When it comes to Kent’s great long-running sagas, there are three topics which can be relied upon to generate headlines – for good or for bad – year after year.

And 2023 has not let us down when it comes to twists and turns in the trilogy of tales we can all agree we’d like to see resolved.

First, let’s discuss the London Resort – the much-trumpeted £2.5 billion theme park earmarked for the Swanscombe Peninsula.

Since first being announced in 2012, the bullish (rich) folk behind the project threw as much money into hyping-up the plans as they did anything in the way of actually, er, building it. So by the time 2022 bowed out, we were already being told the plans were being “significantly” scaled back – due to environmental concerns - and French chief executive PY Gerbeau – the man who turned the Millennium Dome’s fortunes around, had skedaddled. Quelle surprise.

By the time 2023 started getting up a head of steam, the company behind it were calling in the administrators in March after building up a £100 million mountain of debt. A figure which, given the lack of actual progress (not a spade has been sunk into the ground in anger), is quite something.

Come the summer, a number of the county’s wildlife charities had united to call on secretary of state Michael Gove to withdraw the site’s status as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project while in November, it seems Paramount – the US entertainment giant which had originally lent its name to the project – took legal action against the project’s bosses in a dispute over London Resort’s financial restructuring as a consequence of going into administration.

Today, its websites are all down, it’s not updated its social media channels for a year and its phone number is disconnected. None of which seems to bode well for the jobs and economic benefits it kept telling us it was going to deliver. But...and it’s an increasingly big but... it's not yet had the last rites read so, who knows, perhaps it will finally emerge. Perhaps it could be renamed the Phoenix Park given its rise from the ashes. More likely, in truth, is we’ll be discussing progress (and potentially lack of) again this time next year.

Just down the road, east of Gravesend, is the site of the proposed Lower Thames Crossing.

Originally due for work to start during 2024, earlier this year it was confirmed there would be a two-year delay. Who’d have thunk it, eh?

With the costs billowing to an eye-watering £9 billion and the planning process moving at a glacier speed, the whole project was then thrown into doubt when the government announced it was reining back its spending on High Speed 2 – raising questions as to whether it might look again at other costly infrastructure projects.

But it seems to have survived that scare with a contractor awarded a deal to help build it just this month. Watch this space (but probably don’t hold your breath).

And finally in this trilogy, there is, of course, Manston Airport. Thanet’s very own community-dividing topic which, at times, rivals Brexit in the intensity of the arguments for and against.

It started the year apparently cleared for take-off after getting the nod from the government. But, this being Manston, more work (and money) went into another year of legal wrangles than actually building the thing.

Perennial thorn-in-its-side Jenny Dawes – the publicity-shy opponent in Ramsgate (which would be under its flight path) – won another judicial review in March which saw any progress grounded. Rejected again, the bosses behind the airport – better known as Tony Freudmann – now hope Manston can stumble into 2024 without further legal headaches. Jenny Dawes, however, has already lodged another appeal to the Court of Appeal, so who knows?

Either way, Thanet needs some certainty as to just what to do with such prime real estate.

Keeping in a transport vein, there are some projects which continue to take shape and cause traffic headaches with which we have all become familiar. Anyone who has the need to drive on, off or around Junction 5 of the M2 at Sittingbourne cannot have failed to see the enormous building site it has become.

But the Stockbury fly-over works are taking shape – but not without on and off ramps onto the motorway closing throughout the year as part of the work. Work originally got underway back in the autumn of 2021 with the cost set to be around £92m. Something of a bargain compared to the Lower Thames Crossing estimates.

You’ll be delighted to learn, though, that this story will almost certainly be appearing in next year’s review of the year too – given that work will be taking place throughout the year ahead of its planned 2025 opening.

It would be remiss to suggest the M20 has been a bed of roses this year, though. Operation Brock made a number of special appearances during the busiest periods to frustrate motorists, while a partial closure in April for bridge repairs provided a tempting 88-mile diversion route, adding more than an hour-and-a-half onto the journey time. Genius.

A more recent addition to the ‘long-running stories’ list has been the issue of small boats arriving on our shores. Primarily one for the political review of the year, it has become one of the Tory government’s scalding hot potatoes, given the scale of the challenge it faces and the myriad of legal and humanitarian issues – not to mention prejudices and misinformation - it whips up in its wake.

As we veer towards another General Election – most likely at some point in 2024 – expect it to continue to generate headlines as frequently as you spot a ‘Visit Rwanda’ advert on the sleeve of an Arsenal first-team shirt (in other words, all the time).

To conclude, though, we have an issue which is becoming a regular bugbear of everyone who enjoys spending time on or by our waterways. Because a regular headline-generator during 2023 has been that of sewage being disgorged into our rivers or sea.

In fact, it took until just January 1 for the first warning to be issued. Swimmers pondering the merits of taking a New Year dip off Folkestone, Sandgate, Hythe, Whitstable and Herne Bay were informed that heavy rainfall had prompted sewage releases and it would be dangerous to take a dip. At St Mary’s Bay on Romney Marsh, swimmers in March were told not to take a dip for the rest of the year due to bacteria levels in the water.

Mind you, in didn’t stop a huge humpback whale being spotted between Dover and Folkestone in April.

As the year continued, it seemed barely a month went by without the issue whipping up protest from those pondering just why such pollution was taking place – and more to the point – why it was being allowed to.

Feargal Sharkey – known to a generation as the lead singer of The Undertones and then a solo star – suddenly reappeared on our screens, no longer an Irish rocker but now getting his middle-aged kicks by eloquently lambasting water companies for their shoddy practices. Few could argue with what he said.

Water regulator Ofwat ordered companies such as Thames Water and Southern Water to refund customers millions of pounds for failing to hit various targets in September – but by November it emerged that it would be us – the bill-payers – who would be funding the work to stop them polluting as it emerged those same companies plan to significantly hike up the prices we have to pay.

Insert your own expletive about how you feel about that here.