The latest edition of the Medway Messenger is out in the shops early this week - in plenty of time for Christmas.

There is a frosty reception for the council's snow response as the people of Medway deliver their verdict on how it coped with the weather. More than three quarters of people surveyed in an online poll said they do not think enough was done to prepare our roads for the big freeze.

And we can reveal that panto stars were behind the audience in more ways that one at Chatham's Central Theatre. The cast of Jack and the Beanstalk - including ex-EastEnders star Emma Barton - helped push motorists when they got stuck on an icy hill!

Meanwhile, Chatham five-year-old Delta Ayonmike sent a long list to Santa this year - but the one wish she really wanted has already come true... spending Christmas with her daddy! Her father Itse is home after spending five years fighting deportation to Nigeria.

We speak to Army chef Pte Laura Radley, who will be dishing up more than three tons of turkey to British troops on the frontline in Afghanistan this Christmas Day.

And we are urging readers to keep the pennies rolling in for our Christmas appeal in aid of The Wisdom Hospice.

There's a full page of your letters and in The Codgers' Club, Peter Cook looks back at bygone years of snow.

Sport tells how Gills' manager Andy Hessenthaler's hopes of bringing back a number of players from injury have been hampered by the bad weather.

All this and lots more in the Medway Messenger - pop out and pick up a copy today.