Folkestone and Hythe District Council

Former Aldi Hythe Plan: No Affordable Housing, 43 Parking Spaces at Risk – The Long Read

July 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

For seven years, Hythe has had a hole in its High Street where the old Aldi used to trade. The shutters came down in 2019, the supermarket moved to Kengate Industrial Estate, [...]

Ship Street Folkestone: Old Gasworks Still Looking For A Buyer While Affordable Homes Remain On Paper

July 10, 2026 // 0 Comments

Still for sale. Still fenced off. Still no affordable homes. Ship Street is one of those Folkestone promises that’s been round the houses without building any. The live [...]

Otterpool Park Update: Hillhurst Farm Homes Rise From 300 To 500 As Homes England Hides Land Price

July 9, 2026 // 0 Comments

In a response under the Environmental Information Regulations, Homes England has confirmed it has bought part of the Hillhurst Farm/Hillhurst Green land at Otterpool Park. [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council HR Reports Show Staff Sickness, Stress And Long-Term Absence Rising Under Green-Led Rule

July 6, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s HR reports between 21/22 – 25/26 read like a match of two halves. The Conservatives left the pitch with a governance mess [...]

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 [...]

Sunflower House And One Folkestone: Public Money, Vulnerable People And Missing Safeguards

July 3, 2026 // 4 Comments

Sunflower House says it’s about community. One Folkestone says it’s about partnership. Both talk in the soft language of help, hope, joining-up and civic renewal. But [...]

Cllr Jim Martin Held 18 Meetings With Sir Roger De Haan — FHDC Says No Notes Were Kept

July 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has confirmed that its Leader, Cllr Jim Martin, attended 18 meetings with Sir Roger De Haan between March 2024 and May 2026. No great [...]

Otterpool Park Design Brief To Be Submitted With Outline Planning Application Update

July 2, 2026 // 0 Comments

Otterpool Park where FHDC got a council resolution to grant outline permission in April 2023. Three years later, the actual permission still hasn’t been issued. Now the [...]

FHDC Gives Residents Just 256 Characters To Ask About The Public’s Money

July 1, 2026 // 2 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s public inspection form now limits residents to 256 characters when asking for accounting records. That’s less than X. Less than [...]

Councillor Home Addresses: Why the New Privacy Law Matters

June 29, 2026 // 1 Comment

Today, 29 June 2026, the law changes.Councils in England must no longer publish councillors’ home addresses in public registers of interests unless the councillor [...]

Otterpool Park First Homes: Hillhurst Costs and North Downs Views

June 26, 2026 // 3 Comments

Homes England has bought Hillhurst farmland. The first 300 Otterpool homes are being aimed at sites HF2 and HF3, where the public plans show buildings up to 12–15 metres. [...]

FHDC Housing Account: Millions Unspent on Council Homes

June 26, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s council-housing account ended 2025/26 with a much bigger reserve than expected. That’s the good news. The less comfortable [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Spent Less, Delivered Less, But Borrowed More

June 25, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s capital programme ended 2025/26 with a headline underspend of £3.649m, but that doesn’t mean the council simply saved money. [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Budget Surplus Masks £3m Service Overspend

June 24, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council says it ended 2025/26 with a small General Fund surplus. But its own papers show a harder story: services overspent, Princes Parade [...]

Romney Marsh Solar Farms: Full Council to Decide Next Step

June 23, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe councillors are being asked to give senior officers faster powers to respond to three giant solar schemes on Romney Marsh — but the petition that [...]

Otterpool Park’s £18m Hillhurst Land Deal Question

June 18, 2026 // 1 Comment

William Hurley did not dress the matter up in planning language. In conversation with the public face of The Shepway Vox Team, he made clear the Hillhurst land sale was about [...]

Hythe Foxwood Homes Plan Approved With No Affordable Housing

June 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe councillors have approved Ureco’s Foxwood scheme for up to 150 homes on the former school site above Seabrook Road, Hythe. The number of affordable [...]

FHDC’s Renters’ Rights Policy Trips Over the Law

June 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is being asked to approve its new private-sector housing civil penalties policy on 24 June — 54 days after key Renters’ Rights Act [...]

FHDC Procurement Card Receipts: Dinner, Drinks and the Missing Audit Trail

June 11, 2026 // 2 Comments

The council’s FOI response has answered some questions about procurement-card restaurant spending. It has also given us a gastro-pub filed as transport, a missing lunch [...]

Exclusive: Homes England Secures Hillhurst Farm Land for Otterpool Homes

June 9, 2026 // 2 Comments

The next Otterpool Park housing move appears to sit in a very specific triangle of land at Hillhurst Farm, just south of the railway, east of Westenhanger station and around [...]

Foxwood’s £86.7m Homes Plan Leaves Hythe With No Affordable Homes

June 9, 2026 // 1 Comment

A former public school site in Hythe is heading back to Folkestone & Hythe’s Planning Committee. The homes remain. The affordable housing doesn’t. And behind the [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Local Plan Puts District’s Future on Rails

June 4, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has fired the starting gun on a new Local Plan that could shape the district until 2045. No sites have been chosen yet. No final [...]

FHDC HR Reports Reveal Disciplinary Resignations and Governance Failures

June 2, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s own HR reviews show a sharp rise in disciplinary cases, complex investigations involving Internal Audit, staff resignations before [...]

Folca: The £5.6m Former Debenhams Bill and the 25-Year Payback Question

May 29, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council bought the former Debenhams building in May 2020 for £2.05m. Six years later, the public trail points to at least £2.419m paid or [...]

Martello Lakes Pool Promise Replaced by Hythe Leisure Plan

May 28, 2026 // 0 Comments

Scrutiny councillors backed further work on Martello Lakes and Hythe Pool, but the message was clear: no token container, no unaffordable racket-sport vanity project, and no [...]

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