ShepwayVox Dissent is not a Crime

Folkestone & Hythe’s Risborough Barracks Deal: Taylor Wimpey Payments Revealed as Temporary Accommodation Costs Soar

February 25, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has so far paid Taylor Wimpey £2,390,013.56 towards the Risborough Barracks affordable homes scheme, based on supplier payment data [...]

Mandatory DBS Checks for District and Parish Councillors: The Russell Tillson Case

February 24, 2026 // 1 Comment

In the long shadow of the “Epstein files” debate — where public trust has again been tested by questions about powerful men, elite networks and who knew what — the [...]

Folkestone & Hythe’s Emissions and Biodiversity Record Was Built Under Conservative Leadership

February 24, 2026 // 0 Comments

A new Folkestone & Hythe District Council scrutiny report gives a detailed picture of carbon emissions and biodiversity policy. It also raises an important point of [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council: Councillors Challenge Youth Football Fees, Hythe Pool Spend, Princes Parade Delay and Southern Water

February 23, 2026 // 2 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council meets in Full Council on Wednesday 25 February at 7pm, and councillors have published a set of questions that range from the price of [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council: Cash Withdrawals on Purchase Cards, Weak Evidence, No Questions Asked

February 23, 2026 // 0 Comments

A routine internal audit update to Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Audit and Governance Committee has surfaced an awkward line that deserves far more daylight [...]

Southern Water Legal Action: Folkestone & Hythe District Council Escalate Sewage Pollution Fight

February 22, 2026 // 2 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Southern Water and the Environment Agency faced residents and campaigners in the same room on Thursday 19 February, to discuss sewage [...]

Dymchurch Dippers Poem Calls Out Southern Water Sewage in the Bay

February 20, 2026 // 3 Comments

The Ballad Of The Beautiful Bay Spoiled by Dirty Water. The sun is shining, it’s a beautiful day,I want to swim across the bay,What’s that I spy in the water [...]

Madeira Walk Landslide: Folkestone Leas Playground Cliff Stabilisation Cost Rises to £400,000

February 20, 2026 // 1 Comment

Madeira Walk was shut on 29 February 2024 because the ground above Folkestone’s Lower Leas playground looked as if it might go. Two days later, on 2 March, it did: the [...]

Southern Water Sewage: The Hidden Cost to Kent’s Sea Swimmers and Seaside Businesses

February 19, 2026 // 4 Comments

Updated: 20/02/26 @ 14:50 This is a long read, because the devil is in the detail — and, in this case, the detail is the difference between “a reassuring icon on a map” [...]

FHDC Budget 2026/27: Paying £63,000 a Year for Empty, Unlettable Otterpool Homes

February 19, 2026 // 2 Comments

The council’s budget papers for 2026/27 admit it is now paying ongoing costs on four Otterpool properties sitting empty, “not fit to be let”, while housing pressures [...]

FHDC Budget 2026/27: The £38k Saving That Weakens Contract Oversight

February 19, 2026 // 3 Comments

Here’s the £38,280 “saving” in Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s 2026/27 budget (item 12) that ought to set off the loudest alarm in the building — because [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Budget 2026/27: Council Tax, Reserves and Debt

February 18, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s 2026/27 budget (item 12) goes to Full Council on Wednesday 25 February with a headline most residents will miss, because it [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Housing Register: The Five-Bedroom “Ghost Queue” Trapping 11 Families

February 18, 2026 // 0 Comments

This is a Guest Post On the Folkestone & Hythe District Council housing register there is a category that, on paper, looks normal. In practice it behaves like a dead end. [...]

Folkestone Town of Culture 2028 Bid: Come Together, Tell Our Story, Make It Happen

February 17, 2026 // 1 Comment

A £3 million national prize is on the table for the UK’s first Town of Culture in 2028. Folkestone has decided to take a run at it — and, for once, the first step [...]

Kent Councils’ Out-of-Area Temporary Accommodation: The FOI Numbers

February 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

When a council accepts that a household is homeless, it often has to find “temporary accommodation” fast. That can mean anything from a hotel or B&B to a short-term [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Fees: Prices Up Since 2019 — Are You Paying More Than Inflation?

February 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

Most people never read a council’s fees and charges appendices unless they absolutely have to. You only encounter them at awkward, very human moments: when you need a copy [...]

Cllr David Wimble Suggests Pulling Turner Contemporary Funding After MP Challenges Kent County Council ‘Savings’ Claim

February 16, 2026 // 3 Comments

When a senior politician is accused of inflating a headline “savings” number, there’s a simple, boring remedy: publish the workings, explain the language, and let [...]

High Street Cash Businesses and Money Laundering: What UK Enforcement Has Actually Found

February 16, 2026 // 1 Comment

Walk down almost any British high street and you can feel the mood: more “cash only” signs, more cloned-looking barbers, more shuttered banks, and a steady hum online [...]

Saga Sells Acromas Underwriter to Ageas: The 20-Year Insurance Partnership Explained

February 15, 2026 // 2 Comments

For years, Saga has sold insurance under its familiar brand to Britain’s over-50s. But behind the scenes, it was also carrying the most complicated part of the insurance [...]

EKHUFT Maternity Board Data: Ethnicity Recording Gaps and Higher Emergency Caesarean Rates for Some Groups

February 14, 2026 // 2 Comments

Maternity services at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust have been a known area of concern in the past. That history matters, because it raises the bar for [...]

East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust: A&E Delays, Patient-Safety Backlogs and a System Running on Empty

February 14, 2026 // 0 Comments

Board papers from East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust show a week of “critical incident” pressure has now eased — but also reveal deep problems that [...]

Kent County Council Budget: Reform UK’s Debt Pledge and the Risks Behind the Numbers

February 13, 2026 // 0 Comments

After more than seven hours of debate at Sessions House, Reform UK passed its first ever Kent County Council budget — and did it with a political flourish that could not [...]

Hythe Bay Bathing Water Warnings: Sewage Pollution and E. coli from Hythe to Dungeness

February 13, 2026 // 0 Comments

Hythe Bay’s “no swim” problem didn’t start in the 2020s. It has a paper trail that runs from the mid-1970s, through the coliform “fail” tables of the 1980s, into [...]

Controlled Parking Zones: What FHDC Must Fix Before Adopting Its CPZ Policy

February 12, 2026 // 3 Comments

Controlled Parking Zones are arguments over a finite resource: a few metres of kerb outside your home or shop. From Snargate to Sellindge, Lydd to Lyminge where streets can [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre: Cabinet Approves £2.4m Reopening Grant Ahead of Full Council Vote

February 11, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Cabinet has agreed to include a one-off £2.4 million grant aimed at reopening Folkestone Sports Centre and cutting its future [...]

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