Bad news I am afraid.
Followers of this blog will know that the RSPB has been campaigning to stop a development of 5000 houses on Chattenden Woods and Lodge Hill SSSI.
This ex-MOD training ground is home to a nationally important population of nightingales (possibly the most important site in the UK for this iconic and declining species), as well as ancient woodland and rare grassland.
Last night, Medway Council made the decision to approve the application from Land Securities, MoD’s delivery partner.
The vote to approve the development goes against the advice of Natural England, the government’s own environmental advisors, as well as a raft of conservation organisations.
It's a shocking decision.
If the development goes ahead it would destroy the SSSI including the home to more than 1% of our national nightingale population. Worse - it would set the terrible precedent for future development. Under the terms of the National Planning Policy Framework (clause 118), there is a presumption against building on SSSIs - our most important wildlife sites. The public benefits from the development need to significantly outweigh the environmental damage. Houses which are important locally must not trump nationally important wildlife sites.
The Secretary of State, Eric Pickles, can ‘call in’ the application and make the decision himself with the national perspective it needs. In effect this would take the decision out of Medway’s hands, and allow it to be made through the rigorous process of a public inquiry.
We’ll be reminding him that if the development goes ahead, it will be one of the largest losses of SSSI land in the country - perhaps the biggest loss since the mid-1990s. This is not what we’d expect from ‘the greenest government ever’. Not only that, but it would be contrary to the Government’s own guidance on developing protected sites.
It is clear that Medway is in need of housing and employment, but these needs should be assessed through a thorough strategic review. Reliance on a single proposal at Lodge Hill is not the answer to providing a sustainable long-term solution.
Please help us tell Eric Pickles why this decision matters across England, and ask him to call it in. You can do so here.
You can catch up with the whole history of the case on our Lodge Hill web pages.
Unfortunately, this probably is what we might expect from ‘the greenest government ever’ but at the moment it's only the decision of Medway Council and so Eric Pickles still has a chance to put things right. Presumably, if the Council had turned down the application there would have been an appeal with the decision eventually resting with central Government anyway.
I have sent an email to Mr Pickles and shared the story on Facebook encouraging others to also write. What is the SSSI designation for if not to prevent this sort of wanton destruction of important wildlife sites? What else can we do?