Folkestone & Hythe Planning Appeals: Costs, Rules & Success Rates
Folkestone & Hythe District Council is facing a wave of planning appeals against its decisions. Appeals arise when a developer or resident formally contests a refused [...]
September 2025
Are Folkestone’s Bus Stops Breaching the Equality Act 2010?
The closure of Folkestone’s 70-year-old bus station and the hurried switch to temporary roadside stops in Middelburg Square has sparked anger from elderly and disabled [...]
Part 1: What Is a Refugee? Definition, Rights, and UK Law
Seventy-four years after governments gathered in Geneva to define who counts as a refugee and what the world owes them, the question feels newly contested. Border walls are [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Expenses: Missing Receipts and Audit Rights
In a plot twist nobody saw coming (except literally everyone), a diligent resident exercised their lawful right to look at how Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s top [...]
KCC’s £50m Debt Repayment Misses the Real Target: £90m LOBO Loans
Kent County Council’s Reform UK administration has celebrated wiping £50 million off the council’s long-term debt. It sounds bold. It photographs well. But judged [...]
Napier Barracks Explained: Facts, Rights and Local Impact
Five years after a Facebook post published by our public face first warned Folkestone that Napier Barracks would be used to house asylum seekers, the story is still unfolding [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Tax: Bailiff Figures Skewed by Manual Counts
Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) has released fresh numbers on how often it sends Council Tax debts to private bailiffs — and they don’t line up with [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Asset Register: What’s Missing and Why
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s latest asset register shows a leaner estate than four years ago—and a public forced to chase the basics of transparency. A [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council: What the Cabinet Portfolio Reports Reveal
At each Full Council, Folkestone & Hythe District Council follows its usual rhythm: every Cabinet Member delivers a brief, seamless update on their portfolio. The set for [...]
Folkestone & Hythe CPZs: What’s the Primary Purpose of Controlled Parking Zones?
By any common-sense reading, Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) exist to manage scarce kerbspace—not to top up town halls’ coffers. That isn’t just political spin; it is [...]
Romney Marsh Solar Farms: Petition Challenges Mega Projects on Prime Farmland
A petition has been presented to Folkestone & Hythe District Council; which calls on councillors to oppose the rapid spread of industrial-scale solar and battery farms [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Performance: Waste, Housing, Planning—What to Know
Folkestone & Hythe’s Q1 performance, 2024/25 vs 2025/26: where the council’s flying, where it’s flagging, and where the lid’s still stuck on the recycling bin. If [...]
Reform Led Kent County Council Rescinds Climate Emergency Amid Disinformation Claims
Kent County Council, now controlled by Reform UK, voted today to rescind its 2019 Climate Emergency declaration at a full council meeting in Maidstone. The motion was [...]
Is this surprising? UK Local Government: About 75% of Britons Feel Little or No Influence Over Local Decisions
Only 23% of Britons say they have any influence over decisions in their local area. About three-quarters (75%) say they have little or no influence over local decisions; 23% [...]
Folkestone Bus Station Closes After 70 Years (1955–2025) as Services Move to Middelburg Square
Folkestone’s town-centre bus station will close after service on Saturday 20 September, with services switching to temporary stops along Middelburg Square from Sunday 21 [...]
Creative Businesses in Kent: Folkestone & Hythe Falls Behind
New Kent County Council figures for 2024 paint a clear picture of the county’s creative-sector footprint. Kent as a whole had 6,195 “creative” businesses – only 9.6% [...]
Highview Folkestone £800k sale — Did Leo Griggs get it cheap?
Folkestone & Hythe District Council has sold the former Highview School site on Moat Farm Road for £800,000, despite the land being marketed last year at up to £1.895 [...]
Highview Folkestone: Listed at £1.895m, Sold by Council for £800k
Highview School in Folkestone was closed in 2016 as part of a merger that created a new special education facility, The Beacon. The following year, Kent County Council (KCC) [...]
Grant Thornton Audit Fees Tripled Across 12 Kent Councils
Kent’s 12 district councils are grappling with a dramatic rise in the cost of their annual audits, as new data reveals fees tripled between 2022/23 and 2023/24. The [...]
Elmtree Farm, Sellindge: FHDC Approves 105 Homes from Quinn Homes
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Planning Committee has given the green light – unanimously, no less – to an outline proposal for 105 new homes in Sellindge. [...]
Ship Street Folkestone: 70 Years of Dereliction Ends as Council Pushes Ahead with 135-Home Gasworks Redevelopment
After lying derelict for decades, the former gasworks off Ship Street is finally inching toward a new life. Folkestone & Hythe District Council has submitted an outline [...]
Part 3: St Eanswythe Statue Still Headless — Two Sculptors Down, No Plan C
St Eanswythe, seventh-century abbess and long-suffering local icon, remains without her most photogenic feature. Fifteen months after vandals relieved her of her head in [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Misses Deadline to Replace St Eanswythe’s Head
More than a year after vandals decapitated the statue of St Eanswythe (pictured) in mid-June 2024, the saint remains headless—despite a public promise from a cabinet member [...]
Council Fails Own Rules: £81,974 Paid to Three Contractors with No Public Contract Record
Part 10 of Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Constitution is explicit: “All contracts of a value of £5,000 or more are to be included on the Council’s [...]
NSL in Folkestone & Hythe: Ex-Staff Allege Low Pay, Quotas
Former employees of NSL, the private company holding parking enforcement contracts for councils including Folkestone & Hythe District Council, are speaking out about [...]