Transparency

Selling the Family Silver: Is Folkestone & Hythe District Council Mortgaging the Future?

July 4, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has built up a sizable war chest in recent years — not through increased government funding or soaring council tax, but by selling [...]

Kent Councillor Faces GDPR Questions Over Use of Private Email for Casework

June 24, 2025 // 0 Comments

A Kent County Councillor’s unconventional approach to correspondence is drawing scrutiny over data protection compliance. Tim Prater (pictured) – newly elected in May [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Paid £230K to Departing Staff with No NDAs, Raising Transparency Questions

June 13, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has paid over £230,000 to a handful of departing employees since 2022 through confidential settlement agreements—legal tools [...]

Serious Discrepancies Found in Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Temporary Accommodation Costs

May 13, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is facing serious questions over the reliability and consistency of its published data on Temporary Accommodation (TA) costs, after a [...]

Folkestone £15.4m Town Centre Contract Sparks Transparency Concerns Over Tender Timeline

May 4, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is pushing ahead with a £19.8 million government-funded regeneration programme intended to revitalise key areas of the town centre. [...]

Truth on Hold: Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s FOI Responses Don’t Add Up

April 28, 2025 // 1 Comment

In an age where public trust in institutions is increasingly fragile, accuracy and transparency are more important than ever—especially when it comes to how councils manage [...]

Forgetfulness And a Slap Up Meal On Taxpayers’ money in Harrogate

March 6, 2025 // 0 Comments

You’ve seen it, you’ve heard it, and believe it you must—because this is the kind of nonsense that makes your blood boil. At the full council meeting on February 26th, [...]

Part 2: Are they so different?

August 30, 2023 // 4 Comments

Last year, we as a team reminded the Council time and again about their failure to publish the Procurement card transactions data. Eventually after much huffing and puffing, [...]

Hythe Town FC: Explosive report claims VAT evasion and other serious irregularities

July 10, 2023 // 4 Comments

Exclusive Claims of VAT evasion, financial mismanagement, the legal status of the club to qualify for the Isthmian league put in doubt, a secret deal to sell the club for [...]

Council borrowed £20m in 2022/23, but must repay £35m by 2027/28

May 6, 2023 // 8 Comments

Both the Greens & Labour have promised to build more Council homes in their manifesto’s during their campaign. Neither party had sight of the accounts for 2022/23, [...]

Procurement Card Data 2019/20: Planes, Trains & Automobiles

November 8, 2022 // 0 Comments

How! Just how is it possible they don’t understand when the language is so clear and concise? Are they being deliberately obtuse? The Local Government Transparency Code [...]

A witchhunt, a c*ck up, and an unofficial “reward scheme”

September 13, 2022 // 0 Comments

Updated – 13/09/22 @17:43 For starters we’ll serve up the c*ck up salad; followed by the main dish the reward scheme roast; and for deseret, a delightful witch [...]

Council hiding seven years worth of credit card financial payments.

May 19, 2022 // 4 Comments

Seven years Folkestone & Hythe District Council have hidden, and failed to publish financial data for their Government Procurement Cards (read credit card), in clear [...]

Nearly One in Four Council Meetings held behind closed doors

October 27, 2021 // 2 Comments

Since the local elections of May 2019, which ushered in 13 Tory Cllrs, 6 Labour Cllrs (one later became an Independent) 6 Green Cllrs and 2 Lib Dem Cllrs, 2 UKIP Cllrs [...]

Otterpool Park Update: A consultation & a lack of transparency regarding the LLP

March 24, 2021 // 2 Comments

On Friday 26th March 2021, Otterpool Park LLP will hold two virtual public information and consultation events on phase one of Otterpool Park, which includes the town centre. [...]

Otterpool Park Update: The Elephant in the Room

November 3, 2020 // 4 Comments

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 [...]

The Long Read: Planning excites passion.

August 1, 2020 // 6 Comments

Planning has always been the hottest of all local government topics. It’s the one most likely to stir the passions of local people and yet no sooner have those passions [...]

£40,000 Pay Rise For Failing Chief Exec of Folkestone & Hythe District Council

July 15, 2020 // 5 Comments

She says she understands the importance of transparency and is able to discharge responsibilities to the highest standards of probity. Dr Susan Priest, the Chief Executive of [...]

Kent & other Police forces take too much data from victims’ phones, says watchdog

June 19, 2020 // 0 Comments

Almost two years ago to the day, we ran the blog post The Long Read: Kent Police can extract mobile phone data without your knowledge, your consent or a warrant. That post [...]

Changes afoot to Overview & Scrutiny are decided behind closed doors continuing the lack of Openness & Transparency.

May 24, 2020 // 2 Comments

We have long said the effectiveness of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee (O&S) has been unacceptable and that it has been the lion which never roared. It has been a [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Significant Errors & Non Compliance with GDPR

December 5, 2019 // 0 Comments

Recently Folkestone & Hythe District Council compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) was audited by the East Kent Audit Partnership (EKAP) and [...]

Actions speak louder than words

November 6, 2019 // 6 Comments

The Folkestone & Hythe Labour Party openly admit and state in their privacy policy they are a data controller in their own right: As they openly claim that they are a [...]

Are 16 Folkestone & Hythe District Councillors abusing their position?

October 26, 2019 // 5 Comments

Could you be persuaded there is a legitimate interest, and it is in the public interest, or any value to the public or any section of the public, for Folkestone & Hythe [...]

The Hypocrisy & Stupidity of our Elected Councillors

October 6, 2019 // 7 Comments

They talk the talk but don’t walk the walk our Cllrs. In the May elections all of the opposition parties Green, Lib Dem and Labour campaigned on a platform of [...]

Breaking News: Council Spends £1 Million on Gagging Orders

September 10, 2019 // 4 Comments

Following a Freedom of Information request, Folkestone & Hythe District Council (F&HDC) has informed our public face that since the financial year 2014/15 to [...]

	Mark on Creative Folkestone Tenancy Ag…
	shepwayvox on UK Asylum Crackdown: Why the H…
	Dave on Otterpool Park Exposed: How Fo…
	Dean on Otterpool Park Exposed: How Fo…
	Stephen on UK Asylum Crackdown: Why the H…