Folkestone Town Centre Plan: Can New Markets Bring Shoppers Back?
A new Town Centre Operating Model aims to turn Folkestone’s public-realm works into a living, trading, event-filled town centre. Scrutiny councillors liked the idea, but [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council
Folkestone & Hythe Free Parking Plan Sent Back After £356k Warning
A proposal for 20 minutes’ free parking in Folkestone & Hythe town-centre car parks hasn’t been killed off. But scrutiny councillors want the Cabinet member to look [...]
The Long Read: Martello Lakes Pool Promise: Where the £5.5m S106 Money Went
Folkestone & Hythe’s own papers show the Martello Lakes swimming pool dream has vanished. The money has gone elsewhere, the land decision is still coming, and the [...]
Saga’s Enbrook Homes Plan Revives Folkestone Redevelopment Row
Saga says homes on “under-utilised” land at Enbrook Park could help fund the repair of The Pavilion and keep the Sandgate headquarters sustainable. But this is not [...]
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 [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Free Parking Plan Could Cost £356k
A proposal to give drivers 20 minutes’ free parking in Folkestone & Hythe town centre car parks has obvious public appeal. But a council report says the idea could cost [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Ward Budgets: £1m Local Grants, But £133k Unspent
Small grants. Local projects. Real money. Folkestone & Hythe’s ward-budget scheme is back for 2026/27 with a bigger pot — and community groups should be getting ready [...]
The Long Read: Cllr David Wimble’s Register of Interests: FHDC’s Address Trail
Cllr David Wimble, also recorded in company papers as William David Wimble, has a growing trail of company names, registered offices, trading addresses, council property [...]
Folkestone Folca 1 Flats Plan: Planning Law and Noise Risks
Folca 1 is heading towards retail and flats, not the medical centre once promised. But this isn’t a normal planning application. It’s a narrow Class MA prior approval [...]
David Wimble Helicopter Gift: The Alcaline Flights, KCC Register and Looker Adverts
Cllr David Wimble’s KCC declaration says his September Alcaline Aviation helicopter lift was a gift. His Facebook trail points to three 2025 flights. Now The Looker, the [...]
FHDC Procurement Card Receipts: Why Restaurant Bills Still Need Explaining
FHDC’s officer subsistence figures allow £6.88 for breakfast, £9.50 for lunch, £3.76 for tea and £11.76 for supper — £31.90 for the whole day. Yet five [...]
Folkestone & Hythe DC’s Leas Cliff Hall Contract: The £13.2m ATG Payment Trail Behind a £10m Deal
The council’s own papers show a 20-year RPI-linked deal, no profit-share, falling ticket sales, patchy monitoring — and a public contract register that still tells [...]
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 [...]
FHDC Council Chairs and Allowances: Who Got Which Seat
The music stopped at Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s annual general meeting on Wednesday 6 May 2026. Cllr Paul Thomas got the big civic chair, most committee [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Temporary Accommodation Bill Hits £1.52m
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s published payments for temporary accommodation reached £1,520,865.70 in 2025/26 under just two descriptions: Bed & Breakfast [...]
FHDC Temporary Accommodation Contracts Show £570k Spending Gap
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s temporary accommodation trail shows two contract periods where the published payments appear to exceed the published values by a [...]
Folkestone & Hythe HMO Licensing Gap: 312 Estimated Shared Houses, 63 Licences
Folkestone & Hythe says HMOs with five or more people in two or more households need a licence. Yet the latest MHCLG housing return points to an estimated 312 [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Has Kent’s Highest Band D Council Tax for the 23rd Year in a Row
The official Band D benchmark says Folkestone & Hythe has sat at the top of Kent’s council tax table since 2004-05. It did so under the Conservatives who ran the [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Tops Kent Table for Serious Private Rented Housing Hazards
Kent housing officers said the local evidence base on poor housing conditions was “scarce”. Even so, MHCLG’s latest return shows Folkestone & Hythe with the highest [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Expenses: Officers Get Higher Meal Allowances Than Councillors
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” George Orwell wrote, and at Folkestone & Hythe District Council that principle appears to have [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Pay Gap Widens Between Top Officers and Lowest-Paid Staff
There is a neat trick in local authority pay stories. Look only at percentages and the whole thing can start to seem almost modest. Look at the pounds, though, and the [...]
Exclusive: How Otterpool Park’s Places for People Deal Ended in a Claim
David Monk’s Otterpool strategy was built on a simple commercial idea: service the land, parcel it up and sell it on. By 2023, Places for People had emerged in public as [...]
Otterpool Park Minutes Reveal Places for People Claim
For years, Otterpool Park LLP’s public minutes were written in that familiar regeneration dialect: lots of “delivery”, “collaboration” and “transition”, not [...]
Kent Councils Gender Pay Gap League Table: Which Employers Favour Men, Women or Neither?
Kent’s council gender pay gap story is no longer a simple tale of men doing better everywhere. In some authorities the median gap still clearly favours men. In some it is [...]
Exclusive: Places for People Silent Over Otterpool Park Contract Dispute
Exclusive Places for People pulled out of plans to become an Otterpool Park joint venture partner in autumn 2024. Now, after being asked whether it is taking or preparing [...]