ShepwayVox Dissent is not a Crime

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Budget Surplus Masks £3m Service Overspend

June 24, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council says it ended 2025/26 with a small General Fund surplus. But its own papers show a harder story: services overspent, Princes Parade [...]

Romney Marsh Solar Farms: Full Council to Decide Next Step

June 23, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe councillors are being asked to give senior officers faster powers to respond to three giant solar schemes on Romney Marsh — but the petition that [...]

Southern Water Drought Plan Exposes Kent’s Water Supply Crisis

June 22, 2026 // 1 Comment

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. W. H. Auden Southern Water is telling us to think about drought before we have no choice. Not just hosepipe bans. [...]

Reform UK Loses High Court Bid to Block Voter Data Claim

June 22, 2026 // 0 Comments

Reform UK tried to block The Good Law Project’s data-rights claim ahead of the trial. The High Court wouldn’t do that. So, the claim goes on. And the basic question is, [...]

Kent Fire and Rescue Shake-Up Puts Rural Response Times Under Scrutiny

June 21, 2026 // 1 Comment

On the surface, Kent Fire and Rescue Service looks like a success story. If you look at the reports from inspectors and auditors, they are full of praise. But if you dig into [...]

Oportunitas: FHDC’s £11.7m Landlord Faces EPC and Dividend Questions

June 21, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone and Hythe District Council’s housing company, Oportunitas, is headed back to the Cabinet on June 24th. The numbers on the table involve 75 homes, one empty shop, [...]

Kent and Medway NHS Dentist Crisis Leaves Patients Behind

June 19, 2026 // 0 Comments

New NHS figures show Swale and Ashford doing better, Canterbury falling badly behind for adults, Thanet flashing red for children — and a dental system still built around [...]

KCC’s £22.7m Overspend Punctures Reform’s Waste-Cutting Promise

June 19, 2026 // 0 Comments

The Tories set Kent County Council’s 2025/26 budget in February, before they lost office. Reform has run KCC since May 2025. By the end of March, the council was £22.7m [...]

Kent and Medway NHS Waiting Lists Still Above 2023 Despite Fall

June 18, 2026 // 0 Comments

Across Kent and Medway’s four acute hospital trusts, the hospital waiting list is lower than its March 2024 peak — but still higher than it was three years ago. Kent’s [...]

Otterpool Park’s £18m Hillhurst Land Deal Question

June 18, 2026 // 1 Comment

William Hurley did not dress the matter up in planning language. In conversation with the public face of The Shepway Vox Team, he made clear the Hillhurst land sale was about [...]

Kent and Medway NHS Corridor Care Revealed

June 18, 2026 // 0 Comments

Official NHS England figures show all four Kent and Medway acute hospital trusts recorded emergency-department corridor care in May 2026, with Medway reporting the highest [...]

Hythe Foxwood Homes Plan Approved With No Affordable Housing

June 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe councillors have approved Ureco’s Foxwood scheme for up to 150 homes on the former school site above Seabrook Road, Hythe. The number of affordable [...]

FHDC’s Renters’ Rights Policy Trips Over the Law

June 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is being asked to approve its new private-sector housing civil penalties policy on 24 June — 54 days after key Renters’ Rights Act [...]

Update: Otterpool Park Next Steps: Hillhurst Farm Land Questions Loom Over Public Exhibition

June 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

The next Otterpool Park exhibition isn’t just another afternoon of glossy boards, polite smiles and “your views matter” stationery. It’s the point where the proposed [...]

West Wood’s Lost Oasis: The Holiday Village That Won Permission and Still Failed

June 16, 2026 // 0 Comments

A private leisure village in a public Kent forest won the planning argument, survived the High Court and still never got built. The reason West Wood survived wasn’t simple. [...]

Child Poverty Falls in Folkestone & Hythe, But Housing Costs Keep Thousands Poor

June 16, 2026 // 0 Comments

Child poverty has fallen in Folkestone & Hythe in the latest figures. That is the good news. The harder truth is that the district remains one of Kent’s highest [...]

Update: Otterpool Park Water Plan Faces Climate and Supply Questions

June 15, 2026 // 2 Comments

Otterpool Park is not just a housing scheme. It is an 8,500-home test of whether a seriously water-stressed part of Kent can absorb a new town, a business district, schools, [...]

The Long Read: South Kent Energy Park’s 2,100-Acre Solar Gamble on Romney Marsh

June 14, 2026 // 0 Comments

Low Carbon says its South Kent Energy Park could power the equivalent of 140,000 homes. Its own scoping report also shows a much bigger scheme, on arable Marsh land, much of [...]

The Long Read: KCC Banks Solar Farm Cash as Reform Says No to Romney Marsh Panels

June 14, 2026 // 0 Comments

Reform-led Kent County Council says it wants to protect Kent farmland from excessive solar development. Fair enough. But the council also owns solar farms, including a [...]

Cllr David Wimble’s New Romney Housing U-Turn Exposes Local Plan Hypocrisy

June 12, 2026 // 2 Comments

Cllr David Wimble (pictured) now says he’ll fight proposals for up to 110 homes on farmland north of Cockreed Lane, New Romney. Fair enough. Residents are entitled to ask [...]

New Romney Homes Plan Tests Kent’s Water-Stressed Future

June 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

A proposed 110-home scheme on farmland at New Romney has landed in the middle of Kent’s bigger water argument: how can we keep building in one of the most water-stressed [...]

Kent Travel Saver: Reform’s “People of Kent” Promise Fails the £35 Bus Test

June 11, 2026 // 0 Comments

Kent County Council’s £35 Kent Travel Saver rise survived scrutiny on Thursday. But the meeting left one hard question idling at the stop: when Reform says it will put [...]

FHDC Procurement Card Receipts: Dinner, Drinks and the Missing Audit Trail

June 11, 2026 // 2 Comments

The council’s FOI response has answered some questions about procurement-card restaurant spending. It has also given us a gastro-pub filed as transport, a missing lunch [...]

Folkestone Tennis Courts: Historic Davis Cup Town Faces Public Access Gap

June 11, 2026 // 0 Comments

As Queen’s gets under way and Wimbledon looms, Folkestone doesn’t lack tennis history. It doesn’t even lack tennis courts. What it lacks is the simple thing that [...]

BBC Cash and the Iliffe Money Trail Behind Kent Council Reporting

June 10, 2026 // 4 Comments

Kent needs reporters in council chambers. It also needs to know how BBC licence-fee money, paid to private media companies to keep that reporting alive, moves through the [...]

	Graham on Southern Water Drought Plan Ex…
	Crispin on Kent Fire and Rescue Shake-Up…
	Charlie on Otterpool Park’s £18m Hillhurs…
	Sarah on Update: Otterpool Park Water P…
	Barry on Cllr David Wimble’s New Romney…