BOXLEY FARM CLUSTER:
Located between the M20 and M2 motorways and the large roads of the A229 and A249, the Boxley Farm Cluster is currently made up of several farms, landowners, and groups in the Boxley to Bredhurst and Stockbury part of Kent.

MEDWAY GAP AND NORTH DOWNS FARM CLUSTER:
Located between the A227 and the A228, the Halling to Trottiscliffe Escarpment Farm Cluster group area currently follows the land within the SSSI. This location, and reason for it’s SSSI status is that it consists of an extensive area of the North Downs west of the ‘Medway Gap’ and is representative of Chalk grassland in west Kent and beech woodland on the chalk, with an outstanding assemblages of plants and invertebrates

Currently, both Farm Cluster Groups have similar key priorities: Anti-social / rural crime and habitat creation and restoration.

Our objective is to work together to enhance our lands for wildlife and discuss solutions to anti-social behaviour and rural crime.
We are open to new members joining if you farm within either of these areas and share our goals and ambitions. Please contact the Farm Cluster facilitator Andrea Griffiths on andrea.griffiths@kent.gov.uk

The Farm Cluster facilitation funding for both these groups is provided through the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme from Defra and the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

As facilitators of both these groups, Medway Valley Countryside Partnership helps the groups by planning meetings and directing the group and individuals to the current different opportunities and funding pots available for potential habitat improvements and works on sites across the area. We can assist landowners with funding bid applications and identify suitable locations for potential works in a coordinated way, for better landscape scale improvements.
We also attend and feed into other relevant groups such as the Securing the Landscape Group and the Flytipping Subgroup.

The Securing the Landscape Initiative was started via the Valley of Visions Landscape Partnership (VoV). VoV delivered landscape, habitat and heritage conservation improvement projects across the valley known as the Medway Gap between Rochester and Aylesford. Key to the success of VoV and a precursor to all other project targets was dealing with illegal access and anti-social activity in the area and this started the Securing the Landscape Initiative (SLT).

The Securing the Landscape Toolkit was collated by MVCP.  The toolkit is a ‘one stop shop’ for local landowners and residence, assisting you in easily finding information about certain crimes and, most importantly, in finding out how to report rural crime and what methods you can employ to potentially prevent the crimes from happening.  The toolkit focuses on crimes which affect the landscape in and around our Farm Cluster Group locations.

The Securing the Landscape Toolkit was funded via the Heritage Fund and via the Old Chalk New Downs Project.   The toolkit is available in a digital format via the Old Chalk New Downs website.