Find out more about Folkestone - A Brighter Future this Friday and Saturday at Folkestone Town Hall
Significant public engagement took place for 'Folkestone – A Brighter Future' between summer 2023 and spring 2025.
Community engagement took place online and face to face at three separate engagement events. A fourth engagement event focused purely on sharing the final designs rather than gathering feedback was held in April 2025. The public consultation events were opportunities for residents to look at the detail of what is being proposed, to talk to those working on the project and to make comments on the plans. After finding out about the proposals, either online, through the media or by attending a public engagement event, residents and visitors were invited to complete a survey for each phase of the consultation.
The views and comments we received helped us understand if people thought the project was going in the right direction and if not, what needed to change. As a result of the feedback at these sessions, several proposals in the project were dropped or amended.
Thank you to all who took part and gave us your views. The responses we received were essential to refining the scheme to make it work better for the community.
Below is an overview of the three phases of engagement that took place and the feedback received. The project will bring about positive benefits to Folkestone but naturally not everyone liked every proposal. The documents below include a sample of the feedback we received on different elements of the scheme. We’ve also included what things were changed as a result or reasons why we hadn’t done other things.
Phase one public engagement event
The first community engagement event was held on 5 and 6 July 2023 at Bouverie House Business Centre in Bouverie Place, Folkestone.
Phase one proposals
The phase one engagement focused on the significant improvements planned for the complicated road system around Folkestone Central train station and to Cheriton Road and Cheriton Gardens, leading to Middelburg Square.
As well as more and upgraded pedestrian crossings, proposals for phase one of the project included a new roundabout at the junction of Shorncliffe Road and Cheriton Road and many more areas of green space and seating in pedestrian areas.
Below are the boards which were displayed at the in-person event and available online:
Levelling Up Fund display boards (PDF, 5.04MB)
Below is a sample of the feedback received from the public and our responses:
Phase 1 public engagement feedback responses (PDF, 141MB)
Phase two public engagement event
The next community engagement event was held on 17 and 18 November 2023 at Bouverie House Business Centre in Bouverie Place, Folkestone.
Phase two proposals
The phase two engagement included moving the bus station from Bouverie Square to Middelburg Square and returning Bouverie Square to return to its former use as garden square.
Details of the proposed changes could be seen on the boards or by watching a fly-through video:
Below is the fly-through video detailing the proposals for phase two:
Below are the boards which were displayed at the in-person event and available online:
Levelling up fund display boards (PDF, 33.09MB)
Below is a sample of the feedback received from the public and our responses:
Phase two engagement feedback and responses (PDF, 1.91MB)
Phase three public engagement event
The third community engagement event was held on 8 and 9 March 2024 at Folkestone Town Hall, Folkestone.
Phase three proposals
Proposals for this third phase included improvements to Guildhall Street and the pedestrianised area of Sandgate Road. Updated plans for Bouverie Square (the current bus station) had been refined based on the feedback provided by the community at our last event in November 2023.
Detailed designs for phase one of the project were revealed, showing the changes from Station Approach down Cheriton Road and onto Middelburg Square. Updated proposals for Shellons Street, as result of feedback from our phase two public engagement events, were also included.
For the first time the project could also be viewed in its entirety. Details of the proposed changes could be seen on the boards or by watching a fly-through video:
Below is the fly-through video detailing the proposals for phase three:
Below are the boards which were displayed at the in-person event and available online:
Levelling up fund display boards (PDF, 5.87MB)
Below is a sample of the feedback received from the public and our responses:
Phase three engagement results and responses (PDF, 2.03MB)
Phase four public engagement event
More than 400 people attended the fourth community engagement event which was held on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 April 2025 at Folkestone Town Hall, Folkestone. This event was different to the ones held previously as there was no consultation element, instead the final designs were shared and project partners were available to answer questions.
A walk-through visualisation of the final designs can be viewed here
Below are consultation boards detailing the final designs for the scheme.