A council is proposing to remove the second-best place for nightingales in the UK from its local plan for 1,000 new homes, in a win for community campaigners and environmentalists.

Middlewick Ranges, a former Ministry of Defence firing range on the southern edge of Colchester, is set to be dropped from the city council’s allocated housing sites after councillors heeded a growing array of ecological evidence highlighting its national importance for nature.

According to experts, Middlewick meets or exceeds the criteria for a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) in six categories – for its endangered nightingales, rare barbastelle bats, range of invertebrates, rare acid grassland, waxcap fungi and veteran trees.