East Kent Maternity Safety: Warning Signs Still Flash
Donna Ockenden’s Nottingham Maternity report, published on Wednesday last week, should make uncomfortable reading in East Kent. Not because Nottingham and East Kent are the [...]
Otterpool Park First Homes: Hillhurst Costs and North Downs Views
Homes England has bought Hillhurst farmland. The first 300 Otterpool homes are being aimed at sites HF2 and HF3, where the public plans show buildings up to 12–15 metres. [...]
FHDC Housing Account: Millions Unspent on Council Homes
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s council-housing account ended 2025/26 with a much bigger reserve than expected. That’s the good news. The less comfortable [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Spent Less, Delivered Less, But Borrowed More
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s capital programme ended 2025/26 with a headline underspend of £3.649m, but that doesn’t mean the council simply saved money. [...]
Oliver Davis, Dace Environmental and the £6.68m Creditor Question
Kent’s new green housing fix is being sold with drone footage, widened ditches and the promise of thousands of homes. But behind the clean-river sales pitch sits a very [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Budget Surplus Masks £3m Service Overspend
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 [...]