Investigations

Reform UK Promised to Watch Every Penny – So Why Has KCC’s Oracle Cost Forecast Risen £21.5m on Its Watch?

October 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

Kent County Council’s Oracle Cloud Programme has more than tripled against its original £15 million implementation budget. More than two-thirds of the subsequent [...]

Kent Council Tax Arrears Soar to £199 Million as Nearly 40,000 Debts Are Referred to Bailiffs

October 28, 2026 // 0 Comments

Unpaid council tax across Kent’s 12 district councils has risen by almost £77 million in four years. More than half the outstanding debt dates back at least two years, [...]

One in Seven Before Six: Folkestone & Hythe’s Childhood Obesity and Food Poverty Divide

October 27, 2026 // 0 Comments

A child arriving at primary school in Folkestone & Hythe is more likely to be living with obesity than one living in any other Kent district. Meanwhile, a household [...]

Every Penny Counts? Kent Councillors Reject Urgent Review Amid £19.8m Children’s Care Overspend

October 23, 2026 // 0 Comments

“Can anyone explain to me why these very expensive contracts shouldn’t be reviewed, as Mr. Rayner suggested.” It was a straightforward question from Liberal [...]

Folkestone & Hythe’s Temporary Accommodation Scandal: Can the Council’s Figures Be Trusted?

October 22, 2026 // 0 Comments

On 8 May 2025, Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) closed two Freedom of Information requests about temporary accommodation — the rooms, flats and houses it uses [...]

£267m in KCC Payments to Care Providers as One in Five Kent and Medway Homes Require Improvement or Are Inadequate

October 19, 2026 // 0 Comments

Nearly £267 million. That’s how much Kent County Council (KCC) recorded in residential and nursing-care payments between April 2022 and June 2026 to suppliers linked [...]

Oportunitas Ltd: How £2.7m in Paper Gains Masked £254k in Trading Losses at Folkestone & Hythe Council

October 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

At Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Cabinet meeting on 14 October, Councillor Jeremy Speakman asked a rather sensible question. How had the council’s [...]

Every Penny Watched? Reform UK’s Kent County Council Gets Three Red Audit Warnings as Public Webcast Goes Dark

October 16, 2026 // 0 Comments

When Reform UK swept to power at Kent County Council in May 2025, its newly appointed leader, Linden Kemkaran, told BBC Politics South East she’d approach running the [...]

Kent and the Slave Trade: Who Owned the Ships, Who Made the Money and Who Fought Back

October 15, 2026 // 0 Comments

From the merchants of Deal to the shipyards of Folkestone and Gravesend, Kent and Medway were part of Britain’s transatlantic slave trade. Newly examined records reveal [...]

Justice by Postcode: Legal Aid Deserts Affect One in Three People Across Kent and Medway

October 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

A woman trying to escape an abusive relationship in Maidstone, a defendant looking for criminal legal help in Tunbridge Wells, or a family in Swale trying to resolve a [...]

Stodmarsh: The River’s in Trouble, but There’s Money in the Pollution Crisis

October 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

Six years after Natural England raised the alarm over pollution at Stodmarsh, a market in nutrient credits is helping developers move forward. Millions in public funding have [...]

The Pollution They Don’t Measure: Folkestone & Hythe’s PM2.5 Blind Spot From Wood Burners to Otterpool Park

October 8, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council can tell residents what nitrogen dioxide was beside a particular road to a tenth of a microgram. What it still cannot tell them is how [...]

£4.135m Apart: Why Folkestone & Hythe Council’s 2025/26 Accounts Won’t Add Up

October 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s 2025/26 accounts are not final audited accounts. They are still draft, Grant Thornton’s audit opinion is still to come, and [...]

The £9.769m That Doesn’t Add Up in Folkestone & Hythe Council’s Audited Accounts

October 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

There’s a figure in Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s 2024/25 audited accounts that should stop any reader cold. The Group Comprehensive Income and Expenditure [...]

Benefits Fraud Gets the Headlines — Local Government Fraud Is Estimated at £6.7bn

October 5, 2026 // 0 Comments

Benefit fraud gets plenty of attention. But figures in the latest Annual Fraud Indicator show that estimated fraud against local government is running at almost the same [...]

What Lies Beneath Kent? 596 Historic Landfill Sites Mapped — Including 26 Special Waste Sites

October 2, 2026 // 0 Comments

Across Kent and Medway lie hundreds of places once used to dispose of waste — some dating back to an era before modern landfill regulation existed at all. An analysis by [...]

Six Days in A&E: Children Among Mental-Health Patients Stuck in East Kent’s Emergency Departments

October 1, 2026 // 0 Comments

East Kent Hospitals’ own papers reveal one-to-six-day waits, two-hourly executive escalations and a shortage of specialist mental-health beds which the Trust says is not [...]

East Kent Hospitals Maternity: Babies Are Still Dying — Four Years After Kirkup, Known Failures Remain

September 30, 2026 // 1 Comment

Babies have died. East Kent had already been warned. It had already been investigated. It had already been told what was wrong. It had already produced the plans, the [...]

Where Kent & Medway Keep Crashing: 18,400 Collisions, 24,390 Casualties and 252 Deaths Mapped

September 30, 2026 // 1 Comment

Every dot on our map marks a journey in Kent or Medway which ended with somebody being injured. Between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025, police recorded 18,400 [...]

Kent’s NHS Is Clogged: 500 Patients Can’t Get Out — While Thousands Struggle to Get In

September 30, 2026 // 0 Comments

Getting into the health system is difficult. Getting out of it can be just as difficult. That, in simple terms, is the problem facing Kent and Medway. At one end, patients [...]

Kent NHS’s Escalating Autism and ADHD Crisis: £28.9m Spent, £20m Budgeted and Full Outcomes Still Unknown

September 28, 2026 // 0 Comments

There is a number buried in the latest NHS Kent and Medway Board ICB papers which ought to stop anyone skimming. Spending on autism and ADHD assessment and treatment rose [...]

Grand Burstin Hotel Investigation: Britannia Hotels, Alexander Langsam and the Moravcik Trust

September 27, 2026 // 0 Comments

At 1.06am on Saturday 19 September 2026, Kent Fire and Rescue Service was called to the Grand Burstin Hotel in Folkestone. At the height of the incident, 26 fire engines and [...]

Lower Leas Coastal Park Playground: How a £750,000 Budget Grew to More Than £1.38 Million

September 23, 2026 // 1 Comment

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 [...]

Sunningdale House Collapse: The Folkestone Land Is Sold, but £13m in Subsidiary Debts Remains

September 21, 2026 // 0 Comments

£378,000 bought the land at Tram Road. It did not buy an end to the Sunningdale story. Buried in the sixth administrators’ progress report for Sunningdale House [...]

Kent Police, Race and Power: When Does Disparity Become Institutional Racism? — Part Three

September 18, 2026 // 1 Comment

Racist misconduct has been proved against Kent Police officers. Black people are arrested at more than twice the White population rate and are substantially overrepresented [...]

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