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Category Archives: public land
10 years after the Forestry Commission wasn’t sold off, the bad old FC has returned
Cast your minds back, dear reader, Ten Years. I have deliberately capitalised these words so please don’t send me any grammatical correction comments. Ten years seems like an incomprehensibly long time ago, considering what we have been through in the … Continue reading
Lodge Hill latest: Medway writes back to Housing Minister Brandon Lewis pleading against a Call-in
I have just been sent a copy of the letter which Medway Council has sent to Housing Minister Brandon Lewis, responding to his request for information just before christmas, about Medways plans to build a 5000 house new town on … Continue reading
Posted in Brandon Lewis, housing, Lodge Hill, public land, SSSis
Tagged Brandon Lewis, Lodge Hill, Medway Council
3 Comments
Another SSSI to be trashed? Councillors approve solar farm on Rampisham Down
Rampisham Down SSSI (c) Miles King While we wait to hear whether Brandon Lewis will decide to call in the planning permission granted by Medway District Council for the new town on Lodge … Continue reading
Leaving Footprint, starting something new
Today is my last day at Footprint Ecology. I’ve had a very interesting 18 months here, working on a number of management plans, a variety of Habitat Regulations Assessments, the protection of Lodge Hill and Rampisham Down, researching and writing … Continue reading
Save our Woods prevents FC sell-off (again). Now We need to save other valuable public land
Last Child in the Public Forest? (c) Miles King Save our Woods has done it again, with the help of 38 degrees. Yesterday evening, in the Lords, the Government agreed to reconsider whether the Public Forest Estate should be exempt … Continue reading
Save Lodge hill for its Scrub and its Magazines
military history: a one man concrete pill box at Chattenden (c) Miles King I am naturally rather depressed that Medway Council unanimously voted in favour of the planning application to build 5000 houses on Lodge Hill and Chattenden Barracks, … Continue reading
Posted in grasslands, Lodge Hill, public goods, public land, SSSis
Tagged Development, History, Lodge Hill, SSSIs
5 Comments
Upcycle Bungalow Land to build more homes
Bungalow Land (David Hunt [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons Britain and especially England needs more houses. Yes there are a million empty homes – some of which can be brought back into residential use easily (many cannot). But they aren’t … Continue reading
Posted in bungalows, greenspace, housing, public land
Tagged Brownfield land, Bungalow, greenfield land, Housing association, Nick Boles, Poundbury
9 Comments
Another skirmish on the Lodge Hill Battle Front
It was an exciting day yesterday. I was part of a small 5 person RSPB team giving evidence in support of the Lodge Hill SSSI notification at an Extraordinary Natural England Board meeting. The opposition were there in numbers – … Continue reading
Conservation needs Change
This a continuation of the series of blogs stimulated by the re-wilding and conservation debate at the Linnean Society on Wednesday. I looked at how people’s relationship with nature has evolved to the point now where we can more or … Continue reading
Posted in agriculture, animism, Beavers, biodiversity, Common Agricultural Policy, conservation, ecosystem services, environmental policy, European environment policy, farming, Floodplains, Forestry, Forestry Commission, greenspace, housing, management, neoliberalism, NFU, Owen Paterson, public goods, public land, regulatory reform, semi-natural
Tagged Agriculture, biodiversity, Britain, common agricultural policy, Conservation, ecosystem services, England, George Monbiot, greenspace, Inheritance tax, land reform, Mark Avery, re-wilding, Semi-Natural
7 Comments
a new nature blog 