Folkestone & Hythe District Council
Autumn is already here. Leaves are falling, the days are shortening and winter is approaching — which means the question of whether Folkestone & Hythe’s gullies and [...]
Only 4.1% of Folkestone & Hythe May Be Developable — Yet 2,267 Approved Homes Hadn’t Started and FHDC Is Looking for More Land
Folkestone & Hythe is looking for more land. It may have remarkably little left. Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s own Housing Delivery Action Plan applies a [...]
Lower Leas Coastal Park Playground: How a £750,000 Budget Grew to More Than £1.38 Million
It was supposed to be a £750,000 playground. That was the budget Folkestone & Hythe District Council approved in May 2025 for the long-awaited replacement of the ageing [...]
Poor Beaches, Damaged Businesses, No Report: FHDC’s ‘Urgent’ Water Quality Work Goes Nowhere
On 1 April 2026, Folkestone & Hythe District Council agreed that investigating water quality across Romney Marsh and the East Stour should happen “as a matter of [...]
FHDC Housing Allocations Policy: ‘Fully in Line’ With the Law?
Tonight, Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee will be asked to examine a new 78-page Housing Allocations Policy — the rulebook [...]
£9m Later, the Wait Is Still a Mystery: Folkestone & Hythe’s Disabled Facilities Grants
In 2018/19, Folkestone & Hythe District Council said there was “currently no waiting list” for its Disabled Facilities Grant scheme. Today, the council tells [...]
If Intent Is a ‘Fuzzy Line’, How Can FHDC Call It Fraud? Cllr Tim Prater and the £1.266m Question
When our public face asked Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance and Governance how much of £1.266 million was actually fraud, Cllr Tim [...]
Otterpool Park: Westenhanger Fails Both New NPPF ‘Well-Connected Station’ Tests
The Government has just made building homes around well-connected railway stations substantially easier. There’s just one problem: Hillhurst Farm sits right next door to [...]
Otterpool Park Infrastructure Costs: £374m Inflation-Adjusted Benchmark for 8,500 Homes
There’s a number buried in another major Kent housing battle which deserves much more attention in Folkestone & Hythe. £36,500 per home. That’s what a viability [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Local Plan 2045: Can 15,600 New Homes Be Supported by Water, GPs and Infrastructure?
Folkestone & Hythe may need to plan for around 15,600 new homes by 2045, but the challenge isn’t simply finding enough land. The district must also prove it can deliver [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Local Plan 2045 Consultation: 15,600 Homes and More Development Sites Likely
Folkestone & Hythe may need to plan for around 15,600 new homes between now and 2045, according to documents published as the district council begins preparing its new [...]
Folkestone & Hythe: 155 Children in Temporary Accommodation as Costs Double and Out-of-Area Placements Soar
The number of children living in temporary accommodation arranged by Folkestone & Hythe District Council has more than doubled in two years. Now, as the Government [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Complaints Surge 88% as 60 Residents Demand a Second Answer
Folkestone & Hythe District Council makes residents a pretty clear promise on its website: “We aim to resolve any complaint at stage one.” Yet in 2025/26, 60 [...]
Hythe Imperial Planning Objection Guide: What Residents Need to Know About GSE’s £120m, 291-Home Plan
This is a Guest Post After reading The Shepway Vox Team’s examination of planning application 26/1290/FH, I spent a fair bit of time going through the application papers [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s £1.26m Fraud Report Doesn’t Say How Much Was Fraud — or Error
There’s a rather important word hiding inside Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s latest £1.26 million fraud figure. “Or.” FHDC says its investigations team [...]
Everist Court Lyminge: The Battle Over FHDC’s Five Social Homes and Former Age UK Community Centre
Folkestone & Hythe District Council owns Everist Court, has already committed more than £630,000 to turning it into housing, and must now determine its own planning [...]
KCC Scraps £14.5m Junction 11 Waste Transfer Station for Folkestone & Hythe After £722,000 Spend
Kent County Council is preparing to abandon its planned waste transfer station (marked in orange below) beside Junction 11 of the M20, writing off around £722,000 already [...]
16 People Report E. coli Issues After Sea Swimming at Hythe, Dymchurch and Littlestone
Something deeply worrying has been landing in The Shepway Vox Team inbox. Between 1 July and 12 August 2026, 16 people contacted us after swimming in the sea at Hythe, [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Social Housing Waiting List Reaches 1,332 as Three-Bedroom Waits Average 170 Weeks
Someone allocated a three-bedroom council owned home in Folkestone and Hythe during the past year had waited 667 weeks. That’s nearly 13 years. They were the extreme case, [...]
From Unsafe Homes to a Top-Rated Council Landlord: How the East Kent Housing Scandal Forced Folkestone & Hythe to Rebuild
Folkestone & Hythe District Council has earned the regulator’s highest consumer grade. It deserves proper credit. But C1 didn’t fall from a clear blue sky. It grew [...]
‘We Don’t Record It’: Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Procurement Waiver Claim Unravels
Folkestone & Hythe District Council told councillors that requests to bypass its normal procurement rules had fallen. Minutes later, officers admitted rejected requests [...]
Kent Local Government Reorganisation: The Unanswered Questions Facing Mid Kent Council
Folkestone & Hythe says it is preparing for its own abolition. Yet scrutiny revealed that the money, legal timetable, councillor workload, headquarters, assets and parish [...]
Ship Street Folkestone: FHDC Backs 85-Home Orbit Scheme as Hidden Land Value and ‘400 People’ Claim Raise Questions
FHDC has approved another £132,000 for Ship Street after being told 85 homes could remove nearly 400 people from the housing waiting list. The trouble is that the list [...]
Romney Marsh Solar Farms: FHDC Asked for a Cumulative Impact Rule That Already Existed
A non-lawyer councillor stopped Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s solar motion. Five minutes later, Chief Executive Dr Susan Priest read out the repair — but [...]
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 [...]