BBC Cash and the Iliffe Money Trail Behind Kent Council Reporting
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 [...]
Reform UK’s Flag-and-Fury Playbook Is Already Running Kent
How a politics of flags, enemies, press bans and “common sense” is being tested from Westminster to County Hall in Kent There’s a moment when politics stops being [...]
Exclusive: Homes England Secures Hillhurst Farm Land for Otterpool Homes
The next Otterpool Park housing move appears to sit in a very specific triangle of land at Hillhurst Farm, just south of the railway, east of Westenhanger station and around [...]
Foxwood’s £86.7m Homes Plan Leaves Hythe With No Affordable Homes
A former public school site in Hythe is heading back to Folkestone & Hythe’s Planning Committee. The homes remain. The affordable housing doesn’t. And behind the [...]
Kent Travel Saver Rise: Poorest Families Hit Hardest
Kent County Council says a £35 rise is needed to keep its student bus pass scheme sustainable. But its own figures show the increase lands more than four times harder, [...]
KCC’s £133m Family Silver Sell-Off
Kent County Council says it has already raised more than £84m from surplus-property disposals since 2021/22. Now the Reform UK-run authority is lining up a further £49m, [...]
The Long Read: Kent Voted for the Border — Now the M20 Is Paying the Price
Operation Brock is meant to keep Kent moving when Dover and Eurotunnel come under pressure. But the deeper evidence shows something more uncomfortable: a national border [...]
Kent’s PWLB Debt Mountain Grows £503m as Medway Surges Past KCC
Government lending data shows Kent and Medway principal councils’ unpaid Public Works Loan Board principal rose from £1.14bn to £1.64bn in five years. The biggest shift [...]
Kent Adds More Homes but Delivers Fewer Affordable Homes
New MHCLG data show Kent’s 12 district councils recorded 7,724 net additional homes in 2024/25, up almost 12% in a year when England’s total fell. But the county’s [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Long-Term Sickness Absence Surges
Long-term sickness absence rose by two-thirds at Folkestone & Hythe District Council, with mental health-related conditions accounting for 42% of all working time lost. [...]
Tony Vaughan KC Backs Bid To Block EHRC Single-Sex Spaces Code
Folkestone & Hythe’s MP has backed a Commons motion to reject the EHRC’s updated equality-law guidance. The issue is sensitive, practical and local — so [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Local Plan Puts District’s Future on Rails
Folkestone & Hythe District Council has fired the starting gun on a new Local Plan that could shape the district until 2045. No sites have been chosen yet. No final [...]
Kent IVF Cuts: “Class Warfare” Row After Reform Councillor Says Poor People Shouldn’t Have Babies
NHS Kent and Medway cut funded IVF as births fall and Kent ages. Then a Reform UK councillor said people on low incomes shouldn’t have babies and called IVF a “lifestyle [...]
FHDC Renters’ Rights Policy Wasn’t Ready When Tenants Needed It
Most private landlords had until midnight at the end of Sunday 31 May to give tenants the official Renters’ Rights information sheet. By Monday morning, FHDC didn’t [...]
FHDC HR Reports Reveal Disciplinary Resignations and Governance Failures
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s own HR reviews show a sharp rise in disciplinary cases, complex investigations involving Internal Audit, staff resignations before [...]
Kent and Medway Birth Data Shows Changing Family Needs
Births across Kent and Medway are falling, but the birth profile is changing. The figures don’t show nationality, ethnicity, immigration status, asylum, religion or when [...]
The Long Read: Kent IVF Cuts Leave Women Facing a Fertility Postcode Lottery
NHS Kent and Medway has cut funded IVF from two cycles to one, lowered the age rule from under 40 to treatment before a woman’s 38th birthday, and left the public without [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Credit Card Audit Hidden Behind Criminal Investigation FOI Exemption
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s own auditors found weaknesses in corporate credit card controls. When the full report was requested, the council confirmed it held [...]
Folca: The £5.6m Former Debenhams Bill and the 25-Year Payback Question
Folkestone & Hythe District Council bought the former Debenhams building in May 2020 for £2.05m. Six years later, the public trail points to at least £2.419m paid or [...]
The Long Read: South Brooks Solar Farm Consultation Opens as Romney Marsh Drainage Fight Deepens
EDF power solutions UK and PS Renewables say South Brooks Solar Farm could power more than 140,000 homes a year. Campaigners say residents are being asked how to soften the [...]
Martello Lakes Pool Promise Replaced by Hythe Leisure Plan
Scrutiny councillors backed further work on Martello Lakes and Hythe Pool, but the message was clear: no token container, no unaffordable racket-sport vanity project, and no [...]
Folkestone Town Centre Plan: Can New Markets Bring Shoppers Back?
A new Town Centre Operating Model aims to turn Folkestone’s public-realm works into a living, trading, event-filled town centre. Scrutiny councillors liked the idea, but [...]
Why Move East Kent’s Top-Rated Stroke Unit Back to Ashford?
Kent & Canterbury’s “temporary” stroke unit is now producing nationally impressive results. NHS bosses still want to move it to William Harvey Hospital in Ashford. [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Free Parking Plan Sent Back After £356k Warning
A proposal for 20 minutes’ free parking in Folkestone & Hythe town-centre car parks hasn’t been killed off. But scrutiny councillors want the Cabinet member to look [...]
KCC Paid PCAS Kent £16.5m As Director Loans and Inadequate Care Rating Raise Questions
Kent County Council has paid millions to a supported-living care provider now rated Inadequate by the Care Quality Commission. The company’s accounts don’t show [...]