Folkestone Harbour: Deprivation Endures Despite Regeneration
Folkestone’s waterfront has been remade with panache: the derelict Harbour Arm became a promenade of bars and food stalls; a boardwalk curls along the beach; the first [...]
October 2025
Kent’s East–West Health Divide: Coastal Communities Falling Behind
A decade of Conservative-led austerity in Britain has coincided with worsening health gaps and stalled life expectancy. Recent reviews warn that cuts to public spending have [...]
Kent’s Most Deprived Areas: Rankings, Trends, and What Must Change
New government data shows Kent districts have slipped down England’s deprivation league over the past decade — and it has done so against the backdrop of Conservative [...]
Deprivation Deepens in Folkestone & Hythe, Latest Data Shows
An initial look at the latest Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) shows Folkestone & Hythe has fallen further down England’s deprivation table. On the headline “rank [...]
Kent County Council No Use Empty (NUE) loans: £195,600 paid out before approval, FOI reveals
Kent County Council’s No Use Empty (NUE) loan programme is facing accuracy questions after an audit of the council’s FOI spreadsheet found two entries where the first [...]
Britain First protest at Lydd Town Hall; meeting cancelled over paperwork
Britain First supporters are planning to demonstrate outside Lydd Town Hall on Monday 3 November at 7.30pm. Kent Police have been notified; in an email seen by The Shepway [...]
Ameet Kotecha, Panama Papers and Hythe Care Home: Explained
Boutique Care Homes is building a 66-bed care home on Hythe’s former Smiths Medical site, with the scheme regularly showcased as a local regeneration success. Coverage this [...]
Why Folkestone & Hythe is getting poorer — and how to turn it around
New official slides from the district’s Community Safety Partnership (CSP) confirm what many residents have felt for years: Folkestone & Hythe has grown poorer relative [...]
Folkestone and Hythe Council: A Decade of Temporary Staff Costs
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s temporary staff costs have seesawed over the past decade, peaking at about £1.66m in 2022/23 before falling to £853,699 in [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council homelessness costs: the complete guide
Folkestone & Hythe’s homelessness ledger tells a stark story. Between April and September 2025, the district council paid £543,556.40 for temporary accommodation, [...]
Brexit Freedom? UK Travellers Meet EU Fingerprint Checks & Facial Scans
We took a blowtorch to the UK’s ID card database in 2011, congratulated ourselves on liberty, and then—fast-forward—built weekend plans around pressing our fingers on [...]
Kent County Council audit: clean opinion, deep financial risks
Kent audit signs off the Tories’ final year — but warns of structural risks the new Reform UK leadership must now tackle Grant Thornton will issue an unqualified opinion [...]
Council Tax Bailiffs in Kent: Councils Ranked and What It Means for You
The numbers are rising. After a fall in 2023/24, Kent’s 12 district councils sharply increased the number of Council Tax debts sent to enforcement agents in 2024/25 — [...]
Is FHDC’s Council Tax Policy Unfair to Disabled Universal Credit Claimants?
An FHDC case exposes a fixable flaw in working-age Council Tax Reduction—and a lawful route the Council could use today. The Story In A Nutshell A disabled resident who [...]
Otterpool Park LLP: £2.2m Interest Owed on £24m Folkestone & Hythe District Council Loans — Explained
Otterpool Park LLP—the master-developer vehicle wholly controlled by Folkestone & Hythe District Council—has leaned ever more heavily on council loans while tangible [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Plan to Cut Temporary Accommodation Costs
Cabinet backs a £5m plan to buy 20 council-owned homes for temporary accommodation and temporarily switch up to 20 existing council properties — as usage has doubled from [...]
Seven Days or Ten? FHDC’s Council Tax Clock Doesn’t Match Its Own Rules
Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) tells residents two different things about the same, high-stakes moment: how quickly you must clear council tax arrears after a [...]
Green-Led Folkestone & Hythe Council Falling Short on Climate Action
Folkestone & Hythe District Council has joined the call for Westminster to pass the Climate and Nature Bill. That is welcome symbolism. But the council’s own climate [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Budget 2026/27: Council Tax Rises, Services, and Risks
Folkestone & Hythe District Council published its 2025/26 Budget Strategy last December and its 2026/27 Budget Strategy this October. Read together, they show a Council [...]
Folkestone & Hythe DC Temporary Accommodation Costs Forecast to Rise £273,500 (≈30%) to £1.2m in 2025/26
Folkestone & Hythe District Council warns that the cost of housing homeless households in temporary accommodation (TA) is spiralling. In 2024/25 the council’s own [...]
Folkestone’s St Eanswythe Gets Her Head Back—At Last
After sixteen months without a face, St Eanswythe is finally making eye contact with Folkestone again. The council says the Radnor Park statue is restored; the town sighs [...]
Lidl Folkestone Plan Faces Mixed Reaction and Ownership Questions
Discount supermarket Lidl has unveiled proposals to relocate its Folkestone town-centre store (in Shellons Street – which has long been planned to become the new bus [...]
Most Kent Councils Off Track for 2030 Net Zero
Kent’s local councils are under growing scrutiny for how they tackle climate change. Nearly all of them declared a “climate emergency” in 2019, pledging to cut [...]
Folkestone & Hythe DC Parking: What the Website Hides and the Accounts Reveal
Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) says it’s transparent about parking. The website’s “Off-Street Parking” (Parking Webpage_24/25) page shows you a [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council sets aside £188,000 a month for debt
Folkestone & Hythe District Council has taken on £38 million in borrowing from other local authorities to fund its flagship Otterpool Park development – even though [...]