The UK's most important site for nightingales is threatened by the proposed development of 5,000 houses. Adrian Thomas, our Save Lodge Hill Campaign Manager explains that if this happens, it will set a dangerous precedent for all of our protected nature sites. This is a biggie! Read on to find out how we'd like your help in the New Year. There's no need to act now - but we need you to be ready!
In January 2017 we are expecting that Medway Council in Kent will publish a document saying that, as part of its overall housing plans for the next 20 years, it wants to allocate 5,000 houses to be built on the best site for nightingales in the country - a place called Lodge Hill, which is an area officially protected for these nationally important nightingales.
Going ahead with this would create a dangerous precedent for all our protected sites.
Many of you will have been involved with earlier stages of the campaign, but we are now reaching a critical stage. We’ll need your help to show Medway Council why continuing with these housing plans isn't acceptable. And we'll only have about an eight-week window to respond to the plan consultation, once it is published, in (probably) January and February 2017.
The beautiful song of the nightingale inspired the poet John Keats to capture its essence in a poem (c) John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
How you will be able to help
What to do now?
Thank you
Adrian Thomas adrian.thomas@rspb.org.uk
Lodge Hill – the story so far
Lodge Hill is a derelict army training camp in Kent that has long been closed from public view. It was only when the government decided to get rid of it that the vast mosaic of woods, scrub and grasslands was discovered to be home to the UK's largest population of nightingales.
Everyone has heard of a nightingale, but few have actually heard their glorious song. No wonder: they are Red-listed because they have been declining so rapidly. There are probably less than 5,000 pairs left, and in 2012 Lodge Hill had a whopping 85 singing males, more than anywhere else in the UK. That made Lodge Hill so important for them that in 2013 the government declared it a Site of Special Scientific Importance (SSSI).
For Medway Council, this was a problem because they had ideas of allowing houses to be built all over it.
The planning rules!
There are just over 4,000 SSSIs in England, which are the very best places we have for wildlife and geology. The whole idea of them is to ensure that they are preserved for their value. If a local authority is thinking of allowing development on a SSSI, the government's guidance is clear, and follows three steps in this order:
1) It must first consider if there are any alternatives.
2) If not, then can the damage be mitigated? (In other words, can you modify the plans to make sure that the wildlife still has a home there after the development?)
3) If not, then how can the damage be compensated? (In other words, can you provide a home for the wildlife elsewhere to compensate for the damage you are causing).
With regard to Lodge Hill, we do not feel that Medway Council has shown there are no alternatives sites for housing. In our view, they've moved too hastily to step 3 and focused on places where attempts could be made to create new nightingale habitat.
It is thought unlikely that the Lodge Hill nightingales could find a compensation sites especially if not nearby. Therefore these nightingales could be lost and it would need the nightingale population elsewhere to grow. We think that is really risky - it takes years and years to create new suitable habitat, with no guarantee that nightingales will colonise it.
'Local Plans'
All local authorities are required to have a plan for where future development, such as housing, could be located in their area. Known as a Local Plan, Medway Council aims to complete theirs in 2017. Their consultation is likely to be in early 2017 (Medway Council has yet to confirm the dates) where they will set out whether Lodge Hill will be allocated for housing (and every indication so far is that they are hellbent on it being in there).
Despite not having been allocated for housing, yet in September 2014, Medway Council approved the developers’ planning application for 5,000 houses at Lodge Hill. This was so controversial that some 12,500 of you signed a petition asking the Government to 'call in' that decision, i.e. take it out of Medway Council's hands. The Government agreed, and the planning application will go to a Public Inquiry in March 2018.
It's all a bit complicated, so to sum up, there are two separate strands:
a) Medway Council is consulting on their Local Plan in early 2017, and we expect them to say they want Lodge Hill to be one of the areas for housing development. We need the public's help to campaign to say it should not be allocated in that Local Plan.
b) The Government is holding a Public Inquiry into the specific Lodge Hill housing application in March 2018 and the RSPB will be a party at that Inquiry, along with our ecological experts to submit our concerns to the Inspector.