Since we launched this petition on Wednesday, the 9th of July this year, we have actively shared it on social media and elsewhere to maximise and publicise our concerns over the constantly disappearing sea views along our precious Leas Promenade. Lost behind a wall of encroaching tall trees weighing tons and sitting perilously perched on the escarpment and above its summit. Where the cliff face does not protect these shallow-rooted trees from the savages of the westward storms and winds that daily batter our southern coastline. Our views are also being lost to the menace of creeping hedges along much of the Leas Promenade and nearly all of the Madeira Walk.

The fruits of our labour in broadcasting our concerns to the residents of Folkestone and the wider district, reaching out to many who have former ties to the town, who have seen and remember the Leas in better times when it was at the peak of its heyday.

Sadly, over more recent years, the lack of investment in the infrastructure on the Leas Promenade over many, many years has started to show up visibly to all who visit the Leas, regular users, residents living close by, and our visitors and tourists.

Once seen, you cannot unsee what is quite literally in your face and in plain sight of all that is rusting and corroding away, historic Victorian Lampposts not painted since 2014, and that in salty sea air should be painted far more often than every  11 years. Many have lost decorative side panels, and some their decorative front door panels that reveal when open the electrics to each post. Water is getting inside these lampposts, causing them to trip and fail. Only recently, 7 were out for several nights by the bandstand, plunging the whole area into darkness. As if it weren't worrying enough up there at night at the best of times, with all the lampposts working, as we frequently encounter undesirables and miscreants getting up to anti-social behaviour, street drinking, drug dealing and taking and general rowdiness.

We see crumbling ragstone walls with many rocks just falling to the path on the main promenade and Madeira Walk. Cracked paths and damaged steps and ramps, blocked drains with water ponding in places that may well have contributed to the 2 landslides that occurred on the Leas above the Cow Path in November 2023 and by the Vinery in February 2024. Damaged railings and fencing, a mishmash of memorial benches of every shade of brown and sunbleached grey. Even the bandstand we understand needs repairs to its roof, and as for the Vinery, it too is looking in a serious state of disrepair and neglect. The Sensory Gardens is now a virtual no-go area by day and by night, often frequented by anti-social, aggressive street drinkers, often fighting with each other, drug dealers, and drug users, as well as rough sleepers. We have seen wilful and criminal damage take place near here, with walls demolished and 2 memorial benches destroyed. This area is badly lit at night with no light coming off the sea or from the moon, as tall trees block them out. 

There is only one set of CCTV cameras on the Laes Promenade on a tall pole above the Vinery with 2 fixed cameras, one pointing due west, the other due east. We have asked for additional CCTV cameras and additional lighting in or close to the Sensory Gardens. We have asked for the hedge to be removed as a safety concern in front of the Sensory Gardens to open it up and stop it from being used as a place to hide and not be seen by those getting up to no good there. Our argument is that if decent people feel unsafe going in there, then why should it be allowed to be a safe haven for those who seem to be beyond the reach of the law and untouchable?

We know that these people are seriously affecting business along the Leas, particularly the better hotels, the Leas Cliff Hall Theatre, and the Cafe, etc. It affects visitors, especially those families with small children who cannot fail to see the activities of these people, many of whom are being temporarily housed in some of the lower-end rougher rougher-looking hotels at this end of Folkestone.

We have been so alarmed by the frequency of these activities during the day and have called the police many times as they frequent in small groups in and around the Sensory Gardens, above the Leas Cliff Hall on their roof terrace, and on the benches in front of the South Cliff Hotel. They also frequent the Remembrance Gardens in Sandgate Road and the underground carpark that serves theater goers.

Our poor old ZigZag path a Grade 2 listed structure, is also falling apart as its facade of Pulhamite cement render is rapidly eroding away, and house bricks beneath and other building rubble are being revealed more and more each year, with sometimes lumps of the rubble just falling to the pathway. Damaged and or missing safety rails are going unrepaired, as are acts of graffiti not cleaned up. Even the weeds and sycamore saplings, bramble, and tired-looking shrubs are adding to the worn-out look and feel of the path. Even the lighting is looking inadequate. 

So you see, we have taken on a lot with our campaign and our petition, and now have 1,525 signatures to it, as well as nearly 190 members on our Protect & Preserve The Folkestone Leas Facebook Group.

It is now time we submit our petition to Folkestone & Hythe District Council if we want to achieve anything in the short time left before April 2028, just 28 months off. By then, if we believe that Folkestone & Hythe District Council could not care Leas that a much larger Unitary Authority, which may be centralised in Canterbury or Ashford or even Dover, would care even Leas about our Promenade.

We seriously doubt anything much will happen after we officially submit our petition, as it no doubt will not even get looked at and will be ignored. We will try to keep it open or will reopen it later on and gain more signatures and present it again at a later date to the new Unitary Authority.

Only 1 tree has been taken down the whole of this year by FHDC and that was one at the top of the Zig Zag path.

We have only just this moment been informed by FHDC that they do not accept petitions from Change.org, as the signatures of those who sign them cannot be validated by the council, as they do not have their email address or home addresses. So what is the point of platforms like Change.org I have just wasted nearly 6 months of my life obtaining the signatures and writing many updates to it.

Change.org should have made petition starters aware of this fact.

We will, however, say this: we have posted our petition for the last 6 months on every social media platform, including dozens of times on every local Facebook Community page. Every politician in the land is on social media as they use it when electioneering or seeing what's been written about them or others. Every senior officer and senior civil servant uses social media; every journalist uses social media. So it's impossible that none of ours locally have not seen our posts or our petition its content or the numbers (1,525) who have shown their concerns about the state of our Leas Promendae and signed our petition; no one forced them to sign this petition. No one forced the 187 so far who have joined our Facebook Group Protect & Preserve The Folkestone Leas.https://www.facebook.com/groups/746105824775303

So if god forbid another landslide occurs on the Leas, and it involves tree's it will be on all their heads, you can't say we have not warned them persistently, or Mother Nature hasn't who warned them back in January 2024 on the Road of Remembrance.