Podcast: Medway Maritime Hospital staff "pulling pints" to cover costs as bosses hike parking charges

Staff at Kent's biggest hospital say they’re having to pick up shifts in pubs following a decision by bosses to raise parking fees by 60 percent. Changes came into force at Medway Maritime at the start of the month – you can hear from a 19-year-old student midwife on how it’s impacted her.  Also in today’s podcast, fire bosses from Kent and Medway are meeting today to discuss plans to make cuts to services, just days after a noisy protest outside County Hall drew hundreds of supporters.  It comes as fire crews have dealt with a number of blazes as the hot and dry weather continues.  A violent abuser threatened to "annihilate" his girlfriend before suffocating her with a duvet after she threw him out. The 29-year-old held a quilt over her face as she struggled for breath inside her Herne Bay flat, only stopping when she bit his hand hard enough to draw blood. We’ve spoken to a conservation group who have told us what's at stake, if an ancient Kent woodland is used as a quarry.  It’s after proposals to mine sand, gravel and stone from around one-hundred acres of Oaken Wood, near Aylesford, gathered more than 20,000 letters of objection.  And, an all-female relay team are raising money for a drowning prevention charity, by swimming from Dover to France. They're taking on the challenge, 100 years after the first woman successfully swam the Channel.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.