Save Oaken Wood

On the 11th July, the Secretary of State, Eric Pickles, granted Gallagher Group planning permission to extend their Hermitage Quarry into Oaken Wood, a wildlife-rich area of Ancient Woodland near Maidstone in Kent. This is the first time that the legal protection of an Ancient Woodland site has been set aside in favour of economic growth. If this precedent is set, all of our cherished local wildlife sites are at risk, all on the say-so of one man. Nowhere is safe.
Eric Pickles will go down in history as the Minister who removed protection from Ancient Woodland across the UK, the beginning of the end of our "green and pleasant land".
With less than two years to the next election this government is very sensitive to public opinion. The plans to sell off our forests were stopped in their tracks when they realised the extent of the groundswell of opposition from the shires and beyond to the idea.

Oaken Wood represents a line in the sand. We have less than 2% of our Ancient Woodland cover left. If we cannot prevent the destruction of one much-loved local woodland, an irreplaceable ecosystem home to European protected species such as dormice, reptiles and bats, we accept that economic growth is more important than any legal protection for the countryside,and pave the way for uncontrolled development with no regard to the damage to our environment.