ShepwayVox Dissent is not a Crime

Folkestone & Hythe ‘Stretches the Mortgage’ on £192m Debt: MRP Savings Now, Higher Bills Later

February 5, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) is proposing a change that makes its finances look dramatically healthier on paper — not by paying down debt, but by changing [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Tax: The Numbers Were Blacked Out — the Bill Wasn’t

February 4, 2026 // 1 Comment

There’s a familiar annual trick in local government: lead with the smallest number you control, then hope nobody asks about the rest. This year, Folkestone & Hythe [...]

Kent and Medway ICB £198m Deficit: Financial Crisis, Governance Failures and Hospital Performance Ratings Revealed

February 4, 2026 // 0 Comments

Exclusive analysis reveals severe financial pressures across Kent and Medway’s health system, with deficit support funding withdrawn and emergency measures implemented [...]

Ofsted: Kent Care Leavers in Unsafe Homes

February 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

In Kent, young adults leaving care are telling inspectors something no “corporate parent” should ever have to hear: I don’t feel safe where I live. In a local authority [...]

Cold Homes, Fuel Poverty and FHDC Independent Living: Why Older Residents Are Still Being Left in the Cold

February 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

In the bleak mid-winter; Frosty wind made moan; Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Christina Rossetti Cold is not just uncomfortable; for older people it can be [...]

Southern Water Bills Rise as Sewage Spills Persist: 50 Years of Warnings on the Kent Coast

February 1, 2026 // 2 Comments

Southern Water customers are being asked to pay more again, and the public justification is that the money will “fix” the system. From April, the average bill is due to [...]

Why Is FHDC Paying 53% of the Folkestone Pool Rebuild (£2.4m of £4.5m) Without Owning the Sports Centre?

January 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

At last night’s Full Council, Cllr Nicola Keen cut to the simplest version of the Folkestone Sports Centre row: why is Folkestone & Hythe District Council being asked [...]

Wimble’s Wobble: KCC Cabinet Member David Wimble Says “£52m” Adult Social Care Overspend — KCC’s Own Papers Say Otherwise

January 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

During a debate at Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Full Council meeting, Reform UK councillor David Wimble backed extra support for residents “down on their [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Tax Reduction Scheme: 100% Support, Bailiffs, and the Second-Homes Premium

January 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has voted through a major change to its Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme for 2026/27, restoring up to 100% support for working-age [...]

Folca 2 in Folkestone: Council Awards £2.4m Refurbishment Contract as Town-Centre Medical Centre Plan Advances

January 28, 2026 // 3 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has awarded a contract worth £2.42m (excluding VAT) to carry out phase-one refurbishment works at Folca 2 – in purple below [...]

Folkestone Road of Remembrance Landslip: Closure Timeline and Kent County Council’s £5m Stabilisation Plan

January 27, 2026 // 1 Comment

For Folkestone, the Road of Remembrance is not just a convenient cut-through between the harbour area and The Leas. It is also symbolic: a named route tied to the town’s [...]

Kent County Council 2025/26 Budget vs Forecast Outturn: What Q1–Q3 Reveals About Overspends in Adult Social Care and SEND

January 27, 2026 // 0 Comments

Kent County Council (KCC) agreed its 2025/26 budget in February 2025. In simple terms, it set out how much the council expected to spend day-to-day on services (social care, [...]

FHDC Contract Register “Time Travel”: £14.87m of Contracts Starting Before Award — Waivers, Letters of Intent and What the Constitution Requires

January 27, 2026 // 1 Comment

We, The Shepway Vox Team, have been rummaging in the Council’s contract register (once again) like Doc Brown in a garage full of suspicious gadgets. And, sure enough, the [...]

Ofwat Data: 41.4 Trillion Litres Lost to Leaks Since Privatisation in England & Wales — £52.7bn Paid in Dividends

January 26, 2026 // 1 Comment

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” W. H. Auden. Let’s start with a simple, terrifying fact. When you turn on a tap, you expect water to come [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre’s £2.4m Grant Question: Why Not Use Surplus Land to Help Fund the Rebuild?

January 24, 2026 // 3 Comments

If there’s one thing Britain still does reliably, it’s asking the public to pay twice: once through taxes, and again through politely worded “one-off” grant requests [...]

Tony Vaughan MP KC’s Rooftop Solar “Win-Win”: The £125m Claim, the Missing Small Print, and Why It Doesn’t Add Up

January 24, 2026 // 4 Comments

By the time you reach the bottom of Folkestone & Hythe MP Tony Vaughan KC’s rooftop-solar manifesto, you’re meant to bask in the warm glow of certainty: at last, a [...]

Folkestone’s Housing Register Houdinis: A Masterclass in the Peter Principle and FHDC Maths

January 24, 2026 // 1 Comment

In the hallowed, wood-panelled halls of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, it appears that “sanity checking” has been officially outsourced to the same [...]

Folkestone & Hythe DC’s Audit Exposed: The £3.4m Princes Parade Write-Off Buried in ‘Clean’ Accounts

January 23, 2026 // 2 Comments

As the clocks tick toward 6:00 PM on Thursday, 29 January 2026, a hush will descend upon the Council Chamber. The members of the Folkestone & Hythe District Council [...]

Kent NHS Whistleblowing: Freedom to Speak Up Promises vs Tribunal Reality

January 22, 2026 // 0 Comments

THE NHS will always need whistleblowers. Healthcare is complex, rapidly changing and dangerous; staff are fallible, variably trained and widely spaced; and demands are huge [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Portfolio Holder Reports: Otterpool Park, Budget Pressures, Parking Changes and Housing Costs Explained

January 22, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Full Council will receive its latest set of Portfolio Holder reports on Wednesday 28 January 2026 as Agenda Item 9 — a familiar [...]

Romney Marsh Solar Farm Approved 8–4: What Folkestone & Hythe Councillors Were Told, What the Papers Contradict, and What Happens Next (25/0542/FH)

January 21, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Planning and Licensing Committee has approved planning application 25/0542/FH for a 40-hectare (98.8-acre) solar farm on land [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre: The Sports Trust’s Accounts, FHDC’s £2.4m Grant, and the UK Subsidy Control Questions

January 20, 2026 // 0 Comments

A beloved community sports complex in Folkestone is on course for a resurrection after an abrupt closure – but only if a £2.4 million council grant gets the green light. [...]

FOLCA 2 Explained: The NHS Medical Centre Deal, the £13.2m Business Case, and the Tender Trail Behind Folkestone’s Town-Centre Redevelopment

January 20, 2026 // 1 Comment

On Tuesday 27 January, Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee will look at a draft Cabinet paper that lands formally on the Cabinet [...]

Who Owns the St Mary’s Solar Farm Land? The Furnival Title Deed, Enviromena’s Funding Chain, and What Planning Committee Must Ask (25/0542/FH)

January 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

We’ve spent the last few days doing the thing that residents always end up doing when a big infrastructure proposal lands on the Marsh: taking the glossy brochure claims, [...]

Lidl Folkestone Planning Application 26/0002/FH: Health, Highway Safety and Contamination — The Evidence Behind the Objections

January 16, 2026 // 1 Comment

A planning application is supposed to be a tidy exercise: drawings, reports, consultations, decision. Planning committees like certainty. Communities like clarity. Developers [...]

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