Kent weekly round-up: 25 May - 31 May 2024

The story about a man from Folkestone completing a 10-day solo trek in aid of Brain Tumour Research proved a popular read this week.

A variety of local issues featured on the BBC News website, BBC Radio Kent and BBC South East Today.

We have picked five stories from the past week in case you missed them.

A review is set to take place into the "extremely high levels of traffic" in and around Dover and its port last weekend.

Drivers reported "gridlock" in the town on 25 May due to an increase in traffic trying to get to the port.

One motorist claimed to have been stuck in queues for about five hours.

Toby Howe, head of operations at the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, said the review would see if any "tweaks" could be made to the systems in place.

Read more here

Hear what BBC Radio Kent said on the issue.

Nigel Farage has said he ruled out standing as a candidate in the general election because of the "very short notice".

The Brexit campaigner made the comments as he claimed Reform UK was becoming a "new Conservative movement" during a visit to Dover in Kent on 28 May.

Asked why he would not stand as an MP candidate for the party, he told BBC South East he thought the election would be called in October.

But he added: "I think I'm more use to Reform UK nationally and more use, frankly, to the national debate being out and about in the country."

Read more here

A woman who murdered a pub landlord she was once related to has been jailed for life.

Stephanie Langley, 55, from East Farleigh, Kent, was convicted earlier this month of the murder of Matthew Bryant.

The court heard she stabbed her former brother-in-law with a kitchen knife outside the Hare and Hounds public house, in Maidstone, on 11 September 2023.

She was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on 30 May and will serve a minimum of 24 years.

Read more here

More than 10,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2024.

The figure of 10,170 was reached after the Home Office confirmed 288 people made the crossing in five small boats on 24 May.

In 2023, the figure of 10,000 was reached on 17 June.

The Home Office said the statistics show why it is important to get its Rwanda policy off the ground.

Read more here

An exhibition exploring the connections between a world-renowned garden in Kent and LGBTQ+ milestones of the 20th Century opens on 1 June.

Radical Relations looks at the unconventional lives of writer and poet Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson, the creators of Sissinghurst Castle Garden.

Letters and texts on display for the first time reveal their personal connections to high-profile obscenity trials and banned novels.

A National Trust spokesperson said the exhibition puts the couple's "cultural network at the heart of the early LGBTQ+ movement".

Read more here

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