Folkestone & Hythe’s Cost-Cutting Elephant Takes Off — Literally
A work of satire, inspired and adapted from Sławomir Mrożek’s short story “The Elephant”. The events described below are entirely fictional. It had been six months [...]
Romney Marsh
110 Homes, Flood Zone 3 and a Field the Local Plan Never Allocated: Inside New Romney’s Cockreed Lane Application
There’s nothing particularly dramatic about the field north of Cockreed Lane (pictured Orange below). It’s 4.71 hectares of agricultural land on the edge of New Romney: [...]
Storm Goretti Was Lydd’s Warning — Nine Months Later, Its Community Resilience Plan Still Doesn’t Exist
As autumn closes in and another winter approaches, Lydd, like the rest of us towns and villages, is heading back into the season of strong winds, heavy rain, high seas and [...]
Poor Beaches, Damaged Businesses, No Report: FHDC’s ‘Urgent’ Water Quality Work Goes Nowhere
On 1 April 2026, Folkestone & Hythe District Council agreed that investigating water quality across Romney Marsh and the East Stour should happen “as a matter of [...]
Kent’s AI Border Towers: £21m Spent as 153,000 People Arrived by Small Boat — Now the Home Office Plans to Spend £120m More
Walk west along the shingle at Hythe and, above the beach, an unusual structure looks out over the Channel. Roughly 18ft high, it carries radar and electro-optical and [...]
South Brooks Solar Farm: FHDC Signals ‘Holding Objection’ Over Romney Marsh Risks
“It just feels a bit fait accompli.” With those words, Cllr Adrian Lockwood (Lab – pictured) put his finger on the unease running through Folkestone & Hythe [...]
Folkestone and Hythe Council’s Unfulfilled Promise to Investigate Sewage Pollution
On 1 April, Folkestone & Hythe District Council agreed that possible human faecal contamination across Romney Marsh and the East Stour needed investigating “as a matter [...]
Exclusive: Royal British Legion Says Reform UK Fundraising at Hythe Armed Forces Day Was Unauthorised
The Royal British Legion says Reform UK wasn’t authorised to claim any connection with the charity or fundraise on its behalf at Hythe Armed Forces Day. The local branch [...]
The Long Read: South Kent Energy Park’s 2,100-Acre Solar Gamble on Romney Marsh
Low Carbon says its South Kent Energy Park could power the equivalent of 140,000 homes. Its own scoping report also shows a much bigger scheme, on arable Marsh land, much of [...]
Cllr David Wimble’s New Romney Housing U-Turn Exposes Local Plan Hypocrisy
Cllr David Wimble (pictured) now says he’ll fight proposals for up to 110 homes on farmland north of Cockreed Lane, New Romney. Fair enough. Residents are entitled to ask [...]
New Romney Homes Plan Tests Kent’s Water-Stressed Future
A proposed 110-home scheme on farmland at New Romney has landed in the middle of Kent’s bigger water argument: how can we keep building in one of the most water-stressed [...]
The Long Read: South Brooks Solar Farm Consultation Opens as Romney Marsh Drainage Fight Deepens
EDF power solutions UK and PS Renewables say South Brooks Solar Farm could power more than 140,000 homes a year. Campaigners say residents are being asked how to soften the [...]
Lib Dems And Greens Break Martello Lakes Pool Promise
The Liberal Democrats said they’d “immediately start work” on a swimming pool at Martello Lakes. The Greens said the Conservatives could have built one there by now. [...]
David Wimble Helicopter Gift: The Alcaline Flights, KCC Register and Looker Adverts
Cllr David Wimble’s KCC declaration says his September Alcaline Aviation helicopter lift was a gift. His Facebook trail points to three 2025 flights. Now The Looker, the [...]
Romney Marsh Flood Risk: Cllr Tony Hills Warns Sea Defences Must Be Strengthened
Cllr Tony Hills speaks to The Shepway Vox Team about sea defences, flooding, warming waters, sewage, planning and why Romney Marsh must not be treated as somewhere that can [...]
FHDC Council Chairs and Allowances: Who Got Which Seat
The music stopped at Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s annual general meeting on Wednesday 6 May 2026. Cllr Paul Thomas got the big civic chair, most committee [...]
Rick Davies, Romney Marsh and the Making of Supertramp
We went looking for a local legend and found something better: a real Kent story. Not the inflated version, with Supertramp supposedly recording its first album on Romney [...]
Reform UK Hythe Leaflet Raises Missing Imprint Questions
A two-sided Reform UK leaflet delivered in Hythe is loud on Labour, loud on Kent, loud on potholes, loud on common sense and loud on “change”. What it doesn’t [...]
New Romney and Its Perfect Cousins
There are few things more revealing in local government than a row about street sweeping. Not because it is glamorous. Quite the opposite. When residents start arguing over [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Council Backs East Stour and Romney Marsh Sewage Testing
There are some council debates that arrive gift-wrapped for local government purists: knotty, procedural, full of worthy intent and decorated with enough amendments to make [...]
FHDC Sewage Testing Motion Demands Evidence on Romney Marsh and East Stour Pollution
On 1 April, Folkestone & Hythe District Council has a chance to do something painfully obvious but surprisingly rare in local politics: stop holding yet another round of [...]
The Velvet Voices “Romney Marsh” Album: 20+ Musicians, Nine Nationalities, One Love Letter to Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh is often overlooked in the Folkestone & Hythe District Council chamber — but not by The Velvet Voices. Our latest album, Romney Marsh, lands with the scale [...]
Romney Marsh Solar Farm Approved 8–4: What Folkestone & Hythe Councillors Were Told, What the Papers Contradict, and What Happens Next (25/0542/FH)
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Planning and Licensing Committee has approved planning application 25/0542/FH for a 40-hectare (98.8-acre) solar farm on land [...]
Who Owns the St Mary’s Solar Farm Land? The Furnival Title Deed, Enviromena’s Funding Chain, and What Planning Committee Must Ask (25/0542/FH)
We’ve spent the last few days doing the thing that residents always end up doing when a big infrastructure proposal lands on the Marsh: taking the glossy brochure claims, [...]
Romney Marsh Residents Unite to Stop Mega Solar Farms on Prime Farmland
A community Petition opposing large-scale solar farms on Romney Marsh was presented to full council on 1 October 2025. The petition – titled “Stop industrial-scale solar [...]