A key Sussex "wildlife corridor" and habitat used by summer-resident nightingales is threatened by planned housing development and needs full ecological assessment and mitigation measures put in place to protect these endangered birds. 

Cherished for their night-time song and place in British folklore, nightingales are currently Red Listed as a Species of Conservation Concern. Their numbers are reported to have declined by 90 per cent in the last fifty years (Source: British Trust for Ornithology) for a number of possible reasons including the loss of scrub habitats due to factors that include inadequately managed building development.

Sussex is one of the nightingales' last relative strong-holds, but the detail of a planned housing development (Reference: LW/20/0245) in a Sussex village known for its summer-resident nightingales places an important habitat, nesting area and "corridor" at risk of destruction. Nightingales are a sensitive, shy species, vulnerable to disturbance, but are often heard in scrub and undergrowth along the lines of local tracks and field boundaries connecting what are likely to be critically important nesting areas for the nightingales regionally, and maybe nationally.  This "wildlife corridor" could be at risk or destroyed by the development that currently has outline planning permission (the map shown at https://planningpa.lewes.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=map&keyVal=Q98XSCJDFYV00 gives some indication of how the development site cuts across an area of scrub which forms part of the wildlife corridor) - with potential implications for nesting nightingales at other sites across the area.

However, nightingales have not been mentioned and so do not appear to have been considered in the Ecological Assessment or in the Mitigation Reports conducted to date in relation to this development. Furthermore, because mitigation measures have looked predominantly at reptile habitats, the current plans involve the specific removal of scrub to compensate for loss of existing reptile habitat, but do not address and may destroy the very habitat and "understorey corridor" so-needed by the nightingales. At present, some conditions are being considered by a planning officer but the case is not scheduled for discussion at Full Planning Committee.

We call upon Lewes District Council to:

1) Ensure case LW/20/0245 (application for approval of reserved matters) is brought before Full Planning Committee in view of the concerns that protected and vulnerable species have not been adequately considered in the development proposals and plans to date;

2) Screen the site for a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and at minimum ensure an Ecological Impact Assessment (EcIA) is conducted by a suitably qualified expert to ensure the needs of nightingales as well as other vulnerable locally-known species including dormice and great crested newts are considered;

3) Ensure the continuation of the scrub "corridor" used by the nightingales is preserved and that mitigation measures to protect the nightingales are enforceable.