ShepwayVox Dissent is not a Crime

FHDC Contract Register “Time Travel”: £14.87m of Contracts Starting Before Award — Waivers, Letters of Intent and What the Constitution Requires

January 27, 2026 // 1 Comment

We, The Shepway Vox Team, have been rummaging in the Council’s contract register (once again) like Doc Brown in a garage full of suspicious gadgets. And, sure enough, the [...]

Ofwat Data: 41.4 Trillion Litres Lost to Leaks Since Privatisation in England & Wales — £52.7bn Paid in Dividends

January 26, 2026 // 1 Comment

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” W. H. Auden. Let’s start with a simple, terrifying fact. When you turn on a tap, you expect water to come [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre’s £2.4m Grant Question: Why Not Use Surplus Land to Help Fund the Rebuild?

January 24, 2026 // 3 Comments

If there’s one thing Britain still does reliably, it’s asking the public to pay twice: once through taxes, and again through politely worded “one-off” grant requests [...]

Tony Vaughan MP KC’s Rooftop Solar “Win-Win”: The £125m Claim, the Missing Small Print, and Why It Doesn’t Add Up

January 24, 2026 // 4 Comments

By the time you reach the bottom of Folkestone & Hythe MP Tony Vaughan KC’s rooftop-solar manifesto, you’re meant to bask in the warm glow of certainty: at last, a [...]

Folkestone’s Housing Register Houdinis: A Masterclass in the Peter Principle and FHDC Maths

January 24, 2026 // 1 Comment

In the hallowed, wood-panelled halls of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, it appears that “sanity checking” has been officially outsourced to the same [...]

Folkestone & Hythe DC’s Audit Exposed: The £3.4m Princes Parade Write-Off Buried in ‘Clean’ Accounts

January 23, 2026 // 2 Comments

As the clocks tick toward 6:00 PM on Thursday, 29 January 2026, a hush will descend upon the Council Chamber. The members of the Folkestone & Hythe District Council [...]

Kent NHS Whistleblowing: Freedom to Speak Up Promises vs Tribunal Reality

January 22, 2026 // 0 Comments

THE NHS will always need whistleblowers. Healthcare is complex, rapidly changing and dangerous; staff are fallible, variably trained and widely spaced; and demands are huge [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Portfolio Holder Reports: Otterpool Park, Budget Pressures, Parking Changes and Housing Costs Explained

January 22, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Full Council will receive its latest set of Portfolio Holder reports on Wednesday 28 January 2026 as Agenda Item 9 — a familiar [...]

Romney Marsh Solar Farm Approved 8–4: What Folkestone & Hythe Councillors Were Told, What the Papers Contradict, and What Happens Next (25/0542/FH)

January 21, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Planning and Licensing Committee has approved planning application 25/0542/FH for a 40-hectare (98.8-acre) solar farm on land [...]

Folkestone Sports Centre: The Sports Trust’s Accounts, FHDC’s £2.4m Grant, and the UK Subsidy Control Questions

January 20, 2026 // 0 Comments

A beloved community sports complex in Folkestone is on course for a resurrection after an abrupt closure – but only if a £2.4 million council grant gets the green light. [...]

FOLCA 2 Explained: The NHS Medical Centre Deal, the £13.2m Business Case, and the Tender Trail Behind Folkestone’s Town-Centre Redevelopment

January 20, 2026 // 1 Comment

On Tuesday 27 January, Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee will look at a draft Cabinet paper that lands formally on the Cabinet [...]

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, [...]

Lidl Folkestone Planning Application 26/0002/FH: Health, Highway Safety and Contamination — The Evidence Behind the Objections

January 16, 2026 // 1 Comment

A planning application is supposed to be a tidy exercise: drawings, reports, consultations, decision. Planning committees like certainty. Communities like clarity. Developers [...]

South East Water Exposed: 14 Bewl Waters Lost to Leaks (2012–2025), Dividends Paid, Outages Mount, Regulators Investigate

January 15, 2026 // 0 Comments

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” W.H Auden In Kent and Sussex, fresh water – a most precious commodity, is now a kind of [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Tax Rise Explained: Where the Money Goes and What It Means for Local Services

January 14, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has begun the annual civic tradition of explaining why everything costs more, while promising not to make it feel like it does. Last [...]

Folkestone Library: The Rise, Decline and Fight to Save Grace Hill’s Grade II Listed Landmark

January 13, 2026 // 4 Comments

Grace Hill is not just a building with books. It is a piece of Folkestone’s civic identity: a red-brick landmark, Grade II listed, built in the late Victorian period [...]

Folkestone Ship Street Gasworks Housing Plan: “Health Impact” Tick-Box, Toxic Land Risks, and Equality Act Red Flags in a Deprived Coastal Ward

January 12, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s proposal to transform the derelict former gasworks at Ship Street into 135 homes (planning ref: 25/1316/FH) is now out for public [...]

How Folkestone Library Could Stay at Grace Hill: Three Realistic Plans to Keep the Historic Site Open Without Raising Council Tax Above 3.99%

January 12, 2026 // 1 Comment

Works have started on Kent County Council’s new “town-centre hub” at 14 Sandgate Road — the former Woolworths — combining adult education and Folkestone Library, [...]

South East Water Firms Lost 127.97 Billion Litres to Leaks in a Year — Targets Missed, Fines Paid, Customers Still Left Short

January 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

“Water is the driving force of all nature.” – Leonardo Da Vinci “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” – W.H.Auden Fresh water [...]

Kent County Council Budget Compared: Reform UK 2026/27 vs Conservatives 2025/26 — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

January 9, 2026 // 2 Comments

Kent County Council (KCC) has now put two very different budget stories on the public record. The first is the Conservative administration’s approved 2025/26 budget (voted [...]

Folkestone Library: Grace Hill Sale Looms as KCC Set To Move Service to 14 Sandgate Road (Old Woolworths)

January 9, 2026 // 0 Comments

When Kent County Council finally shut the doors of Folkestone Library’s landmark Grace Hill building in December 2022, it did so on a stark claim: the building had become [...]

FHDC Councillor Allowances 2026/27: £128k Rise After Change Fails

January 9, 2026 // 1 Comment

When Folkestone & Hythe District Council set its 2024/25 budget, councillor allowances were quietly pulled into the political bargaining. Now, in the 2026/27 budget [...]

FHDC Budget 2026/27: £6m Hythe Pool Spend, Grant Cliff-Edges and Hidden Costs for Residents

January 8, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) is proposing a budget that pours millions into leisure facilities – including a £6 million refurbishment of Hythe Swimming [...]

Kent Council Borrowing Exposed: £277.6m PWLB Loans Since May 2023, Interest Rates, Maturity Dates and the 2028 Reorganisation Risk

January 7, 2026 // 1 Comment

Since the local elections in May 2023, Kent’s district councils have taken out £277.605 million of new borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) — but the money [...]

Kent County Council Budget 2026/27 Explained: Growth, Environment & Transport (GET) Spending and What It Means for Roads, Highways, Waste and Transport

January 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

Kent County Council’s Growth, Environment & Transport (GET) committee papers for 2025/26 and 2026/27 show a clear shift in both the size and the shape of the [...]

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