23/12/2016 South East Today

Prison officers are underpaid and would be better off

working in warehouses - that's what a Kent MP has told

the Prisons Minister today after inmates at HMP Swaleside took

The prison on the Isle of Sheppey has been branded

'dangerous' in the past, with inspectors saying staff

Swaleside prison three days before Christmas 2016.

The chant, no face, no case, suggesting prisoners

Potential weapons on display, reports of a fire lit.

Nobody was injured and most of the prison was kept under control.

One of the triggers was thought to be

when prisoners discovered they would be locked up

in their cells longer than expected over Christmas.

Prisoners start to escalate in violence and get-together. The

prison staff would have realised they were outnumbered and the

situation was becoming volatile. They know the prisoners

well and can generally calm them down using polite

persuasive techniques. The local MP praised

the staff today, It is more advantageous for a prison

officer to go and get a job in a warehouse where

they will earn more money. They need to papers and others

is what they are worth. The starting salary

for a prison officer A relative of three inmates

said today that the prisoners human rights

were not being respected. A report in July concluded

that too many prisoners 69% of them felt

unsafe and the use of Last night's incidents

have echoes of 12 hours of rioting in Birmingham just

a week ago and at Bedford and Lewis The Home Office said no extra prison

officers had been sent to HMP Swaleside as a result,

but experts detect a trend. For those of us that work

in the sector, we have been expecting disturbances such

as this for some time as conditions have worsened over

the last few years. The Ministry of Justice know the

problem. With seems like last night appearing on the television and the

MP saying wages are too low, it makes the job even less attractive.

There's anger among residents in the village of Yalding

who say government action to protect their homes against

During Christmas 2013, flooding devastated this part of Kent.

?2.4 million of government money will go to flood

defences in the village but they say it's not enough.

An anniversary they would rather forget.

In the New Year, the environment agency says they

will do a survey for every home at high risk of flooding and that

residents will have ?7,500 to spend on protecting their homes.

This is actually part of the flood defence.

We have got these for all three of the outside doors here.

The money could be used to install measures

like these, measures many residents already have in place.

The bottom metre of bricks were treated with

We have valves which stop the effluent coming out of the

downstairs loo and into the kitchen sink.

For many residents remembering the flood three years

ago, they are realistic about the future.

If you are going to make a property resilient, it is going to

flood anyway, so you need to make it properly resilient, not piecemeal,

and ?7,500 per property is not going to go very far.

The government had announced a flood defence scheme

back in 2014, but in August, residents were told that simply

wouldn't work and instead it would be more effective to shore up houses

Despite disappointment in the village about the sums

available, the environment agency insists their plans will make a

There are other things we can do, looking at whether we

build small embankments or walls around communities as well, ensuring

communities are as resilient as possible.

We need to look at ways to keep the power on if there is a

Thankfully, residents here are confident these images will not

be repeated this Christmas but they are less positive about the future.

A video's emerged of another senior official at rail union

the RMT calling for an "overthrow of capitalism" to create

This time it was the Senior Assistant General Secretary Steve

Hedley who made the comments on 'Russia Today' last month.

Our union, it is very clear in our rule book, we're renowned

antagonistic relationship with the bosses. We want to overthrow

capitalism and create a socialist society. We want to make life easier

for everybody. Well it comes after 8 months

of disruption and strikes on Southern rail over the role

of the guard. One MP has called the comments

"a disgrace", saying the view It's extraordinary that somebody who

claims to represent working people in the United Kingdom decides to go

on Russian television to admit that what is actually doing is holding

300,000 people hostage now consultant.

And finally, a Yuletide yarn to set the scene for Xmas Eve.

Sightseers from across Kent are heading to Herne Bay

to see their woolly wonders - the town's post boxes -

This year, the number of knitters making seasonal stetsons and festive

fezzes has more than doubled, ensuring this Christmas post

That's it from me, the national weather forecast in a moment,

but first let's get the picture in the South East

Good evening. If you bet on a white Christmas I'm afraid it isn't

looking good. Yes, we stay very windy, with storm Barbara to the

west of us, but particularly by Christmas Day, it is very barmy. We

could even see 15 degrees by the afternoon. Three tonight, initially

we have that band of rain. That clears three thanks to the strength

of those winds. Behind it, clearer skies and temperatures drop to four

or 5 degrees. We are staying frost free because of the winds. It will

be bright but very cold as we start Christmas Eve. For us, a dry and

actually quite sunny day. By the afternoon, highs of eight or 9

degrees. Yes, it stays blustery throughout the day. Look at this as

we go from viscous -- from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. We have a warm

front bringing some cloud and outbreaks of rain but the

temperatures will not change from daytime police. Starting at eight or

9 degrees big day? Christmas Day. It will stay

mild and temperatures could reach 14, 15. He is down bet that the

national picture. It will be more northern parts of

the UK that see the worst of the weather. Another storm is developing

in the Atlantic. This will turn into Storm Connor. This cloud has wrapped

around storm Barbara. It brought gusty winds in the West. Some

localised flooding in Scotland early on and the strongest winds in the

north of Scotland approaching 80 miles an hour. The amber window

warning from the Met Office is about to expire. It remains windy

overnight. In Scotland and Northern Ireland there will be frequent heavy