August 2025

Folkestone & Hythe District Council FOI Fiasco Returns: Housing Data Contradictions

August 29, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has turned transparency from a legal duty into a parlour trick. Once is a mistake, twice is a pattern, three times is a habit—and [...]

UK Human Rights Act and ECHR Explained: Right to Life, Law and Planning

August 29, 2025 // 0 Comments

Seventy-five years after Britain helped write the post-war rules that keep tyranny out, voices within the Conservatives and Reform UK are now toying with watering down or [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Tax Arrears £6.72m; FOIs Disputed

August 28, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is currently owed £6,720,241.51 in unpaid council tax, an FOI disclosure shows. The headline figure is stark, but it comes with a [...]

What has the European Convention on Human Rights ever done for us?

August 28, 2025 // 0 Comments

Seemed worth sharing this morning — We don’t think there’s much else to add. The Shepway Vox Team Dissent is Not a [...]

Otterpool Park Update: Otterpool Park LLP Signs Exclusive Deal With SNRG Before Legal Review, Raising Questions for Folkestone & Hythe District Council

August 28, 2025 // 0 Comments

On 27 August, the Shepway Vox Team published an update that has left more questions than answers about the governance of the Otterpool Park development. At the heart of the [...]

Otterpool Park Update: SNRG Sign Deal to Provide Smart Grid to Power 8,500 Homes at Otterpool Park by 2057

August 26, 2025 // 2 Comments

A funded private smart grid promises lower bills for residents, fewer headaches for housebuilders and a new income stream for the council — with every home due to be [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Housing Crisis: Temporary Accommodation Costs Surge 3,461% as Rents Rise, House Prices Soar, and 943 Homes Sit Empty

August 24, 2025 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is facing a housing dilemma that is stretching budgets and putting families under strain. The cost of temporary accommodation has [...]

The Velvet Voices: Music Without Words

August 21, 2025 // 1 Comment

After twenty years of procrastination—or, as a friend more generously described it, an “extended hiatus”—the time had finally come to make music again. And where [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Withhold Audit Records, Breaching Public Inspection Rights

August 18, 2025 // 0 Comments

One week after the statutory 30-working‑day inspection period closed (1 July–12 August 2025), residents report that Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) has [...]

FOI Discrepancies Throw Folkestone & Hythe District Council Temporary Accommodation Costs Into Doubt

August 18, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) has once again managed the impossible: spending millions of pounds on Temporary Accommodation without actually knowing how much [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Residents Urged to Join Community Panel Shaping New Design Code for Future Developments

August 16, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is seeking residents to join a new community panel tasked with contributing to the development of the district’s first formal design [...]

Nigel Farage’s Small Boats Moral Panic: How Reform UK Turns Immigration Into Fear Politics

August 14, 2025 // 3 Comments

Clacton-On-Sea, Easter 1964: Thousands of British youths from rival “Mod” and “Rocker” subcultures swarm the beach on a bank holiday weekend. Scuffles break out in [...]

Folkestone’s £2m Folca Redevelopment Delayed Until 2029

August 14, 2025 // 1 Comment

Council’s £2m buyout of the Folkestone Debenhams in 2020 promised rapid regeneration – but five years, 13 contracts and many delays later, the site may not fully reopen [...]

“Buy Local” Tony Vaughan MP Spends £346 on Non-Local Plants — Some Imported from China

August 12, 2025 // 1 Comment

When Tony Vaughan KC MP for Folkestone & Hythe (pictured) penned his 24 July 2025 column, Buying Local is the Bedrock of Community, it was an unambiguous call to arms. [...]

Cllr David Wimble: Undeclared Company Directorships, Media Influence, and Years of ‘Talking Rubbish

August 12, 2025 // 2 Comments

Cllr David William Wimble (pictured)– known to many as the voice of local radio and for so long the pen behind The Looker & The Hurricane has long been one of Kent [...]

Kent County Council Still Rents £60k Brussels Office Under Reform UK as £140m Cuts Loom

August 11, 2025 // 3 Comments

Kent County Council (KCC) is facing renewed criticism after it emerged the authority continues to rent office space in Brussels – nearly five years after the UK formally [...]

Kent Council Under Fire for Investing in Fossil Fuels and Arms Firms Linked to Gaza Conflict

August 8, 2025 // 1 Comment

As the climate crisis intensifies and war rages in Gaza, scrutiny is mounting over how public institutions invest our money. New analysis reveals Kent County Council (KCC) [...]

Kent County Council Invests £5.3 Million in BAE Systems Arms Manufacturer Supplying Weapons Used in Gaza

August 8, 2025 // 2 Comments

As of 31 March 2025, Kent County Council held £5,363,935 in shares in BAE Systems, the UK’s largest arms manufacturer. The investment is drawing renewed scrutiny amid [...]

Folkestone Library Closure: Historic Grace Hill Building Up for Sale After £2.9m Repair Costs and Community Protests

August 6, 2025 // 1 Comment

Folkestone’s Grade II Listed Library at 2 Grace Hill abruptly closed in late 2022 after severe water ingress rendered the Grade II listed building unsafe. Kent County [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Spent £3.1 Million Outside Contract Rules, Records Reveal

August 6, 2025 // 2 Comments

Calls are mounting for Grant Thornton the external auditors to intervene at Folkestone & Hythe District Council, after new evidence emerged of more than £3.1 million in [...]

Procurement Failures Exposed—Third Investigation into FHDC Reveals £380k in Unexplained Public Spending

August 4, 2025 // 2 Comments

Missed the earlier reports? Catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of our ongoing investigation into FHDC’s procurement practices. The financial discrepancies at Folkestone & [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Under Fire: Nearly £500,000 in Unexplained Payments Exposed Amid ‘Highest Standards’ Claim

August 4, 2025 // 4 Comments

The rot at the heart of Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) is no longer a matter of opinion—it is now demonstrably a pattern. What began as seven questionable [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Faces £250K Spending Scandal in 2024/25 — Latest Chapter in Financial Failures Dating Back to 2018

August 3, 2025 // 0 Comments

The history of financial and contractual irregularities at Folkestone & Hythe District Council is well documented on the pages of the Shepway Vox Team’s blog. Since [...]

	Martin on Folca 2 in Folkestone: Council…
	Dean on Folca 2 in Folkestone: Council…
	Martin on Folca 2 in Folkestone: Council…
	Andrew on FHDC Contract Register “Time T…
	Colin on Ofwat Data: 41.4 Trillion Litr…