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Claims immigration checks were relaxed at Port of Dover

John and Clare with the latest news, travel, and weather, plus stories from around Kent.

Millions of coach passengers could have been let into the UK through the Port of Dover without proper passport checks. A national newspaper has claimed immigration checks were relaxed at the Kent port as part of a policy to reduce queues at Dover in 2007, but ministers were never told. Proper checks have now been re-instated.

More people are being admitted to Kent's hospitals for alcohol-related illnesses. In 2006 there were over 21,000 admissions in Kent, but last year the figure rose to more than 29,000.

One suggestion is a minimum price for alcohol but the Public Health Minister Anne Milton says a minimum price per unit could be open to legal challenges and she has warned it might fall foul of European competition law.

Does your Kent accent hold you back? What lengths have you gone to lose your local twang? Gravesend actress and Bond girl Gemma Arterton has revealed she took speech lessons to lose her Kent accent. In a Guardian newspaper interview she described how she was sent away to a vocal coach prior to filming the 2010 film Tamara Drewe.

3 hours

Broadcast

  • Mon 14 Nov 2011 06:00