As a Councillor I try to be properly responsive to communication and WILL reply to casework, questions etc (as long as they are polite!). Although voicemail, Messenger, WhatsApp and the rest I try to keep on top of, the best will be to email to me, preferably to tim@prater.uk from where I can send it to the correct one of my 5 Councillor email accounts for action!

If you haven't had a reply back from me in a couple of WORKING days please come back to me (the person that emailed me New Years Day with a casework peeve some years ago did get a reply that day, but my Christmas holidays have improved since!). Certainly if you've had no reply at all in 4 working days, please do check the address you sent it to and re contact me - that's not the way I roll, so something may have gone awry. Finally, although I answer to Mr Prater, Cllr and a few other names, I'd much prefer Tim!

An update from me goes through (almost) all doors in the division 3 times a year, but you can also find more regular updates from me online at http://www.prater.uk/ and https://www.facebook.com/timprater

Finally - sign up on the form at the bottom of https://www.fhld.uk/news/prater to receive monthly Councillor Updates from me and the Lib Dem team in Folkestone & Hythe. It's fast and free! This will sign you up only to local news from the area, NOT campaigns and campaigning events. 

May 2026 Action List

5th May: attended Growth, Environment & Transport Cabinet Committee.

7th May: attended Selection and Members Services Committee and opposed almost all of a raft of constitutional changes put forward by and supported by every member of the Reform administration. On one hand changes that limit scrutiny of the Kent County Council Leader were put forward as a way of saving time in meetings, and simultaneously they backed proposals to say the Lords Prayer at the start of meetings and sing the National Anthem at the end, and to use Council resources and staff time to broadcast them.

13th May: site visit meeting with Kent Highways officers to discuss traffic speeds in Horn Street, Hythe.

21st May: will be attending Kent County Council Full Council. 

As a Councillor I try to be properly responsive to communication and WILL reply to casework, questions etc (as long as they are polite!). Although voicemail, Messenger, WhatsApp and the rest I try to keep on top of, the best will be to email to me, preferably to tim@prater.uk from where I can send it to the correct one of my 5 Councillor email accounts for action!

If you haven't had a reply back from me in a couple of WORKING days please come back to me (the person that emailed me New Years Day with a casework peeve some years ago did get a reply that day, but my Christmas holidays have improved since!). Certainly if you've had no reply at all in 4 working days, please do check the address you sent it to and re contact me - that's not the way I roll, so something may have gone awry. Finally, although I answer to Mr Prater, Cllr and a few other names, I'd much prefer Tim!

I am planning to ensure an update from me goes through (almost) all doors in the division 3 times a year, but you can also find more regular updates from me online at http://www.prater.uk/ and https://www.facebook.com/timprater

Finally - sign up on the form at the bottom of https://www.fhld.uk/news/prater to receive monthly Councillor Updates from me and the Lib Dem team in Folkestone & Hythe. It's fast and free! This will sign you up only to local news from the area, NOT campaigns and campaigning events. 

April 2026 Action List

On 1 April (really!) Kent County Council published the decision notice to get on and do the works required to safely clear and reopen Folkestone's Road of Remembrance. The road was closed by landslides in January 2024. Works could commence in May, and are expected to take up to a year. After pushing for this for so long, delighted to see it!

As the decision notes, when Folkestone & Hythe District Council were approached by KCC for a contribution to reopening the road, the money was found to help despite it not being the responsibility of the district council. Revenue from on-street parking charges gets spent on road based projects and improvements: that's the source of that funding, built up over a number of years.

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is to contribute £236,000 towards the work required to reopen the Road of Remembrance.

Attended a meeting on 2nd April at the Folkestone Nepalese Community (FNC) Centre in Cheriton, chaired by the excellent Ram Pun, and with Jim Martin, Mike Blakemore and Jackie Meade from the District Council - a really strong show of local support. The FNC first got the centre in 2021 on a 5 year lease from Kent County Council, and had been applying to extend the lease for an affordable rent.

Although the market rent for the building would have been unaffordable, they made a very strong case to Kent County Council for a lower than market rent, based on the huge value to the community of the work they do, the avoided costs of the centre being there, support given to residents, and their own refurbishment of the building over the last 5 years.

The freshly minted Deputy Cabinet Member for Social Care Chris Palmer came to the meeting, and after hearing some of the case, was able to confirm the County had accepted the submitted business case of the FNC, and would be extending the lease for a rent they could afford. Delighted to hear it, and I now know its happened, as its been press released. https://news.kent.gov.uk/articles/folkestone-home-secured-for-nepalese-community

Kent County Council issued the April edition of their SEND Parent Newsletter.

I've been involved in a wide variety of casework, including around tree works blocking a public footpath in Horn Street, seeking information requested by Hythe in Bloom from Kent Highways.

Following a positive informal consultation, revised parking restrictions in Highfield Close, Saltwood. A formal TRO public consultation will commence on Friday 24 April and end on Monday 18 May.

If you are on a low income, when you get your bill check the issuing Council website for their Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

Across Kent (including Folkestone and Hythe) you can now recycle liquid cartons (such as those made by Tetra Pak - other cartons are available) from home.

I have been given the very welcome update that the Kent Active Travel programme has approved funding for a series of DDA compliant crossing points across roads up and down Spring Lane in Seabrook.

in August 2025 I was contacted by a Seabrook resident who lives in Spring Lane. They have a disabled daughter in a power wheelchair, and had, really quickly, realised that there were no dropped kerbs to allow her to drive down the pavement and safely across the roads running into Spring Lane each side down to Horn Street.

The initial response from KCC to a request asking that dropped kerbs introduced was not immediately positive, but referred the resident to me.

I wasn't happy with that, and continued to push the local East Kent Highways team, alongside Hythe Town Council and the Highways Improvement Plan process. We wanted to see the installation of dropped kerbs which would allow safe footpath access not just for this one child (although important), but all wheelchair and pram / buggy users in the road.  

And yesterday that approach has paid off, with a commitment secured that the Kent Active travel programme can pay for the works, and detailed diagrams of the crossing points to be installed. I've already given my blessing to the works, and Hythe Town Council will also need to do so, after their next Plans and Works meeting. I don't know how long the works will take from there to be programmed, just that they will be!

This commitment is for new safe crossing points for roads off Spring Lane including Woodlands Drive, Highridge, Hampton Vale, Seadown Close, Paraker Way, Eversley Road and Springfield Way.

Many thanks to the Active Travel programme for agreeing to fund these works, and the East Kent Highways Team for helping persuade them of their value.

Residents in Folkestone and Hythe can now recycle liquid cartons (such as those made by Tetra Pak - other cartons are available) from home.

That includes cartons for:

🥤 juice

🥛 milk

🌱 plant-based drinks

🍲 soup and sauce

Rinse your liquid cartons, leave the cap on and place them in your purple lidded recycling bin alongside your bottles and cans.

♻️ This change is part of the Government’s Simpler Recycling plan, helping make recycling easier and more consistent across England.

You can learn more on Tetrapak recycling on the Folkestone and Hythe District Council website.

I was interviewed yesterday by Chris Choi from ITV News on the support available to people nationally who are feeling pinch of increased costs in April - including Council Tax. As far as I can see, I didn't make TV, but did get to their YouTube edition for a package on April cost increase. Fame at last.

On Council Tax, what I was trying to say was two fold. 

If you are on a low income, when you get your bill check their website for their Council Tax Reduction Scheme. Those on the lowest incomes can get up to a 100% reduction, with other reductions for different incomes.

In Folkestone and Hythe, that information is at https://www.folkestone-hythe.gov.uk/discounts-exemptions/council-tax-reduction-application 

And Councils aren't increasing bills for fun. Most of a Council's costs are in staff wages and contracts. Those contracts will have gone up by inflation. Those wages will have gone up probably by at least inflation (more at the lower end with increases to the minimum wage).

Percentage increases in Council Tax are often less than the percentage increase in wages and general inflation. That's true in Folkestone and Hythe this year for instance, where our rise was (in common with most district councils nationally) 2.99%. Councils are doing their best to keep Council Tax down: not least because as residents, Councillors pay it too.