Will we hear the nightingales sing again? Please help save Lodge Hill and stop a damaging precedent for all of England's protected places.

On the Hoo Peninsula in Medway, Kent, sits one of the most important sites in the country for nightingales. A hidden gem tucked away - Lodge Hill near Chattenden. Medway Council wants to allocate it for housing which would help pave the way for one of the largest ever losses of protected site in Britain. This potential destruction is simply not acceptable and will set a dangerous precedent throughout England. We're calling for people to take action.

Lodge Hill is recognised as one of the last strongholds for nightingales in the UK, a bird that has seen its population drop by 90% in the last 50 years. The decline is so alarming that they are listed among our most threatened birds.

Lodge Hill is so important for its nightingales, ancient woodland and rare grassland that in 2013 the Government gave it national protection by declaring it a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

However this same land is now being targeted as a prime development opportunity. Medway Council is currently consulting over which land it will consider allocating for new housing as part of its Local Plan Development Options stage, and has said loud and clear that it wants to see Lodge Hill allocated. We know from a previous planning application that they are eager for it to hold 5,000 houses. This allocation is set to test the Government’s safeguards that prevent many of our best wildlife havens from being lost to new housing estates and developments.

If Lodge Hill is included in the Local Plan, it would help pave the way for one of the largest ever losses of a protected site in Britain. If developed, it is likely that 144 hectares of SSSI would be destroyed - about the same as 200 football pitches. We estimate that this would destroy 80% of the nightingales’ homes. The few left would have little future due to the massive new development alongside them. They can't just move - there's nowhere for them to go to.

Inclusion of Lodge Hill would undermine the Government’s own tests for preventing damaging development on every other SSSI in England, meaning that they could be at risk from harmful activities in the future, too. The development of Lodge Hill would set a precedent for all of England's SSSIs.

How you can help

There are a number of ways to help and to let the Council know that destroying the home of the nightingales - and in doing so weakening the protection of wildlife sites everywhere - is not acceptable.

The key action to opposing allocation of Lodge Hill for housing is taking part in Medway Council's consultation.  It started on 16^th January and will end on 18^th April 2017. This is your chance to have your say, and you can take part either online or by writing to the council.

To take part online, we’ve created an online action which will send an automatic email to the council on your behalf and will only take a couple of minutes to fill out.

If you have a little bit more time, you can also help by writing a personal letter directly to Medway Council and emailing it to futuremedway@medway.gov.uk or by post to the Planning Policy team, the Planning Service, Medway Council, Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TR.

Can you send us a quick email at campaigns@rspb.org.uk to let us know that you’ve taken part? We can then keep track of how many responses have been sent.

Lodge Hill scrub land is perfect for nightingales

Key points you might like to raise in your letter or email:

• Lodge Hill should not be included in the development options in Medway Council’s Local Plan.
• The site is protected as a SSSI for nightingales, ancient woodland and rare grassland.
• Under the National Planning Policy Framework, proposed development on land within a Site of Special Scientific Interest likely to have an adverse effect should not normally be permitted. Government also makes it clear that the planning system must deliver on its environmental role by contributing to protecting and enhancing our natural, built and historical environment.
• Development on Lodge Hill would be in direct conflict with this framework and vision given the potential for destruction of scarce habitat and harmful impact on rare protected species.
• The development options consultation document vision also states that Medway must show how land can be provided for housing, jobs, infrastructure and services, whilst protecting important environmental and heritage assets, and how the new Local Plan will seek to strengthen the condition of the local environment, and respect the need to live within the earth’s environmental limits.
• Inclusion of Lodge Hill would set a dangerous precedent, weakening the protection afforded to SSSIs across England.

If you would like any help with the consultation process or would like to learn more about how we are trying to save Lodge Hill, you can meet up with Adrian Thomas, our Project Manager. He will be at the reserve office (next to the car park) at RSPB Northward Hill nature reserve, near High Halstow, ME3 8DS on Wednesday 1^st February from 10am- 3pm, and Monday 13^th February, 10am- 3pm, and Saturday 18 February, 10am-3pm. There's no need to book - just drop in.

If you would like further help or information, please contact campaigns@rspb.org.uk.