Planning

Folkestone’s Folca 2: £13.2m to Bring Debenhams Back to Life — But Who’s Picking Up the Bill?

October 26, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone’s former Debenhams has acquired another eye-watering price tag. On 19 October, Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) advertised a £9 million contract [...]

Hythe Imperial’s 291-Home Plan: FHDC Owns the Royal Military Canal — Will It Speak Up?

October 20, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council owns the historic canal beside the proposed Imperial Gardens development. Its planning and property departments are headed by [...]

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 [...]

Hythe Imperial: Come for the Spa, Stay for the Housing Estate

October 11, 2026 // 3 Comments

This is a satirical take on planning application 26/1290/FH. All conversations and scenarios are fictional. There are, broadly speaking, three ways of improving a golf [...]

Otterpool Park: £500m at Stake — and No Meetings on the S106 Financial Package

October 9, 2026 // 0 Comments

There are two numbers worth remembering when looking at Otterpool Park: £250 million and more than £500 million. The first is our best estimate of the potential value of [...]

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 [...]

Otterpool Park Targets 2028 Start as Homes England’s Hillhurst Farm Is Fast-Tracked for First 300 Homes

October 7, 2026 // 1 Comment

Construction of the first homes at Otterpool Park is now targeted to begin in 2028, with the first 38 homes forecast to be completed the following year. But before a brick [...]

Historic England Says Scrap 291 Homes Beside Hythe’s Royal Military Canal

October 7, 2026 // 0 Comments

Historic England has delivered an unusually blunt warning over Planning Application 26/1290/FH for up to 291 homes at the Hythe Imperial Hotel and golf course beside the [...]

Fourteen Affordable Homes Became Two — Now KCC Says Don’t Decide Folkestone’s Stoneleigh House Plan Yet

September 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has been told not to determine plans for 14 flats on Tram Road until the developer provides something currently missing from the [...]

110 Homes, Flood Zone 3 and a Field the Local Plan Never Allocated: Inside New Romney’s Cockreed Lane Application

September 25, 2026 // 1 Comment

There’s nothing particularly dramatic about the field north of Cockreed Lane (pictured Orange below). It’s 4.71 hectares of agricultural land on the edge of New Romney: [...]

Only 4.1% of Folkestone & Hythe May Be Developable — Yet 2,267 Approved Homes Hadn’t Started and FHDC Is Looking for More Land

September 25, 2026 // 0 Comments

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 [...]

Folca 2 Planning Application: Two GP Surgeries Drawn In, Commercial Space To Let — But NHS Sign-Off Is Still Pending

September 15, 2026 // 0 Comments

Walk past Folca 2 on Sandgate Road today and there’s a fairly blunt message hanging from the scaffolding: “SUBSTANTIAL COMMERCIAL PREMISES – TO LET.” Behind that [...]

Otterpool Park: Westenhanger Fails Both New NPPF ‘Well-Connected Station’ Tests

September 10, 2026 // 2 Comments

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

September 10, 2026 // 0 Comments

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?

September 9, 2026 // 1 Comment

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

September 8, 2026 // 0 Comments

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 [...]

Part 3: Hodson’s Chilmington Green Collapse — £211.9m in Creditor Claims, Six Administrations and 5,750 Homes at Stake

September 4, 2026 // 2 Comments

Chilmington Green was supposed to be much more than a housing estate. Ashford planned for a new community of up to 5,750 homes, schools, shops, parks and roads, backed by [...]

Part Two: Hodson Developments — From Building Disputes to a £5 Million NHBC Claim

September 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

In Part One, we traced Alan Hodson (pictured) and Hodson Developments from Sunningdale through decades of housebuilding, land acquisition and secured finance. Part Two [...]

Plug-In Solar Panels in Folkestone & Hythe: What Renters Need to Know About Landlord Permission and Planning

September 2, 2026 // 2 Comments

Plug-in solar could finally allow renters to generate some of their own electricity. But there’s an awkward catch: the person paying the electricity bill may still have [...]

Part One: Alan Hodson and Hodson Developments — The Rise of the Property Business Behind Chilmington Green

September 1, 2026 // 0 Comments

This is the first of a three-part investigation into property developer Alan Derek Hodson (pictured), Hodson Developments and associated companies, prompted by the [...]

Hythe Imperial Planning Objection Guide: What Residents Need to Know About GSE’s £120m, 291-Home Plan

August 28, 2026 // 2 Comments

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 [...]

GSE’s £120m Hythe Imperial Plan: 291 Homes, a 25m Pool — and a Planning File That Doesn’t Quite Add Up

August 26, 2026 // 2 Comments

GSE’s Imperial Gardens scheme promises 291 homes, around 73 “affordable homes”, a new 25m swimming pool and substantial private investment on Hythe seafront. [...]

Everist Court Lyminge: The Battle Over FHDC’s Five Social Homes and Former Age UK Community Centre

August 23, 2026 // 1 Comment

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 [...]

I’m a Romney Marsh Farmer — Solar Farms Could Help Keep Farms Like Mine Alive

August 18, 2026 // 8 Comments

This is a Guest Post There’s a romantic version of farming being peddled in the solar debate on Romney Marsh, and as someone who farms here, I barely recognise it. In that [...]

Oaken Wood Quarry Expansion Moves Closer After KCC Backs Plan by Six Votes

July 30, 2026 // 0 Comments

Kent County Council hasn’t approved a quarry extension into Oaken Wood—but by keeping the site in its minerals plan, it has moved that prospect a considerable step [...]

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