Trips up the tower at Old School Mews were a special feature of the Sandgate Sale Safari, Sandgate, Folkestone, which was organised by the Sandgate Society, on Sunday 6 June. And, the first visitors to go up to look out towards Dungeness over Sandgate Castle were Sal Kenward, Chair of the Sandgate Society and Tim Prater, District Councillor for Sandgate and West Folkestone and Chairman of Sandgate Parish Council.

The iconic Leas Lift in Folkestone has applied for funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to secure its future. After submitting an initial expression of interest earlier this year, the volunteer-led board of the Folkestone Leas Lift Company CIC have been working hard behind the scenes putting together a comprehensive application with supporting documents to help support their bid.

Updated 11/6/2021

It's no point varnishing it: Folkestone and Hythe District is currently facing a breakdown in collections of household waste and recycling.

As a message on the Folkestone and Hythe District Council website said last week:

"We'd like to apologise to all residents who are experiencing problems with our waste collection service at the moment, as a result of route changes put in place by our contractor (Veolia).

The first proposed draft boundaries for Folkestone and Hythe constituency are the current Folkestone and Hythe District Council boundary minus Elham Valley (North Downs East and North Downs West wards).

Folkestone and Hythe constituency is currently the full district plus Saxon Shore ward from Ashford BC, but population growth on the electoral roll was always likely to see the constituency at least revert to the District boundary. That there are now too many people in the district to fit in one constituency (on the Government's rules) so a part of the district needs to go to a neighbouring seat.

As a part of a piece of casework for a local resident, I've been on the trail of a missing hedge...

When 7 years ago, Folkestone West Train Station got its shiny new car park by Shorncliffe Road, one of the planning conditions was planting along the new fence by Shorncliffe Road. This would over time soften the border, reduce light spill from the car park, create a habitat, provide more oxygenators, food for animals: all the good things.