Lyminge Forest

Lyminge Forest has a high diversity of deciduous trees and the rare bird the Nightjar breeds there. Despite a long public battle to save the forest from development, the RANK organisation has been granted outline planning permission to build a £100 million Holiday Village in a thousand acres of the forest. This ‘village’ would accommodate up to five thousand people and three thousand five hundred vehicles at any one time. Locals have appealed for a high court hearing in an attempt to block RANK and they are waiting for a date to be announced. In the meantime RANK are pushing on with their full plans to submit to the local Shepway council and are hoping to start building later this year. The Flat Oak Society is a direct action movement based in East Kent who, along with others, intend to move into the forest and set up camps, when the bird nesting season draws to a close, probably around August. Until then people would be advised to visit the RANK Headquarters at Petersfield in Hampshire. RANK are also planning a holiday village in Cumbria and have plans for a third in Shropshire. For more details contact: The Flat Oak Society, c/o 3 St. Alphege Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2EB Tel: 01227 463368/0973 262259.