Folca 2 Planning Application: Two GP Surgeries Drawn In, Commercial Space To Let — But NHS Sign-Off Is Still Pending

Walk past Folca 2 on Sandgate Road today and there’s a fairly blunt message hanging from the scaffolding: “SUBSTANTIAL COMMERCIAL PREMISES – TO LET.” Behind that sign, however, Folkestone & Hythe District Council has now submitted detailed plans showing something much bigger taking shape inside the former Debenhams – a medical centre designed around two GP practices, alongside shops and commercial space. Cradick Retail is currently marketing Folca 2 at 28,720 sq ft, rent on application.

And that’s where this story starts getting interesting.

Planning application 26/1453/FH doesn’t simply contain a vague aspiration for doctors to move in one day. The first-floor drawings contain a 150 sq m reception and waiting area, consulting and examination rooms, treatment rooms, phlebotomy facilities, PCN rooms and separate offices for “Practice 1” and “Practice 2”. Upstairs there’s more practice office space, meeting rooms, training space and staff facilities.

The council says the two practices are Manor Clinic and Guildhall Surgery, serving more than 23,000 patients between them. Its latest announcement says they would occupy the first and second floors while retail and commercial tenants take the ground floor and basement.

But there are three important words in that announcement: “Subject to NHS approvals.”

That isn’t small print.

Back in February, Cabinet agreed to progress the mixed-use scheme after receiving an NHS letter confirming approval in principle of capital funding. The council’s own timetable put the NHS business-case and governance process between February and November 2026. Its risk register specifically identified failure to secure formal NHS England and ICB approval as a project risk and said that, if approval wasn’t achieved, Folca 2 could instead proceed as a commercial-only development.

Seven months later, that distinction hasn’t disappeared.

Kent and Medway ICB now lists the New Medical Centre, “Folca 2”, Folkestone as a scheme to relocate Manor Clinic and Guildhall Surgery, with NHS capital and Community Infrastructure Levy funding identified. But it sits under “In development”, not “In progress”, and the ICB states that projects in that section remain subject to business-case approval through NHS governance.

In other words, the scheme has travelled a long way from “perhaps”. It has funding identified, detailed architecture, clinical rooms, lifts, plant, waste facilities and surgeries talking to patients about moving.

It still isn’t finally approved.

The patient consultation that never asks the obvious question

Guildhall Surgery has now begun consulting its patients. It says the existing surgery restricts the amount of clinical space available and that Folca could provide more consulting and treatment rooms, capacity for more appointments and room for a wider range of Primary Care Network professionals. The proposed move isn’t expected before 2028.

The survey does contain fair questions. Patients are asked whether Folca would be considerably harder, a little harder, no different, a little easier or considerably easier to reach. They can also describe any problems the move would create for themselves or their family.

But the structure becomes rather less neutral after that.

Patients are presented with six suggested benefits, including improved accessibility, improved consulting and treatment facilities, greater appointment capacity, more healthcare professionals, long-term sustainability and keeping services in the town centre. They can tick “none of the above”, but there isn’t an equivalent tick-box question setting out possible disadvantages. Those largely have to be supplied by the patient in free text.

Most strikingly, nowhere in the survey are patients simply asked:

Do you support or oppose Guildhall Surgery moving to Folca?

That matters if the eventual results are used to claim that “patients support the move”. The questionnaire can measure whether respondents see particular benefits and whether they think Folca is easier to reach. It can’t directly produce a percentage supporting relocation because it never asks them to make that choice.

Guildhall’s present premises certainly have problems. The practice itself says clinicians work on several floors, there’s no lift and one cannot be installed. CQC currently rates Guildhall Good overall, following its October 2022 inspection, although Well-led remains Requires Improvement. Manor Clinic is rated Good across all five areas; its latest 2024 assessment specifically considered equity of access, although CQC noted its GP patient-survey results on access had been below local and/or England averages.

So new premises may well bring real benefits.

That doesn’t mean the unanswered questions vanish.

What the planning papers actually say

The strongest technical inconsistency concerns noise.

The Design and Access Statement says an acoustic assessment has been undertaken and “confirmed compliance” for the proposed rooftop plant. Yet Suono’s actual noise report says the development proposes one air-source heat pump and three air-handling units – and that the AHUs hadn’t been finalised, so they weren’t included in the assessment. Suono recommends another full assessment once those units are selected.

There’s another twist. The medical centre is proposed to operate 7am to 10pm, seven days a week. The noise assessment, however, assumes the air-source heat pump will operate during daytime hours only – defined as 7am to 7pm. At Europa House the calculated daytime noise level is 48dB, exactly the stated 48dB daytime limit. The evening limit is 45dB. That leaves an obvious question about heating or cooling between 7pm and 10pm.

Transport deserves another look. The plans provide no car parking on site and 17 cycle spaces. The cycle drawing says those spaces are calculated at one for every ten staff and could therefore accommodate a building with 170 staff. Yet KCC Highways declined substantive involvement, saying the development as described didn’t meet its consultation threshold. The formal application description speaks about doors, ramps, shopfronts, signage and plant – not a medical centre serving more than 23,000 patients.

Then we come back to that TO LET board.

The September plans show an 830 sq m basement commercial unit, plus two ground-floor retail areas of 448.5 sq m and 711 sq m. Together that’s about 1,989.5 sq m – roughly 21,415 sq ft. Cradick is advertising 28,720 sq ft. That may be explained by different measurement bases, shared space or older marketing particulars, but the difference is more than 7,000 sq ft and deserves reconciling.

None of this means Folca 2 won’t happen.

Quite the opposite: the level of design work shows how far the scheme has progressed.

But the story the documents tell is more complicated than “new medical centre coming to Folkestone”. Two surgeries have been designed into the building. Commercial space is being marketed underneath them. Guildhall is consulting patients. NHS capital and CIL money have been identified.

And yet final NHS business-case approval still sits ahead, currently timetabled through November 2026. The planning consultation closes on 8 October.

The building may be drawn.

The deal isn’t quite done.

The Shepway Vox Team

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