Southern Water 2025/26: Leakage, Pollution and £7bn Debt — Long Read
Southern Water cut leakage sharply during 2025/26, but still lost almost 90 million litres of treated water every day — enough over the year to fill Bewl Water reservoir [...]
Kent Local Government Reorganisation: Four Unitary Councils, Debt and Costs — Long Read
Kent knows where the new boundaries will run. It still doesn’t know who’ll inherit the mortgage. Steve Reed MP Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local [...]
Kent Coastal Housing Market Cools as Folkestone and Hythe Rents Soar
Kent’s coastal housing boom has cooled. That much is no longer seriously in doubt. The frantic bidding, sealed offers and London money that swept through Folkestone, Hythe, [...]
Kent Local Government Reorganisation: Four Unitary Councils and One Almighty Hangover
What follows isn’t a leaked meeting or a quotation from any named council officer. It’s an imagined pub conversation translating Kent’s local government shake-up into [...]
Folkestone A Brighter Future: £22m Project Delayed by at Least 17 Months
Folkestone & Hythe District Council says Folkestone – A Brighter Future is now “80% complete”. It’s a neat little figure, polished until it shines: the sort of [...]
Four Companies Registered at Folkestone and Hythe Council Homes Raise Tenancy Fraud Audit Questions
A new Cabinet Office agreement with Airbnb will allow participating councils to compare social-housing records with holiday-let listings to identify possible illegal [...]
South Brooks Solar Farm: FHDC Officers Raise Concerns Over Heathrow-Sized Romney Marsh Scheme
Back in May, The Shepway Vox Team wrote that Romney Marsh isn’t empty land beside a handy National Grid socket. It’s a vast, man-made water system held together by [...]
Exclusive: Royal British Legion Says Reform UK Fundraising at Hythe Armed Forces Day Was Unauthorised
The Royal British Legion says Reform UK wasn’t authorised to claim any connection with the charity or fundraise on its behalf at Hythe Armed Forces Day. The local branch [...]
Folkestone Footfall Data: FHDC’s Own Figures Show Visits Peaked in 2023
Folkestone & Hythe District Council says Folkestone’s town centre grew beyond the national trend, reached a five-year footfall peak in 2024 and then settled into a [...]
Saga Enbrook Park Housing Plan: Can Saga Fix The Pavilion Without Building Homes?
Saga wants residents at Enbrook Park on Monday 13 July 2026, from 4pm to 7pm, at the Main Reception, Saga Building, Enbrook Park, Sandgate. That’s the consultation, and if [...]
NHS Kent and Medway Job Cuts: 430 Posts Go as ICB Faces £50.8m Deficit
What follows isn’t Adam Doyle’s actual words, and it’s not some leaked chinwag from the snug. It’s our straight-talking take on NHS Kent and Medway’s board papers [...]
Former Aldi Hythe Plan: No Affordable Housing, 43 Parking Spaces at Risk – The Long Read
For seven years, Hythe has had a hole in its High Street where the old Aldi used to trade. The shutters came down in 2019, the supermarket moved to Kengate Industrial Estate, [...]
Ship Street Folkestone: Old Gasworks Still Looking For A Buyer While Affordable Homes Remain On Paper
Still for sale. Still fenced off. Still no affordable homes. Ship Street is one of those Folkestone promises that’s been round the houses without building any. The live [...]
Otterpool Park Update: Hillhurst Farm Homes Rise From 300 To 500 As Homes England Hides Land Price
In a response under the Environmental Information Regulations, Homes England has confirmed it has bought part of the Hillhurst Farm/Hillhurst Green land at Otterpool Park. [...]
Kent’s Housing Crisis: 47,839 Approved Homes, But Councils Still Fail The Delivery Test
Kent hasn’t run out of planning permissions. It’s got plenty of paper foundations. The latest Kent housing land supply audit shows 47,839 homes with planning permission [...]
Free School Meals In Folkestone & Hythe Rise From One In Five Pupils To Almost One In Three
The free-school-meals (FSM) line in Folkestone & Hythe doesn’t wobble. It climbs. All-schools district data shows the rate rising from 19.8% in 2020 to 32.6% in 2026. [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Council HR Reports Show Staff Sickness, Stress And Long-Term Absence Rising Under Green-Led Rule
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s HR reports between 21/22 – 25/26 read like a match of two halves. The Conservatives left the pitch with a governance mess [...]
FHDC Public Money: 46 Contract Red Flags Raise Questions Over Council Spending
There’s no point dressing this up in committee-room cotton wool. Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s public data shows 46 confirmed 2025/26 contract red flags and [...]
Sunflower House And One Folkestone: Public Money, Vulnerable People And Missing Safeguards
Sunflower House says it’s about community. One Folkestone says it’s about partnership. Both talk in the soft language of help, hope, joining-up and civic renewal. But [...]
Cllr Jim Martin Held 18 Meetings With Sir Roger De Haan — FHDC Says No Notes Were Kept
Folkestone & Hythe District Council has confirmed that its Leader, Cllr Jim Martin, attended 18 meetings with Sir Roger De Haan between March 2024 and May 2026. No great [...]
Leas Pavilion Folkestone: £4m Hole, Receivers And Vanishing Buyers Leave Rescue On The Brink
The latest Friends Of The Leas Pavilion meeting points to a Leas Pavilion scheme that isn’t easing back to life, but wobbling badly: the historic fabric is said to be safe, [...]
Otterpool Park Design Brief To Be Submitted With Outline Planning Application Update
Otterpool Park where FHDC got a council resolution to grant outline permission in April 2023. Three years later, the actual permission still hasn’t been issued. Now the [...]
FHDC Gives Residents Just 256 Characters To Ask About The Public’s Money
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s public inspection form now limits residents to 256 characters when asking for accounting records. That’s less than X. Less than [...]
KCC DOLGE: Reform UK’s Waste Hunt Finds “No Obvious Wasteful Spending” After £22.7m Overspend
Reform arrived at County Hall promising to hunt waste. Then KCC’s own DOLGE paper said the job was to check “there was no obvious wasteful spending”. That’s the [...]
Councillor Home Addresses: Why the New Privacy Law Matters
Today, 29 June 2026, the law changes.Councils in England must no longer publish councillors’ home addresses in public registers of interests unless the councillor [...]