Podcast: Heartbreak at death of former Park Mall shopping centre manager, 41, who ‘loved Ashford’

The devastated family of a former shopping centre manager say life will never be the same following his death - aged just 41.Gareth Tyrrell, a familiar and popular face across Ashford, ran the Park Mall complex for 15 years, where he was known for stopping to chat with traders and shoppers.Also in today’s podcast, a campaign group in Tunbridge Wells say they're determined to make sure the town's recent water issues stay on the agenda. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses were without water in major outages in recent months – last night bosses from South East Water declined to attend a council scrutiny meeting. There are calls from a Kent MP for the government to do more to help young people into work. Helen Whately told the commons there are nearly one million young people are not in education, work or training and 700,000 university graduates are on benefits. Figures seen by the KentOnline Podcast show one town is facing a shortfall of 1,765 secondary school places by 2033.But while most new housing developers in Maidstone are being asked to contribute towards the cost of expanding school capacity to meet the demand, at least one site of 272 homes doesn’t have to pay a thing.And a 16-year-old skateboarder is raising funds to set up a 14-foot ramp at his local park help him achieve his Olympic dreams.The teen already competes across the world and has hopes of kickflipping his way to the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.