Lodge Hill nightingale site homes plan cut back

The RSPB says the Lodge Hill site is one of the most important in the country for nightingales

A council leader says he is "extremely disappointed" after a developer cut the number of homes planned for a site important to the UK's nightingales.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) says the former Ministry of Defence training ground at Lodge Hill, Kent, is home to about 1% of the UK population.

Medway Council said it was under "huge pressure" to build new homes.

Homes England has submitted new plans for up to 500 homes, rather than the 2,000 originally proposed.

The developers say the revised plans for the development "will avoid direct Special Scientific Interest impacts on the Lodge Hill site".

Council leader Alan Jarrett said: "I am extremely disappointed that Homes England has decided to significantly reduce the number of homes it originally planned on developing at Lodge Hill.

"We are under huge pressure from central government to quickly build thousands of new homes.

"We have exciting plans to unlock the potential growth on the Hoo Peninsula... but this decision will put greater pressure on already scarce land available."

The land at Lodge Hill, Chattenden, was owned by the Ministry of Defence

The decline of the nightingale has led to it being placed on the Birds of Conservation Concern Red List.

The RSPB said there were fewer than 5,500 pairs left in the whole country, with a survey of Lodge Hill in 2012 discovering 85 pairs.

Plans to build more than 5,000 homes on the site at Chattenden were withdrawn last September, two years after developers Land Securities pulled out of the scheme.