Call-in Confirmed on Kent County Council's Decision to Sell Folkestone Library

On 9th February, Cheriton, Sandgate and Hythe East County Councillor Tim Prater led on submitting a call-in of the published Kent County Council decision to put Folkestone's Grace Hill Library up for auction.

The request was led by Tim Prater and supported by fellow Councillors Mark Hood, Alister Brady, Sarah Hudson, Antony Hook, Geoff Samme and Colin Sefton.

Today (17th February) KCC have confirmed that the call-in has been assessed as valid. The notification said:

"Please be advised that the call-in for the Folkestone Library Decision has been assessed and determined as valid. As a consequence, a Scrutiny Committee meeting will need to be held soon to consider the call-in.  I will write further to confirm which specific elements of the call-in met the criteria to assist with any meeting preparations.”

Tim commented:

"I'm delighted that our call-in has been judged as valid: I had every confidence it would be. As the call-in notice itself concluded, we believed:

‘this decision is unsafe and characterised by significant uncertainty as key financial details are absent, and the documentation indicates that KCC has not gathered or provided adequate information to make a confident decision. For these reasons, the decision should not proceed without further scrutiny, more complete information provided, and renewed efforts to explore viable alternatives that align with both community priorities and the Council’s financial responsibilities.’

“I'm looking forward to making that case in front of the Scrutiny Committee. I also hope to be able to give an opportunity to the Creative groups and Community representatives that felt so excluded from the decision to actually be able to have their say and put their evidence in front of the Scrutiny Committee. They just wanted a fair hearing. I hope we can now get that.”