In your big value Kent Messenger this week we reveal the truth behind the secondary school selection lottery, which failed to place 114 Maidstone children at any of their four chosen schools.

Plus we are offering two-for-one flights with Thomson and free bulbs for every reader.

We have the latest on our campaign for better trains in Maidstone, focussing on plans to scrap a fast Cannon Street service in December, and the two-pronged protest against huge rail freight depots in Bearsted and Borough Green.

We meet some of the local runners taking part in the London Marathon, and have a stunning picture of a Second World War soldier reading a copy of the Kent Messenger in a French trench in April 1940.

In Weald we have coverage of the inquest into the death of a biker in Yalding, which has led to some criticism over the state of our roads, and in Malling we have a campaign against plans to cover a large swathe of countryside with polytunnels.

So don't miss this week's Kent Messenger.