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Shepway Vox

@shepwayvox.bsky.social

59 followers 99 following 402 posts

Shepway Vox are a TEAM of people who believe that truth should be spoken to power. We come from all walks of life and live in and around Folkestone & Hythe District, previously known as Shepway.

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

3,207 people on foot were killed or injured on Kent and Medway’s roads between 2021 and 2025. Behind every number is someone walking to work, school, the shops or home. We’ve mapped where it happened — and the patterns are hard to ignore. shorturl.at/YQ5Sp

3,207 People on Foot Killed or Injured on Kent and Medway Roads, 2021–2025

Sixty-four pedestrians were killed on roads across Kent and Medway between 2021 and 2025. Another 840 were seriously injured. And beneath those two figures sits the most troubling finding in The Sh…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Six days in A&E. Children among mental-health patients left waiting because specialist beds aren’t available. That isn’t a minor delay. It’s a system failing people at their most vulnerable — while frontline staff are left trying to hold it together. shorturl.at/W69SJ

Six Days in A&E: Children Among Mental-Health Patients Stuck in East Kent’s Emergency Departments

East Kent Hospitals’ own papers reveal one-to-six-day waits, two-hourly executive escalations and a shortage of specialist mental-health beds which the Trust says is not expected to ease imminently…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Kent’s hedgehogs are telling us a story after dark. 🦔 We mapped 4,168 records across the county — revealing safe havens, danger spots and roads where too many never make it across. A small creature, but a powerful picture of the places we share. shorturl.at/Fhsz5

Kent After Dark: 4,168 Hedgehog Records Reveal a County of Safe Havens and Deadly Roads

Autumn is upon us, and it’s that time of year when our lovely prickly friends — hedgehogs — begin looking for somewhere safe to hole up until spring. A pile of leaves beneath a hedge, a tangle of b…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Four years after Kirkup, East Kent maternity is still repeating known safety failures while babies die. “Systemic weakness” is management camouflage. People made these decisions. People failed to fix them. If accountability means anything, some should no longer be in post. shorturl.at/LMEty

East Kent Hospitals Maternity: Babies Are Still Dying — Four Years After Kirkup, Known Failures Remain

Babies have died. East Kent had already been warned. It had already been investigated. It had already been told what was wrong. It had already produced the plans, the committees, the pathways, the …

Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Imagine being well enough to leave hospital — but having nowhere safe to go. That’s the reality for around 500 patients in Kent on a regular basis, while thousands more struggle to get through the NHS GP front door. We followed the blockage from GP surgery to hospital bed. shorturl.at/Po3jd

Kent’s NHS Is Clogged: 500 Patients Can’t Get Out — While Thousands Struggle to Get In

Getting into the health system is difficult. Getting out of it can be just as difficult. That, in simple terms, is the problem facing Kent and Medway. At one end, patients are struggling to see the…

Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

What can 18,400 crashes tell us about Kent and Medway’s roads? Quite a lot. We’ve mapped five years of collisions, 24,390 casualties and 252 deaths to show where crashes cluster, which roads stand out, and what the patterns might tell us. shorturl.at/32BEV

Where Kent & Medway Keep Crashing: 18,400 Collisions, 24,390 Casualties and 252 Deaths Mapped

Every dot on our map marks a journey in Kent or Medway which ended with somebody being injured. Between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025, police recorded 18,400 personal-injury road collisions a…

Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Britannia once said its hotels were kept in a “continual state of sound repair”. Years later, the Burstin was described as in “desperate need of refurbishment”. Then came a suspicious fire, 90 displaced neighbours — and a trail leading to a Jersey trust. shorturl.at/O5n9x

Grand Burstin Hotel Investigation: Britannia Hotels, Alexander Langsam and the Moravcik Trust

At 1.06am on Saturday 19 September 2026, Kent Fire and Rescue Service was called to the Grand Burstin Hotel in Folkestone. At the height of the incident, 26 fire engines and specialist units were s…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Three training sessions, several beers and one glass of local rocket fuel: enough to turn an Englishman abroad into a football manager. A 12–0 hiding followed. Then a 5–0 “improvement”. Then 2–0 against the league leaders. Obviously, it was all part of the system. shorturl.at/FmWlR

The Accidental English Football Manager: From a 12–0 Thrashing to Beating the League Leaders

This is a Guest Post Psst. Psst. Come closer. Closer. Now listen carefully, because what I’m about to tell you, good reader, is a secret. A secret so humiliating that, even after all these years, i…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A writer, a bicycle, a village pub, two cows and a man who reckons Lycra disqualifies you from being a proper cyclist. Somehow, this is all “research”. The worrying bit? It worked. Perhaps the bicycle isn’t procrastination after all. Perhaps the desk is. shorturl.at/CK5lr

Why Writers Should Ride Bicycles — Einstein, Potholes and the Fine Art of Procrastination

There is a theory, usually attributed to Einstein, that life is rather like riding a bicycle: if you want to keep your balance, you have to keep moving. This seems reasonable until you remember tha…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Back on 1 April, FHDC passed a motion promising urgent action on water quality Nearly six months later, there’s still no report Dymchurch and Littlestone remain Poor, swimmers are warned off & businesses are financially suffering. So what, exactly, happened to that “urgent” motion? shorturl.at/bNJh1

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 urgency”. That wasn’t our…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

£750,000. That was the figure everyone heard for the Lower Leas playground. Now the costs tied to the scheme have gone past £1.38m. That’s a hell of a jump. We’ve followed the money to see how a three-quarter-million-pound project got here. shorturl.at/TawsJ

Lower Leas Coastal Park Playground: How a £750,000 Budget Grew to More Than £1.38 Million

It was supposed to be a £750,000 playground. That was the budget Folkestone & Hythe District Council approved in May 2025 for the long-awaited replacement of the ageing play area at Lower Leas …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Nine months ago Storm Goretti gave Lydd a pretty brutal warning. Yet with autumn here and winter not far behind, the town still has no Community Resilience Plan. Storms don’t wait for paperwork. So if the next one hits hard, is Lydd actually ready? shorturl.at/V4xEn

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 coastal storms. Yet nearl…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hundreds got out of the Grand Burstin alive. That’s the good news. But the fire has left Folkestone with some big questions — about the building, the people living next door, what happens next and whether this crisis is really over. shorturl.at/1vOGa

Grand Burstin Fire: How Hundreds Got Out Alive — and Why Folkestone’s Crisis Isn’t Over

Four days after flames and thick smoke poured from beneath Folkestone’s Grand Burstin Hotel, firefighters were back. At 8.36am on Wednesday, Kent Fire and Rescue Service was called after smoke was …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

FHDC approved £750,000 for the Lower Leas Coastal Park playground. The paper trail now points to £1.387m in linked playground, cliff, survey and enabling costs — 84.97% higher. £649,757 has already been paid. So how did £750k become £1.38m? shorturl.at/4gA29

Lower Leas Coastal Park Playground: How a £750,000 Budget Grew to More Than £1.38 Million

It was supposed to be a £750,000 playground. That was the budget Folkestone & Hythe District Council approved in May 2025 for the long-awaited replacement of the ageing play area at Lower Leas …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

FHDC called its water-quality work “urgent” on 1 April. 175 days later: no report, no sampling plan, no costed options. Meanwhile Dymchurch and Littlestone remain rated Poor for bathing water, with residents warned not to swim and local businesses counting the cost. shorturl.at/Q6m1q

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 urgency”. That wasn’t our…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Welcome to Dover’s new biometric border: queue politely, present passport, offer four fingers to the machine… and hope it’s in the mood. Ours wasn’t. After half an hour waiting, it promptly broke when we reached the front. The future has arrived. Sort of. tinyurl.com/4jy5xrys

Four Fingers, One Passport and a Prayer: Welcome to Dover’s Biometric Border

The British understand queues. We may have lost an empire,many Eurovision Song Contests and any realistic expectation of buying a railway sandwich without first discussing finance options, but by G…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The English language has hundreds of thousands of words. So why do we keep reaching for the same f***ing one? A polite plea for a little more imagination, a little less verbal wallpaper — and perhaps the return of “Gordon Bennett” before it’s too late. tinyurl.com/dcdadxzx

The F-Word Took Over the English Language: We Have Hundreds of Thousands of Words — So Why Keep Using the Same F*ing One?**

There is a bus. You know the one. Every town has one. At roughly the same time every weekday afternoon, its doors wheeze open and several dozen teenagers pile aboard carrying rucksacks, phones, hal…

Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

In the final part of our Kent Police series, we look at racist officers, racial disparities and other uncomfortable evidence — and ask one simple question: Does Kent Police police everyone equally? “You might very well think that; We couldn't possibly comment.” tinyurl.com/bdexsxj2

Kent Police, Race and Power: When Does Disparity Become Institutional Racism? — Part Three

Racist misconduct has been proved against Kent Police officers. Black people are arrested at more than twice the White population rate and are substantially overrepresented in stop-and-search. The …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

For young people in Kent, postcode can shape opportunity. Canterbury has just 76 suitable entry-level vacancies per 1,000 young adults. Tonbridge & Malling has 258. That’s a 3.4-fold gap. For too many young people, the first rung of the jobs ladder is simply missing. tinyurl.com/32wjntcu

The First Rung Is Missing: Kent’s Stark Divide in Jobs for Young People

The postcode a young person calls home can make a huge difference to the number of realistic entry-level jobs around them. In Kent and Medway, the gap is enormous. New data from the Institute for P…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

FHDC used the word “fraud” about residents. Yet when asked how much of the £1.266m was actually fraud, Cllr Tim Prater couldn’t say — and called intent a “fuzzy line”. If you can’t prove intent, on what basis are people being labelled fraudsters? tinyurl.com/ycywd9hy

If Intent Is a ‘Fuzzy Line’, How Can FHDC Call It Fraud? Cllr Tim Prater and the £1.266m Question

When our public face asked Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance and Governance how much of £1.266 million was actually fraud, Cllr Tim Prater (pictured) didn’t give …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Something changed at Kent Police. In just one year, arrests of Black people soared by 79% — a rise far beyond anything seen among other ethnic groups. Part Two asks the obvious question: what changed, and why? The numbers deserve answers. tinyurl.com/yu6cc5k4

Something Changed at Kent Police: Black Arrests Soared 79% in One Year — Part Two

In Part One, we examined what happened on the streets of Dover, where hundreds of anti-migration protesters descended on the town, dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, roads around the Port of …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

FHDC’s language brands some residents as fraudsters, yet it still won’t say how many cases were actually fraud, what evidence proved intent, or how much was claimant error versus council/officer error. If you use the word fraud, show the evidence. shorturl.at/FtGMI

If Intent Is a ‘Fuzzy Line’, How Can FHDC Call It Fraud? Cllr Tim Prater and the £1.266m Question

When our public face asked Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance and Governance how much of £1.266 million was actually fraud, Cllr Tim Prater (pictured) didn’t give …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Hundreds of white anti-migration protesters. Roads around Dover blocked for hours. Arrests on the day: zero. Shepway Vox asks why Kent Police didn’t use available face-covering powers — and whether everyone would have been policed the same way. tinyurl.com/4m2kpft7

Hundreds of White Protesters, Many Masked, Zero Arrests: Kent Police at Dover — Part One

Part One of a ShepwayVox investigation into race, arrest rates and policing in Kent There’s a question hanging over what happened in Dover on Saturday 5 September 2026 which is considerably more se…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Autumn has arrived in rural Kent; and so has Operation Mousetrap. There are 27 traps, one very determined family, & at least one mouse apparently clever enough to beat the lot. hand. tinyurl.com/32wtz873

Autumn in Rural Kent: Operation Mousetrap Begins Again

Autumn is creeping towards us again. For those of us who live out in the sticks, you can tell it’s coming long before somebody on the television starts standing beneath a tree turning copper and go…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Westenhanger fails both of the Government’s new tests for a “well-connected station”. That matters because it sits beside Otterpool Park, where 8,500 homes are planned. The station is next door — but under the new NPPF, that doesn’t automatically bring special planning advantages. shorturl.at/Fgkm8

Otterpool Park: Westenhanger Fails Both New NPPF ‘Well-Connected Station’ Tests

The Government has just made building homes around well-connected railway stations substantially easier. There’s just one problem: Hillhurst Farm sits right next door to Westenhanger station, and i…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Kent County Council says unregistered children’s placements should be exceptional. Yet new FOI data shows £27.05m was spent on them in roughly two years. After Catalyst, the question is no longer one provider — it’s whether KCC’s safeguards worked at all. shorturl.at/1tkRK

Kent County Council Paid £27m to Place Children in Unregistered Homes Over Two Years.

Last month, The Shepway Vox Team revealed how Kent County Council paid Catalyst Care Limited £2,419,480.59 between 2021 and July 2025. Catalyst’s two controlling directors subsequently admitted off…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Hundreds of masked men block Dover. Kent Police: no arrests. Post something dodgy online, though, and they’ve managed 2,063 arrests in five years. Perhaps the balaclavas were the problem — hard to read their Facebook profiles. shorturl.at/Rkpxx

Kent Police and the Dover Blockade: Too Busy Policing Facebook?

There are mornings when everything comes at once. The washing machine packs up. Somebody leaves the milk out. Hundreds of men dressed almost identically in black, many wearing balaclavas, turn up a…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

15,600 homes sounds impressive on paper. But where are the extra GPs, school places, water, sewage capacity and roads coming from? FHDC can plan for growth, but the infrastructure depends on others. Our latest looks at whether Folkestone & Hythe can actually cope. shorturl.at/An1qU

Folkestone & Hythe Local Plan 2045: Can 15,600 New Homes Be Supported by Water, GPs and Infrastructure?

Folkestone & Hythe may need to plan for around 15,600 new homes by 2045, but the challenge isn’t simply finding enough land. The district must also prove it can deliver the water, sewage, elect…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Folkestone & Hythe need to plan for around 15,600 new homes by 2045 — while recent delivery has averaged just 417 a year against a new target of 820. FHDC says more development sites are likely to be needed. The first Local Plan consultation closes 16 October, so have you say. shorturl.at/BrFS5

Folkestone & Hythe Local Plan 2045 Consultation: 15,600 Homes and More Development Sites Likely

Folkestone & Hythe may need to plan for around 15,600 new homes between now and 2045, according to documents published as the district council begins preparing its new Local Plan. That’s the fi…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

“Without fear or favour” should mean exactly that. Byline Times checked Reform councillors at KCC. We checked beyond Reform — and found more questions. The issue are not one party at all, but Kent County Council’s register itself. Time for KCC to check all 81 councillors. shorturl.at/EWF3n

Kent County Council Register of Interests: Questions Extend Beyond Reform UK

Byline Times says it’s “not politically partisan” and promises to follow stories “wherever” they go, “without fear or favour”. Yet its investigation into councillors’ business interests at Kent Cou…

Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

155 children stuck in temporary accommodation. Costs have doubled. Families are being shipped out of Folkestone & Hythe as out-of-area placements soar. Behind the council jargon is a grim reality: more children without a settled home, while the bill keeps climbing. shorturl.at/emzt3

Folkestone & Hythe: 155 Children in Temporary Accommodation as Costs Double and Out-of-Area Placements Soar

The number of children living in temporary accommodation arranged by Folkestone & Hythe District Council has more than doubled in two years. Now, as the Government introduces a new legal duty i…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Part 3 concludes our Hodson investigation: £211.9m in identifiable creditor demands across six insolvencies — potentially about £246.4m if a further £34.5m of reported unsecured claims are proved and genuinely additional. We follow the money behind Chilmington Green. shorturl.at/yzTgl

Part 3: Hodson’s Chilmington Green Collapse — £211.9m in Creditor Claims, Six Administrations and 5,750 Homes at Stake

Chilmington Green was supposed to be much more than a housing estate. Ashford planned for a new community of up to 5,750 homes, schools, shops, parks and roads, backed by roughly £125 million towar…

Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Cyclists on pavements: illegal, inconsiderate and, for some pedestrians, genuinely frightening. Alan’s had enough. He looks at what the law actually says, why enforcement matters and why pavements should remain safe spaces for people on foot. shorturl.at/dcOiP

Get Off the Pavement: The Law Cyclists Ignore and Pedestrians Pay For

Guest contributor Alan has had enough of cyclists treating the pavement as an escape lane. He’s looked beyond the muttering and arm-waving to find out what the law actually says. “It gets my …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

FHDC redacted key Kent council shake-up figures under FOI Section 22, saying they’d be published later. There was one problem: the same MoU was already public, showing £11.9m in estimated costs and a £7.5m funding gap. So what exactly was being kept secret? shorturl.at/2Ni7e

Kent LGR Secrecy: FHDC Withholds MoU Figures Under FOI Section 22 — Even Though They’re Already Public

An FoI request submitted to Folkestone & Hythe District Council on 30 July 2026 asked for the Local Government Reorganisation Implementation Reserve Memorandum of Understanding. The document su…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Reform led KCC is now weighing a judicial review over the Government’s choice of Option 4B for Kent’s council shake-up. Ministers backed a model KCC says is financially weaker and still leaves major questions unresolved. The legal challenge could come next. shorturl.at/ljsOS

Kent Local Government Reorganisation: KCC Considers Judicial Review of Option 4B

Reform-led Kent County Council says the Government selected a financially weaker model for reorganising Kent and failed to address serious concerns about the county’s borders and children’s service…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Part Two: Hodson Developments’ history wasn’t all glossy brochures and grand schemes. There were planning rows, court battles, a demolished house — and now an unresolved NHBC claim worth around £5m. So what went wrong, and where? shorturl.at/XWcfo

Part Two: Hodson Developments — From Building Disputes to a £5 Million NHBC Claim

In Part One, we traced Alan Hodson (pictured) and Hodson Developments from Sunningdale through decades of housebuilding, land acquisition and secured finance. Part Two follows a different paper tra…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Part One of our three-part investigation into Alan Hodson and Hodson Developments: from Ascot and Sunningdale, 92 registered charges and Heritable Bank, to the property business that would later become central to Chilmington Green. How did it all begin? - shorturl.at/Iweth

Part One: Alan Hodson and Hodson Developments — The Rise of the Property Business Behind Chilmington Green

This is the first of a three-part investigation into property developer Alan Derek Hodson (pictured), Hodson Developments and associated companies, prompted by the administration of Hodson Developm…

Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Five liquidations. £705,820 in creditor exposure. At least £232,641 linked to HMRC. We’ve traced the company trail around William Dunlop and Georgia Allard — from Hythe salons to Ivy’s — through insolvency filings, successor businesses and unanswered questions. tinyurl.com/bddpy2vz

Allard and Dunlop: Five Liquidations, £705,820 in Creditor Exposure and a Trail of Failed Companies

Between October 2016 and March 2026, five companies linked to William Dunlop entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation with £705,820 in initial creditor liabilities or directors’ estimates. Georgia …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Folkestone’s Petticoat Lane Emporium tells shoppers “NO REFUND — ALL SALES FINAL”. But UK consumer law says otherwise. Its 2025 accounts also show a £77,580 loss, £246,787 due within a year and negative shareholders’ funds. We’ve taken a proper look at what’s going on. tinyurl.com/yve456hr

Petticoat Lane Emporium Folkestone: ‘No Refund’ Sign, £77,580 Loss and £246,787 Short-Term Creditors

“Sorry — NO REFUND — ALL SALES FINAL.” That’s the notice facing customers at Petticoat Lane Emporium. The photograph supplied to The Shepway Vox Team shows it prominently displayed beside the till,…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

FHDC says it aims to resolve complaints at Stage 1. Yet Stage 2 cases jumped 88% in a year, from 32 to 60. A quarter were upheld or partly upheld, while half of escalated landlord complaints succeeded. Being on time and getting it right aren’t the same thing. shorturl.at/BHabV

Folkestone & Hythe Complaints Surge 88% as 60 Residents Demand a Second Answer

Folkestone & Hythe District Council makes residents a pretty clear promise on its website: “We aim to resolve any complaint at stage one.” Yet in 2025/26, 60 complaints reached Stage 2, compare…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Hythe Imperial’s £120m plan could bring 291 homes, a new pool and major investment — but residents have every right to question flood risk, traffic, open-space loss and healthcare pressure. Our guest guide shows how to make a proper planning objection before 26 September. shorturl.at/LeWc9

Hythe Imperial Planning Objection Guide: What Residents Need to Know About GSE’s £120m, 291-Home Plan

This is a Guest Post After reading The Shepway Vox Team’s examination of planning application 26/1290/FH, I spent a fair bit of time going through the application papers myself before their article…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Our Nepalese community in Folkestone & Hythe and across Kent will be watching events in Nepal with heavy hearts. Families, friends and loved ones are caught up in the tragedy. From our corner of Kent, we send sympathy, solidarity and hope to everyone affected. shorturl.at/aI4jo

Nepal Disaster: Folkestone & Hythe Sends Messages of Hope and Comfort to Those Affected

The terrible events unfolding in Nepal and the wider Himalayan region will feel a very long way from Kent. But for many families across Folkestone & Hythe and the county, they’ll feel painfully…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

FHDC’s fraud report boasts a £1.26m “financial impact”. But here’s the rub: it doesn’t tell us how much was actual fraud, how much was error, or how much was simply future savings. That’s quite a gap behind a very big headline number. shorturl.at/yuzWL

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s £1.26m Fraud Report Doesn’t Say How Much Was Fraud — or Error

There’s a rather important word hiding inside Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s latest £1.26 million fraud figure. “Or.” FHDC says its investigations team dealt with 1,126 cases during 2025…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Kent council borrowing has hit £2.45bn, with Medway now owing more than KCC. And all this lands just as local government reorganisation looms. Nothing says “fresh start” quite like turning up with billions in debt already strapped to your back. shorturl.at/aUQJS

Kent Council Debt: Borrowing Reaches £2.45bn as Medway Overtakes KCC Ahead of Local Government Reorganisation

New Government figures show nine of Kent’s 14 councils borrowing more than two years ago. With four new unitary councils due in 2028, those liabilities aren’t simply going to vanish when the old co…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

£120m, 291 homes, a 25m pool and plenty of shiny promises for Hythe. Trouble is, parts of GSE’s planning paperwork can’t agree on the pool size, floorspace, flood levels or energy assumptions. Before FHDC says yes, it might be handy if everyone was reading the same plan. shorturl.at/Y2I36

GSE’s £120m Hythe Imperial Plan: 291 Homes, a 25m Pool — and a Planning File That Doesn’t Quite Add Up

GSE’s Imperial Gardens scheme promises 291 homes, around 73 “affordable homes”, a new 25m swimming pool and substantial private investment on Hythe seafront. But dig through planning ap…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

KCC’s £100m AI surveillance framework can cover facial recognition, biometrics, ANPR and drones. Its GDPR guide, meanwhile, thinks it’s about electric cars. Brilliant. The cameras may recognise your face, but apparently the paperwork can’t recognise its own bloody framework. 🚗📹 shorturl.at/0hCym

KCC’s £100m AI Surveillance Framework: The GDPR Guide That Thinks It’s About Electric Cars

Kent County Council’s national surveillance framework can help public bodies buy facial-recognition cameras, artificial-intelligence surveillance, biometrics, ANPR, thermal imaging and even drone s…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Kent’s councils are sitting on £2.45bn of borrowing — up £271m in just two years. Medway’s now overtaken KCC, while Thanet’s borrowing has shot up 362%. With four new unitary councils coming in 2028, the signs may change, but the debt won’t simply disappear. shorturl.at/sqMYH

Kent Council Debt: Borrowing Reaches £2.45bn as Medway Overtakes KCC Ahead of Local Government Reorganisation

New Government figures show nine of Kent’s 14 councils borrowing more than two years ago. With four new unitary councils due in 2028, those liabilities aren’t simply going to vanish when the old co…

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Kent’s GCSE league table hides an uncomfortable truth: your postcode, family income and access to a grammar school can still shape your chances. We’ve crunched the 2026 results — and the education divide running through the county is impossible to miss. shorturl.at/79W8n

Kent’s Education Divide: GCSE Results, Deprivation and Grammar Schools

Start in Tonbridge & Malling. Among GCSE results awarded to 16-year-olds at examination centres in the district this summer, 35.2% were grade 7 or above. Tunbridge Wells was close behind on 34.…

Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Five social homes. One former Age UK community centre. And a proper scrap over what happens next. Everist Court in Lyminge has become a test of FHDC’s priorities — housing people in need, protecting community assets, and who really gets listened to. shorturl.at/nYz5p

Everist Court Lyminge: The Battle Over FHDC’s Five Social Homes and Former Age UK Community Centre

Folkestone & Hythe District Council owns Everist Court, has already committed more than £630,000 to turning it into housing, and must now determine its own planning application. But this is no …

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Shepway Vox @shepwayvox.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

£21m spent on Kent’s AI border towers. Since 2018, more than 153,000 people have crossed the Channel by small boat. Now the Home Office plans to spend another £120m. Big money, clever kit — but is it actually stopping the boats, or just watching them arrive? shorturl.at/dV5ay

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 thermal cameras (pictured). T…

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