According to the 1999 Village Appraisal, 90% of people were willing to separate recyclable items if there were a separate collection. Almost all of those over 85 would do so - but only half of those aged 11 to 25 were interested in recycling. Perhaps this is because younger people are not great producers of waste - or someone else looks after the rubbish in their home, or perhaps recent educational and media efforts to highlight the waste of the world's resources have been a failure.

Only 15 people said they definitely would not support a waste collection separated by individual households - 12 of these were men.
The most popular item for recycling was glass. Are Pluckley people fond of their wine? Newspapers followed closely, and then cans and clothing. Just over half would use a skip for garden waste - could the other half be experts in home composting? Overall, doorstep collection was more popular than using recycling bins.

Recycling bins for glass bottles and cans can be found at the village hall. These raise £617.58p in the last financial year.

Of those residents replying to the Appraisal Questionnaire, 30% complained of noise pollution. Highest on this list (with two-thirds of all answers) was traffic noise. Next came a third who were worried about motorbike scrambling.

Bonfires cause aggravation to about a quarter of respondents, while light pollution came much lower in the priority list: however, 13% were bothered by it.

Airwaves

26% reported TV interference, while problems with radio reception were experienced by 14%. While a third of those answering had no opinion of mobile telephone reception difficulties, of the remainder, 42% had problems.

Tidiness

Litter-free roads with undamaged verges emerge as the two most desirable priorities. The treatment of verges created a divergence of opinion: just about half wanted tidy, mown verges, while about one third wanted them to be allowed to grow for wildlife. Perhaps a survey of verges is needed to identify which ones to mow and which ones to leave.

Village/landscape features

There were 491 replies giving a wide range of opinion, with the emphasis on conserving a number of key features that lend much to the character of the village.

In all, 66 different features were chosen as meriting protection: the most popular identified for protection by 10 or more respondents (84% of the replies) are shown in the diagram.

Wildlife and woodland

The seasons in Pluckley all bring different birds and mammals to the village.
In spring the nightingales congregate in the Forest and Dering Wood on their arrival from Africa and are singing by day to attract their mates.
The brown hare can be spotted, often in small groups. Badgers are well represented; new setts are opened up each year. Garden ponds provide a good breeding ground for frogs and toads, and where a few, protected, great crested newts may be found.

In summer the grass snakes do well, laying their eggs in compost heaps. Two species of bird are visitors, the falcon and the nightjar. There are three types of owl: the tawny owl, little owl, and the ghostly barn owl.

The dormouse and yellow-necked mouse can be found in the autumn, storing food for the winter to come. Some are fond of entering houses. The yellow-necked mouse is only found in scattered parts of the south of England.

Winter brings the lapwings and the golden plovers. Many other birds also form up into flocks to protect the inexperienced youngsters from the sparrow-hawk. When birds of prey do well in an area it means that some kind of successful ecological balance has been struck.

Pluckley, largely situated on a hill, overlooks the Andredsweald - the ancient Jutish forest that once stretched along the south of England from Kent to Hampshire, although most of this woodland has long been cleared for agricultural purposes. Parts of two larger woods do fall within the parish boundary, the Forest and Dering Wood.

The Forest, believed to contain the site of the 14th century manor Evering Acre, is now in multiple ownership and is Victorian in age, whilst the Woodland Trust owns the larger part of Dering Wood, one of the few remaining remnants of the Andredsweald.

Other woods within the parish of mixed deciduous trees are: Little Pipers Wood, Garden Wood, Kiln Plat Wood, Knights Wood, Benacre Wood, Frith Wood and Thorne Roughetts.

Apart from this woodland, Pluckley has several individual and groups of trees that are important and add character to the village. Within the conservation areas there are a number of trees, particularly around the recreation ground, the oaks along the Egerton Road and the Scots pines that stand out like sentinels along the skyline. The trees within the conservation areas are given a certain measure of protection since they cannot be lopped or felled without specific planning consent from Ashford Borough Council.

In addition, there are 13 tree preservation orders (TPO) in existence. TPO's are generally applied only when there is a perceived threat to individual or groups of trees and, in Pluckley, these have nearly all been applied when building development has been proposed, or agricultural activities seem to threaten. Some of these TPO's date back to 1975 when building took place at Fir Toll. There are others covering trees in Lambden Road, Chambers Green Road, The Forest, Station Road, Egerton Road and Mundy Bois Road.

Trees have a finite life (like the rest of us). In woodland regeneration takes place naturally, but it is important to think about succession planting for individual trees - particularly eye-catching species such as the Scots pines, which originally appeared in the south after the last ice age, and which are such a feature of Pluckley's landscape.

On 6 November 1999 a tree planting day was held when a number of memorial trees were planted around the village. Other memorial trees in the village include the two planted on the recreation ground: one in 1935 to celebrate the 25th jubilee of King George V and the other in 1977 to celebrate the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A tree, a prize for winning the 'Best Kept Village' competition during the 1980s was unfortunately stolen.

Footpaths

Most villagers know where the local footpaths are and think they are well enough signposted, but only about one third seem to use them. One in five would be prepared to help maintain them, while one third definitely would not assist with maintenance.

The main difficulties that are reported are crops across the path, bushes and nettles in some areas, muddy patches and puddles. One footpath runs alongside a farm that owns very large barking guard dogs and the fence beside the path is not very high! Another goes through someone's back garden and eventually through a farmyard with a notice that warns about loose dogs.

On most of the footpaths across arable fields emerging crops are sprayed with herbicide to the regulation one metre width as soon as ground and growth conditions permit. Walking across newly ploughed or sown fields, or a wet standing crop of rape or cereal, is not much fun. However, that is the necessary result of today's farming methods.

Two long distance footpaths: the 'Greensand Way' from Surrey to Ham Street, and the 'Stour Valley Walk' from Lenham to Sandwich Bay, pass through the parish. One of the loveliest walks in Kent is to start at the Black Horse in Pluckley and walk the Greensand Way westwards to Egerton looking at the view over the Weald. Then up through Egerton, connect with the Stour Valley walk, and walk back eastwards looking towards the Downs and the flying-bombed ruin of St Mary's church, then on to Little Chart and its new church before turning back again to walk through the orchards to the Black Horse - or cream teas in the Pluckley churchyard in the summer months!