麻豆约拍

As children across Kent prepare to return to school this week, are we heading towards a two-tier education system?

The county's first Free School opens in Maidstone on Wednesday - and there will be more academies run independently of the local education authority.

Two thirds of Kent and Medway's secondary schools are now academies, meaning they get their funding directly from the government. That has prompted complaints from the leader of Kent County Council Paul Carter who says unfair funding arrangements are hampering the council's ability to improve standards at its own schools.

Is it fair to ask elderly people with savings to pay to use day care facilities?

That is the question social care bosses are today being asked - to justify charging vulnerable elderly people up to forty pounds a day to use a pop-in care centre that used to be free.

Since July, users of the KCC-owned facility at Minnis Bay in Thanet have been means-tested, and anyone with total life savings amounting to thirteen thousand pounds or more has to pay the full whack. Campaigners want the charges overturned (06:25, 07:22 and 08:22).

Kent hosts its first-ever Paralympic Event this week, with drivers in West Kent likely to be the first to notice.

From today, and for the rest of the week, there are restrictions on roads around Brands Hatch, as the racing circuit, and the roads themselves, host cycling events, with seven and a half visitors a day expected at the venue (07:48 and 08:53).