Council Leader Jim Martin Knew of £21M Princes Parade Offer, Leaked Email Reveals
At a full meeting of Folkestone & Hythe District Council on 26 February 2025, Cllr Jenny Hollingsbee (Con) asked Council Leader Cllr Jim Martin (Green) whether he was aware of a substantial offer for the controversial Princes Parade site.
“What I would ask is, is the Leader aware that, as I understand it, there is an offer on the table for Princess Parade for £21 million?”
Cllr Martin’s reply was blunt:
“I am unaware.”
That denial is now demonstrably false. It was a lie then and it is a lie now.
An email dated 17 October 2023, written by Cllr Martin himself, explicitly confirms his prior knowledge of the proposal. In his own words:
As one can see, the proposal referenced in that email; which was the second formal offer to acquire the Princes Parade site—distinct from an earlier offer by developer David Pownceby. This second bid, valued at £21 million, had been circulated within senior management, including Director of Place Ewan Green, Corporate Director Andy Blaszkowicz, and Chief Executive Dr Susan Priest.
We can also confirm that Cllr Jeremy Speakman (Green), who was the Cabinet Member for Assets and Operations (pictured), received the proposal and accompanying background information at the time. This significantly broadens the circle of senior decision-makers who were informed—long before Cllr Martin publicly denied all knowledge.
Despite this, Cllr Martin stood in the Council Chamber and denied any knowledge of the offer.
The contradiction could not be starker. The email shows that not only was Cllr Martin aware of the bid, but he had also apologised for delaying a response to it and directly critiqued aspects of the proposal—including financial assumptions and liability structures.
Given the clear timeline, Cllr Martin’s statement to full Council cannot credibly be defended as a misunderstanding or oversight. It was not merely evasive—it was untrue.
Some, including sympathetic colleagues, have sought to explain the incident as the unfortunate lapse of a “septuagenarian whose memory may not be what it once was.” But public accountability cannot be softened with sentiment. The Leader of the Council gave a materially false statement to the chamber. Intentional or not, it misled both elected members and the public.
To make matters worse, the Council’s own Information Retention Policy states that the central collation of emails received or sent by the Council will be destroyed one year after receipt. This means that, unless individuals retained the correspondence independently, the official records of both Cllr Martin’s 17 October email and any emails received and sent by Cllr Speakman should already have been deleted. Should the Council now assert that it still holds these emails, it would—ironically—be admitting a breach of its own retention policy.
Princes Parade, a highly contentious seafront site at the heart of years of political and legal controversy, has now become the focal point of a growing trust crisis in local government leadership. While former Leader Cllr David Monk was no stranger to truth-bending, this episode crosses a more dangerous line—a knowing breach of the public’s trust by the very figure elected to uphold it.
This incident raises profound concerns about adherence to the Seven Principles of Public Life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership. By denying knowledge of a proposal he had clearly “discussed,” Cllr Martin has fallen short not only on honesty but on openness, accountability, and leadership as well.
Whether Cllr Martin will correct the record or offer an apology remains to be seen. But one thing is now undeniable: the Leader of Folkestone & Hythe District Council stood before elected councillors and the public and issued a statement that is directly contradicted by his own written words. This is not a matter of poor memory or political miscommunication—it is a fundamental breach of trust by the very person responsible for upholding transparency in public life.
Moreover, we are aware of additional emails sent by Cllr Martin to the developer, which further illuminate his involvement in the matter. If push comes to shove—and if transparency continues to be evaded—we will not hesitate to publish them all.
When leaders cannot be relied upon to speak truthfully, public confidence collapses—and with it, the very legitimacy of local democracy. The community deserves answers, not evasion. If this Council is serious about the standards it claims to uphold, it must now act. The question is no longer whether Jim Martin misled the chamber. The only question is: what will the consequences be?
We would be interested in hearing about your experiences of Fokestone & Hythe District Council. Email: TheShepwayVoxTeam@proton.me in confidence.
The Shepway Vox Team
Deliciously Different Dissent
Fortunately the sale didn’t go through, the developers previous 4 companies have all gone into liquidation and again recently.
That was the PREVIOUS developer.
Jim, people can forgive mistakes—but they don’t forget being taken for fools. Time to stop hiding behind silence and start showing some honesty.
And I thought by voting in a new Council after years of what I would term Corruption would be better for the Residents of Shepway. How wrong I was. What with a Prime Minister lying his way to the next General Election, we now have a Council Leader, who is obstructing truth, and transparency. He owes the rest of the Council and the people of Shepway and apology in writing.
As the old local saying went: There’s the right way—and then there’s the Shepway. It seems little has changed, even with the rebrand to Folkestone & Hythe District Council.