LOCAL NEWS �
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Drug dealer who hid coke in body is sent to prison A DRUG dealer who hid cocaine in his body has been jailed for seven years. David Akande, of Sylvan Hill, Norwood, pleaded not guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine but was convicted by a jury The dealer was a passenger in an MG stopped by police in Tonbridge on October 21 2014. Officers believe he was staying in Tunbridge Wells at the time. Police suspected Akande was supplying drugs hidden inside his body and after he refused an intimate search, he was placed under supervision until he produced the drugs. After three weeks, 24 wraps containing cocaine, a cocaine cutting agent and traces of a heroin derivative were recovered. Akande was sentenced to seven years, at Maidstone Crown Court on April 27. Detective Constable Jeremy Taylor said: “Akande’s arrogance and deceit, together with a previous history of convictions for drugs supply, have resulted in a substantial prison sentence… that should serve as a severe warning to anyone planning to deal drugs in Tunbridge Wells.”
Man attacks girl, 15
SPRING TIME The trees are coming into leaf, there is blossom everywhere and the countryside is turning verdant after the long winter months. Photographer Paul Harvey captured this charming image of Horsmonden church last week. See Craig Matthews’ image on page 8.
POLICE are investigating an attack on a 15-year-old girl outside Tunbridge Wells station in the early hours of Monday morning. The teenager had been out with friends on Sunday night and was attempting to get a taxi home at about 2.45am. As she waited, a man described as in his 20s to 30s approached her and punched her in the face, twice. The girl fell to the ground as her attacker made off in a taxi. The teenager’s friends appealed on social media for help to find her attacker and police said they are pursuing ‘a number of lines of enquiry’. The girl was taken to hospital with minor facial injuries.
West Kent young people in ‘mental health crisis’
NHS provider not meeting targets for new referrals, say figures • By Julie Rae YOUNG people suffering with mental health issues are being failed by the NHS in west Kent, damning new figures reveal. Almost half the children and young people affected in the area are being forced to wait more than four weeks for an assessment, although the target is for 95 per cent of cases to be seen within this time. At a meeting of the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Board last week, it was revealed that in March this year, 54.3 per cent of adolescents and children in the west Kent clinical commissioning group area were not assessed within the targeted time. This put the area as the second-worst performing mental health provider of eight in the county for that age group. Greg Clark, Conservative candidate for Tunbridge Wells, said: “No-one would think it was tolerable to wait over a month to be seen if they had a broken arm and yet a mental health breakdown can have more serious and long-lasting consequences. “It is completely unacceptable that more
CONCERNED Greg Clark than half of young people facing mental health problems locally have to wait more than four weeks for a first appointment. “Waiting times are, at last, coming down but we still have the second-worst record in Kent.” Kent as a whole is performing slightly better, with 45.5 percent waiting longer than the target time. Mr Clark added: “One child in ten needs support
for a mental health condition at some time before they become an adult. “During the last five years I campaigned to get more investment into local mental health services and to drive down waiting times which were over a year in many cases.” Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg recently announced a £3bn investment in mental health. Launching the party’s ‘manifesto for the mind’ at the end of March, Mr Clegg said millions were denied ‘happy, fulfilling lives’ as a result of mental health issues. The Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust board meeting report says: “The board takes a proactive and self-challenging approach to improving quality and actively looks at how to do this in ways relevant to its context. “The organisation has a way of measuring the success or the progress of quality improvement, including innovation, and sees failure not as a negative but as a learning experience. Lessons are learned and embedded in practice from failures to deliver performance improvement.”
Drunk abuser banned A MAN who verbally abused another person in the street has been banned from being drunk or trying to beg within a certain area for 12 months. Isaac Smith, of Sherwood Road, has also been given a 60-day prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, having pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour and theft in front of Sevenoaks magistrates. On July 20 last year, the 42-year-old used ‘threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour’ towards a man in Crescent Road, with ‘intent to cause him harassment, alarm or distress’. On December 16 2014, he stole an unknown amount of cash from a building in Mount Pleasant Road.
Hall use on the up USE of Sandhurst Village Hall has ‘markedly’ increased and the building is en route to selfsufficiency thanks to a range of grants. The parish council, which bought the hall from the Church in 2007, raised enough money to fund a complete refurbishment of the building, the former village school.
Julie@timesoftunbridgewells.co.uk
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