Save nightingales by not having a pet cat, estate families told

RESIDENTS on a new housing estate are to be banned from keeping cats amid concern about the local nightingale population.

Esquire Developments, which is building the homes, has agreed to a “no cat policy” in an effort to settle opposition to the houses from the RSPB and Natural England, which warned that domestic cats kept by the estate’s new residents could threaten the birds.

The proposed development of 68 homes off Cliffe Woods in Rochester, Kent, is close to a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Chattenden Woods and Lodge Hill, the most important in the country for nightingales, the RSPB said in a letter to planners last year.

The birds nest close to the ground, making them vulnerable to predators.

The RSPB said: “Nightingales will be highly vulnerable to the indirect longterm impacts arising from the proposed housing, including disturbance from noise and artificial lighting, recreational disturbance (where access allows) and predation by domestic cats.”

Esquire said it would set up a management company to monitor the “no cat policy”. Medway council agreed to the plans, pledging to work with the firm to enforce the rules, the BBC said.