Morning is Broken appeared on a wall of a building on Blacksole Farm, Herne Bay, since destroyed
Banksy’s latest work, on the side of a derelict farmhouse in the seaside town of Herne Bay in Kent, has been demolished.
The mural, titled Morning is Broken, depicted a silhouetted young boy next to a cat in a window, opening corrugated iron curtains.
Continue reading...Some of the over 1,450 people brought by AG Recruitment owed thousands to unlicensed brokers
A British recruitment agency that brought Indonesian farmworkers to the UK who had debts of thousands of pounds to foreign brokers has lost its licence as a seasonal worker sponsor.
More than 1,450 Indonesians were brought to Britain last year by AG Recruitment to pick berries and other fruits to supply British supermarkets.
Continue reading...Unknown patterns found on ceramics from Josephine Willis, which collided with steamer in 1856
The wreck of a mid-19th century sailing ship transporting British people to New Zealand and with a cargo of exceptionally rare ceramics onboard has been listed for protection 167 years after it sank off the Kent coast.
The Josephine Willis wooden packet boat, built in Limehouse and launched in 1854 by HH Willis & Co, foundered four miles (6.4km) south of Folkestone harbour following a collision with the steamer Mangerton on 3 February 1856, with the loss of 70 lives including Captain Edward Canney. The ship lies in two parts on the seabed, 23 metres deep.
Continue reading...Exclusive: military veterans’ group RE:ACT gets £200,000 yearly contract to ensure welfare of lorry drivers gridlocked in Kent
The government has signed a £200,000-a-year contract with a disaster response charity established by the former head of Britain’s armed forces to help drivers stuck in lorry queues in Kent.
The Department for Transport has enlisted RE:ACT, which uses military veterans to distribute humanitarian aid in war zones and following natural disasters, amid concerns over driver welfare.
Continue reading...Major search and rescue operation continues after HM Coastguard received reports of an incident at 3.40am on Wednesday
At least three people have died and 43 people have been rescued after trying to cross the Channel in freezing conditions overnight, according to reports.
A member of a rescue team confirmed to Sky News that at least three people have died, as a major search and rescue operation continues off the coast of Kent. “Many” were rescued from the water, according to BBC reporter, Simon Jones, adding a small number are confirmed dead.
Continue reading...Apparent vacating of Home Office site follows series of concerns including over outbreak of diphtheria
Manston asylum centre, the troubled Home Office site in Kent where people arriving in the UK in small boats are taken for initial checks, is understood to be completely empty, the Guardian has learned.
Just a few weeks ago about 4,000 arrivals were placed there by the Home Office, almost three times the maximum 1,600 capacity of the tented site in Ramsgate.
Continue reading...Two Afghans tell of how they were taken from Manston centre and left without accommodation or money
People taken from Manston immigration holding centre have described their dismay at being deposited late at night in central London, without accommodation, appropriate clothing or money.
Amid growing controversy over the circumstances in which large numbers of people were bussed out of the acutely overcrowded camp, the Home Office has insisted that it only released asylum seekers who told staff that they had family or friends they could stay with.
Continue reading...Young girl in overcrowded Kent processing centre throws note over fence pleading for help and comparing facilities to prison
The Home Office is removing 600 people every day from a controversial processing centre in Kent amid growing concerns over the mental health of people detained for weeks in cramped and unhygienic conditions.
After an outcry at the treatment of asylum seekers at Manston processing centre, the local MP, Roger Gale, has been told by ministers that the total number held within the facility will be cut from 4,100 on Monday to 1,500 by the weekend.
Continue reading...Immigration minister says number of people at Kent processing centre has fallen substantially
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Hundreds of migrants have been moved out of an immigration centre in Kent amid concerns it had become dangerously overcrowded.
The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, said the number of people at the Manston migrant processing centre had fallen substantially on Tuesday, with more expected to be moved on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Additional requirements would be time-consuming and threaten capacity, Dover port boss says
Post-Brexit Channel border delays could multiply from next May, with a five-person vehicle being held for up to 10 minutes if the EU goes ahead with a planned biometric entry system, the Port of Dover has said.
The entry-exit system (EES), which is due to start in May 2023, will require all non-EU nationals to register their fingerprints and be photographed before entering the bloc.
Continue reading...Unusually the violet helleborine is only pollinated by wasps and is thriving thanks to nectar that is irresistible to the insects
A rare orchid that reproduces by getting wasps drunk is thriving in the gardens of Charles Darwin’s house after a two-year restoration programme.
The violet helleborine is entirely pollinated by wasps, which are usually not perceived to be the best pollinators. They’re regimented and meticulously clean themselves, scientists say, which makes the process of pollination a fairly futile prospect – there’s nothing for the pollen to cling to.
Continue reading...As farms look further afield for labour, investigation finds Kent pickers saying they struggle to pay fees charged by unlicensed brokers
Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.
Pickers at the farm in Kent were initially given zero-hours contracts, and at least one was paid less than £300 a week after the cost of using a caravan was deducted, according to payslips and other documents seen as part of a Guardian investigation.
Continue reading...Drawn to the prospect of a job abroad, people such as Banyu signed up to a language course. From there, their debts to brokers grew
Sitting in a caravan in the hot Kent countryside, Banyu’s face is etched with worry. It is July and he is less than a month into a job picking fruit at Clock House farm near Maidstone, which supplies strawberries, raspberries and other soft fruit to leading supermarket chains.
He says he arrived from Indonesia this summer £5,000 in debt to an unlicensed broker in Bali, handing over the deeds to his family home as surety. He only has a six-month visa for the picking season and is scared that the work is not as lucrative as he hoped.
Continue reading...Cross-Channel ferry passengers told to arrive in good time for border checks after weekend of delays
Cross-Channel ferry passengers were being told to arrive in good time at Dover as queues built at the Port of Dover amid fears the severe disruption of recent days could return to Kent throughout the summer.
The ferry operator DFDS told passengers there were queues of about an hour for French border checks on Monday morning and to “allow a minimum of 120 minutes before your departure to complete all controls”.
Continue reading...Travellers told to allow three to four hours to pass through security and French border checks at port
French authorities have hit back at claims by the Port of Dover that French border control staff were to blame for a second day of hours-long delays, saying: “France is not responsible for Brexit.”
It came after the port blamed delays on insufficient border staff at police aux frontières.
Continue reading...French transport minister hits back at Liz Truss’s suggestion that France needed to fix the ‘avoidable and unacceptable’ situation
Authorities in Kent have declared a “major incident” due to traffic jams in and around Dover, with officials saying the disruption could be worse than on Friday.
There are currently 3,000 lorries parked on the M20 and traffic is building at the port.
We are operating in a post-Brexit environment which does mean that passports need to be checked, they need to be stamped and indeed the capable people that do man the booths – police aux frontieres – they’re doing their job that they need to do now.
Continue reading...Energy crisis has made Kent scheme aimed at unobtrusively building up solar output more timely
Tennis fans tucking into strawberries at Wimbledon this month may find their fruit has an unusual origin – a solar-powered greenhouse.
Transparent panels have been attached to the sides of glasshouses in Kent as part of a trial to build up solar power supplies without using more land.
Continue reading...Fresh from US defamation case win against Amber Heard, actor has been playing UK gigs with Jeff Beck
On the latest stop of his UK tour, days after winning a multimillion-dollar defamation trial against Amber Heard, Johnny Depp was spotted holding a badger cub in Kent.
“Guess who’s been to see us,” Folly Wildlife Rescue Trust wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, which received thousands of likes. “That’s the real Johnny Depp!”
Continue reading...Emergency traffic controls triggered 20 times this year as extra Brexit controls and freight volumes cause logjams
His lorry loaded with British Airways aircraft parts, Ivo Hradilik was expecting to drive onto a ferry headed to Calais, before delivering his cargo to the outskirts of Paris.
But there’s a problem with the customs paperwork, and the 26-year-old HGV driver from the Czech Republic will have to park up near the Port of Dover while the haulage company sorts everything out.
Continue reading...Kentish pharmacist-restauranteurs Rav and Raj Chopra joined the NHS vaccine rollout after their father’s hospitalisation
When customers walk through the doors of V’s Punjabi Grill, a family-run restaurant in Gravesend in Kent, the sign above their heads says in gold-letters: cocktails, grills, events.
Now, the family may need to paint a fourth bullet point: vaccinations.
Continue reading...