The council hired London-based firm Smart City Dressing to put up the ‘retail window dressing’ to make the shopping areas look more attractive to shoppers.

So far 21 self-adhesive vinyls have been put up across the Medway towns since November and there will be 29 by the end of this financial year.

Watch our video below to find out more:

If you’ve spotted a sticker shop, take a picture and send it into us or tweet us with the hashtag #stickershops

View Virtual shops in Medway in a larger map

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Any financial aid would be strongly opposed by Conservative MPs, he told the Centre for Journalism.

Reports suggest it is a question of when, not if Portugal requires a bailout.

A figure of 70 billion euros (£60 billion) has been quoted as the likely figure of any assistance.

The Portuguese parliament rejected a set of austerity measures on Wednesday, prompting the resignation of Socialist prime minister Jose Socrates.

The Open Europe think tank has estimated that Britain could contribute as much as £3.2 billion to a bailout.

“I don’t think we should get involved and our tax payers, who are hard pressed enough as it is, shouldn’t be subsiding that,” Reckless said.

“Unfortunately  we signed up for a 60bn euros package that is being used  to bailout eurozone countries. There is 40bn euros or so left and supposedly we could be on the hook for that for Portugal or Spain.

“I think we should challenge that legally and I don’t think we should pay that money over.”

The former Chancellor Alaistair Darling signed a deal committing Britain to contributing to bailouts of eurozone countries.

So far Greece and Ireland have had to seek financial assistance.

Do you think Britain should bail out Portugal? Vote in our pole below:

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Yesterday lecturers from the University of Kent and Canterbury College took part in a two-day strike in protest against changes to the staff pension scheme.

The proposals are set to be introduced on the first of April. They include measures which could cost existing members ‘thousand’ of pounds.

Watch our video below to find out more about the strikes and tomorrow’s protest:

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Kent Police Authority produces 13 individual magazines for each district once a year. The total cost of printing these magazines was £36,936.00, whilst the distribution cost for 12 of the districts totalled £24,291.63. The cost of distribution in Medway was accidentally omitted from the request by Kent Police Authority.

The Policing Kent Magazine costs roughly the same as three yearly salaries of newly-appointed Kent constables. The price of the magazines has emerged only weeks after Kent Police announced the need to make £50m worth of government-ordered cuts.

Strood resident, Andrew Day, said: “I’m generally not in favour of massaging public perceptions of a service. There is too much time and money spent on PR and communications in my opinion.”

Another resident, Nicky Bates, Rochester, said: “I have to be honest, my copy usually ends up in the recycling after a quick browse.”

However, the Chief Executive, Mark Gilmartin, defended the magazine saying: “As of 1 April 2006 a legal requirement was placed on all Police Authorities to produce local policing summaries… Kent Police Authority decided that in order to best reflect local policing areas we would produce 13 individual magazines to reflect each of the districts.”

He added: “We consider our publications to be value for money and the cost to each police council tax household is a small amount, within the region of 11p.”

However, one resident questioned whether a ‘full colour glossy magazine’ was the cheapest way to produce local policing summaries.

Kent Police Authority was unable to comment at the time of publishing.

See below for individual distribution costs:

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The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) report said problems included those relating to operational planning and new technology mistakes.

Network Rail and train companies have agreed passenger information arrangements during disruption (PIDD).

The report said PIDD’s application during this winter’s cold snap was limited “largely because of a perception among train operating company managers that PIDD was not intended for, and does not comfortably fit with, the severe weather experienced in early December”.

The chief executive of ORR, Bill Emery, said: “Passenger information during disruption is once again under the spotlight after another challenging winter.  Our study shows that the rail industry has some tools in place to deliver useful passenger information  during disruption, but some train companies have yet to fully implement the code they agreed over a year ago.”

Meanwhile train operating company Southeastern has received criticism from some Kent MPs that the company managed to pass a recent punctuality target by 0.04% despite being badly affected by this winter’s snow.

Southeastern trains has also been slammed for its rail enquiries service, fares and ticketing system. Read the Centre for Journalism’s report published today on Southeastern’s performance here.

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According to figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) yesterday, net migration – the difference between people coming into the UK and those leaving it – has risen by 36 per cent in the period from June 2009 to 2010.

In its quarterly report, the ONS found that the number of people migrating to the UK was 572,000 compared to 346,000 emigrating from it; the latter figure also shows a declining trend over the past two years.

Ministers want to reduce the UK’s net migration by putting a cap on people immigrating from outside the European Union, plans which Labour has branded “the worst of all the worlds” and claim the even a cap on non- EU residents will fail to limit immigration from within it.

Research conducted on 1,004 adults by leading market research firm, Ipsos Mori, found that approximately 75 per cent of Britons think that immigration has become a problem in modern Britain with the majority in support of the proposed cap.

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: “These statistics reinforce once again why we are radically reforming the immigration system to bring net migration down to the tens of thousands by the end of this Parliament.”

Additional figures released however indicate that the number of asylum seekers has fallen since 2008 as has the number of long term settlers and foreign nationals being given UK passports.

The amount of student visas dished out in 2010 also fell to 334,815, a 2 per cent drop on 2009.

Possible causes for these declining figures include Britain’s economic down turn which may be affecting the number of people coming to the UK to work.

Statistics show that although less people are coming to work in the United Kingdom, 234,000 long term visas are being issued to those wanting to come and undertake formal study. This is a figure which has trebled in the past 10 years and gone up 41 per cent since June 2009.

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The decision is partially so the government can consider what fees universities are going to offer.

The Higher Education White Paper was meant to be published by March 2011.

Universities miniser David Willetts said he was delaying partly to observe how “price-setting works this spring”.

And according to Labour, the delay showed the coalition’s plans for higher education were “in trouble”.

The decision to delay comes after MPs decided to vote to generate higher fees between £6,000 and £9,000 per year.

The Liberal Democrats had opposed any tuition fee rises with the vote being a difficult issue for the coalition government.

Mr Willets has regularly informed university vice-chancellors against systematically going for the higher fee level.

The government has used average fees of £7,500 to illustrate its suggestions.

However higher education experts have said most universities will wish to charge close to £9,000 to avert being labelled as a poorer option.

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The crossing is tucked away in the middle of an estate. When I ask for directions a resident’s eyes instantly widen.

“Too many people are asking where it is these days. You’re not going to commit suicide are you?” I smile to see if he’s joking, but his expression stays the same.

This week the tranquil town has been shocked by a third death on the Glebe Way crossing in only two months.

The latest victim, a well-known restaurant owner, Anthony Sait, 40, died at the scene after being struck by a train in broad daylight.

A resident who wished to remain anonymous said: “The last two were sadly suicide, I believe.”

However, a friend of Anthony, Chick Forest said he was a happy and healthy man with a loving family. When I arrive at the crossing Chick has been standing there for 40 minutes, simply staring into the distance trying to understand how it happened.

He said: “It doesn’t make sense to me really. When you’re standing here you have at least 400 yards to see the train, of course the visibility today is very good. I just don’t understand how it’s happening. I think the answer is just to close it.”

He added: “I can’t see anything wrong in walking another 100 yards to use the bridge. You can’t put a price on a life whether it is a bridge or whatever. Surely it’s not so vital to cross here when people know there have been so many deaths in the past.”

However, a local resident said: “There’s a bridge just up the road, people used to jump off that to commit suicide; closing this isn’t going to make a difference. I feel awful for the train drivers. This spate we’ve had has been bad.”

Another resident, Marie, said: “I think it’s a shame that three people have died without someone taking urgent action to find out what is going badly wrong there. It’s obviously unsafe because three people can’t have made the same mistake and I wonder how many more people are going to have to die in an incredibly short space of time before anything is done.”

Would you keep the crossing open? Vote in our online poll below.

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The rise is expected to be an average of £356 per household. Prices will be allowed to rise approximately level with inflation, with the coming financial year being the second year of the existing five year policy.

OFWAT first announced the policy – which runs from 2010-2015 - in 2009.

The regulator said profits developed by increased prices would fund £22bn of spending on better services.

Regina Finn, Ofwat’s chief executive, said: “People can shop around for the best deal on many things, but not water. Our job is to do this for them. This will deliver real benefits to customers – from almost ten million people’s water supplies being better protected from events such as flooding to cleaner rivers and beaches,” she added.

The smallest forecast gain this coming year displayed by Ofwat’s figures, could be 2.7 per cent, or £11, for Welsh Water customers.

The biggest increase will be 7.8 per cent or £24 for Northumbrian Water customers.

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Passengers at Chatham Station in Medway were asked whether staff were offering an adequate rail enquiries service. They were also asked whether they were getting the best fares available and experiencing a generally good service.

This follows a survey published yesterday by consumer magazine Which? interviewing over1,500 people who travelled by train in the UK last year. Results have shown only half were confident they knew how to get the best available fare.

Sarah Jones, who travels daily to St Pancras International, said: “The service isn’t good value. For instance, the High Speed service, they class it as a fast train and its cleaner. But it doesn’t justify nearly £800 more being spent than the regular fare to Victoria.”

Which? claimed many station clerks were poorly trained and not offering enough passenger guidance. They also said many training operating companies’ ticketing systems were too complicated.

Martin Wilson, who commutes daily from Falconwood Station to London Charing Cross said: “I’m not confident I would know how to get the best fares if I didn’t use thetrainline.com. Staff vary from being very helpful to completely woeful. The main problem is the complexity of the ticketing system, which despite recent improvements still leaves something to be desired.”

Another passenger at Chatham Station, Miss Kwatiura, who spends £18.60 daily travelling on a return ticket to Ramsgate, said: “The ticketing system here is complicated. I’m generally quite happy with Southeastern’s service, it’s just their staff don’t seem to be very efficient.”

However a spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) alleged yesterday the Which? report was “seriously misleading and misrepresentative” and added the report was based on “unrealistic scenarios”.

Richard Dilks, Senior Researcher at Which?, said: “We think we’re realistic. The survey isn’t designed to catch people out. Asking about offering cheap or expensive fare prices on routes like London to Birmingham are all appropriate questions. It’s just a horrendously complicated system for a passenger today travelling on the train. We found that value for money and the quality of advice given was lacking for customers.”

But Southeastern Trains, who serve 179 stations across London and the South East, defended their service when comparing it to those provided by other national train operating companies.

Sarah Boundy, Head of Communications and Publicity at Southeastern Trains, said: “All Southeastern ticket office staff are trained to look for the best fare for the customer. Fares are not complicated. Most people buy off peak fares which are simpler anyway, so there are few complaints. We look at any report and ensure we’re doing a good job. 100,000 people use our service daily and the vast majority make journeys which are hassle free.”

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