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 [...]
P & R
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 [...]
East Kent Councils fail to recoup £1.5 million from P & R
Fear, shame, embarrassment: these brakes no longer apply. Senior officers of Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone & Hythe and Thanet councils have discovered they can bluster [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council issue £6.2 million worth of contracts bypassing normal tendering processes
£6.2 million pounds worth of contracts in 2019/20 were issued by Folkestone & Hythe District Council, using waivers and citing urgency and expediency. In total, 49 [...]
“It’s nothing short of scandalous” as 40,000 plus EKH council tenants data placed at “significant security and operational risk”
“The servers that the [East Kent Housing] system runs on are due for replacement and the Northgate software is out of support. This poses a significant security and [...]
Karma Comes Around For Mark Anderson?
Before he joined East Kent Housing (EKH), Mark Anderson (pictured) former Director of Property, had according to his Linkedin page, seventeen jobs between 1985 and June 2016. [...]
Dunning Kruger Effect Alive And Well At Folkestone & Hythe District Council
If you’ve ever dealt with someone whose performance stinks, and they’re not only clueless that their performance stinks but they’re confident that their performance is [...]
Part 3: Folkestone & Hythe District Council Financial Irregularities
In this final piece (for now) we look at at very specific part of the time line in the P & R potential £1.5 million pound fraud which came about as a result of failings [...]
Part 2: Folkestone & Hythe District Council Financial Irregularities.
Folkestone & Hythe District Council are looking for a new statutory s151 Officer. According to the Candidate Breifing Pack on Penna Recruitment & the [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Financial Irregularities
Irregularities in Cllrs expenses claims and paying P & R in breach of the Council’s contract both happened in 2018/19. Dr Susan Priest was the Head of Paid Service [...]
EKH Chief Exec Deborah Upton Has Stepped Down
Updated: 16:40 East Kent Housing’s Chief Executive Deborah Upton (pictured) has stepped down from her role following a string of failures by the organisation. Well placed [...]
The Long Read: The Blame Game
In two reports, the HQN Report (not yet seen by Cllrs) commissioned by East Kent Housing (EKH); and the Pennington Report commissioned by the four Councils, evidence of EKH [...]
EKH rocked by safety issues looks set for closure after two of its owner councils voted to take housing stock back in-house
After more than a year of investigating by the Shepwayvox Team, East Kent Housing looks like it may have run its course after eight years of existence. On Wednesday 9th Oct [...]
East Kent Housing: Major failings and historic mismanagement rewarded with £110,000 a year
Appendix 3: Audit report for East Kent Housing (EKH) – tenant health and safety is a restricted document, as such it will not be available for the public to see, nor EKH [...]
P & R closes down, but we are NOT out of the woods yet.
After 15 months of continuous investigation by the Shepwayvox Team into P & R Installation Company Ltd, who won a £27 million pound contract with East Kent Housing; [...]
Part 2: East Kent Councils overcharged £1.5 million by Gas Contractor P & R.
We said way back in May 2018, fraud was happening on the Gas Contract. Now it comes to light P & R have been charging the four owners of EKH fraudently to the sum of [...]
Serious disrepair and safety issues in Folkestone & Hythe District Council housing stock
“I feel trapped.” “Nobody is listening to me – that’s what it feels like.” “My mental health is going downhill rapidly due to this,” are just some of [...]
Will Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s auditor – Grant Thornton – find the fraud?
Each year every local authority is required by law to make up its accounts and get an auditor to sign off on them. Members of the public have certain rights during the [...]
Time to go follow the money
While the Councils of East Kent publish reports on how rubbish East Kent Housing were at administering the P & R Installation Company Ltd contract, let’s not lose [...]
Further issues of possible non-compliance by East Kent Housing emerge
An East Kent Internal Audit makes clear there are justifiable concerns over the gas safety certificates fiasco. The preliminary findings of the audit into East Kent Housing, [...]
All 4 East Kent Councils paid P & R for fraudulent Gas Safety Certificates
Yesterday -27th June 2019 Dover District Council Governance Committee met and part of the agenda pack at pages 18 and 19 states: Discussions were started with the contractor [...]
The Long Read: All 4 East Kent Chief Executives should resign over Gas Safety Certificate fiasco
All Cllrs of Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone & Hythe & Thanet District Councils ought to bring a motion before their respective full councils regarding the lack of [...]
East Kent Councils failing hundreds of tenants over gas safety checks
Hundreds of council tenants lives are being put at significant risk due to their landlords not undertaking compulsory gas safety checks. Hundreds of Council homes owned by [...]
Pipe down and don’t mention the overcharging and the Billion pound KCC accounts not signed off
A senior member of Shepway Green Party Cllr Martin Whybrow (pictured), a KCC and Hythe Town Councillor has suggested that our public face and the Shepwayvox Team “pipe [...]
The Long Read: Overview & Scrutiny must follow the council pound and roar.
It is the committee which can allow citizens to have a greater say in Council matters, by holding public inquiries into matters of local concern. Such concerns might be a [...]