Residents on a new housing estate will be banned from keeping cats to keep a local population of rare birds safe from attacks.
Esquire Developments, which is building the homes, 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 Nightingales.
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.
