It is often mentioned as one of the stumbling blocks to any airport being built in the Thames Estuary, and this week the SS Richard Montgomery will make a reappearance on the political agenda.

A public meeting on the wreck is being held at the St George’s Centre in Chatham Maritime on Thursday (September 27) at 7pm.

It will be chaired by historian and film maker Colin Harvey, and there will be a panel of guests who will take part in a discussion about the vessel.

Among the issues they will consider are the potential disposal of the wreck, who would pay for it and whether the US government should be approached.

We know the consequences of the ship’s thousands of pounds of munitions exploding would be catastrophic, but the meeting might reveal some new information.

--

Cuts in funding from government put the council in a very difficult position when it comes to balancing the books.

A report this week lays out one of the hard choices the administration might have to make in the near future.

A rise in council tax of 4% in 2013/14 needs to be given “serious consideration” according to a report for a business committee meeting tomorrow (Tuesday).

--

Call off the search party.

Rehman Chishti has proven notoriously hard to get hold of in my time at the paper, but it appears his media operation is being ramped up.

Barry Watts, who used to be the political assistant to the council’s Conservative group, is now working for the Gillingham and Rainham MP.

And since that change my inbox has been bombarded with press releases keeping me fully abreast of what Reh’s getting up to.

I’m half expecting a release about what he’s had for breakfast to come through next.

A month ago, I was approached by a major car company *cough* Nissan *cough* to be involved in a new campaign about electric cars.

"Little old me?  A humble blogger from Rainham?"

"Yes," they said.  "You."

"OK,"  I said, "what do you need me to do?"

"Well," they said, "we ... erm ... we just need you to stand at Speaker's Corner in London and read out a blog post about electric cars using a megaphone."

"Hello?  Kate??  HELLO?"

It was a daunting suggestion to say the least but I was definitely up for the challenge.  I knew I would be up against 9 other UK bloggers but was excited that I'd have the opportunity to represent Rainham.  

I've felt for a long time that Kent is under-represented in terms of the blogging community, a community I've been a part of for the last 18 months, and I'd been looking for some way to bring Kent to the forefront.

Here was my opportunity - as embarrassing as it would no doubt be.

A few weeks later, a film crew turned up at my house and set to work taking shots of the Nissan Leaf that had been delivered the night before. 

"By the way, we're not going to go to London now."

I was relieved but a little disappointed.  

"Instead, you're going to stand on stage at your local theatre by the Oasthouse in Rainham and do a speech there."

Oh.

To cut a long story short, I ended up talking to people as they walked past my house and answering questions they had about the car and so we stayed there all day.  

I had a challenge to carry out whilst being filmed.  My challenge was to blog using old technology and so the crew provided me with a very old typewriter, a Polaroid camera, some chalk, a chalkboard and a megaphone.  

And it certainly was a challenge - nothing worked!

If you want to see what I got up to, you can check out my video HERE - it would be really great to have Kent's support and I'd love to get Rainham and Kent on the blogging map!

The gig is this. Every time someone clicks ‘TURN KATE ON’ on the Nissan website  or Tweets about my video, or clicks the Facebook button or posts to their site, I get one point. Every time someone books a test drive (and actually does the test drive during the next month,) I get 30 points.

AND WHAT DO POINTS MAKE?

That’s right! Prizes!

Except this prize … is a biggie.

The winner gets to win a brand new Nissan Leaf!

(*faints a bit*)

You can click as often as you like!

If you're on Twitter, retweets count - my Twitter name is @iamwitwitwoo (you just need to make sure that the tweet you're retweeting has all of the relevant hashtags in it,) and Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your Aunt!

For more info, you can click HERE.

Thanks and ... wish me luck!

Growing up we only had three TV channels to choose from.  This means I remember all my favourite TV programmes vividly … from Why Don’t You? … to Blue Peter, to The Adventure Game, The Red Hand Gang and Jim’ll Fix It (RIP Jimmy.)  One of my most favourite programmes, however, was Record Breakers, hosted by the late great Roy Castle, who never failed to impress me, even as a child, with his never ending enthusiasm and smiley face.  Plus, the McQuirter twins were wonderfully weird.  And tall.  What’s not to love?

So it was very surreal to find myself boarding a train with Skig on Thursday, heading to the headquarters of the Guinness World Records in London.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but all I know is, dedication’s what you need.  (The more mature amongst us will get that joke )

We arrived at Warren Street tube station with plenty of time to spare.  Good job really as my map reading skills leave a lot to be desired and we actually ended up doing a full circle on ourselves before we reached HQ.  I would like to point out that we arrived at exactly 1.30pm, the time the event was meant to start.  I hate tardiness as much as poor grammar so feel it’s important to point out.  Right, OK, as I was saying.

The people that work at Guinness World Records were brilliant, not only welcoming to me, but particularly great with the children.  Skig was given a VIP pass on a lanyard, which made him feel very important.  There was a good spread of food and drink put on for us and Skig and I indulged in too many egg sandwiches, sausage rolls and Percy Pigs.  Perfect.

It was great to see some of my favourite fellow bloggers there.  What was even nicer was that our children got to hang out together too – the next generation of bloggers??

We were treated to visits from current world record holders which were introduced by Craig Glenday, the Editor.  Craig was such an entertaining bloke who pitched to the audience of parents and kids perfectly.   Craig very kindly even produced his very own Powerpoint presentation for us (when it finally loaded up – the first Powerpoint presentation I’ve ever watched that wasn’t boring,) and he explained the history of GWR, how it works, what is and isn’t acceptable and finally, we saw some photos of some great record holders.  The world’s ugliest dog my particular favourite.

First up was Darius.  Great bloke.  Huge.  Bit hairy.  Slept a lot.  Also happens to be the biggest rabbit in the world.

Then there was John Farnborough, a talented young man who holds five world records for football tricks.  I’d be hard pushed to do two kick-ups but John was amazing.

Next up was Sean, all the way from Canada, who’s the fastest talker in the world.  Think I might put Skig up for this challenge though – reckon he’d give Sean a run for his money.  Sean recited Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody … in 47 seconds.  Pretty impressive stuff.  (Although give me a couple of vodkas and I reckon I could beat that.)

Finally, we met Sam Sam The Bubbleman.  That’s his real name.  The clue’s in the title – a man who has spent the last twenty years playing with bubbles.  Suffice to say, he was all kinds of awesome, great with the kids and even encased Skig in his very own bubble!

We got to tour the offices, met the staff (who were the happiest staff I’ve ever met – why could I never have worked in an office like that!?) and came across a fascinating cabinet of interesting artifacts.  A copy of the first ever GWR book, a Converse trainer the size of my car (well, not quite, but a size 30,) and the childrens’ favourite, ancient dinosaur puke.  Brilliant.

Now you may be wondering just how did it come about that I ended up coming home a world record breaker myself?  I’ll explain.

At the end of the afternoon, the GWR team put on three challenges for us all to take part in.  Whoever completed each particular task in the fastest time would have the opportunity of officially competing, with full official adjudication, and if they beat the record, would appear in the actual Guinnes World Book of Records next year!  All to play for.

I’ll preface this by just saying, I’m pretty competitive.  Not in a ‘pushing little kids out of the way’ type way .. but I like winning.  Oh yeah, and taking part.  That too.

The three challenges were:

Who could put back together Mr Potato Head the fastest

Who could stack the most dice on top of each other in 30 seconds

Who could stack the most dominoes on top of each other in 30 seconds.

I ended up stacking the most dominoes in the warm up round and so got to take part in the official challenge.  The video can be viewed on my blog post - to be found at www.witwitwoo.com.

So that’s how I became a world record breaker!  How cool is that?!

And just when I didn’t think the day could get any better, we got to ride back to Euston train station on the world’s fastest sofa.  No, seriously.  We did.  Look!

Big thanks to everyone involved at Guinness World Records.  Skig and I had the best day EVER!

I was soaking up the sun in the Eastern Desert last week when the scale of the impact of Britain's summer of discontent became clear.

Earlier in the day my wife and I had watched the BBC World Service showing the scenes in Croydon, Tottenham and various other London locations a couple of days before we were due to fly home.

Now Egyptians from our hotel were concerned that we were about to return to "lawless Britain" risking life and limb. It was, for them, a matter of major concern.

Never mind that in Cairo and elsewhere that thousands of Egyptians have been forcefully demonstrating against the old Mubarak regime and the replacement arrmy government.

Nor that Coptic (Christian) churches were regularly being bombed and burned by militants.

All are symptoms of Northern Hemisphere 2011.

Watching from 2,500 miles away, it appeared to us there was little action by the police. It bore a striking resemblance to that which greeted the Egyptians when they decided to end the Mubarak regime.

The holidaymakers were more concerned about relaxing than rioting.

What strikes me as different is that this time there were incidents in dozens of places.

And politicians seemed to have their own ways of explaining it.

To the BNP it was race riots.

To David Cameron and the Lib Dems it was a sign of a sick society.

To Labour it was - well, something with which to beat the Tory smoothies with their featherduster of vitriol.

To the police it was an opportunity to demonstrate that cuts in funding were having a detrimental impact.

To the public? - well, it was a chance to voice their own preferences (and in some cases to misbehave).

Of course for the courts it was an opportunity to demonstrate they are not under the thumb of the politicians - just give 'em back the power to use the birch.

Now I have returned home, and having seen that across our green and pleasant land trouble seems to have broken out everywhere ranging from Manchester and Liverpool through the Midlands to London's destruction and the bonfires in Rainham, it was somewhat unsurprising to this scribe.

Every 15 years or so there is some sort of misbehaviour in Britain. Tottenham, Handsworth, Merseyside .... the list goes on.

Regrettably, it will go on in future years.

Hose reels, evictions, arming the police, bussing them into London from South Wales to provide mobs of bobbies on every corner, kicking the police authorities because in a few months there were be elected police commissioners  ....

It's largely playing to the gallery.

What is needed is firmness, fairness and fast action when problems break out.

There is one lesson that can be learned from August 2011's thefts, firebombings and destruction.: leave them alone for a few hours and the mobs will always get the upper hand.

***

The last thing I thought when we visited El Gouna was that we would be constantly reminded of the Member of Parliament for Gillingham and Rainham.

But it was impossible to escape Mr Chishti - or at least echoes of him.

It was all caused by two Pakistani buses that had joined a small fleet of Egyptian saloons to provide the public transport around the holiday resort.

Flamboyant in the extreme, the buses had rockets on their roofs, mirrors on the inside coving and numerous images of plants, stars and symbols.

Why was Mr Chishti constantly brought to mind?

Because both buses had been built in Karachi by a bodybuilder named G N Chishti.

One thing I have to concede was that they were considerably more comfortable than the locally-built buses. They had upholstered seats. The locals had wooden slats...

It is with great sadness that I heard the news of the disbanding of Medway band The Deccas.

The foursome were one of the first Kent bands who let me in to their little world as a features reporter for What's On.

Chatting to them at their practice sessions at Def Studios in Chatham's Historic Dockyard, I was struck by the way the produced tight, typically Medway-Mod recordings.

Their only album Ways To The Sun was typical of the spiky power pop that has gripped the Medway scene for God knows how long. Short, sharp tunes with a good hook.

Never afraid of admitting they were hoping to "make it" they had that pure quality - not found in nearly enough bands - of just being four good mates.

In an email Twydall-born singer-songwriter and guitarist Wes Wren, Gillingham guitarist Phil Crane, Rochester bassist Dave Sawicki and Rainham drummer Tony Hetherington announced: "It is with heavy hearts that The Deccas are saddened to say that they are no more.

"After four and a half years, over 120 gigs, four CDs and six different members and numerous Subways the time seems right to stop."

For nostalgic Medway-scene followers, the good news is that the band will finish their latest EP and put it out on a limited run for free.

Until then, we mourn you The Deccas. Is it too late to reconsider?

****

For anyone who wondered why I suddenly stopped tweeting when I was at Hyde Park for the Kings of Leon concert last Wendesday, it is because the whole thing was too awesome to take my eyes off.

Great support shows from Mona, White Lies and Paul Weller capped off by a stonker of a set by perhaps the biggest band on the planet right now.

I was so impressed that I am heading back to Hyde Park tomorrow to see Arcade Fire, with support from The Vaccines, Beirut and Mumford and Sons.

Then Kent's festival season kicks off with the Hop Farm Music Festival at Paddock Wood the next day and Lounge On The Farm at Canterbury's Merton Farm the following weekend.

If the updates slow down, it is because I've developed a very serious case of tweeters finger.

****

If you fancy getting your music, latest gig or theatre production reviewed on this blog or inside the KM Group's What's On magazine, drop me an email at cprice@thekmgroup.co.uk.

You can also follow me on Twitter @TheChrisPrice and follow What's On @kmwhatson. Join us on Facebook by liking www.facebook.com/kmwhatson

OK. We all know there is change afoot in Medway, but what's with the changing of names?

My long-time favourite has been the absorption of Rainham Mark by Rainham. (Anyone unfamiliar with the tale should look at the boundary between the Men of Kent and the Kentish Men. It is as historic as the Great one of China and Hadrian's Wall, or Offa's Dyke…. except to Medway Council which ripped down the sign when it merged Rochester and Gillingham boroughs.)

There are others.

For example, the Lords Wood (shades of cricketing amid the beeches?), Weeds Wood (gardeners' on hands and knees, perhaps?) and Park Wood (now minus Rainham Park, of course, but don't let that stop the Renaming of Parts.).

The latest travesty is the Tesco roundabout on the A2.

It was originally called Bowaters after the paper and packaging company that was enticed to set up in business on land acquired by the supermarket.

Depending whether you believe the press office (which spells it Bowwaters) or the highways engineers (who have put out signs reading Bow Waters roundabout) more changes are afoot.

It is all part of a subtle exercise in changing the image of the Medway Towns to a great, good, welcome place where everyone wants to live and work. It just might sucker some people into believing the balmy life is to be enjoyed on the North Kent mudflats.

Where will it end?

Someone suggested to me this week Rochester-upon-Wales (clearly influenced by the new movie about King John's 1215 siege of the castle which hits the cinema trail next week having been filmed in South Wales).

Then there's Cheatham, Stroud, Hoe St Wear Borough, Whig Moor, Cookstown, Hauling….where will it all end?

The answer, of course, is Hempstead…. near Maidstone.

***

Talking of Bowaters, it has been suggested by at least one wit that the mountain of crushed debris next to the enlarged store is being prepared as a new ski slope. The way winters are going, you wouldn't need to create the snow for a couple of months each year.

***

There was chaos around the old Gillingham borough today after a serious road accident in Rainham.

As is increasingly the norm, the police sealed off the site of the accident and began forensic examination of the area for future court or coroner's use.

In the meantime we were left with non-existent signposting of alternative routes, Wigmore seized up, the Lower Rainham Road at a standstill, traffic being turned about on the A2 and Bloors Lane.

Thankfully there wasn't any accident on the M2 or some people wouldn't get home until the start of next week.

I do wonder whether anything extra will be learned by the police that will benefit anyone in the future. Compare what now happens with the former processes of photographs, examinations, measurements, sweeping up and road reopening...

I’m aware that lately I may be coming across as a bit of a bore, banging on about my newfound love for running.  But I don’t care.  So there.

As I was saying … I love running I do (see pic above of a sweaty me after my fastest 4k run!)  There’s five words (yes, I had to count) that I never thought I’d find myself saying.  For those of you who personally know me, it’s pretty obvious why I have always found running difficult and I talk about that here.  For those of you who don’t know me, suffice to say me ‘& the girls,’ aka my Widdecombe Boob Shelf, have just always hated running.  Which is why I’m finding this whole running thing surreal.

I was always the ‘tall girl with the big boobs and big hair’ at school.  The one who always got put in for the shotput on Sports Day.  I was the Goal Shooter in Netball because that meant just standing under the net and occasionally putting the ball in.  A lifetime of feeling like running was never going to be possible left me, at 40, having never run further than to the local sweet shop/Off Licence.

This week, I forewent (what?  it’s a word!) watching My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding to plan out a new running route for tonight’s run.  I know!  Instead of reading a magazine in the bath from my magazine rack (aka the broken bidet,) I went onto Google and calculated the distance for said new run.  When I went to Bluewater at the weekend, I drooled over sports bras (ick – that doesn’t sound right … I just mean, well, you know .. my priorities have changed.)

And I suddenly realised this whole running malarkey had the potential to become my new obsession.

As you may have read here I even spent two hours choosing a new pair of trainers, embarrassing myself in the middle of a shop by getting my running technique (I use the term ‘technique’ loosely) analysed by the staff.  And that was only when I was power walking!  Imagine if I was let loose in Nike Town now!  Lord have mercy!

My obsessions have usually revolved around food.  My last phase was eating Star Bars and I ate one every day for approximately three months.  Usually in bed.  Or whilst watching The Biggest Loser.  Ironic eh.  For me to be so enthusiastic about something that’s actually good for me, has me a little nervous.

What if I can’t do this new long run?  What if (God forbid) I have to walk part of the way?  I’m in my groove and I hate the thought of not succeeding. Fear of failure has always been one of my many isms.

As you can guess, I’m a tiny bit competitive.  And as Monica from Friends would say, the best competition is the one against yourself!  Every time I run, I have to beat my last time.  Runkeeper Pro’s coach is egging me on!  I blame her.

I have to remember that the fear of doing nothing is worse than the fear of failure and so I am going to try this run out tonight.

If I don’t make it round in one go … there’s always tomorrow.  Or the day after.

Anyone got a Star Bar?  Purely for energy of course ...  

THE amount of vitriol spilled in Gillingham by its Liberal Democrat councillors (past and present) has taken on tsunami proprtions.

As a West Countryman I might have substituted the word bore - a tidal wave that sweeps up some rivers against the natural flow. But it would have been misunderstood.

There is nothing boring about the vehemence and the anger which has been let loose in the row about their former deputy leader and parliamentary candidate, Andy Stamp.

It has hit personal levels such as I have never known in the 20 years I have worked in Gillingham's political arena.

Stamp is a sensitive man with a strong sense of moral right.

He reported his two ward colleagues to the Standards Board after one of them - Cathy Sutton - was forced to leave her home and sought help.

They are still under investigation by the council's standards committee.

Since he resigned from the group and later the party, and stands as an Independent, Cllr Stamp has raised the stakes by going public on his complaints.

The party has now sprung to his defence, accusing him of a poor result in the general election (it was their best result since Bob Sayer stood in 1997).

***

The campaign to win city status for Medway has taken to the streets (literally) with the appearance of Arriva's dark blue and white doubledecker.

It has been poiunding the roads between Chatham, Rochester and Strood since it entered service.

What a pity it hasn't been on the 132 route. It serves Gillingham and Rainham, two of the towns which seem to have been overlooked in much of the regeneration benefits.

They also accused him of sulking because he didn't get the group leadership (he didn't, but by then the rank and file were already taking sides).

It is an election year. In 91 days we shall all be waiting to hear who has won what.

I strongly suspect the electorate will respond to the row in a way that will do nothing to benefit the LibDems - just as the electorate appears to want to blame that party for all the woes of the financial mess.

So … it’s New Year.  Stating the obvious I know, but some of you may still be in a Advocat fugued state.  I’m only slightly more ‘with it’ because I was sick over Christmas and couldn’t partake in any alcohol rel ated shenanigans.  Not that I’m bitter.  (*hooks IV drip up to the Crème de Menthe.*)

I’m not the sort of person who makes New Year’s Resolutions.  I realised quite early on in life that I had the willpower and attention span of a toddler and so there became no point in making resolutions I’d only break the following week.  If I lasted that long.  Therefore, big props go to anyone who can be bothered.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have goals.  Oh no!  For example, I’ve been vodka-free for seven days now (see above) … I just choose to set goals during the year when I’ve run out of bigger dress sizes or when I’m ill.  See … I can be really focused when I want.

What I like to do in the New Year though (overdosing on Quality Street aside,) is try new things out.  My degree was so time consuming, I’ve spent the last four years pouring any spare time and energy I had into studying – so now that chapter is closed I find myself in an enviable position – choice!  Very dangerous …

Here are the three new things I’m going to at least try this year:

1. Write a Book

I had to chuckle to myself when I read that one back.  Yeah Kate, write a book!  No problem!  You’ve got a spare 25 minutes free next Thursday – do it then. So, let me qualify this one slightly.  Part of my degree was Creative Writing and we were encouraged to try our hand at writing different genres (who knew I could write such rude stories!)   Another project I worked on was writing the beginning to a children’s book and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  So, three years on, I’m revisiting it.  The main theme is there, the characters are basic, but created.  Oh, and I even have a bit of a plot going on.  It needs a whole lot of work.  A whole lot.  But I’m up for the challenge.  It's based on a place I spent a lot of my childhood in in Rainham, and it's now somewhere I take my son to - I wanted to bring this place to life and what better way!

2. Go Dancing Again

I haven’t danced properly in years (I don’t think doing Salsa feet under the café table counts,) but I did take Salsa lessons eight years ago (tis how I met ‘Im Indoors,) and I’ve taken many a streetdance class (that reminds me, I still need to blog about my Pineapple experience!) so I’ve been on the lookout for something new to try.  Poledancing is out – don’t think I could lift my bodyweight 2″ off the ground if I’m honest – so, cue Zumba!  Not sure what it is really – and quite frankly, don’t care – it looks fun!  I’ve been to Notting Hill Carnival plenty of times and every year I try to look like I fit in, and end up doing some hyrbrid Samba/Bogle/Salsa move.  People usually think I’m having a fit and back away slowly.  All the same, the energy and enthusiasm is there – just need a little technique to go with it. I've done my research and there are Zumba classes popping up all over Medway so watch out - I'm on my way!

3. Get Fit

This isn’t a ‘New Year/New You’ kinda thing.  This has been a work in progress for a looooooong time.  For the last few months especially, I’ve made slow but steady progress – my main intention, to remain uninjured.  I don’t ask for much.  I’ve progressed from walking (I know – check me out!) to jogging and interval training around the streets of Rainham.  I’m back to boxing, which I love, and I do believe there is slightly less wobble to my bingo wings these days.

I’m only mentioning three new challenges here – more chance of fulfilling at least one of them – but that’s not to say more won’t be added to the list.  There is also this scary idea that keeps popping into my head about doing a Triathlon.  Yes, yes, I know … stop LOL’ing you lot – I’m being serious!  Oh and who knows what colour my hair will end up come Springtime!  

So this time next year Rodney, I doubt I’m going to be a millionaire, or a thin, best-selling author/Zumba Queen!  But I will be richer for at least trying new things.

Happy New Year!