Save the Lodge Hill Nightingales
Save the Lodge Hill Nightingales
Friday, September 19, 2014
One of the country’s most precious wildlife sites is under threat. Lodge Hill in Kent is home to nightingales and other scarce, declining and protected species. But the local council has approved a major mixed use development, which would destroy the SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and damage nearby ancient woodland.
 
I’ve written to the Secretary of State urging him to ‘call in’ this planning application so that the implications can be examined at a full public inquiry.
 
As my PQ earlier this year revealed, the development at Lodge Hill would destroy more habitat in one go than the total loss of SSSIs to development in the last seven years. The Government says that there is a very strong presumption against developing SSSIs built into the planning system, but the Lodge Hill case is a key test of whether this presumption is effective.
 
The destruction of the SSSI at Lodge Hill would be disastrous, firstly due to the national significance of this site for nightingales and, secondly, because of the deeply worrying precedent it would set for the protection of England’s most precious wildlife sites, including ancient woodland.
 
This is not to say there isn’t a need to build new homes, but less environmentally destructive locations can, and must, be found.
 
You can read my letter here.  PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO SEND A LETTER YOURSELF to the Secretary of State too.  You can find out more about Lodge Hill on the RSPB, Woodland Trusts, or Wildlife Trust websites.
 

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