Otterpool Park Update: Council envisage £193m profit.
Updated @18:50 13/01/21 The Council have released the Business Plan for its Otterpool Park Garden Town project, where up to 8,500 homes might be built, if planning permission [...]
Housing
Southern Way: Another developer says he’s poor and can’t afford affordable housing
It is quite possible that Folkestone & Hythe District Council are learning from their mistakes, as they have again reopened a planning consultation for Southern Way [...]
A sequel with a burger by the sea.
So three applications before the planning committee tonight Dec 15th. One is a sequel, another is for a well know burger chain and last is an application by a local Tory [...]
Homelessness: Credit where it is due.
One has to say well done, congratulations and thank you to those who have worked on Report Number: C/20/54 – draft Homelessness Prevention Strategy 2020/25. Adrian [...]
Otterpool Park Update: Is It For Profit?
The fundamentals of using a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) to deliver Otterpool, is to make it tax efficient and allow the greatest return to to the council for building [...]
The Long Read: 52-54 Guildhall Street and other tales of “Technical Issues”
Following our ‘more tales of the unexpected’ piece in September, which briefly mentioned the gap in the streetscape at 52-54 Guildhall Street owned by Brian James Parry [...]
Otterpool Park Update: Draft Otterpool Park Business Plan raises more questions than it answers
The Draft – Otterpool Park Business Plan is a very badly assembled document. It is a low quality document for such a high-value project (£2.7 billon). The person [...]
Otterpool Park Update: Council project £193 million profit for Otterpool
In a 54 page document, Folkestone & Hythe District Council have set out the Draft – Otterpool Park Business Plan for discussion by the Overview & Scrutiny [...]
He’s a very naughty boy!
Updated 08:20 25/11/20 And who is a very naught boy… yep it’s Leo Livingston Griggs (pictured). The local Tory party donor has like others fallen foul of GDPR, [...]
Inheritance, not work, will become the main route for home ownership in our district
In early January 2018, LUC published the Proposed Submission Sustainability Appraisal Report – Non-Technical Summary – for Folkestone & Hythe District Council. At [...]
Tontine Street: Further issues emerge with planning application
The first law of holes states: “if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging“. Unfortunately, Folkestone & Hythe District Council Planning department do not [...]
Otterpool Park Update: The Elephant in the Room
The Otterpool Park Financial Viability Assessment (VA) assumes the development to be 100% debt financed. So having taken the time to look at the VA, and also get the views of [...]
Council release largely unredacted Otterpool Park Viability Assessment
It’s done! It’s official, Folkestone & Hythe District Council have unredacted vast swathes of information contained within the Otterpool Financial Viability [...]
Claire’s story and the scandal of fuel poverty in Kent
“I worried about her especially as winter was setting in. She wasn’t here for the books but the warmth .” says Julia a librarian in Kent (not her real [...]
Planning permission for 86-88 Tontine Street was unlawful
Last night (20th Oct) six Cllrs stuck two fingers up to the courts, as did planning officers of Folkestone & Hythe District Council. Cllrs considered planning application [...]
Otterpool Park Update: Priest Under Pressure
The courts say they must release it. The Information Upper Tier tribunal say they must release it. But still Folkestone & Hythe District Council, led by Dr Susan Priest, [...]
Otterpool Park Update: £800 million profit for Otterpool Park Development
Given all the documents available in the public domain regarding the Otterpool Park development, even the redacted Viability Assessment, it’s clear Folkestone & [...]
Otterpool Park Update: Release the unredacted Viability Assessment
While transparency reduces corruption, good governance goes beyond transparency in achieving openness. Openness means involving residents and other stakeholders in the [...]
No Go or Go decision to be made in Jan 2021 on new Civic Centre at Otterpool Park
The Chief Exec of Folkestone & Hythe District Council – Dr Susan Priest, made it clear that the discussion around a new civic centre at Otterpool Park was to give [...]
The Long Read: The Leas Pavillion – The Way Forward
Following on from “The Long Read: Is our Heritage for Ransom?” we, the Friends of the Leas Pavilion, would like to let people see how things are from our point of view [...]
Brave New World of Council Housing in East Kent
Updated: 07/10/20 – @ 08:00 East Kent Housing is dead, just like that parrot. At midnight (30th Sept) it ceased to be. All its functions and responsibilities have now [...]
Otterpool Park Update: More property purchased
While the covid-19 virus has risen and fallen and risen again, those charged with keeping Otterpool Park Garden Town – where up to 10,000 homes may be built if planning [...]
The Long Read: Is our heritage for ransom?
Updated 03/10/20 @9:48 After a decade of neglect and uncertainty and a 5-year campaign by Friends of the Leas Pavilion (FLP), the Leas Pavilion is finally looking set to be [...]
Cllr Goddard Recuses Himself & Other Planning Matters
So, Cllr Clive Goddard, Chairman of Folkestone & Hythe Planning Committee recused himself and did not vote on either of the planning applications related to the Royal [...]
Is Cllr Clive Goddard committing a criminal offence?
It is simple, so so simple yet he has failed to comply. A discosable pecuniary interest (DPI) is set out in Chapter 7 of the Localism Act 2011 and in the secondary [...]