As they are hitting doormats (and increasingly email inboxes) across the country at this moment, Council Tax bills are a fairly hot topic. Below, I do a bit of number crunching on the most local element of the tax in Folkestone & Hythe District: the Town / Parish Council Precept.
Every Council Tax demand is made up of a number of elements. In the Folkestone and Hythe area, they include:
Kent County Council (KCC) are "consulting" on a proposed reduction to their Supported Bus Services.
KCC's budget for the 2022/23 financial year was agreed on Thursday 10th February and included a reduction to the Supported Bus budget to £4.3m representing a decrease of £2.2 million. KCC currently spends about £6 million a year to contract services which are not profitable for bus companies but which the council thinks are important to the communities they serve.
A new campaign to encourage people to apply for jobs in the NHS or social care launches today in east Kent.
Ready to care is a recruitment campaign by the East Kent Health and Care Partnership - a coalition of NHS, Kent County Council, social care and voluntary sector organisations in east Kent.
It is designed to encourage anyone who can bring life skills and experience, rather than formal qualifications, to apply for entry-level care and support roles, and start a rewarding career.
By Tim Prater, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Folkestone & Hythe District Council
The F&HDC Capital Strategy on which we have already voted, and I voted against, clearly contains massive - some may say huge - provision for Princes Parade. I'm not voting for that, and never have.
And on the General Fund Budget. If we had done the right thing and cancelled Princes Parade, then there would be a hugely different budget in front of us due to the changes we would have had to have made to unwind our current position.
In the last 48 hours there have been at least 15 people from Sandgate who have reported on Facebook, Nextdoor and to me directly that they have been recently the victim of Identity Fraud.
In every case, during December the local resident had had a mobile phone contract with O2 taken out in their name and their home address. O2 are now pursuing the resident for outstanding payments, despite the resident not ever having taken out a contract with O2 themselves.
