£971,000 And Rising
It’s like watching a car crash happen in slow motion. The Bed & Breakfast Figures are creeping ever so slowly towards breaking the £1 million pound barrier for the [...]
Shepway District Council
GP Patient Numbers Grow & Where’s The Money From the Developments?
The events which led up to the closure of the Folkestone East Family Practice (FEFP) (pictured) was a realisation that the practice was struggling to cope with the volume of [...]
Speculative Discussions.
Channel Ports Ltd & Stop 24 are in ongoing speculative discussions about extending the Lorry Park at Stop 24 by another 300 places. It currently has space for 200 [...]
What We Mean When We Say “The Council”
After 3 years of writing about Shepway District Council and its policies and plans we thought it might be useful to say what we mean when we say “the Council“. [...]
Otterpool Park Update
It would appear that the Otterpool Park development has now been given a planning application number. Y17/0183/SH received pre-planning application advice from Shepway [...]
Money, Money, Money
I work all night I work all day to pay the bills I have to pay, ain’t it sad And still there never seems to be, a single penny left for me, that’s too bad; so say [...]
Rough Sleepers, B & B Costs and that lie by Cllr David Monk.
So it’s a record Shepway District Council should not be proud of. The number of rough sleepers has hit their highest levels ever in the district. This was announced at [...]
The Lion Which Never Roared
Between April – June 17, One in Five calls from the public went unanswered by Shepway District Council (SDC). In other words 20% of SDC’s customers were not [...]
The Long Read: Could Computer Algorithms & Robots Run SDC More Effectively & Efficiently?
At the start of April 2016 Shepway District Council (SDC) employed 385 people; by March 2017 this had slightly reduced to 374. SDC will soon be in a position where it will [...]
New Car Parking Charges Deferred
Cllr Rory Love (pictured) was first elected in May 1987 for the Folkestone Harvey Ward. He was elected with 1001 votes, on a turnout of 41.5%. Cllr Love is currently Cllr for [...]
SDC’s B&B Costs Rise to £900,000
Shepway District Council’s Bed & Breakfast costs have risen to their highest level ever. In September costs stood at £657,958 and with October’s and [...]
UPDATED:Clear As Mud
Why is nothing easy when it comes to local councils and especially parking. We could have easily splashed the headline: Shepway District Council make £691,000 from Parking. [...]
Proposal To Increase Car Parking Charges Across Shepway.
All too often the public are treated as “Cash Cows” when it comes to parking charges. Responsibility for Car Parking & Charges in Shepway belongs to Andy [...]
Pimping Otterpool Park @ Kent Construction Expo 2017.
In our last post we informed you that the total funding to SDC from central Government to date, amounts to £1,250,000. Paid over three tranches: £750,000, £345,000 and [...]
Saga & The Paradise Papers
Saga, the UK travel and insurance company for the over-50s have made 100 people redundant, according to Kentonline. At Jan 31st 2016 Saga’s pre-tax profits rose [...]
Police to Talk to Shepway District Councillor.
EXCLUSIVE: Cllr Roger Wilkins (pictured) was first elected to Shepway District Council in 2011 for the Dymchurch & St Mary’s Bay seat. He received 1,233 votes and [...]
Is This Why Local Newspapers Are Dying Mr Francis?
Local newspapers are dying. The numbers of papers being sold is in decline as more people turn to online media. However, even here, the journalism is all too often replaced [...]
Damian Collins MP Expenses 2016/17
Since May 2010 – to March 31st 2017, Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone & Hythe has cost the public purse £1,144,586 according to IPSA. The average amount he has [...]
£57 Million Pounds of Development Funding Bids Submitted By 7 Kent Councils.
We need housing to be built across the country, that we do not dispute. We need more homes in Kent, but how many and where? Development doesn’t come without its [...]
Cllr Susan Joan Carey
Cllr Susan Carey (pictured) was first elected to Shepway District Council (SDC) in 1999 for the then seat of Saltwood & Newington. She won the seat with 240 votes gaining [...]
Update on Otterpool Park
Warwick Smith in The Guardian sets out that Companies “don’t give their money away for nothing. There is an understanding (rarely made explicit) that large [...]
The Grand Inferno
Forgive the classical allusion but Dante might be the name that will be taking up a lot of Michael Stainer’s time over the coming months. But he won’t be studying [...]
The Gateway To The Shepway Addresses Owned Offshore
Earlier Today we promised you all 145 addresses of properties held overseas. The vast majority of them are held in known tax haven jurisdictions. They cover the whole [...]
Shepway Property Owned Offshore.
Yesterday, the Land Registry released all the title deeds of all tax haven/offshore companies which own property in the UK. There are, according to the Land Registry, 98,583 [...]
The Colourful Geoffrey George Boot.
Over the last few days the Paradise Papers have been splashed across the front pages of many newspapers across the world. Once again, they like the Panama Papers have shown [...]