REFORM LED COUNCIL WANTS TO DESTROY ANCIENT WOODLAND

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Reform-led Council votes to push ahead with destroying ancient woodland #9 - Eye on the Wild PROTECT THE WILD JUL 25 READ IN APP Welcome to the ninth edition of Eye on the Wild, our new weekly roundup designed to keep you up to date with the latest stories concerning British wildlife. If you have a story you think we should cover, email us at contact@protectthewild.org.uk Reform-led Council votes to push ahead with destroying ancient woodland Kent County Councillors have voted 37–31 to approve a plan to extend a quarry. It will destroy at least 41 hectares of Oaken Wood, near Maidstone. The existing Gallagher Aggregates quarry site has already resulted in the loss of approximately 31 hectares of ancient woodland. The amount of ancient woodland lost would be more than the losses from HS2 and the Lower Thames Crossing combined. The Kent Mineral Sites Plan, which the council has approved for independent government examination, is a planning framework that identifies potential locations for sand, gravel, and hard rock extraction. The plan controversially includes the extension into Oaken Wood for extracting Kentish ragstone. It defies all logic that Reform would sacrifice ancient woodland, which are irreplaceable habitats covering just 2.5% of the UK. Oaken Wood is home to turtle doves, nightjars and dormice. Nightjars migrate from Sub-Saharan Africa to Oaken Wood each spring to breed and feed. Dormice are critically endangered in this country; their numbers decreased by 52% between 2009 and 2018. KCC Green councillor, Stuart Jeffery, opposes the plan to destroy the wood, saying: "Ancient woodland cannot be replaced or moved. Once it is lost, it is gone forever. Reform's plans are an act of ecocide." Friends of Oaken Wood states: “Oaken Wood is designated as a ‘plantation on ancient woodland site’ (PAWS). PAWS are a category of ancient woodland protected in the government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This woodland is legally defined as ‘irreplaceable’ and has equivalent protection to ‘built heritage’, such as nationally listed buildings and scheduled monuments. The council are citing ‘wholly exceptional circumstances’ and a ‘compensation strategy’ as grounds for the woodland to be quarried.” There will be a public consultation, giving everyone another chance to object to plans. A government inspector will also examine whether the plan is 'sound'. Campaigners have been fighting this battle for over a decade, and it certainly isn’t over yet. To stay updated, follow Friends of Oaken Wood and join the Save Oaken Wood Facebook group. 7,550-acre estate that trained gundogs for bird shoots to be rewilded Emblehope, an estate in Northumberland, is set to be taken over by the rewilding business Restore. The Kennel Club has owned the site since 2016, employing gamekeepers and running bird shoots, while also permitting beef and sheep farming. Restore has exciting ambitions to completely restore and transform the peat bog, inspired by the “great bogs of Estonia or Finland.” The company says the land will now be dedicated entirely to nature, making it England's largest single, unbroken stretch of land under one owner given over to restoration as its sole purpose. Over the next thirty years, the plan is to re-wet around 2,000 acres of degraded peatland, restore lost vegetation, and introduce low-intensity grazing to build a mosaic of open water, bog, scrub, dwarf trees and flower-rich glades shaped by natural processes. Restore's founder, Benedict Macdonald, says that while many upland estates treat nature as a by-product of commercial activity, Emblehope is: “destined to become a biosphere-level reserve where nature itself is the driver.” However, Restore intends to shoot deer. It says deer management is a practice it will be “focusing on very heavily” for the regeneration of wildflowers, saplings and nightingales. RSPCA reports five-year high in reports of wild bird cruelty The RSPCA has recorded its highest number of summer cruelty reports involving wild birds in five years. Between July and August 2025, the charity logged 359 such incidents across England and Wales. This was nearly twice the 179 reported over the same stretch in 2024. Roughly 40% of all wild-bird cruelty reports reach the charity during summer, which the RSPCA says is due to more people being outdoors in the warmer months. Among the worst-affected species were pigeons, gulls, swans, ducks and crows, many of them hurt or killed with airguns, catapults and slingshots. This year, too, violence towards birds is continuing. So far in 2026, the RSPCA has already received 474 reports of cruelty. The overall total for the whole of 2025 stood at 876. The charity’s wildlife partnerships manager, Mike Scargill, stated that the real figure is almost certainly far higher, since so much cruelty goes unwitnessed and unreported. Follow Protect the Wild to get involved with our upcoming campaign to legislate against catapults, which are being increasingly used to murder birds throughout the UK. More than 2,000 pigeons shot at railway stations and depots in 16 months Horrific figures have been obtained by Freedom of Information requests and published in the BBC. Pigeons are shot at railway stations and depots at night by professionals with air rifles, in what the ‘pest’ control industry says is an effort to stop droppings becoming slip hazards or a source of illness. Among stations run by state-owned companies, York was the worst, with 608 birds shot between January 2025 and April 2026, 152 of them on a single day. But the figures don’t cover private firms, so the true death toll is likely much higher than the confirmed figure of 2,019. The worst offender was train operator LNER, with over 800 birds shot at its stations, while Network Rail ordered the killing of 600 pigeons across Bristol Temple Meads, London Euston and Edinburgh Waverley stations. Meanwhile, South Western Railway ordered the shooting of 250 pigeons. Transport for London was responsible for killing 147 pigeons, and Northern ordered the shooting of 143. A society that guns down thousands of pigeons and calls it acceptable is deeply broken. If you like the work we do at Protect the Wild, please consider donating a couple of pounds per month. Donate here SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Protect the Wild Protect the Wild, 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, London, W2CH 9JQ Unsubscribe Start writing