Shepwayvox

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 [...]

Why Writers Should Ride Bicycles — Einstein, Potholes and the Fine Art of Procrastination

September 27, 2026 // 0 Comments

There is a theory, usually attributed to Einstein, that life is rather like riding a bicycle: if you want to keep your balance, you have to keep moving. This seems reasonable [...]

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 [...]

If Intent Is a ‘Fuzzy Line’, How Can FHDC Call It Fraud? Cllr Tim Prater and the £1.266m Question

September 14, 2026 // 1 Comment

When our public face asked Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance and Governance how much of £1.266 million was actually fraud, Cllr Tim [...]

FHDC Public Money: 46 Contract Red Flags Raise Questions Over Council Spending

July 5, 2026 // 0 Comments

There’s no point dressing this up in committee-room cotton wool. Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s public data shows 46 confirmed 2025/26 contract red flags and [...]

Kent Travel Saver Rise: Poorest Families Hit Hardest

June 9, 2026 // 1 Comment

Kent County Council says a £35 rise is needed to keep its student bus pass scheme sustainable. But its own figures show the increase lands more than four times harder, [...]

Folca 1 Flats: New £100 Arcvelop Company Raises Questions Over Folkestone Landmark Sale

May 21, 2026 // 3 Comments

Folkestone’s former Debenhams has moved one step closer to becoming flats. But the planning decision is only half the story. The sharper question now is who, exactly, is [...]

Folkestone’s Got Its Hat On

May 1, 2026 // 0 Comments

There are days when Folkestone can look like it’s had a hard paper round. We know the issues. We write about them often enough. Empty shops. Rough sleeping. Public money [...]

East Kent Hospitals Recovery Programme: Fire Safety, Maternity and Complaint Failures Exposed

April 2, 2026 // 1 Comment

When East Kent Hospitals’ board meets later today, Thursday 2 April, it will do so with the trust now officially placed in the government’s new NHS intensive recovery [...]

Folkestone Affordable Housing: How 14 Homes Were Lost at Stoneleigh House, Tram Road

March 13, 2026 // 1 Comment

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

March 10, 2026 // 2 Comments

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

February 17, 2026 // 1 Comment

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

February 15, 2026 // 2 Comments

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

February 11, 2026 // 4 Comments

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)

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, [...]

Draft NPPF 2025 Explained: What’s Changed Since 2024 and What It Means for Planning Decisions, Housing Numbers and the Green Belt

December 24, 2025 // 0 Comments

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

December 22, 2025 // 3 Comments

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)

December 9, 2025 // 1 Comment

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

December 1, 2025 // 0 Comments

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