As local people await the results of the public consultation on the Draft Neighbourhood Plan, supporters of the campaign to Restore Wicklesham Quarry urge Councillors to recognize the serious shortcomings of the Neighbourhood Plan for which they are ultimately responsible. Besides many inaccuracies regarding Faringdon’s working population and employment sectors, the Neighbourhood Plan also omits crucial information about the protected landscape and habitat status of Wicklesham Quarry. Wicklesham Quarry lies within the designated Conservation Target Area (CAT) of West Oxon Heights, Streams, Hills, Woods and Parks. Oxfordshire’s Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) calls CATs ‘hotspots’ for protecting and increasing ‘priority species and habitats’. CATs are given special protection under the Vale of White Horse District Council’s Core Policy 46: Conservation and Improvement of Biodiversity. Why does the Neighbourhood Plan fail to include this information, which is central to fulfilling the statutory Basic Conditions, and instead wrongly describe the Quarry as ‘brownfield site’? We conclude that there is a concerted attempt by members of the FNP Steering Group to misinform both local people and Councillors who recently claimed to have no knowledge of Wicklesham Quarry’s existing restoration plan or habitat status. Wicklesham Quarry is not only an exceptional geological SSSI, but a recognized habitat for rare plants and animals, and its ecology is linked to its ‘Greensand’ geology as part of the Corallian Ridge. Even before restoration, the Quarry is a breeding haven for smooth and palmate newts, toads and Great Crested Newts. These creatures and the ponds, insects and plant life on which they depend will be lost if the quarry is buried in concrete and polluted by noise and HGV traffic. Supporters of the campaign to PROTECT WICKLESHAM QUARRY FROM DEVELOPMENT urge Faringdon Councillors to reject turning the Quarry into a 20 acre warehousing/ logistics site, and instead to protect its rare ecology in accordance with its special status and the geology which is key to its rare plant and wildlife. Councillors, please remember the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy: ‘Mineral workings are considered a temporary land use; the land should be ultimately restored to a positive land-use … determined in relation to its land-use context and surrounding environmental character.. As part of the process of seeking planning permission for mineral extraction, the applicant must demonstrate that they will restore the site … and the restoration plan should be approved as part of the planning permission.’ Any future other than restoration would represent a travesty of Faringdon Council’s responsibility to the environment, as well as destroying the town’s ability to benefit from having this unique, historic environmental site on our doorstep. If you have already signed the petition, please copy & paste the link in an email to friends, colleagues and neighbours, and add it to your Facebook page: https://www.change.org/p/faringdon-town-council-the-vale-of-white-horse-district-council-and-secretary-of-state-greg-clark-protect-wicklesham-quarry-from-development?just_created=true