Nightingales v 5,000 new homes: the battle over the woods of Lodge Hill (original) (raw)

Each spring, Owen Sweeney rises early to listen to biggest population of nightingales in Britain singing in the woods of Lodge Hill.

“At 5am in May it’s just glorious – the density of singing is tremendous,” said the retired civil servant, walking through ancient oak woodland as a hobby swooped to catch a hawker dragonfly overhead. “I’ve taken my grandchildren to hear their first nightingale and their faces when they first hear it are just something.”

But the song celebrated by poets for centuries may fall silent if Medway council and Land Securities, the biggest property developer in Britain, build 5,000 homes on the Ministry of Defence land, which was last year designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by Natural England, the government’s environmental protection agency.

The controversial plans have been billed as a battle between a small brown bird and homes for 11,000 local people but environmental groups say what is really at stake is the robustness of the entire conservation regime: this is the biggest attempt to build on an SSSI in England since the wildlife protection legislation of 1981.

Communities secretary Eric Pickles – a keen birdwatcher – must now make a decision about whether to call a public inquiry into the development against a backdrop of government pressure to build more homes and George Osborne’s reported complaints about “feathered obstacles” to development.

Lodge Hill, once used for bomb disposal training, is described as a brownfield site by Medway council, who earlier this month granted outline planning permission for the homes despite opposition from a planning inspector, local councillors and environmental groups including the RSPB, The Woodland Trust, Kent Wildlife Trust, Butterfly Conservation, Buglife International and the Dickens Countryside Protection Society.

On high ground on the Hoo Peninsula, which was immortalised by Charles Dickens and recently fought off London mayor Boris Johnson’s plans for a new airport, Lodge Hill’s unusual history has ironically made it far richer in wildlife than most green fields. Between deep pools once used for underwater training are ancient woodland, rare grassland and old concrete foundations on which bask common lizards, grass snakes, adders and sloworms. Ruined buildings have created 19 bat roosts, there are 10 badger setts and a British Trust for Ornithology survey found 84 singing male nightingales on the site, more than 1% of the UK population, which has declined by 91% since the 1960s.

An environmental survey for Land Securities also identified the Duke of Burgundy, the scarcest butterfly in Britain which is only found in 18 small areas of the country. “It’s a remarkable find,” said Butterfly Conservation’s Nigel Bourn. “We need more surveys to assess the extent of this and other lepidoptera.”

There have been no moth surveys and the developer’s invertebrate surveys have been “completely inadequate” according to Sarah Henshall of Buglife International. Scientists believe there are more rare species yet to be discovered.

“There’s a lot more than the developers are admitting,” said Sweeney, pointing out where he found bee orchids and common spotted orchids. “It’s clear that the biodiversity riches have been underestimated all over the place. We’re lucky to have it. We say to the council why don’t you switch your mindset – we’ve got a jewel here, why not celebrate it?”

MoD land in Lodge Hill, Medway, north Kent, where Land Securities want to build 5,000 homes, is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Photograph: Graham Turner/The Guardian

The 5,000 homes have cross-party support on Tory-run Medway council and councillors say there are no other large sites in the densely-populated conurbation of 250,000 people where new infrastructure can also be provided. As well as homes for 11,000 people, Land Securities has promised to build three primary schools, a nursing home and hotel, creating 5,000 jobs.

Under the government’s national planning policy framework, building on an SSSI is possible with environmental mitigation and if the development is of national importance and Vince Maple, leader of Medway council’s Labour group, said the homes were a solution to the national housing crisis.

“Medway has 20,000 local residents on their housing waiting list. That’s not acceptable,” said Maple. “I’ve had people knocking on my door saying they are currently living in a tent in a green space in town. There’s a desperate need to tackle this issue.”

Two male nightingales try to outsing each other at Lodge Hill

As part of environmental mitigation plans, Land Securities propose to create nightingale habitat on a 304-hectare site in Essex. A Medway council spokesperson said: “The nightingales have only been at Lodge Hill in their current numbers (around 66 pairs) since the army stopped using it recently. They only stay on site for a few months every year and we believe there is every chance an even larger number will decide to colonise the new site which will be available before building works start.” Land Securities declined to comment.

But there has never before been a successful relocation of nightingales – which migrate from Africa to their ancestral breeding grounds in Britain each spring – and the RSPB says there is no evidence the birds will find or survive on their alternative home, which is 14 miles north.

Rolf Williams, RSPB spokesperson at Lodge Hill. Photograph: Graham Turner/The Guardian

“If it’s as easy as Land Securities and Medway council are saying, don’t you think we would have done this already and brought back this rare species?” said Rolf Williams of the RSPB. “This idea that you plant the right bushes and the birds will come is misguided – they are not vegetarians, invertebrate life is crucial, and this may depend on geology and the soil types.”

Williams believes nightingales’ success on Lodge Hill may also be linked to the absence of deer on the Hoo Peninsula. Deer – which are present around the proposed Essex mitigation site – destroy the undergrowth where nightingales nest.

The RSPB is also concerned that the 5,000 new homes will lead to domestic cats predating any nightingales which survive in the woods bordering the development. MoD fences have helped keep out domestic cats until now.

Chris Irvine, a local Conservative councillor who opposes the homes, said that local residents are “absolutely fuming” about the development. “People who have lived here for generations want to be ‘regenerated’. They don’t want this thing that is being peddled to them.”

Alternative housing sites in Medway are deeply unpopular, such the green space of Capstone Valley, but Irvine argued that councillors needed “more long-term thinking about what sort of Medway we want to be building.”

Ultimately, Irvine would like to see Lodge Hill “preserved as a vital green space. As a politician, I don’t want my legacy to be 5,000 homes on an SSSI. I’ve got a 12-year-old son and I’d like to pass something on to him.”