I lived in Folkestone for the first 21 years of my life and then left to study up north 11 years ago and never moved back. All of my family still live in the town so I visit regularly a few times every year. It may be my 'rose tinted specs' view of the town when I was younger, but during the past 11 years I've noticed the place going steadily down hill. Run down shops, small town mentality of many of the locals (not the majority, but enough to spoil the feel of the town) and a real lack of investment. With that in mind I was pleased to find out about De Haan's plans for the town and hope that the local community do whatever they can to support his vision. If he pull's it off I can see Folkestone being firmly put back on the map as a popular tourist destination and somewhere people enjoy living. I can't think of anywhere else in the UK where a wealthy benefactor is willing to stump up loads of cash for the good of the local community so I wish him all the best. As for Jimmy Godden - all that man has ever done is screw as much cash out of people as possible to line his own pockets. He doesn't care about the town or the people and I hope that the council do whatever they can to get that land off him so that the De Haan/Foster plans come to fruition.
This is part of my website The Folkestone Gerald that I set up in a fury of excitement when I first came here sometime in 2004. I had been a frequent visitor for a while previous to that so I am technically one of those DFLs you get now. This site was updated more frequently with a calendar of events + voting for favourite places + things, and I know it was a useful reference for others who were moving here. Now I've moved out of Folkestone again (though just a couple of miles) it doesn't get as much love as it used to. Ironic really as Folkestone itself is now becoming the exciting place we always thought it was about to become. I am not Gerald BTW, the name comes from a pretend paper in an episode of The Day Today or something, the Portsmouth Gerald, and how there is a local newspaper here called the Folkestone Herald. Puns like this are great aren't they? Do get in touch if you have something to offer, email anythign @ this domain, or try @folkestone or @pauly on Twitter.