ShepwayVox Dissent is not a Crime

Kent potholes: how residents can use section 56 to force road repairs

March 22, 2026 // 1 Comment

Kent drivers are told to report potholes, wait patiently, and trust that somewhere in County Hall a spreadsheet is humming reassuringly. But there comes a point when patience [...]

Reform UK at KCC Says Councillors’ 3.8% Pay Rise Is “Reasonable” — As Council Tax Rises 3.99%

March 21, 2026 // 0 Comments

At Kent County Council, a 3.99% rise in council tax is apparently the stern medicine residents must swallow. A 3.8% rise in councillors’ allowances, however, is “entirely [...]

Cllr David Wimble’s Problem With Numbers

March 20, 2026 // 1 Comment

When a cabinet member says his party has 76 councillors at Kent County Council, but the official figure is 47, that is not a tiny slip. It is less a rounding error than a [...]

FHDC’s Green Image Meets the East Stour Rubbish Problem

March 20, 2026 // 1 Comment

If the East Stour rubbish sits on or beside land tied to Otterpool Park, then Folkestone & Hythe District Council has a problem no amount of eco-language can mulch away. [...]

Cllr David Wimble’s Kent County Council Motion Collapses After Opposition Walkout

March 19, 2026 // 2 Comments

Cllr David Wimble’s motion at Kent County Council on 19 March fizzled out into a damp squib. Put simply, the opposition left the chamber, and only Reform UK was left to [...]

Could Tony Vaughan MP Take Southern Water to Court Over Sewage?

March 19, 2026 // 2 Comments

Joining a briefing is easy. Holding a placard is easy. Posting angry words on social media is easy. The harder test is whether Folkestone and Hythe’s MP is prepared to do [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre Grant: Public Money, Private Asset, Big Questions for FHDC

March 18, 2026 // 2 Comments

On Wednesday 25 March, Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Cabinet is due to decide whether to award The Sports Trust a £2,421,250 capital grant to reopen the [...]

Leas Pavilion Folkestone: the £20m Claim the Filed Accounts Do Not Support

March 17, 2026 // 3 Comments

For years, Folkestone was sold a dream in glossy renders: restored heritage, luxury flats and a grand old pavilion brought back to life above the Channel. What the town has [...]

Southern Water, Sewage and Kent’s Water Crisis Reach County Hall

March 16, 2026 // 0 Comments

Updated 18 March 2026 Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. W. H. Auden Cllr Stuart Heaver’s motion on water infrastructure is serious, overdue and [...]

David Wimble’s “Illegal Migration Emergency” Motion Falls Apart on the Facts

March 16, 2026 // 3 Comments

Updated: 06:45am 17 March 2026 On Thursday 19 March, Kent County Council will be asked to declare an “Illegal Migration Emergency in Kent” on a motion proposed by Reform [...]

Kent Councils’ Environmental Health Powers on Sewage: Who to Contact and What They Can Do

March 16, 2026 // 2 Comments

Yesterday, we looked at What Powers Does Kent’s Director of Public Health Have Over Sewage Pollution. Today, in the final part of this public health series, we turn to the [...]

New Beach Holiday Village: Jersey Ownership and US Governance Questions Behind Dymchurch Plan

March 15, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has approved planning application 25/2297/FH for New Beach Holiday Village in Dymchurch as a greener, smarter revamp. But behind the [...]

What Powers Does Kent’s Director of Public Health Have Over Sewage Pollution?

March 15, 2026 // 0 Comments

Following on from yesterday’s article, Kent E. coli Cases, Sewage and the Public Health Risk, the next question is unavoidable. If sewage pollution is plainly a [...]

Kent E. coli Cases, Sewage and the Public Health Risk

March 14, 2026 // 1 Comment

Professor Chris Whitty Chief Medical Officer for England – pictured – warned that sewage in rivers and seas is a public health problem, not merely an [...]

Folkestone Affordable Housing: How 14 Homes Were Lost at Stoneleigh House, Tram Road

March 13, 2026 // 1 Comment

An insolvency report, two auction catalogues and one carefully chosen council word tell a bleak story about how Folkestone lost 14 affordable homes and may yet lose the [...]

Folkestone & Hythe GP Surgeries: Patient Experience and Access Scorecards

March 12, 2026 // 4 Comments

We have all heard the stock line: general practice is under pressure, staff are working flat out, and patients should be kind. All of that can be true. It can also be true [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Poverty Crisis: Food Parcels, Child Poverty and Fuel Poverty Exposed

March 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe has had years of speeches about regeneration, levelling up, opportunity, renewal, recovery and other fine words normally delivered from behind a [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council’s Offshore Ownership Blind Spot

March 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

Some councils publish policies that look a bit stale. Folkestone & Hythe District Council appears to prefer the full museum experience. Its public anti-money-laundering [...]

Kent and Medway Food Parcel Crisis: Trussell Data Exposes Hunger Across Every Council

March 11, 2026 // 0 Comments

If anyone in Kent and Medway still wants to pretend the cost-of-living crisis is basically over, the numbers have brought a shovel and are digging up that fantasy. In the [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Planning Committee Faces Whitehall Power Grab

March 11, 2026 // 4 Comments

If you want to understand where power is drifting in local planning, do not just watch the next controversial application land on Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s [...]

Stodmarsh Sewage Crisis: Southern Water, Otterpool Park and East Kent

March 10, 2026 // 2 Comments

At Canterbury’s scrutiny committee on 4 March (from1hr 46m 44s onwards), Stodmarsh kept popping up like the blinking red light on a dashboard that everyone hopes belongs to [...]

Councils Cry Poverty — While Quietly Lending Each Other £Millions

March 9, 2026 // 0 Comments

We’ve just been handed a neat little window into how modern local government really works. On Tuesday 10 March, Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Finance and [...]

Hamstreet Sewage Scandal: Why FHDC Failed to Act While Ashford Investigated

March 8, 2026 // 2 Comments

Residents raised a serious complaint about suspected foul contamination moving from Hamstreet towards Hythe and the sea. One council replied with site visits, [...]

Southern Water in Kent: Bailiffs, Sewage and Beaches Closed for Swimming.

March 7, 2026 // 2 Comments

Fresh parliamentary papers have put an ugly new number on an old public grievance. On 6 March, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published debt-collection [...]

Reform UK KCC Cabinet Member David Wimble’s Looker Accused of Misleading Readers on Kent County Council Debt

March 6, 2026 // 3 Comments

The Shepway Vox Team went back to the documents. What we found was not a careful picture of Kent County Council’s current debt costs, but an old snapshot repackaged as a [...]

	Martin on Kent potholes: how residents c…
	Stephen on Cllr David Wimble’s Problem Wi…
	Tina on FHDC’s Green Image Meets the E…
	Stephen on Cllr David Wimble’s Kent Count…
	Kevin on Cllr David Wimble’s Kent Count…