23/10/2016 South East Today

Good evening. stay with us on BBC1 -

A south east visitor attraction had run up debts of nearly ?500,000

including over ?70,000 owed to the local council.

Dickens World in Chatham had been beset by financial

difficulty, as documents filed at Companies House in May rdvealed.

Dickens world opened to a blaze of publicity nine years ago,

Ten days ago it appeared to have closed, although there had been no

The attraction has been hitting the headlines again today

as documents show back in M`y, Britannia Entertainment Limhted

which traded as a Dickens World owed a total of almost

Medway Council were owed more than ?72,000.

That ?72,000 can make a real difference to the community

The changes to finance for local Government mean that business rates

are more important than ever, so I would urge officers to do

all they can to ensure they get back what amount they can.

Sadly, I suspect it will not be the full amount.

Today notices on the doors `ppear to show the property's landlord had

taken back posession and forfeited the lease.

Although I have never been to the attraction,

it has obviously not been publicised enough and peopld

It is quite important for the area, something like this,

but obviously not enough people have been coming.

I think it was good value for money but I do not think they bro`dcast it

enough and told people about it enough.

The attraction slashed tickdt prices and 2007, with bosses blaming

Later that year the company running it went into administration

We have been unable to make contact with anyone

Kent County Council has been approached by the Home Office

for senior social workers to provide help with age assessments as child

migrants from the Jungle calp in Calais arrive in the UK.

The camp, home to over 6,000 people, is due to be demolished tomorrow.

Dozens of young migrants have arrived in the UK in recent days

and concern has been raised by some MPs about their ages.

KCC say nothing has yet been arranged but said

Members of the Cabinet will decide on Tuesday whether to expand Gatwick

Gatwick has said it will relain "ready to deliver" a second runway,

It's been reported that somd Conservative MPs are prepardd

to support a legal challengd by Tory councils if the Governlent

Local business leaders say whatever the outcome they too will continue

We can go back to the Government and say what we support the runway

An investigation is underwax after a man was shot near Ashford.

Police were called to a property in Little Chart at 11.40pm on Friday

to find a man in his 40s with suspected shotgun injuries

A man and woman have been arrested on suspicion of being concerned

Police also want to speak to up to five people who had been

Two people arrested at a far right protest march in Margate yesterday

The demonstration was the fhrst in the UK by the American

It was heavily policed by over a hundred officers but passdd

A 43-year-old local man was arrested in connection with a public order

offence and a 31-year-old man on suspicion of

Now a look at the weather - here's Sara Thornton.

We have had some lovely sunshine today but still of a nip in the air

That persists into the new working week and that brings cloud `s well.

It will generally be dry for most of the week, which is good news

And a change in wind directhon means from the middle of the week it

Through tonight and into tolorrow we have cloud and some rain

pushing in from the south, that really amounts to almost

nothing, largely, but it keeps temperatures up,

8-10C to start tomorrow, but a fairly gloomy start and cloudy

As the day wears on the clotd thins a bit and we may see some

brightness coming through, but with the north-easterly wind

As I say, something milder for the middle of the week

because an area of high pressure builds from the south-west `nd that

changes the wind direction to a south-westerly

Wednesday is perhaps up to 15 Celsius.

Finally a look ahead to what's on the Breakfast Show on BBC

of illegal cockle pickers are decimating a Sussex beatty spot

and putting the public's safety at risk by selling poisonous cockles

Join us the Breakfast team from around 6.30 tomorrow morning.

So far this month most of the rain has been near Eastern coasts. That's

changing quite dramatically. All of this cloud coming in from the south

and this rain band moving across the channel into southern parts of

England right now. The rain is easing off in the south-east of

England. The main focus will be for the south-west of England where

there could be heavy bursts of rain in Devon and Cornwall. With the

shield of cloud pushing into Wales, the Midlands and the southern half

of the UK, but it isn't as cold night. Different story further

north, breaks in the cloud allowing for a touch of frost and pockets of

mist and fog. Northern areas will see spells of sunshine in the

morning. Some showers, but not as many as recently. The Midlands and

the south, more cloud,