Folkestone & Hythe District Council

Hythe Bay Bathing Water Warnings: Sewage Pollution and E. coli from Hythe to Dungeness

February 13, 2026 // 0 Comments

Hythe Bay’s “no swim” problem didn’t start in the 2020s. It has a paper trail that runs from the mid-1970s, through the coliform “fail” tables of the 1980s, into [...]

Controlled Parking Zones: What FHDC Must Fix Before Adopting Its CPZ Policy

February 12, 2026 // 3 Comments

Controlled Parking Zones are arguments over a finite resource: a few metres of kerb outside your home or shop. From Snargate to Sellindge, Lydd to Lyminge where streets can [...]

FOLCA Folkestone: FOLCA 1 Saved for Retail-and-Flats, Sale Funds FOLCA 2 Medical Centre

February 11, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone’s long-stalled FOLCA project has entered its most consequential phase yet: FOLCA 1 is being sold, FOLCA 2 is being refurbished, and councillors are now publicly [...]

Sunshine Bistro Folkestone: Owner Faces Losing Alcohol Licence Over Illegal Workers

February 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

Council hearing today will decide fate of Sunshine Bistro after immigration enforcement raid uncovered four illegal workers Sunshine cafe, the popular town centre restaurant [...]

Temporary Accommodation Costs Hit Record High at Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Passing £1m

February 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s spending on temporary accommodation has now crossed £1,052,870 in the current financial year, according to the council’s [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre Trust: From £150,000 Council Grant to Administration — What the Sale Price Reveals

February 6, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone Sports Centre didn’t die because it had nothing. It died because it had no money where it mattered: in the bank. That is the central message running through the [...]

Folkestone & Hythe ‘Stretches the Mortgage’ on £192m Debt: MRP Savings Now, Higher Bills Later

February 5, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) is proposing a change that makes its finances look dramatically healthier on paper — not by paying down debt, but by changing [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Tax: The Numbers Were Blacked Out — the Bill Wasn’t

February 4, 2026 // 1 Comment

There’s a familiar annual trick in local government: lead with the smallest number you control, then hope nobody asks about the rest. This year, Folkestone & Hythe [...]

Cold Homes, Fuel Poverty and FHDC Independent Living: Why Older Residents Are Still Being Left in the Cold

February 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

In the bleak mid-winter; Frosty wind made moan; Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Christina Rossetti Cold is not just uncomfortable; for older people it can be [...]

Why Is FHDC Paying 53% of the Folkestone Pool Rebuild (£2.4m of £4.5m) Without Owning the Sports Centre?

January 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

At last night’s Full Council, Cllr Nicola Keen cut to the simplest version of the Folkestone Sports Centre row: why is Folkestone & Hythe District Council being asked [...]

Wimble’s Wobble: KCC Cabinet Member David Wimble Says “£52m” Adult Social Care Overspend — KCC’s Own Papers Say Otherwise

January 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

During a debate at Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Full Council meeting, Reform UK councillor David Wimble backed extra support for residents “down on their [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Tax Reduction Scheme: 100% Support, Bailiffs, and the Second-Homes Premium

January 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has voted through a major change to its Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme for 2026/27, restoring up to 100% support for working-age [...]

Folca 2 in Folkestone: Council Awards £2.4m Refurbishment Contract as Town-Centre Medical Centre Plan Advances

January 28, 2026 // 3 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has awarded a contract worth £2.42m (excluding VAT) to carry out phase-one refurbishment works at Folca 2 – in purple below [...]

FHDC Contract Register “Time Travel”: £14.87m of Contracts Starting Before Award — Waivers, Letters of Intent and What the Constitution Requires

January 27, 2026 // 1 Comment

We, The Shepway Vox Team, have been rummaging in the Council’s contract register (once again) like Doc Brown in a garage full of suspicious gadgets. And, sure enough, the [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre’s £2.4m Grant Question: Why Not Use Surplus Land to Help Fund the Rebuild?

January 24, 2026 // 3 Comments

If there’s one thing Britain still does reliably, it’s asking the public to pay twice: once through taxes, and again through politely worded “one-off” grant requests [...]

Folkestone’s Housing Register Houdinis: A Masterclass in the Peter Principle and FHDC Maths

January 24, 2026 // 1 Comment

In the hallowed, wood-panelled halls of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, it appears that “sanity checking” has been officially outsourced to the same [...]

Folkestone & Hythe DC’s Audit Exposed: The £3.4m Princes Parade Write-Off Buried in ‘Clean’ Accounts

January 23, 2026 // 2 Comments

As the clocks tick toward 6:00 PM on Thursday, 29 January 2026, a hush will descend upon the Council Chamber. The members of the Folkestone & Hythe District Council [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Portfolio Holder Reports: Otterpool Park, Budget Pressures, Parking Changes and Housing Costs Explained

January 22, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Full Council will receive its latest set of Portfolio Holder reports on Wednesday 28 January 2026 as Agenda Item 9 — a familiar [...]

Romney Marsh Solar Farm Approved 8–4: What Folkestone & Hythe Councillors Were Told, What the Papers Contradict, and What Happens Next (25/0542/FH)

January 21, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Planning and Licensing Committee has approved planning application 25/0542/FH for a 40-hectare (98.8-acre) solar farm on land [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre: The Sports Trust’s Accounts, FHDC’s £2.4m Grant, and the UK Subsidy Control Questions

January 20, 2026 // 0 Comments

A beloved community sports complex in Folkestone is on course for a resurrection after an abrupt closure – but only if a £2.4 million council grant gets the green light. [...]

FOLCA 2 Explained: The NHS Medical Centre Deal, the £13.2m Business Case, and the Tender Trail Behind Folkestone’s Town-Centre Redevelopment

January 20, 2026 // 1 Comment

On Tuesday 27 January, Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee will look at a draft Cabinet paper that lands formally on the Cabinet [...]

Who Owns the St Mary’s Solar Farm Land? The Furnival Title Deed, Enviromena’s Funding Chain, and What Planning Committee Must Ask (25/0542/FH)

January 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

We’ve spent the last few days doing the thing that residents always end up doing when a big infrastructure proposal lands on the Marsh: taking the glossy brochure claims, [...]

Lidl Folkestone Planning Application 26/0002/FH: Health, Highway Safety and Contamination — The Evidence Behind the Objections

January 16, 2026 // 1 Comment

A planning application is supposed to be a tidy exercise: drawings, reports, consultations, decision. Planning committees like certainty. Communities like clarity. Developers [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Tax Rise Explained: Where the Money Goes and What It Means for Local Services

January 14, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has begun the annual civic tradition of explaining why everything costs more, while promising not to make it feel like it does. Last [...]

Folkestone Ship Street Gasworks Housing Plan: “Health Impact” Tick-Box, Toxic Land Risks, and Equality Act Red Flags in a Deprived Coastal Ward

January 12, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s proposal to transform the derelict former gasworks at Ship Street into 135 homes (planning ref: 25/1316/FH) is now out for public [...]

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