Wildlife charities have joined forces to urge Michael Gove to scrap a controversial planning designation for land earmarked for the London Resort theme park.

Campaigners have called on the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to remove the status from the Swanscombe Peninsula and end talks of a Disneyland-style theme park being built there.

The site, located between Dartford and Gravesend, has been subject to a bid for a Development Consent Order since 2014.

But members from Buglife, CPRE Kent, Kent Wildlife Trust and the RSPB, who have been working together for a number of years, have had enough and are calling on the Tory minister to revoke its planning status.

The charities say the peninsula is home to more than 2,000 species of invertebrates, including a critically endangered jumping spider, and 82 species of breeding birds.

It is also home to man orchids, water voles and otters but still remains subject to a revised Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) application by the London Resort theme park.

Campaigners say this status is hindering attempts to save the land from development and get support to enact an alternative vision for the site which would see it become a nature reserve.

Buglife spokesman Jamie Robins said: “We have known for years that the site is a haven for wildlife, but the threat of a theme park continues to hang over it, leaving the community uncertain over the future of their much-loved green space, year after year.

“The time has come for the Secretary of State to remove this unnecessary and damaging planning status, so that we can take the steps to save it.

“The Swanscombe Peninsula is a unique site, home to thousands of species of animal and plant and an unrivalled green space for the local community, with the potential to be a nature park accessible to all.”

He added: “We are in a nature crisis and the government has committed to protecting 30% of the UK for wildlife.

“We need to defend nature and to start by protecting sites like Swanscombe Peninsula once and for all and helping to make the vision for it a reality.”

Long-awaited plans for a multi-billion pound theme park were withdrawn last year owing to its new-found status as a site of special scientific interest and the designation of Terry as a freeport by the government.

The developers behind the scheme had argued their plans would help secure the environmental status of the site, promising £150m worth of ecological improvements, while also kickstarting the area’s wider economic regeneration.

But campaigners have consistently argued the plans are at odds with the abundance of wildlife on site and have lobbied to protect it.

In March, London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH), the company behind the bid to build the entertainment complex, announced it had called in financial administrators.

Despite this the project remains ongoing and a spokesman, speaking at the time, said LRCH has "continued commitment to the delivery of jobs and regeneration" on the peninsula.