Grant Thornton Audit Fees Tripled Across 12 Kent Councils
Kent’s 12 district councils are grappling with a dramatic rise in the cost of their annual audits, as new data reveals fees tripled between 2022/23 and 2023/24. The [...]
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 [...]
Part 3: St Eanswythe Statue Still Headless — Two Sculptors Down, No Plan C
St Eanswythe, seventh-century abbess and long-suffering local icon, remains without her most photogenic feature. Fifteen months after vandals relieved her of her head in [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Misses Deadline to Replace St Eanswythe’s Head
More than a year after vandals decapitated the statue of St Eanswythe (pictured) in mid-June 2024, the saint remains headless—despite a public promise from a cabinet member [...]
Council Fails Own Rules: £81,974 Paid to Three Contractors with No Public Contract Record
Part 10 of Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Constitution is explicit: “All contracts of a value of £5,000 or more are to be included on the Council’s [...]
NSL in Folkestone & Hythe: Ex-Staff Allege Low Pay, Quotas
Former employees of NSL, the private company holding parking enforcement contracts for councils including Folkestone & Hythe District Council, are speaking out about [...]
£5.5m Bauer Deal Overhauls Folkestone & Hythe DC Bus Shelters Amid Stagecoach Cuts
Folkestone & Hythe District Council has signed a £5.5 million contract with Bauer Media Outdoor UK to install, maintain and repair bus shelters across the district — [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council FOI Fiasco Returns: Housing Data Contradictions
Folkestone & Hythe District Council has turned transparency from a legal duty into a parlour trick. Once is a mistake, twice is a pattern, three times is a habit—and [...]
UK Human Rights Act and ECHR Explained: Right to Life, Law and Planning
Seventy-five years after Britain helped write the post-war rules that keep tyranny out, voices within the Conservatives and Reform UK are now toying with watering down or [...]
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 [...]
Otterpool Park Update: Otterpool Park LLP Signs Exclusive Deal With SNRG Before Legal Review, Raising Questions for Folkestone & Hythe District Council
On 27 August, the Shepway Vox Team published an update that has left more questions than answers about the governance of the Otterpool Park development. At the heart of the [...]
Otterpool Park Update: SNRG Sign Deal to Provide Smart Grid to Power 8,500 Homes at Otterpool Park by 2057
A funded private smart grid promises lower bills for residents, fewer headaches for housebuilders and a new income stream for the council — with every home due to be [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Housing Crisis: Temporary Accommodation Costs Surge 3,461% as Rents Rise, House Prices Soar, and 943 Homes Sit Empty
Folkestone & Hythe District Council is facing a housing dilemma that is stretching budgets and putting families under strain. The cost of temporary accommodation has [...]
The Velvet Voices: Music Without Words
After twenty years of procrastination—or, as a friend more generously described it, an “extended hiatus”—the time had finally come to make music again. And where [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Withhold Audit Records, Breaching Public Inspection Rights
One week after the statutory 30-working‑day inspection period closed (1 July–12 August 2025), residents report that Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) has [...]
FOI Discrepancies Throw Folkestone & Hythe District Council Temporary Accommodation Costs Into Doubt
Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) has once again managed the impossible: spending millions of pounds on Temporary Accommodation without actually knowing how much [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Residents Urged to Join Community Panel Shaping New Design Code for Future Developments
Folkestone & Hythe District Council is seeking residents to join a new community panel tasked with contributing to the development of the district’s first formal design [...]
Nigel Farage’s Small Boats Moral Panic: How Reform UK Turns Immigration Into Fear Politics
Clacton-On-Sea, Easter 1964: Thousands of British youths from rival “Mod” and “Rocker” subcultures swarm the beach on a bank holiday weekend. Scuffles break out in [...]
Folkestone’s £2m Folca Redevelopment Delayed Until 2029
Council’s £2m buyout of the Folkestone Debenhams in 2020 promised rapid regeneration – but five years, 13 contracts and many delays later, the site may not fully reopen [...]
“Buy Local” Tony Vaughan MP Spends £346 on Non-Local Plants — Some Imported from China
When Tony Vaughan KC MP for Folkestone & Hythe (pictured) penned his 24 July 2025 column, Buying Local is the Bedrock of Community, it was an unambiguous call to arms. [...]
Cllr David Wimble: Undeclared Company Directorships, Media Influence, and Years of ‘Talking Rubbish
Cllr David William Wimble (pictured)– known to many as the voice of local radio and for so long the pen behind The Looker & The Hurricane has long been one of Kent [...]
Kent County Council Still Rents £60k Brussels Office Under Reform UK as £140m Cuts Loom
Kent County Council (KCC) is facing renewed criticism after it emerged the authority continues to rent office space in Brussels – nearly five years after the UK formally [...]
Kent Council Under Fire for Investing in Fossil Fuels and Arms Firms Linked to Gaza Conflict
As the climate crisis intensifies and war rages in Gaza, scrutiny is mounting over how public institutions invest our money. New analysis reveals Kent County Council (KCC) [...]