Shepway Green Party has announced local artist and teacher Roy Smith as its Hythe West candidate for Kent County Council in the elections on 1May.
Roy, a part-time art and photography teacher at Folkestone School for Girls, has lived in Hythe for more than 30 years. He is a volunteer warden at Hythe Church Crypt, helps Hythe Green Preservation Society and was a parent governor at Hythe Bay School until his sons left the school.
Roy has a keen interest in art and nature and he voluntarily creates wood sculptures in Eaton Lands and Hythe Green. He also helped enable the Triangle in St Leonards Road, Hythe, to become a protected resource for local people by sourcing independent funding for the original ground work on the site. Further afield, he project-managed two major projects for Tate Modern, London, which helped to create sustainable cultural links with young people and international galleries.
If elected, Roy will take on the seat from Jenni Hawkins, who won it in a by-election in 2023. Fellow Green Martin Whybrow represented Hythe West at Kent County Council for eight years before standing down in 2021.
Roy says: “I have worked with young people all my working life and want to be a voice for them at Kent County Council, whose savage cuts in funding have threatened Hythe Youth Club and much more besides.
“I know this area intimately and understand its people’s concerns, whether over affordable housing, over-development, education and youth services, or water quality. I want to be a visible and accessible presence, continuing and building upon the brilliant work of the Green Party locally.”
The Green Party controls Hythe Town Council and its success at the local elections in 2023 saw Folkestone & Hythe District Council become the first Green-led authority in Kent, resulting in the quick announcement that Princes Parade had been saved from development.
Roy Smith: long-time Hythe resident, artist and teacher.
