A TV actor has been visiting fishing communities in Kent this week to help understand what they want when we leave the EU.

Former Coronation Street star Nigel Pivaro, known for playing Terry Duckworth, is launching a tour of UK fishing communities to understand the challenges and difficulties they face in the Brexit era.

He is visiting Hythe and Folkestone today to talk to fishermen and fishing communities about whether they believe the Government are steering the right course for the UK industry.

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Mr Pivaro has been a journalist now for more than a decade, and the fact-finding mission will last a week across the South coast, talking to those who have been impacted since the introduction of the Common Fisheries Policy.

The decline this caused has been highlighted in recent weeks when the Brexit transition deal was agreed by the government with no change in control or quotas for fishing in UK waters, leaving small trawlers unsatisfied as they will have to adhere to them for a further two years once we leave the EU in 2019.

The soap actor hopes he can give those sidelined a voice.

KentOnline reporter Molly Mileham-Chappell went to speak to him yesterday at Folkestone Harbour: "This trip will help me understand from the fisher folk themselves, how and why the industry has changed to where it is today with huge foreign trawlers supplying the fish in UK processing plants instead of our own British boats.

"Things like quotas are changing all the time.

"It's a great story. It's our heritage. We're an island nation. We're surrounded by water, and in those waters is an abundance of riches and resources.

"It's an economic and political story. It's also a human story.

"I want to know if people in these communities truly believe the Government are steering the right course to position the UK fishing industry into the best place possible, or if they will be consigned to an apathetic response that leads the industry into oblivion.

"I hope that the fishermen themselves get together and give the politicians a hard time in terms of bringing them to buck in terms of representing their interests."

Last month, a protest against the recent deal was held in Whitstable, with support from former Ukip leader Nigel Farage.

Mr Pivaro will be visiting the fishing communities in Folkestone and Hythe again today (Friday) to gather more opinions from fishermen.