The Vale of White Horse District Council has stated that the Independent Examiner's report on Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan - including the proposal to turn Wicklesham Quarry SSSI into a 20 acre industrial estate - will be published at the beginning of August. Local campaigners have made a strong case that the FNP's inclusion of Wicklesham Quarry is a breach of the 'Basic Conditions' of a Neighbourhood Plan: - * the quarry's existing planning conditions for restoration are a 'county matter'- defined as 'excluded development' for Neighbourhood Plans under the Localism Act. (Neighbourhood Plans 'cannot make provision for county matters'.) * Wicklesham is part of West Oxfordshire Heights Conservation Target Area within Oxfordshire's Biodiversity Action Plan, and thus the subject of national policies which the Neighbourhood Plan is required to support; * Wicklesham is sited in open countryside on the Corallian Ridge National Character Area, for which strategic landscape protection policies exist in the Local Plan. The Neighbourhood Plan must be 'in general conformity' with these policies as a 'Basic Condition'. We have argued that Faringdon Council's open support for the landowner's eight year bid to develop the quarry rather than restore it (whose representatives have played a central role in the Neighbourhood Plan,) amounts to a breach of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, which requires local authorities to conserve and protect the European Protected Species and Priority Habitat that are documented at Wicklesham Quarry and tetrad. Although our case is strong, we remain concerned. The Independent Examiner did not acknowledge or respond to our request for a public, oral hearing on the policy for Wicklesham Quarry, made in March. We cannot be certain what this silence means... Second, he has just called a public, oral hearing on Humpty Hill, Faringdon, regarding the validity of its status as local green space in FNP. It seems he is unaware that Humpty Hill was declared a Town Green in December 2015- which puts development out of the question! This hearing is due to take place on 18th July at the Pump House, Faringdon. These rather inexplicable aspects of the Examination process give us some concern. As soon as the report on Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan has been published we shall update supporters with what we hope will be good news. Thank you once again for your continued interest and support for Wicklesham Quarry! This is an important case with implications for vulnerable sites of bio and geodiversity across the country, and we intend to keep fighting until Wicklesham Quarry is safe from the threat of industrial development. Please copy and send the link to this update to ten friends and family, to keep our support growing!