ShepwayVox Dissent is not a Crime

Hythe Bay Bathing Water Warnings: Sewage Pollution and E. coli from Hythe to Dungeness

February 13, 2026 // 0 Comments

Hythe Bay’s “no swim” problem didn’t start in the 2020s. It has a paper trail that runs from the mid-1970s, through the coliform “fail” tables of the 1980s, into [...]

Controlled Parking Zones: What FHDC Must Fix Before Adopting Its CPZ Policy

February 12, 2026 // 2 Comments

Controlled Parking Zones are arguments over a finite resource: a few metres of kerb outside your home or shop. From Snargate to Sellindge, Lydd to Lyminge where streets can [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre: Cabinet Approves £2.4m Reopening Grant Ahead of Full Council Vote

February 11, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Cabinet has agreed to include a one-off £2.4 million grant aimed at reopening Folkestone Sports Centre and cutting its future [...]

FOLCA Folkestone: FOLCA 1 Saved for Retail-and-Flats, Sale Funds FOLCA 2 Medical Centre

February 11, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone’s long-stalled FOLCA project has entered its most consequential phase yet: FOLCA 1 is being sold, FOLCA 2 is being refurbished, and councillors are now publicly [...]

The Velvet Voices “Romney Marsh” Album: 20+ Musicians, Nine Nationalities, One Love Letter to Romney Marsh

February 11, 2026 // 4 Comments

Romney Marsh is often overlooked in the Folkestone & Hythe District Council chamber — but not by The Velvet Voices. Our latest album, Romney Marsh, lands with the scale [...]

Sunshine Bistro Licence Revoked After Home Office Review Hearing

February 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe councillors have revoked Sunshine Bistro’s premises licence, ending its authorisation to sell alcohol, after a review brought by the Home Office. [...]

Kent County Council HQ U-Turn: County Hall Basement Contract Casts Doubt on Invicta House “Savings”

February 6, 2026 // 1 Comment

Reform UK promised a cheaper headquarters plan: ditch the Invicta House refurbishment, bring staff back into Sessions House, and spend “a relatively small amount” [...]

Sunshine Bistro Folkestone: Owner Faces Losing Alcohol Licence Over Illegal Workers

February 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

Council hearing today will decide fate of Sunshine Bistro after immigration enforcement raid uncovered four illegal workers Sunshine cafe, the popular town centre restaurant [...]

Temporary Accommodation Costs Hit Record High at Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Passing £1m

February 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s spending on temporary accommodation has now crossed £1,052,870 in the current financial year, according to the council’s [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre Trust: From £150,000 Council Grant to Administration — What the Sale Price Reveals

February 6, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone Sports Centre didn’t die because it had nothing. It died because it had no money where it mattered: in the bank. That is the central message running through the [...]

Folkestone & Hythe ‘Stretches the Mortgage’ on £192m Debt: MRP Savings Now, Higher Bills Later

February 5, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) is proposing a change that makes its finances look dramatically healthier on paper — not by paying down debt, but by changing [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Tax: The Numbers Were Blacked Out — the Bill Wasn’t

February 4, 2026 // 1 Comment

There’s a familiar annual trick in local government: lead with the smallest number you control, then hope nobody asks about the rest. This year, Folkestone & Hythe [...]

Kent and Medway ICB £198m Deficit: Financial Crisis, Governance Failures and Hospital Performance Ratings Revealed

February 4, 2026 // 0 Comments

Exclusive analysis reveals severe financial pressures across Kent and Medway’s health system, with deficit support funding withdrawn and emergency measures implemented [...]

Ofsted: Kent Care Leavers in Unsafe Homes

February 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

In Kent, young adults leaving care are telling inspectors something no “corporate parent” should ever have to hear: I don’t feel safe where I live. In a local authority [...]

Cold Homes, Fuel Poverty and FHDC Independent Living: Why Older Residents Are Still Being Left in the Cold

February 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

In the bleak mid-winter; Frosty wind made moan; Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Christina Rossetti Cold is not just uncomfortable; for older people it can be [...]

Southern Water Bills Rise as Sewage Spills Persist: 50 Years of Warnings on the Kent Coast

February 1, 2026 // 2 Comments

Southern Water customers are being asked to pay more again, and the public justification is that the money will “fix” the system. From April, the average bill is due to [...]

Why Is FHDC Paying 53% of the Folkestone Pool Rebuild (£2.4m of £4.5m) Without Owning the Sports Centre?

January 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

At last night’s Full Council, Cllr Nicola Keen cut to the simplest version of the Folkestone Sports Centre row: why is Folkestone & Hythe District Council being asked [...]

Wimble’s Wobble: KCC Cabinet Member David Wimble Says “£52m” Adult Social Care Overspend — KCC’s Own Papers Say Otherwise

January 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

During a debate at Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Full Council meeting, Reform UK councillor David Wimble backed extra support for residents “down on their [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Tax Reduction Scheme: 100% Support, Bailiffs, and the Second-Homes Premium

January 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has voted through a major change to its Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme for 2026/27, restoring up to 100% support for working-age [...]

Folca 2 in Folkestone: Council Awards £2.4m Refurbishment Contract as Town-Centre Medical Centre Plan Advances

January 28, 2026 // 3 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has awarded a contract worth £2.42m (excluding VAT) to carry out phase-one refurbishment works at Folca 2 – in purple below [...]

Folkestone Road of Remembrance Landslip: Closure Timeline and Kent County Council’s £5m Stabilisation Plan

January 27, 2026 // 1 Comment

For Folkestone, the Road of Remembrance is not just a convenient cut-through between the harbour area and The Leas. It is also symbolic: a named route tied to the town’s [...]

Kent County Council 2025/26 Budget vs Forecast Outturn: What Q1–Q3 Reveals About Overspends in Adult Social Care and SEND

January 27, 2026 // 0 Comments

Kent County Council (KCC) agreed its 2025/26 budget in February 2025. In simple terms, it set out how much the council expected to spend day-to-day on services (social care, [...]

FHDC Contract Register “Time Travel”: £14.87m of Contracts Starting Before Award — Waivers, Letters of Intent and What the Constitution Requires

January 27, 2026 // 1 Comment

We, The Shepway Vox Team, have been rummaging in the Council’s contract register (once again) like Doc Brown in a garage full of suspicious gadgets. And, sure enough, the [...]

Ofwat Data: 41.4 Trillion Litres Lost to Leaks Since Privatisation in England & Wales — £52.7bn Paid in Dividends

January 26, 2026 // 1 Comment

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” W. H. Auden. Let’s start with a simple, terrifying fact. When you turn on a tap, you expect water to come [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre’s £2.4m Grant Question: Why Not Use Surplus Land to Help Fund the Rebuild?

January 24, 2026 // 3 Comments

If there’s one thing Britain still does reliably, it’s asking the public to pay twice: once through taxes, and again through politely worded “one-off” grant requests [...]

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