FHDC’s Green Image Meets the East Stour Rubbish Problem
If the East Stour rubbish sits on or beside land tied to Otterpool Park, then Folkestone & Hythe District Council has a problem no amount of eco-language can mulch away. [...]
Councillors
Folkestone & Hythe Council Budget: Council Tax Rise, Reserves Drawdown and Debt Repayment Shake-Up
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s budget debate yesterday evening didn’t hinge on a big, obvious “cuts list”. It hinged on something far less [...]
Mandatory DBS Checks for District and Parish Councillors: The Russell Tillson Case
In the long shadow of the “Epstein files” debate — where public trust has again been tested by questions about powerful men, elite networks and who knew what — the [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council: Councillors Challenge Youth Football Fees, Hythe Pool Spend, Princes Parade Delay and Southern Water
Folkestone & Hythe District Council meets in Full Council on Wednesday 25 February at 7pm, and councillors have published a set of questions that range from the price of [...]
Folkestone’s Housing Register Houdinis: A Masterclass in the Peter Principle and FHDC Maths
In the hallowed, wood-panelled halls of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, it appears that “sanity checking” has been officially outsourced to the same [...]
Lidl Folkestone Planning Application 26/0002/FH: Health, Highway Safety and Contamination — The Evidence Behind the Objections
A planning application is supposed to be a tidy exercise: drawings, reports, consultations, decision. Planning committees like certainty. Communities like clarity. Developers [...]
FHDC Councillor Allowances 2026/27: £128k Rise After Change Fails
When Folkestone & Hythe District Council set its 2024/25 budget, councillor allowances were quietly pulled into the political bargaining. Now, in the 2026/27 budget [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Withhold Audit Records, Breaching Public Inspection Rights
One week after the statutory 30-working‑day inspection period closed (1 July–12 August 2025), residents report that Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) has [...]
Cllr David Wimble: Undeclared Company Directorships, Media Influence, and Years of ‘Talking Rubbish
Cllr David William Wimble (pictured)– known to many as the voice of local radio and for so long the pen behind The Looker & The Hurricane has long been one of Kent [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Under Fire: Nearly £500,000 in Unexplained Payments Exposed Amid ‘Highest Standards’ Claim
The rot at the heart of Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) is no longer a matter of opinion—it is now demonstrably a pattern. What began as seven questionable [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Faces £250K Spending Scandal in 2024/25 — Latest Chapter in Financial Failures Dating Back to 2018
The history of financial and contractual irregularities at Folkestone & Hythe District Council is well documented on the pages of the Shepway Vox Team’s blog. Since [...]
Hythe Tops UK Wood Burner Pollution Charts: Green Party Accused of Environmental Hypocrisy
A recent investigation by the ShepwayVox team has revealed that Hythe—one of the Green Party’s strongholds in Folkestone & Hythe District—has the highest [...]
Explained: How Local Councils Raise Council Tax Without a Referendum
What happened to residents’ right to vote on ‘excessive’ council tax increases? And what does that have to do with the growing number of councils in financial crisis? [...]
Ship Street 70 Years of Nothing Much: Folkestone’s Most Patient Plot Finally Seeks a Future
Stand on the lip of Ship Street and look south: a 1.56‑hectare rectangle, scooped out like a giant wasp bite, dropping a vertiginous twelve metres towards the railway. Once [...]
Folkestone Gets Ahead: St Eanswythe Statue in Radnor Park to Regain Missing Head by August
Folkestone’s most famous headless resident is finally due a reunion. After more than a year without a face, the statue of St Eanswythe at the entrance to Radnor Park is to [...]
Kent County Council Paid Out £10.7 Million in Secret Exit Deals — But Only Reported £3.65 Million
In an era defined by rising council tax, stretched services, and mounting pressure on frontline care, Kent County Council (KCC) has managed to lose sight of something rather [...]
Everything Adds Up Except the Future: How Kent’s £1.25bn Budget Balances on Delay, Denial and Disappearing Millions
Kent County Council’s Draft Statement of accounts 2024/25 have arrived — spreadsheeted, formatted, and radiating confidence — with what appears to be a balanced and [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Council’s Housing Shame: Five Years of Inaction and Budget Underspends
Updated @ 17:18 Let us begin, as all good auditors do, with the Three Es of public service delivery: Economy, Efficiency, and Effectiveness. Economy is all about cost—how [...]
Dumb, Dangerous and in Charge: Reform UK’s Procurement Tantrum Should Terrify Every Voter in Kent
What happens when you hand the toolkit of the state to people who don’t even know what the spanners are for? In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig [...]
Reform UK’s £140m Cuts at Kent County Council: Are the Most Vulnerable Paying the Price?
Kent County Council (KCC) is undergoing one of the most far-reaching restructures in its history. Following Reform UK’s dramatic electoral win in May 2025, the new [...]
Folkestone’s Leas in Crisis: Locals Fight to Save Historic Promenade from Neglect and Landslides
This is a Guest Post Big changes are coming to local government across Kent—and Folkestone & Hythe District Council will not be immune. By mid-2028, the current [...]
Methane and CO₂ Emissions at Princes Parade Clash with Council’s Climate Commitments
Updated 09:30, 7 July 2025 The future of Princes Parade—a contentious strip of coastal land owned by Folkestone & Hythe District Council—has resurfaced as a [...]
Section 106 Disaster in Folkestone: £1.7 Million Missing, No Affordable Homes Delivered
Fourteen affordable homes promised. £1.716 million pledged in Section 106 contributions. Not a brick laid, not a pound received. Instead, Stoneleigh House and its adjoining [...]