Protect & Preserve The Folkestone Leas

        This is what comes from having a tree-hugging Green Party running a local authority that they can't see the dead wood for the trees. To them, it becomes too political for them to even have to consider that trees sometimes do have to be taken down before they fall down.       Thank God there are whistleblowers in every organisation and in Government & Local Government Departments.       One such Whistleblower at FHDC contacted us last year and told us that we must obtain, under a Freedom Of Information request from FHDC, their commissioned LIDAR & VSSA Report into the possible cause of the landslides along the whole of the Leas escarpment cliff face and summit. The whistleblower told us its findings were potentially concerning regarding the threat of other areas at risk of landslides, and because FHDC had basically ignored the report and kicked it into the long grass.   LIDAR , or Light Detection and Ranging , ...

           Thank God there are whistleblowers in every organisation and in Government & Local Government Departments.   Without whistleblowers, politicians would be able to totally keep their electorate in the dark, fed solely on bullshit.    One such Whistleblower at FHDC contacted us last year and told us that we must obtain, under a Freedom Of Information request from FHDC, their commissioned LIDAR & VSSA Report into the possible cause of the landslides along the whole of the Leas escarpment cliff face and summit. The whistleblower told us its findings were potentially concerning regarding the threat of other areas at risk of landslides and because FHDC had basically ignored the report and kicked it into the long grass.   LIDAR , or Light Detection and Ranging , is an active remote sensing system that can be used to measure vegetation height across wide areas. It can show us the topography, i.e. lay of the land beneath tree...

  LIDAR Survey & VSSA Leas Cliff Summit & Escarpment Having requested before Christmas under a Freedom Of Information Request from FHDC over the LIDAR Survey carried out during the Summer of 2024 on the Leas Escarpment Cliff face and the Visual Slope Stability Assessment , I can report we received a 71-page document report with diagrams, photos, and a lengthy written evidence analysis yesterday. LIDAR , or Light Detection and Ranging , is an active remote sensing system that can be used to measure vegetation height across wide areas. It can show us the topography, i.e. lay of the land beneath tree canopies and vegetation.      A whistleblower employee at FHDC contacted us and told us we had to get our hands on this report, as basically their opinion was that they feared FHDC may be ignoring its findings and, crucially, its recommendations and doing what it seems to do best, i.e, nothing! The report places much gravitas on the height and weight o...

  So apparently, Folkestone & Hythe District Council does not own the escarpment part, which is the cliff face or Radnor Cliffs as we know them off the Leas from Metropole Road West towards the Martello Tower, and therefore does not inspect the trees. Odd, don't you think that this part of the escarpment, the council has imposed a Tree Preservation order on since 2009, but nowhere else along the promenade. So if one of these trees hits you, the council would not be liable; we presume the individual homeowners of the properties at the foot of this 120-foot cliff would be. That can't be right, how can they be liable for trees sitting 120ft up in the air above their back gardens when the council has a tree preservation order on them and won't let them cut them down without strict permission from the council? Surely a cliff face that high above their properties can't be on their deeds showing as the boundary of their properties. Which insurance company would take on suc...