South Brooks Solar Farm: FHDC Signals ‘Holding Objection’ Over Romney Marsh Risks
“It just feels a bit fait accompli.” With those words, Cllr Adrian Lockwood (Lab – pictured) put his finger on the unease running through Folkestone & Hythe [...]
Environment
High Court Rules Environment Agency Can Prosecute Former Southern Water Chief Matthew Wright for Conspiracy to Defraud
A former Southern Water chief executive has failed in a High Court attempt to establish that the Environment Agency had no legal power to prosecute him for conspiracy to [...]
Folkestone and Hythe Council’s Unfulfilled Promise to Investigate Sewage Pollution
On 1 April, Folkestone & Hythe District Council agreed that possible human faecal contamination across Romney Marsh and the East Stour needed investigating “as a matter [...]
Southern Water 2025/26: Leakage, Pollution and £7bn Debt — Long Read
Southern Water cut leakage sharply during 2025/26, but still lost almost 90 million litres of treated water every day — enough over the year to fill Bewl Water reservoir [...]
South Brooks Solar Farm: FHDC Officers Raise Concerns Over Heathrow-Sized Romney Marsh Scheme
Back in May, The Shepway Vox Team wrote that Romney Marsh isn’t empty land beside a handy National Grid socket. It’s a vast, man-made water system held together by [...]
Kent’s Housing Crisis: 47,839 Approved Homes, But Councils Still Fail The Delivery Test
Kent hasn’t run out of planning permissions. It’s got plenty of paper foundations. The latest Kent housing land supply audit shows 47,839 homes with planning permission [...]
Otterpool Park First Homes: Hillhurst Costs and North Downs Views
Homes England has bought Hillhurst farmland. The first 300 Otterpool homes are being aimed at sites HF2 and HF3, where the public plans show buildings up to 12–15 metres. [...]
Oliver Davis, Dace Environmental and the £6.68m Creditor Question
Kent’s new green housing fix is being sold with drone footage, widened ditches and the promise of thousands of homes. But behind the clean-river sales pitch sits a very [...]
Romney Marsh Solar Farms: Full Council to Decide Next Step
Folkestone & Hythe councillors are being asked to give senior officers faster powers to respond to three giant solar schemes on Romney Marsh — but the petition that [...]
Southern Water Drought Plan Exposes Kent’s Water Supply Crisis
Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. W. H. Auden Southern Water is telling us to think about drought before we have no choice. Not just hosepipe bans. [...]
West Wood’s Lost Oasis: The Holiday Village That Won Permission and Still Failed
A private leisure village in a public Kent forest won the planning argument, survived the High Court and still never got built. The reason West Wood survived wasn’t simple. [...]
Update: Otterpool Park Water Plan Faces Climate and Supply Questions
Otterpool Park is not just a housing scheme. It is an 8,500-home test of whether a seriously water-stressed part of Kent can absorb a new town, a business district, schools, [...]
The Long Read: South Kent Energy Park’s 2,100-Acre Solar Gamble on Romney Marsh
Low Carbon says its South Kent Energy Park could power the equivalent of 140,000 homes. Its own scoping report also shows a much bigger scheme, on arable Marsh land, much of [...]
The Long Read: KCC Banks Solar Farm Cash as Reform Says No to Romney Marsh Panels
Reform-led Kent County Council says it wants to protect Kent farmland from excessive solar development. Fair enough. But the council also owns solar farms, including a [...]
New Romney Homes Plan Tests Kent’s Water-Stressed Future
A proposed 110-home scheme on farmland at New Romney has landed in the middle of Kent’s bigger water argument: how can we keep building in one of the most water-stressed [...]
The Long Read: South Brooks Solar Farm Consultation Opens as Romney Marsh Drainage Fight Deepens
EDF power solutions UK and PS Renewables say South Brooks Solar Farm could power more than 140,000 homes a year. Campaigners say residents are being asked how to soften the [...]
Dirty Air, Green Silence: Folkestone & Hythe’s PM2.5 Failure
Folkestone & Hythe is above the World Health Organization guideline for PM2.5. The council doesn’t directly monitor PM2.5. It has no Smoke Control Areas. It logged 129 [...]
Romney Marsh Flood Risk: Cllr Tony Hills Warns Sea Defences Must Be Strengthened
Cllr Tony Hills speaks to The Shepway Vox Team about sea defences, flooding, warming waters, sewage, planning and why Romney Marsh must not be treated as somewhere that can [...]
Otterpool Park Update: £24m Paid Out, Sewage Works Approved, Delivery Questions Remain
Before a single Otterpool Park home has been built, Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s own payment data shows nearly £24m in Otterpool equity, share-capital and [...]
Stodmarsh Nutrient Credits: Will Kent’s New Pollution Offset Market Unlock Homes or Just Sell Clean-River Promises?
For years, Stodmarsh has been the wetland that stopped the bulldozers. Now councils and private firms say nutrient credits can unlock thousands of homes. That may be [...]
Kent Meningitis Outbreak: Exercise Pegasus Paper Mentioned Meningitis Before Canterbury Cluster
In January, Kent’s public health committee was given a routine-looking update on Exercise Pegasus, a national pandemic-preparedness exercise. Buried in the paper was a line [...]
Southern Water Sewage: Why Some Kent Councils Investigate and Others Look Away
Two Kent councils are now investigating possible statutory nuisance complaints over alleged untreated sewage discharges by Southern Water. Others are hesitating, dragging [...]
New Romney and Its Perfect Cousins
There are few things more revealing in local government than a row about street sweeping. Not because it is glamorous. Quite the opposite. When residents start arguing over [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Council Backs East Stour and Romney Marsh Sewage Testing
There are some council debates that arrive gift-wrapped for local government purists: knotty, procedural, full of worthy intent and decorated with enough amendments to make [...]
Kent solar panel data raises questions over MP Tony Vaughan’s rooftop energy plan
New Department for Energy Security and Net Zero figures show rooftop solar is already well established across Kent. But while Tony Vaughan KC MP is plainly right that more [...]