January 2026

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 [...]

Tony Vaughan MP KC’s Rooftop Solar “Win-Win”: The £125m Claim, the Missing Small Print, and Why It Doesn’t Add Up

January 24, 2026 // 4 Comments

By the time you reach the bottom of Folkestone & Hythe MP Tony Vaughan KC’s rooftop-solar manifesto, you’re meant to bask in the warm glow of certainty: at last, a [...]

Folkestone’s Housing Register Houdinis: A Masterclass in the Peter Principle and FHDC Maths

January 24, 2026 // 1 Comment

In the hallowed, wood-panelled halls of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, it appears that “sanity checking” has been officially outsourced to the same [...]

Folkestone & Hythe DC’s Audit Exposed: The £3.4m Princes Parade Write-Off Buried in ‘Clean’ Accounts

January 23, 2026 // 2 Comments

As the clocks tick toward 6:00 PM on Thursday, 29 January 2026, a hush will descend upon the Council Chamber. The members of the Folkestone & Hythe District Council [...]

Kent NHS Whistleblowing: Freedom to Speak Up Promises vs Tribunal Reality

January 22, 2026 // 0 Comments

THE NHS will always need whistleblowers. Healthcare is complex, rapidly changing and dangerous; staff are fallible, variably trained and widely spaced; and demands are huge [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Portfolio Holder Reports: Otterpool Park, Budget Pressures, Parking Changes and Housing Costs Explained

January 22, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Full Council will receive its latest set of Portfolio Holder reports on Wednesday 28 January 2026 as Agenda Item 9 — a familiar [...]

Romney Marsh Solar Farm Approved 8–4: What Folkestone & Hythe Councillors Were Told, What the Papers Contradict, and What Happens Next (25/0542/FH)

January 21, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Planning and Licensing Committee has approved planning application 25/0542/FH for a 40-hectare (98.8-acre) solar farm on land [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre: The Sports Trust’s Accounts, FHDC’s £2.4m Grant, and the UK Subsidy Control Questions

January 20, 2026 // 0 Comments

A beloved community sports complex in Folkestone is on course for a resurrection after an abrupt closure – but only if a £2.4 million council grant gets the green light. [...]

FOLCA 2 Explained: The NHS Medical Centre Deal, the £13.2m Business Case, and the Tender Trail Behind Folkestone’s Town-Centre Redevelopment

January 20, 2026 // 1 Comment

On Tuesday 27 January, Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee will look at a draft Cabinet paper that lands formally on the Cabinet [...]

Who Owns the St Mary’s Solar Farm Land? The Furnival Title Deed, Enviromena’s Funding Chain, and What Planning Committee Must Ask (25/0542/FH)

January 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

We’ve spent the last few days doing the thing that residents always end up doing when a big infrastructure proposal lands on the Marsh: taking the glossy brochure claims, [...]

Lidl Folkestone Planning Application 26/0002/FH: Health, Highway Safety and Contamination — The Evidence Behind the Objections

January 16, 2026 // 1 Comment

A planning application is supposed to be a tidy exercise: drawings, reports, consultations, decision. Planning committees like certainty. Communities like clarity. Developers [...]

South East Water Exposed: 14 Bewl Waters Lost to Leaks (2012–2025), Dividends Paid, Outages Mount, Regulators Investigate

January 15, 2026 // 0 Comments

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” W.H Auden In Kent and Sussex, fresh water – a most precious commodity, is now a kind of [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Tax Rise Explained: Where the Money Goes and What It Means for Local Services

January 14, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has begun the annual civic tradition of explaining why everything costs more, while promising not to make it feel like it does. Last [...]

Folkestone Library: The Rise, Decline and Fight to Save Grace Hill’s Grade II Listed Landmark

January 13, 2026 // 4 Comments

Grace Hill is not just a building with books. It is a piece of Folkestone’s civic identity: a red-brick landmark, Grade II listed, built in the late Victorian period [...]

Folkestone Ship Street Gasworks Housing Plan: “Health Impact” Tick-Box, Toxic Land Risks, and Equality Act Red Flags in a Deprived Coastal Ward

January 12, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s proposal to transform the derelict former gasworks at Ship Street into 135 homes (planning ref: 25/1316/FH) is now out for public [...]

How Folkestone Library Could Stay at Grace Hill: Three Realistic Plans to Keep the Historic Site Open Without Raising Council Tax Above 3.99%

January 12, 2026 // 1 Comment

Works have started on Kent County Council’s new “town-centre hub” at 14 Sandgate Road — the former Woolworths — combining adult education and Folkestone Library, [...]

South East Water Firms Lost 127.97 Billion Litres to Leaks in a Year — Targets Missed, Fines Paid, Customers Still Left Short

January 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

“Water is the driving force of all nature.” – Leonardo Da Vinci “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” – W.H.Auden Fresh water [...]

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