Our first year running Folkestone & Hythe District Council has seen many achievements and has set the council on the right path for the future.
At the first meeting of the new council, in May 2023, Kent’s first Green Party council leader, Cllr Jim Martin, declared Princes Parade saved, to loud cheers from the public gallery. The recent removal of hoardings from the site has provided a very visible sign of just how much has changed at the council.
Other achievements have been less visible, including the elimination of the £4.5 million deficit we inherited without dipping into general reserves. Balancing the budget required difficult decisions over staff redundancies, reductions in some non-frontline services and increases in charges but was essential if were to avoid joining other councils in a perilous financial position.
While Green district councillors previously opposed giving the Otterpool Park planning permission, as did Hythe Town Council, we never promised to cancel the development and to do so now would likely bankrupt the district council. Instead, we have avoided borrowing money and allowed government funding into the scheme by rebuilding the relationship with Homes England. Importantly, we have made huge strides towards ensuring Otterpool sets a new green standard for the UK, with net zero a real prospect.
Being the largest group on the council meant seven of our councillors, all but two of them newly elected, found themselves in cabinet. They quickly got to grips with a huge range of issues, achieving real results including:
- Overflowing bins on the seafront replaced by an improved service from the council’s contractors and industrial action avoided.
- Cuts and cancellations to bus services by Stagecoach challenged, with at least one service restored and a new holiday service from another operator agreed.
- Complaints of the council not listening replaced by plaudits for innovative public engagement over plans for Folkestone town centre, new working relationships with community groups and awards launched to celebrate volunteers.
Of course, we cannot achieve everything we would like to, especially as a minority administration, but this council has shown itself ready to listen and give a voice to its residents’ concerns, whether challenging Southern Water over sewage discharges or Kent County Council over the removal of funding for youth services and the closure of Folkestone Library.
We have also ensured that our Green priorities run through everything the council does, whether through its own carbon reduction plan, by supporting businesses to be sustainable through nearly £200,000 of Green Business Grants, by completing energy efficiency improvements to 125 council homes (with 300 more to come) or by launching a Schools’ Sustainability Project to involve young people.
The Green Party is also about doing politics differently and we embody this by working constructively and inclusively not just with our two LibDem coalition partners but all our fellow councillors. Work is continuing towards next May’s move from a cabinet to committee system, which will allow all councillors to play a bigger part in running the council.
Meanwhile, we have exciting plans for the year ahead, including launching a youth forum, finding a bright new future for Romney Marsh Visitor Centre and taking council meetings out of the civic centre to other locations around the district.
A rainbow shines over Princes Parade.
