REPRIEVE FOR LODGE HILL NIGHTINGALES - BUT IS IT ONLY TEMPORARY?

                                                         

Nightingales at Lodge Hill would be lost for ever if the site were to be
developed. Photo: Andy Hay - RSPB Images

 CONTROVERSIAL plans  to build a new "community" at  Britain's top site for nightingales have been scuppered - at least for the time being.

Through its Homes and Communities Agency, the Government wants to sell off former Ministry of Defence land at Lodge Hill in Kent to make way for 5,000 homes and other infrastructure.

But it has had to put off the proposal following fierce opposition by opponents backed by the Kent Wildlife Trust and the RSPB.

Some 12,000 people wrote letters of objection  or signed a petition.

The decision has been welcomed by campaign manager Adrian Thomas who said: "The  Government agency has done the right thing - for now - and we thank them for that."

The chief executive of Kent Wildlife Trust, John Bennett, and the RSPB have also welcomed the reprieve, but the hold-up has enraged the leader of Medway Council, Cllr Alan Jarrett, who said the project would have created homes and employment.

"The people of Medway have been let down," he maintained.

However,  the long-term future of the Lodge Hill nightingales - one per cent of the British population - remains far from secure.

Although the land is  SSSI-registered, it is possible that, backed by Medway Council,  the HCA will come up with an alternative scheme.

If planning permission for development could be obtained, Lodge Hill could be sold to a housebuilder, generating a huge windfall for Government coffers.