Councillor Liz Grant, a Conservative elected just eight months ago to represent the Romney Marsh ward, has resigned, we understand, triggering what is likely to be a closely-fought by-election. We don’t know why Liz Grant has resigned but we recognise that standing for election in the first place is a tough decision and one not to be taken lightly. We wish Liz all the best.
From the dizzy heights of 22 councillors in 2015, the Conservatives managed just five seats eight years later in 2023. Support in our district has clearly plummeted and this resignation is likely to damage their reputation further.
Following elections in May 2023, no one party had enough councillors to form a majority administration. Our seventeen Green candidates polled 20,317 votes – the most votes across the district for any party. Those votes translated to eleven councillors across five wards.
Our Green councillors, with the support of two Liberal Democrat councillors, formed a minority administration which has been working hard for residents from day one. Labour councillors are not part of the coalition but we work together on our shared goals to deliver for Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh. Conservatives form the official opposition.
In the run up to the 2023 elections, we knew that whoever formed the next administration would have some difficult decisions to make, the biggest likely to be how to fill a big hole in the council’s budget. If it was us, we knew that we would have tough decisions to make. At no point did we promise to cut council tax, as has been suggested recently.
We recognise that many of our residents are struggling to pay their bills and we are providing as much support as we can but cutting council tax is not and has never been an option.
We campaigned to cancel development on Princes Parade. The last administration finally faced reality and ‘paused’ the project in November 2022 when the leisure centre costs had reached almost £50m and only once they’d already spent £5m on the concept alone. One of our first acts as Green-led administration was to go one further and cancel it altogether. Yes, this meant the council writing off the money already spent but we refused to continue throwing money away on a vanity project which would fail on so many grounds.
Stopping the development was a key manifesto pledge for us. The previous council was considering selling the housing land to a private developer.. While it is true that this sale would have generated cash for the council, it needs to be made clear that this money was to be put towards building the leisure centre.
No leisure centre means no need to sell off the land for housing.
We are committed to restoring and maintaining our coastline and ensuring that the public will be consulted as soon as possible on future plans. In the meantime our councillors are getting the hoarding removed and officers are consulting with Heritage England about the design of a replacement fence.
We will also continue to explore ways to deliver a new leisure centre in our district.
We will stand in the forthcoming by-election and we hope that residents will see the work we are doing running Folkestone & Hythe District Council, and Hythe Town Council, and recognise that we are a capable group guided solely by a desire to make our area better for everyone.
