ShepwayVox Dissent is not a Crime

Kent Wood-Burner Pollution: 78,380 Estimated Stoves and the Clean Air Powers Councils Aren’t Using

March 5, 2026 // 0 Comments

A set of EPC-based estimates, circulated via a BMJ rapid response and now re-summed and charted, suggests there are roughly 78,380 domestic wood-burning stoves across [...]

Hythe Wood-Burner Pollution: Folkestone & Hythe District Council Challenged Over UCL Data

March 5, 2026 // 0 Comments

At Tuesday 3 March’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee, a revealing exchange played out over domestic wood burners and air quality in Hythe. Councillor Paul Thomas recalled [...]

Leas Pavilion Folkestone: Off-Plan Flat Buyers Left Exposed as Receivers Sell the Freehold

March 3, 2026 // 2 Comments

Folkestone’s stalled Leas Pavilion scheme has spent long enough as a visual punchline: hoardings, silence, and two concrete cores that look less like “luxury living” [...]

East Kent Sewage Pollution: Southern Water, Five Councils and the Statutory Nuisance Law

March 3, 2026 // 2 Comments

We’re The Shepway Vox Team, and over the past few weeks we’ve watched the same pattern play out again and again. Residents complain that sewage-contaminated discharges [...]

Rough Sleeping in Kent: Snapshot Trends and District Hotspots

March 2, 2026 // 2 Comments

On one night each autumn, Kent’s 12 district councils go out and record how many people are sleeping rough. Not in hostels. Not in night shelters. Not sofa-surfing. Just [...]

Water UK’s Storm Overflows Plan: A 25-Year Delay in England’s Sewage Scandal

March 1, 2026 // 0 Comments

Water UK’s National Storm Overflows Plan for England was launched with the kind of self-congratulation you usually hear just before someone asks you to be patient. It was [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Customer Access Strategy: Digital by Choice or Digital Exclusion?

February 27, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has approved a new Customer Access Strategy 2026 -29, built around a simple promise: residents should be able to access council [...]

Kent Fly-Tipping: Incidents Rise While Enforcement Varies Widely Between Councils

February 26, 2026 // 0 Comments

Kent is the Garden of England. It is also, judging by the latest Defra flytipping data for 24/25, a place where far too many people treat hedgerows, lay-bys and quiet [...]

FHDC Homelessness Spending: Temporary Accommodation Costs Soar as Prevention Fund and Private Sector Offer Payments Rise

February 26, 2026 // 0 Comments

If you want to understand the housing pressure in Folkestone & Hythe, start with the bit that hurts: the emergency bill. Between April 2025 and January 2026, Folkestone [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Budget: Council Tax Rise, Reserves Drawdown and Debt Repayment Shake-Up

February 26, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s budget debate yesterday evening didn’t hinge on a big, obvious “cuts list”. It hinged on something far less [...]

Folkestone & Hythe’s Risborough Barracks Deal: Taylor Wimpey Payments Revealed as Temporary Accommodation Costs Soar

February 25, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has so far paid Taylor Wimpey £2,390,013.56 towards the Risborough Barracks affordable homes scheme, based on supplier payment data [...]

Mandatory DBS Checks for District and Parish Councillors: The Russell Tillson Case

February 24, 2026 // 1 Comment

In the long shadow of the “Epstein files” debate — where public trust has again been tested by questions about powerful men, elite networks and who knew what — the [...]

Folkestone & Hythe’s Emissions and Biodiversity Record Was Built Under Conservative Leadership

February 24, 2026 // 0 Comments

A new Folkestone & Hythe District Council scrutiny report gives a detailed picture of carbon emissions and biodiversity policy. It also raises an important point of [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council: Councillors Challenge Youth Football Fees, Hythe Pool Spend, Princes Parade Delay and Southern Water

February 23, 2026 // 2 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council meets in Full Council on Wednesday 25 February at 7pm, and councillors have published a set of questions that range from the price of [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council: Cash Withdrawals on Purchase Cards, Weak Evidence, No Questions Asked

February 23, 2026 // 0 Comments

A routine internal audit update to Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Audit and Governance Committee has surfaced an awkward line that deserves far more daylight [...]

Southern Water Legal Action: Folkestone & Hythe District Council Escalate Sewage Pollution Fight

February 22, 2026 // 2 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Southern Water and the Environment Agency faced residents and campaigners in the same room on Thursday 19 February, to discuss sewage [...]

Dymchurch Dippers Poem Calls Out Southern Water Sewage in the Bay

February 20, 2026 // 3 Comments

The Ballad Of The Beautiful Bay Spoiled by Dirty Water. The sun is shining, it’s a beautiful day,I want to swim across the bay,What’s that I spy in the water [...]

Madeira Walk Landslide: Folkestone Leas Playground Cliff Stabilisation Cost Rises to £400,000

February 20, 2026 // 1 Comment

Madeira Walk was shut on 29 February 2024 because the ground above Folkestone’s Lower Leas playground looked as if it might go. Two days later, on 2 March, it did: the [...]

Southern Water Sewage: The Hidden Cost to Kent’s Sea Swimmers and Seaside Businesses

February 19, 2026 // 4 Comments

Updated: 20/02/26 @ 14:50 This is a long read, because the devil is in the detail — and, in this case, the detail is the difference between “a reassuring icon on a map” [...]

FHDC Budget 2026/27: Paying £63,000 a Year for Empty, Unlettable Otterpool Homes

February 19, 2026 // 2 Comments

The council’s budget papers for 2026/27 admit it is now paying ongoing costs on four Otterpool properties sitting empty, “not fit to be let”, while housing pressures [...]

FHDC Budget 2026/27: The £38k Saving That Weakens Contract Oversight

February 19, 2026 // 3 Comments

Here’s the £38,280 “saving” in Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s 2026/27 budget (item 12) that ought to set off the loudest alarm in the building — because [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Budget 2026/27: Council Tax, Reserves and Debt

February 18, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s 2026/27 budget (item 12) goes to Full Council on Wednesday 25 February with a headline most residents will miss, because it [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Housing Register: The Five-Bedroom “Ghost Queue” Trapping 11 Families

February 18, 2026 // 0 Comments

This is a Guest Post On the Folkestone & Hythe District Council housing register there is a category that, on paper, looks normal. In practice it behaves like a dead end. [...]

Folkestone Town of Culture 2028 Bid: Come Together, Tell Our Story, Make It Happen

February 17, 2026 // 1 Comment

A £3 million national prize is on the table for the UK’s first Town of Culture in 2028. Folkestone has decided to take a run at it — and, for once, the first step [...]

Kent Councils’ Out-of-Area Temporary Accommodation: The FOI Numbers

February 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

When a council accepts that a household is homeless, it often has to find “temporary accommodation” fast. That can mean anything from a hotel or B&B to a short-term [...]

	Ian on Leas Pavilion Folkestone: Off-…
	Martin on Leas Pavilion Folkestone: Off-…
	Charlie on East Kent Sewage Pollution: So…
	Andrew on East Kent Sewage Pollution: So…
	Martin on Rough Sleeping in Kent: Snapsh…