Folkestone Road of Remembrance Landslip: Closure Timeline and Kent County Council’s £5m Stabilisation Plan

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 First World War story. Yet it has been shut for almost two years, while Kent County Council (KCC) investigated what, exactly, had moved — and what it would cost to make it safe again.

This week, KCC has finally put a headline number on the fix: a £5 million stabilisation scheme, with work potentially starting in early summer — if the Council’s draft budget is agreed, and if the formal decision-making steps then follow.

So: when did it close, what did the Conservatives do about the money before May 2025, and what has changed under Reform UK?

When was the Road of Remembrance closed?

KCC’s own records put the trigger point clearly at Saturday 27 January 2024.

In a formal answer at County Council, KCC states that “On 27 January 2024, a landslip occurred on private land north of the Road of Remembrance”, blocking the road with soil and trees and prompting an immediate closure on safety grounds.

KCC’s February 2024 update describes being called out in the early hours of 27 January to clear fallen trees — only to discover they were linked to a landslip, meaning removal had to be halted pending further investigation.

Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) separately summarised it as a closure “at the end of January 2024” after a landslip brought trees down, followed by further slips.

The Conservative period: lots of investigation, but no public “we’ve found £X”

Before the 1 May 2025 county election — when KCC was still run by the Conservatives — the public KCC story is heavy on process (surveys, design work, safety) and light on price tags.

• February 2024: KCC talks about stabilising assessments and contacting landowners; no costed scheme is published.

• May 2024: KCC extends the legal closure order (TTRO) to the end of 2024 to carry out “ground investigations, surveys and design work” and later remedial works — while stressing the end-date is not a reopening date. Again: no budget figure attached.

• March 2024 committee minutes: members are told the road “remained closed” and would only reopen when safe; no funding announcement appears.

• April 2025 committee minutes: officers report the stabilisation design was nearing finalisation, with more technical checks and legal preparatory work still underway; again, no “£5m has been allocated” moment.

That doesn’t prove no internal budgeting existed. But it does mean that, from what KCC publicly published in that period, the Conservatives did not present residents with a specific funded figure or a funded timetable — certainly nothing like the explicit “£5 million scheme” language now being used.

The Reform UK period: a £5m scheme appears — but it’s still conditional

Reform UK won overall control of KCC at the 1 May 2025 election. KCC’s own election results page records Reform UK 57 seats (a clear majority).

Fast-forward to 21 January 2026, and KCC publishes a strikingly different kind of announcement. The council now says it intends to deliver “major engineering works” to stabilise the cliff above the road and “pav[e] the way” to reopening after almost two years. Crucially, it says it intends to allocate significant funding towards a £5 million scheme within its draft 2026/27 budget — and if the budget is agreed in February, work could start as soon as early summer.

The same message is repeated on KCC’s dedicated project page: “We hope to allocate significant funding towards the £5 million scheme within our draft 2026/27 budget,” followed by formal decision-making, contractor appointment, and then a confirmed programme.

The messenger has also changed. The May 2024 update quoted Neil Baker as Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport (Conservative administration).
The January 2026 funding announcement quotes Peter Osborne, now Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport — and KCC’s own councillor profile lists him as Reform UK.

What does “found the £5m” actually mean?

Even in KCC’s own wording, this is not “£5m is in the bank and contractors start Monday”.

It is: a stated intention to put significant funding into a draft 2026/27 budget, followed by further constitutional decision steps, and with KCC also saying it is discussing “other financial contributions” with partners/agencies.

So the key investigative point is this: the £5m is a political and budget prioritisation choice that still has to clear formal hurdles.

The questions residents should now press KCC to answer

If KCC wants credit for “finding” the money, it should be prepared to show its working. The essentials are simple:

1. Where exactly is the £5m in the draft budget/capital programme — and what gets less as a result?

2. How much is actually secured vs still “to be found” from partners?

3. Who pays when a highway is blocked by a landslip that began on private land? (KCC itself notes the landslip occurred on private land.)

4. What is the procurement route and timeline — and when will residents see a start date they can rely on?

5. What is the contingency if further slips or ecological constraints delay works again? (KCC explicitly flags ecological and site sensitivities.)

Bottom line

The Road of Remembrance was closed because of a landslip on 27 January 2024. For much of 2024 and early 2025, KCC communications (under Conservative leadership) focused on surveys, design and safety — without publishing a funded price tag.

Under Reform UK, KCC is now publicly talking in pounds and pence: a £5 million stabilisation scheme, tied to the draft 2026/27 budget and further formal decisions.

That is real movement — but it is still, by KCC’s own description, a plan with conditions attached, not a completed fix.

The Shepway Vox Team

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