A Shepway District Council extraordinary meeting tonight has given the go ahead for its name change, after 43 years, to Folkestone and Hythe District Council.

The new identity was called for after business people nationwide mistook it 'for a housing estate in Maidstone or on the Isle of Sheppey' according to leader David Monk.

Cllr Monk said the move was instrumental for putting the local government district on the map and encouraging new businesses to establish there.

Being called 'Shepway' was an "impediment to inward investment" he said.

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According to him, the new name reflects that two-thirds of the entire district’s population are concentrated in the two towns and it now matches its Parliamentary constituency name.

Cllr Monk said: "It is true that the district also includes Hawkinge, Romney, Walland and Denge Marsh and the North Downs but having a name that includes every area of the district is impractical and is not the case in the neighbouring councils of Ashford, Canterbury or Dover.”

For the change, the council required a resolution to be passed, which was, by a majority of at least two-thirds of the councillors that attended.

Overall, 18 councillors supported the change in the free vote, three were against and there were five abstentions to the landmark motion, from Cllr Len Laws, Cllr Rory Love, Cllr Ian Meyers, Cllr Mrs Carol Sacre and Cllr Roger Wilkins.

Cllr John Heasman, the Mayor of Hawkinge Town Council, who sat in the public gallery, said: "Over 40 years ago, Folkestone District Council was called Elham Rural District Council and wanted to change the name to Shepway.

I opposed this, because people would have got it associated with the village of Shepway, next to Maidstone Police headquarters. I was dead against and I'm very pleased with the vote tonight, its come back to its originality of Folkestone, Hythe and District."

Cllr Roger Wilkins proposed an amendment against the name change during the meeting, saying: “I would like Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh District Council, so people of the Marsh will not be forgotten and will not be cut off.”

It however lost, along with another motion to defer the discussion to the parishes and towns.

The new moniker will come into effect on Sunday April 1 and the proposed cost of the alteration should not exceed £10,000 of taxpayers' money.