FHDC Approves £2.42m Folkestone Sports Centre Grant to Reopen Pool
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Cabinet has unanimously approved a £2,421,250 capital grant to The Sports Trust to reopen Folkestone Sports Centre’s pool. The [...]
Shepwayvox
Folkestone Affordable Housing: How 14 Homes Were Lost at Stoneleigh House, Tram Road
An insolvency report, two auction catalogues and one carefully chosen council word tell a bleak story about how Folkestone lost 14 affordable homes and may yet lose the [...]
Stodmarsh Sewage Crisis: Southern Water, Otterpool Park and East Kent
At Canterbury’s scrutiny committee on 4 March (from1hr 46m 44s onwards), Stodmarsh kept popping up like the blinking red light on a dashboard that everyone hopes belongs to [...]
Folkestone Town of Culture 2028 Bid: Come Together, Tell Our Story, Make It Happen
A £3 million national prize is on the table for the UK’s first Town of Culture in 2028. Folkestone has decided to take a run at it — and, for once, the first step [...]
Saga Sells Acromas Underwriter to Ageas: The 20-Year Insurance Partnership Explained
For years, Saga has sold insurance under its familiar brand to Britain’s over-50s. But behind the scenes, it was also carrying the most complicated part of the insurance [...]
The Velvet Voices “Romney Marsh” Album: 20+ Musicians, Nine Nationalities, One Love Letter to Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh is often overlooked in the Folkestone & Hythe District Council chamber — but not by The Velvet Voices. Our latest album, Romney Marsh, lands with the scale [...]
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)
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, [...]
Draft NPPF 2025 Explained: What’s Changed Since 2024 and What It Means for Planning Decisions, Housing Numbers and the Green Belt
Yes — we know you love it. We know you wanted it under the Christmas tree. And the Government, in the spirit of festive excess, has delivered: a brand-new Draft National [...]
Reform UK’s Paranoid “Coup” Claim in Kent: Political Theatre Meets the Hard Limits of the Law
By any normal standard of political language, accusing the Prime Minister of plotting a “coup” against Kent County Council is the sort of thing you say when you’ve run [...]
Community Infrastructure Levy: How Much CIL Your Town or Parish Council Got in Folkestone & Hythe — and Where the Money Went (FHDC Data)
Across Folkestone & Hythe District, a distinct slice of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is passed out of the District Council’s hands and into the accounts of Town [...]
Kent & Medway Homelessness by District (2022/23–2024/25): Section 21 Surges, While Thousands of Homes Sit Empty
Between 2022/23 and 2024/25, every council in Kent and Medway has been feeding detailed case-by-case homelessness data to Whitehall through the national H-CLIC system – the [...]
Kent County Council’s Lobbyist: Policy Connect, Missing Spend Trail, and the Questions Over Who Pays for Influence
Kent County Council, like many other organisations and companies, uses a lobbyist to get its voice heard at government level. The lobbyist it has used most frequently is [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Warns Renters’ Rights Act Enforcement Is Underfunded: What the New Rules Mean for Evictions, Landlord Redress, the Property Portal and Illegal Evictions
Folkestone & Hythe District Council has issued an unusually candid note of caution about the Renters’ Rights Act: the duties are expanding fast, the practical [...]
Part 1: Creative Folkestone Company Accounts 2019–2024: A Shepway Vox Investigation
The Shepway Vox Team is launching a three-part investigation into the money behind Folkestone’s cultural renaissance. In Parts 1 and 2 we will examine the finances of [...]
Kent County Council Budget Overspend at Half-Time: Reform UK Era Faces Adult Social Care Crisis
Half-way through the 2025–26 financial year, the scoreboard at County Hall does not make pretty reading. Against a net revenue budget of £1.53 billion, Kent County Council [...]
Otterpool Park Update: FHDC and Homes England extend partnership
Updated 12:30 – 7 Nov 2025 Folkestone & Hythe is trying to turn a long-promised green light into a legal permission. With the six-month Collaboration Agreement [...]
Kent’s East–West Health Divide: Coastal Communities Falling Behind
A decade of Conservative-led austerity in Britain has coincided with worsening health gaps and stalled life expectancy. Recent reviews warn that cuts to public spending have [...]
Kent’s Most Deprived Areas: Rankings, Trends, and What Must Change
New government data shows Kent districts have slipped down England’s deprivation league over the past decade — and it has done so against the backdrop of Conservative [...]
Folkestone’s St Eanswythe Gets Her Head Back—At Last
After sixteen months without a face, St Eanswythe is finally making eye contact with Folkestone again. The council says the Radnor Park statue is restored; the town sighs [...]
Elmtree Farm, Sellindge: FHDC Approves 105 Homes from Quinn Homes
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Planning Committee has given the green light – unanimously, no less – to an outline proposal for 105 new homes in Sellindge. [...]
Ship Street Folkestone: 70 Years of Dereliction Ends as Council Pushes Ahead with 135-Home Gasworks Redevelopment
After lying derelict for decades, the former gasworks off Ship Street is finally inching toward a new life. Folkestone & Hythe District Council has submitted an outline [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Tax Arrears £6.72m; FOIs Disputed
Folkestone & Hythe District Council is currently owed £6,720,241.51 in unpaid council tax, an FOI disclosure shows. The headline figure is stark, but it comes with a [...]
What has the European Convention on Human Rights ever done for us?
Seemed worth sharing this morning — We don’t think there’s much else to add. The Shepway Vox Team Dissent is Not a [...]
Procurement Failures Exposed—Third Investigation into FHDC Reveals £380k in Unexplained Public Spending
Missed the earlier reports? Catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of our ongoing investigation into FHDC’s procurement practices. The financial discrepancies at Folkestone & [...]
Revealed: Thousands of Empty Homes Across 12 Kent Districts While Families Wait Years for Housing
Using publicly available data published by the Department of Levelling UP Housing & Communities on vacant dwellings (empty homes) and households on waiting lists for 12 [...]