Cllrs go missing in action
What a waste! In the last two years there have not been many opportunities for opposition members to land any significant blows on the Tory led coalition at Folkestone & [...]
Folkestone
Yes, No, Yes, No, and that’s official.
According to a member of the public and the Cabinet Member for the Environment, Cllr Lesley Whybrow (Green), Folkestone & Hythe District Council have allegedly sprayed [...]
Council misled auditor, but will they snitch on them to the appropriate regulator?
On the 22nd March 2021, the external auditor of Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s accounts – Grant Thornton – sent a letter to the Chair of the [...]
Senior Council Officers and Cllrs rewarded handsomely for losing public purse tens of thousands of pounds
Between them they have lost the public purse tens of thousands of pounds and failed to keep the publication scheme up to date. The publication scheme aims to make the maximum [...]
Bats, badgers, threatened species & lethal levels of contamination on former officers mess, Hawkinge
In 2015, Tom Goldsmith set up a petition on Change.org which gained 407 signatures. The title of the petition was: Say No to the development on the Hawkinge officers Mess and [...]
More double faults served up at Hythe Lawn Tennis Club
Following our Long Read last month detailing a ‘turning circle’ installed by Hythe Lawn Tennis Club without planning permission, Folkestone & Hythe District Council [...]
The fig leaf which is hiding a climate emergency in our district
We must plant more woodland as we have but a fig leaf left. Trees need to be looked after: you don’t just plant them, you grow them. And we need to plant and grow 4 [...]
Ask your local Parish, Town, District County council to put heat pumps under playing fields and parks
One of the things which has come out of the pandemic is how important nature is to us all. Our green spaces have provided us with places to relax and enjoy nature at close [...]
Ex Mayor gets Dick out.
Ex Mayor of Folkestone Cllr Jackie Meade (Lab) May 2019/May20 ousted incumbent Kent County Council Tory Cllr Dick Pascoe, and took the Folkestone East seat in the KCC [...]
Doris Stainer faces arrest for Crown Court No Show.
Doris Stainer (pictured), wife of Michael Stainer, is facing arrest after failing to return to the UK from Germany, according to the latest report in Court News UK. Her [...]
The local developer being helped along by the public purse
Over the last six years, one developer more than any other has come to epitomise the cosyiness that leads many to think/believe our planning system and committee is fixed in [...]
Michael & Doris Stainer Charged with Fraud
Michael and Doris Stainer (pictured below) have been charged with failing to pay income tax and national insurance contributions amounting to over £400,000 under two [...]
Good journalism changes things
They give the impression of being in office but not in power. Both of them sit on Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s cabinet; and both receive allowances in [...]
“Our council is broken at best” says ePetition campaigner
Almost twenty years after our Council introduced a Cabinet system in the year 2000, – Cllr Tim Prater on the 25th Sept 2019, put forward the following motion for the [...]
And yes, they get paid well to respond badly to information requests
Updated: 27/04/21 – @ 10:16 Make ’em laugh, Make ’em laugh. Don’t you know everyone wants to laugh? (Ha ha!). We and our public face – who is [...]
Food parcel figures reveal 95% increase in five years across six districts of Kent
On 1 October 2010, one hundred and sixteen separate pieces of legislation were pulled together into one single Act, the Equality Act and passed into law. The Act provides a [...]
Use the Clean Air Act 1993 to study air pollution and child asthma link in our district
Air pollution does NOT discriminate. We all need to breathe. Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Air Quality Report 2020 states: Air pollution is associated [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council buy Ship Street site twice
Updated: 17/04/21 @08:42 On the 20th October 2019, Kentonline Folkestone section declared that Folkestone & Hythe District Council had bought the former Gasworks site at [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District had highest levels of loneliness in Kent during pandemic
More people in Folkestone & Hythe District reported feeling lonely, always or often, during the pandemic, than any where else in Kent, according to data released by the [...]
Princes Parade: £50,000 Planning Consultancy Support Contract
On the 24th March Folkestone & Hythe District Council placed an advert for another contract for Princes Parade. The expression of interest for this contract ends today [...]
Learning from mistakes
We the Shepway Vox Team get it wrong sometimes. When we do we like to be open about our mistakes, and if necessary apologise. This is one of those ocassions where we need to [...]
Just to walk my dog
This is a GUEST post For the last four decades I have walked my dogs along the firing ranges between the Grand Redoubt and Fisherman’s beach, or the beach at Dymchurch. [...]
Second homeowners exploiting “unethical loophole” to claim £3.5m in virus cash
Throughout the pandemic second homeowners across our district have been able to claim approx £3.5 million in covid grants designed to help small businesses weather the [...]
Where’s the Money Gone, Mikey?
Who says we don’t make a difference? Within days of our article “Covid-19 Grant Fraud at the Grand as Council demands its money back” , Folkestone and Hythe Council [...]
A Grand Identity Crisis
So, who has really been in charge at the Grand since Michael Stainer ‘stepped down’ after his November 2018 bankruptcy? For a brief period, until he was unceremoniously [...]