If its "real" which is hard to credit then given the site owner's quoted response I would have recorded it and contacted the local authority who if it was neither an exempt site, or a sub 28 day per year site, they would have to have granted planning permission.
If it was an exempt site I would have been contacting the organisation holding the Natural England, DEFRA, exemption, along with the Department itself.
I don't like losing sites, but I feel that's decidedly better than risking losing lives.
Its absolutely unacceptable by any standards, thus I am inclined to think its a contrived social media stunt.