Canterbury & district · Local news you can trust
Canterbury's first strategic levy spend: £1.82m across six projects, £1m of it for a longer Sturry Road bus lane. Cabinet decides on Monday 5 October.
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Church of England
Archbishop of Canterbury Resignation Petition Tops 8,500
The petition calling for Sarah Mullally to resign went from 3,000 to 8,557 names in four days. It was started in December, before she legally became Archbishop.
Community
What's On in Canterbury This Weekend, 25 to 27 September
Kent's promotion decider at the St Lawrence Ground, Barnum at the Marlowe, a riverside walk and chalk-stream day, and a split Sunday train to plan around.
Business
New Canterbury Businesses: 37 Firms Registered in a Month
Five food and takeaway firms, two salons and a new theatre company lead 37 Canterbury district registrations since 21 August, plus three closures.
Food hygiene
Canterbury Food Hygiene: Late August Ratings Add Two 2s
Ratings below 5 reach the register weeks late. August's full list now has two 2s, at a Herne Bay grill and a Whitstable Tesco cafe, plus eight 3s.
Christmas
Canterbury Cathedral Christmas 2026: Carol Service Dates
Free carol services on 23 and 24 December, doors 4.30pm, Midnight Mass at 11pm, Christmas Day at 11am. Winter admission £18, kids free, locals free with a Pass.
Council finance
Canterbury Community Infrastructure Levy: £3.37m Unspent
Canterbury City Council's own accounts show it has never spent the infrastructure share of its building levy. The pot reached £3,370,289 by March 2026.
Herne Bay
Herne Bay East Cliff Mural Tagged Within a Fortnight
The £12,000 artwork was finished on 7 September and tagged by the weekend of 20 September. Cleaning it off cost taxpayers a few hundred pounds.
Planning
Canterbury Neighbourhood Plans: Only Bridge Has One
One adopted, two waiting on an examiner, three stalled and one abandoned: the record behind Canterbury's new neighbourhood planning toolkit.
Community
Lord Mayor's Awards: Canterbury Nominations Close 30 Oct
Nominations for the 2026 Lord Mayor's Awards are open until 30 October. Anyone who lives, works, studies or volunteers in the district can be put forward.
Whitstable
Whitstable Harbour Quay Rebuild Starts: 85m of 1962 Wall
Work has started on 85 metres of Whitstable Harbour's east quay, where the 1962 steel piles have corroded through. The Environment Agency is paying £1,597,000.
House prices
Canterbury House Prices July 2026: Up £9,640 to £337,454
Canterbury's average home reached £337,454 in July, up £9,640 in a year and third fastest in Kent. Semis rose 4 per cent, flats gained £54 in twelve months.
Council
Chestfield and Swalecliffe: Parish Set to Triple to 8,369
Chestfield's electorate would go from 2,766 to 8,369 in a merger with Swalecliffe its parish council did not ask for. Stage 2 dates are not yet set.
Canterbury Live is written for the people who live in the district: it covers what the council has agreed to, what has been applied for at the end of your street, and which week the bins go out.
The district is really three places under one authority: the cathedral city with its two universities, the coast at Whitstable and Herne Bay, and the villages in between, among them Sturry, Fordwich, Westbere, Blean, Chartham and Littlebourne. What matters in Wincheap is rarely what matters in Tankerton or up at Reculver, so we say plainly where a thing is happening. Our reporting comes from the public record, planning, licensing, crime data, inspections and council papers, and nothing appears here without the document it came from attached.