KENT VOICE Protecting Kent’s Countryside AUTUMN/WINTER 2015 Last chance to save iconic landscape www.cprekent.org.uk Tel: 01233 714540 [email protected] Director’s Introduction Hilary Newport With so much bleak news about the threats facing Kent’s countryside, it often seems as though there isn’t much to celebrate. The county has been groaning under the pressures of operation stack, and the relentless onslaught of speculative applications for inappropriate developments that have never been through a proper plan-led assessment seems never to stop. So it was a welcome breath of fresh air to pause and take a chance to celebrate what the third sector and voluntary work can achieve. At the end of May I was lucky enough to attend a royal garden party as the guest of Susan Pittman, the hard-working secretary of CPRE Kent’s Sevenoaks Committee, who won the draw for tickets held every year within CPRE (whose patron is, of course, Her Majesty the Queen). The party at Buckingham Palace was a delight, the catering was meticulous, but mostly what I will remember is the sight of a collected 8,000 people, all dedicated one way or another to public service, and the opportunity to remind myself that the third sector, through the power of people who care, really does make a difference. Hilary Newport & Susan Pittman ready to meet the Queen Contents Page 4-5 The livestock which enhance our countryside in more ways than one Page 6-7 Magna Carta: Golden Threads of our Liberties Page 8 Representing Kent - our new MPs Page 8 Planning the future Exmoor pony, Langiewicz Page 9 Chairman’s Update Page 10-11 Waterside Park - watch this space Page 12-13 Headlines from the campaigns frontline Page 14-15 Final chance to save the iconic landscape at Farthingloe Page 16-17 Good news for Romney Marsh Page 18-19 Our Green Belt Page 20-23 Local Plan round-up A greener printer...headley brothers Page 24 Social scene Horseshoe Vetch, WCCP be amazed Page 25 Fancy a tipple? Page 26-29 Around the districts Page 30-31 News round-up It’s fashionable these days to be eco-friendly, but at Headley Brothers, Page 32 Wild flower bonanza taking our environmental responsibilities seriously comes as second nature. n We hold the international standard ISO 14001. n We hold both FSC and PEFC ‘Chain of Custody’ certifications. n 96% of our solid waste is recycled. n We use vegetable-based inks for all of our sheet-fed printing, except that which requires special or metallic colours. n We use mineral oil-based inks for our web presses, enabling us to condense and filter emissions and use them as fuel for the presses’ ovens. Tel: 01233 714540 [email protected] Headley Brothers offers complete print solutions:Fungus, web, Colin sheet-fed Jones and digital printing services, web-to-print and online file delivery systems, design and web design, finishing and fulfilment services, mailing and subscriptions. Tel:01233 623 131 Email: [email protected] www.cprekent.org.uk Website: www.headley.co.uk Photo credits: Thank you to our supporters who have taken the photos used in this issue. 3 3 www.cprekent.org.uks0959 green ad A4.indd 1 18/12/08 3:01:29 pm Cover picture by Suvodeb Banerjee, Kent Photo Library For more information on our innovative print and marketing solutions, please contact: THE LIVESTOCK WHICH ENHANCE OUR COUNTRYSIDE IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE Highland cattle at Folkestone Warren, WCCP One hundred years ago cattle were the rare orchids and other plants If you wandered over a common site on the Folkestone characteristic of this habitat. Warren but in 1926 they were Cattle and ponies break up the some of our most beautiful removed. Since then, and after thatch of grassy leaf litter revealing myxomotosis killed off so many countryside this summer bare soil beneath and this is what rabbits in the early 1960s, part you may have spotted is so important - for example, the of the area has been taken over Adonis Blue butterfly will only lay some unexpected, rare by thick scrub and secondary her eggs on horse-shoe vetch, woodland. Considered one of the and handsome livestock the only plant her caterpillars will most important nature reserves eat. Grazing animals also eat tree – Highland and Dexter in Britain, it is vital to protect and and shrub seedlings preventing cattle, Konik horses and conserve this habitat and that is why the conversion of grassland to livestock is being re-introduced – to Exmoor ponies. They have woodland. graze and manage the land. been introduced to play Rare breeds Five young Highland cattle were put a vital conservation role, out to graze in early summer – they The White Cliffs Countryside as Susannah Richter are an excellent breed for pushing Project (WCCP) manages 556 discovered. back scrub and are very docile. hectares of land in Dover and They are among a large number of Shepway, 232 hectares of which cattle and ponies now being used are now being grazed: to manage the Kent countryside. • Four Konic horses, a rare species Plants and butterflies thrive bred back from the wild European Grazing chalk downland allows forest horse hunted to extinction in a wonderful variety of flora and Britain in Neolithic times, graze land fauna to thrive because it prevents at High Meadow, Dover; the dominance of any one plant • 16 Dexter cattle graze Dover’s species. Without grazing, the Western Heights, Whinless Down thicker, coarser grasses will smother and South Foreland Valley; 4 Protecting4 Kent’s Countryside • 24 Highland cattle graze hardy, intelligent and resourceful. Folkestone Downs and Folkestone They not only graze grass but also Warren; browse hawthorn berries, young • From this autumn sheep and trees and thistle buds. They’ll cattle will graze Samphire Hoe and even strip off bark. The ponies are sheep will graze Romney Warren managed as an extensive, semi-wild Country Park. herd with regular checks and an annual health assessment by a vet. People can still walk and enjoy the countryside alongside these Return of wildlife beautiful animals, but are asked to Over the last 20 years the various keep dogs under control and take livestock have had an extremely Oxtongue Broomrape, WCCP rubbish home with them. positive effect on Kent’s biodiversity. Kirk Alexander, partnership Along with the cattle, ponies and manager for WCCP, said: “It is vital sheep, other visitors are returning to manage this important wildlife to the downland as a result of environment to protect the rare grazing management. Late Spider Orchid, WCCP species which flourish on chalk downland. Grazing is the most effective way of keeping the thick coarse grass down and pushing back the scrub which can invade the downland and shade out rare orchids and insects.” The perfect tool for the job Also in Kent, at the White Cliffs, the National Trust introduced Exmoor ponies 20 years ago to help look after this special place without the need for intensive human intervention. The Exmoor pony is an ideal breed for conservation - Konik horses, Whinless Down Dover, Paul Sampson The number of late spider orchids on the Folkestone Downs has increased from just six in 1990 to more than 200, and hundreds of common spotted orchids are starting to bloom. At the Warren swathes of primroses can be seen in the spring in the woodland edge and recently cleared scrub, and one of the UK’s rarest plants, oxtongue broomrape, is growing on the White Cliffs. With a little help from these animals it is hoped more and more beautiful and rare species will Dexter cattle, Western Heights Dover, Paul Sampson flourish and survive in the future. www.cprekent.org.uk 5 Magna carta: Golden Threads of our Liberties Miniature of King John hunting © British Library Magna Carta, agreed by Baaaad over taxes. And that it didn’t contain King John, the ‘Great Charter’, was anything for the people of the land the end of ‘divine rule’ of kings, it is or women’s rights, and even that it the foundation of our liberty, of the was ‘signed’, when it wasn’t, it was rule of law, and then, the beginning sealed. of what we now call human So what is Magna Carta, rights. No wonder there’s such a anyway? fuss about it these days, especially in There are two ‘golden threads’ that its 800th anniversary year. run through the 800 years since by Sir Robert Worcester That’s the heritage, but what about King John (we know him as ‘Baaaad its legacy? It’s just a document, King John) met the rebel barons written on one page of parchment and bishops at Runnymede, on the containing about 3,500 words and Thames (under the Heathrow flight having 63 clauses, but it packs a path today). hefty punch, even today. Over the past 800 years, the There are a few academic pedants ‘golden threads’ are what who claim only three, maybe developed as the Rule of Law and four, clauses are still in the statute Human Rights. books. Others say it was just a The Rule of Law, the glue that sticks peace treaty that failed. And others society together, that promises a fair say it was just the establishment, trial, not just for barons, but Article the Kings and Barons having a fight 40 is short and to the point: “To no 6 Protecting6 Kent’s Countryside one will we sell, to no one deny or protection of rural England. But delay right or justice.” Article 38 is do our members recognise that a good one too: “No official shall in many countries today the rights place a man on trial upon his own we enjoy are derived from the unsupported statement, without Magna Carta? And if they do, do producing credible witnesses to the our children, and will our children’s truth on it.” children? As new citizens, some of But what about the ladies? Article you parents who will be asked why 8: “No widow shall be compelled you are becoming British, you can to marry, so long she wishes to share together the timeline of the remain without a husband.” And Magna Carta’s two ‘golden threads’.