiosity running wild Chris

Keith Lucas has been in the classic car business for more than 40 years

and he says that the D Type is very special.

In the period it was doing 0- 60 in something like 4.5 seconds, with

everybody else put Lyn about in a Morris Minor. It must have been

absolutely amazing to drive a car like that on the road, which you

could do. No one knows how many D Types remain in existence but we

know that the car's place in history has been cemented on the track and

now in a book. There are many companies within a

stone's throw from here to restore classic cars and business apparently

is so good that here at CKL they are turning away business, and they hope

to recruit apprentices so they can expend. I wonder if you maybe

applying! Gemma Arterton, who's from Dartford,

stars in a production about a British film crew's attempts

to lift spirits during World War II. Their Finest also stars

Bill Nighy and it comes ahead of Gemma Arterton's starring role

in a new film about the love affair between Vita Sackville West

and Virginia Woolf in Kent. This is the BBC. London calling. The

Blitz, 1940. Gemma Arterton plays an untried screenwriter. I need someone

to write the girl talk, women's dialogue. She's actually based on a

real person, Diana Morgan, who used to work for Ealing Studios and was

brought in to work in the nausea, as they call it, the female dialogue,

and became known as a very prolific screenwriter. I don't think we've

been properly introduced. Bill Nighy E plays an actor in the film. I am

one of the writers. Between us, we'll have them weeping in the

aisles. It is like playing a painting, you don't play a painter,

you play a man who happens to paint. It was fun because I got to play the

actor and the parties playing in the film we are making in the film you

are watching. Gemma Arterton is working on a production about the

relationship between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville West in Kent in

the 1920s. This beautiful dreamlike visceral story about two fantastic

women who were doing things very differently for that period of time.

Very exciting. Have you seen it? Awfully good. Gemma Arterton has

specialised in playing famous heroines in literature, be it Tess

of the double bills or others, she says that in Their Finest she is

thrilled to be playing an ordinary person.

Well as we've been hearing it's been revealed today that the construction

of a two-mile road tunnel between Kent and Essex has

been given the green light by the government.

It was chosen as the preferred option for a new route to ease

the burden on the busy Dartford Crossing.

Let's go back to rob and the Dartford Crossing. The government

says that this tunnel is going to make a big difference to the

Southeast? That's what they say, clearly and

something needs to be done here, the traffic has not improved greatly

over the last half an hour. They say that the government

is going to -- the road is going to carry 77,000 vehicles a day. The

economic impact will be significant, creating 6000 jobs, not clearly

DeLaet -- not clear how direct they will be and they say that it will

boost the economy by ?8 billion, significant numbers.

Well our Political Editor Catt joins me now.

Helen, you were with Chris Grayling today.

He was saying that more and more traffic is using this Crossing so he

says that this is needed to stop it getting any worse. He did not see

that it would alleviate the problems here, I think that there may be some

legal challenges. Other things I found out, will we need to pay to

news the new crossing? He said that it is likely but it will be decided

several years down the line by a future Transport Secretary. I asked

him about the people in Gravesham who have been affected and whether

they would get compensation and he said anyone who is directly affected

by the new road, they would take appropriate steps to help. I know

that there will be a lot more on this over the next ten years while

the road goes through the processes and is built, but for me, from

Dartford, that's it. A slow start for many of us, low

cloud with temperatures of 10 degrees but through the morning it

clear the way and we saw some sunshine and we ended up lifting

temperatures to around 15, 16 and many of us ended the day with

glorious skies and some sunshine. Overnight we will see the cloud

beginning, some patchy rain, temperatures dropping to 6-7

degrees. The rain clearing in the early hours so any early risers may

get a glimpse of brightness, but then the cloud is going to thicken

and come in. It will be grey and with the wind coming down from the

North West it is going to lower the temperature is at around 11-12.

Friday looks like another cloudy day with some outbreaks of rain but as

we go through the Easter weekend I'm hopeful that we will see more

sunshine with temperatures staying around average.

That's it from me for the moment, I'm back with your late news at just

after 10:30pm.