Oportunitas update: True & Fair Bulls**t
Updated 28 March @ 11:05am How, how could this happen? How can the directors of Oportunitas be employees of the Council, and be elected Cllrs, when that’s not [...]
Dr Susan Priest
Unaddressed systemic issues are holding back Council’s development
This is a guest post I am a Folkestone & Hythe District Council Officer. What is written here is a distallation of my own and other colleagues opinions. All opinion [...]
Curiouser and curiouser!
Well things are turning stranger by the minute. With regards to the Hythe West by-election, which we wrote about on the 3 March 2023, raising the issues of missing votes, and [...]
Council set new record on temporary staff costs
It’s a new record and yes they’re record breakers. Folkestone & Hythe District Council have spent £1,364,558 on temporary staff between April 22 and Jan [...]
Something doesn’t add up about the Hythe West By-election
Congratulations to Cllr Jenni Hawkins (Green) (pictured) for winning the local by-election for the Kent County Council – Hythe West Division The Conservative candidate [...]
Part 42: Princes Parade – further evidence of incompetence by Council
It never rains around here it just comes pouring down, says Mark Knopfler on the song It Never Rains, from the Love Over Gold album. And after today’s installment of a [...]
Bruising reports remind Council’s Statutory Officers of contract & financial irregularities as a major issue as council face £18.5m deficit
They are without doubt, three remarkable, wise women. Each is able, each is a professional, and each is full of “intent, a clear intent” to instill compliance of [...]
Princes Parade Update: Are the 3 Options for Princes Parade based on engineered data?
We are aware Folkestone & Hythe District Council have placed Report Number C/22/73, into the public domain. The report sets out the three options for the future of the [...]
£1,452,646 spent on suppliers without a compliant contract
A damning report released today, by Folkestone & Hythe District Council, show that procurement management and contract standing orders (CSO) have been significantly [...]
Council temporary staff costs will pass million pound mark in 2022/23
Temporary employees are people that employers – such as Folkestone & Hythe District Council – contract to a job for a limited period through a third-party [...]
All work and spending on Bigginswood must stop with immediate effect due to lapsed planning permission
Land at Bigginswood, Cheriton, was purchased in Dec 2016 under urgency powers by the then Coporate Director Dr Susan Priest. The price paid by the Council was £1.5m; which [...]
Holidays in the sun and unpaid road tax by the Council
In Oct 1977, Holidays in the Sun was released by the Sex Pistols. It could be seen as an unofficial anthem for some Council Officers, as some of them have, according to [...]
Temporary staff costs set to break million pound barrier for third time in 5 years
She has a PhD from St Catherine’s College Cambridge. The PhD she received was for a study of the effectiveness of government policy to stimulate small and medium enterprise [...]
Princes Parade: Lock, stock and two smoking farrell’s
Miss Chris Farrell – a former Military Police Officer – was passionate, very passionate when speaking about the petition she had lodged to be heard at Full [...]
Council reluctant to place reports about financial and contract irregularities into the public domain.
Updated 26/10/22 @19:30 Sometimes, just sometimes, we do feel for Cllrs who try their best, but find themselves unsupported by other Cllrs who sit on the same committee. [...]
A witchhunt, a c*ck up, and an unofficial “reward scheme”
Updated – 13/09/22 @17:43 For starters we’ll serve up the c*ck up salad; followed by the main dish the reward scheme roast; and for deseret, a delightful witch [...]
Part 1 – Oportunitas Limited incorporated unlawfully and unconstitutionally
Oportunitas Ltd is a Housing & Regeneration Company, which begun life as long ago as 18 Dec 2013. It was first discussed at Cabinet in Report C-13-58. From the outset, [...]
Council are acting beyond its powers by giving £16m plus to the two companies it owns
Folkestone & Hythe District Council have acted beyond their powers (ultra vires) by allowing in excess of £16 million to be paid to companies in which they allege they [...]
Council take incompetence to a new level putting lives in serious danager
Folkestone & Hythe District Council have taken incompetence to a whole new level. In doing so they’ve placed the lives of women, children and men at significant and [...]
One in three calls go unanswered and Information requests haven’t met targets for last five years
Yesterday at Cabinet, Cllr Lesley Whybrow (Green) & Cllr Tim Prater (Lib Dem) both raised the issue around the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the council not [...]
Data matching shows £7.2m of likely council procurement fraud over four years to family or friends
Recently while the sun was shining, and the birds were singing – well not on Princes Parade – Folkestone & Hythe District Council took the decision to suspend [...]
Cllrs need to step up their game understanding council finances.
In the 10 years Folkestone & Hythe District Council have been publishing their spend data, £179m or 48% of the spend has been on premises related expenditure, as the [...]
Temporary staff costs rise 28% in four years under Dr Susan Priest’s leadership
On the 1st April 2018, Dr Susan Julia Priest (pictured), became the first woman to be the Head of Paid Services (HoPS) of Folkestone & Hythe District Council. She took [...]
£658,771 of contract irregularities on just three contracts
‘Fraud‘ says The local government transparency code 2015 (the Code), ‘can thrive where decisions are not open to scrutiny and details of spending, contracts [...]
Whistleblower claims lack of governance and internal controls at FHDC
This is a guest post “I am a senior council officer at Folkestone & Hythe District Council. I am publicly blowing the whistle to the Shepway Vox Team for reasons [...]