Innovation centre close to completion
Builders held a “topping out” ceremony as work concluded on the construction of Maidstone Innovation Centre this week. The project, the brainchild of Maidstone Borough Council which backed it with £5.2m in funding, is on track to open in the summer with the completed project expected to provide around 270 jobs.
Located on the Kent Medical Campus at Boxley, it is due to offer mixed-use, flexible working space for health firms. Maidstone council leader, Martin Cox (Lib Dem), said: “British Science Week this week is all about celebrating STEM and what better boost to these industries than providing fantastic facilities like this?
“This milestone brings us one step closer to opening the doors of this state-of-the-art building and welcoming even more innovative businesses to the borough.”
Millions of Chinese and Russian hackers have tried to infiltrate the cyber defences of Kent County Council during the coronavirus crisis.
There were 76 million unsuccessful attempts from across the world at harvesting information stored at County Hall, Maidstone, between October to December last year.
Experts have revealed there were 38 million attacks by hackers from Vladimir Putin’s Russia and another 30 million from Xi Jinping’s China.
Andy Cole, head of technology strategy and commissioning at KCC, told a virtual panel of Kent councillors: “This is significant. It is like 76 million knocks on your door.”
The council, supported by the National Cyber Security Council, has imposed a “zero-trust” approach tightening up on data loss protection, identity management and additional auditing.
Mr Cole said: “There has been an increase in cyber activity over the last 12 months. Some have been raised by the pandemic and people taking advantage of the public wanting information on Covid.
“There has been an increase in phishing and spam emails, between 40% and 50% of all emails received.”
He said the council’s IT cloud services had “substantially” reduced the impact of cyber security attacks and helped protect staff during the pandemic. There have also been software updates.
Kent County Council (KCC) has proposed allocating £486,000 to help struggling community groups from April.
County Hall’s Conservative chiefs have suggested offering grants of between £300 and £2,000 to small organisations finding it difficult to generate enough income during the pandemic.
Initiatives may include foodbanks, homeless charities, socially distanced befriending schemes to tackle loneliness, activity packs for pre-school children and collecting and delivering supplies for shielding residents.
If approved, each council member would have £6,000 to allocate to voluntary and community sector organisations for specific Covid-19 recovery projects in their area.
Applicants will be required to demonstrate how their scheme will help to respond to the public health emergency in the county.
Evidence can include helping households in financial crisis, such as providing food and fuel; improving mental health support for children and promoting walking and cycling. A final decision on the Covid recovery fund will be made today (Thursday).