After almost 5 months of silence since I wrote to Natural England, I have sent them the email below. It highlights concerns about the apparent attempt to destroy protected habitat and species by going under the radar, and failing to obtain a Mitigation Licence. (Names have been removed & some sections reduced.) Dear Natural England, “I wrote to you on 29th November 2016. However, since then no one from Natural England has contacted me regarding the wildlife protection issues at Wicklesham Quarry SSSI, Oxfordshire. _______ confirmed that no Mitigation Licence was applied for during the whole of the restoration period up to 30th September 2016. As Oxfordshire County Council's photographic evidence clearly shows, the quarry's ponds, which are the breeding habitat of Great Crested Newts, have been damaged and trees and vegetation removed, evidently non-accidentally. I am concerned about Natural England's apparent lack of interest in this matter, considering how many times members of the public including myself have raised the issues around Wicklesham's biodiversity with you in recent years. In June 2014 _______ told me these were issues for the local community. Yet Wicklesham's pond habitats, which were surveyed for the second time in 5 years in 2013 by Enzygo Ltd have formed part of the quarry's statutory restoration plan since 2013. I had contacted Natural England as a statutory consultee during the Neighbourhood Plan consultation, but your response was that you expected a local wildlife group to raise the biodiversity importance of Wicklesham Quarry. Local people did exactly that, but evidently to no effect. It has also become clear that Natural England did comment on biodiversity (Priority Habitat) in relation to another local site, as part of the official consultation for the Sustainability Appraisal. Can you explain this apparent, regrettable inconsistency in relation to Wicklesham Quarry? After seven years of delays, Oxfordshire County Council ordered Grundon Ltd to carry out the quarry's restoration by 30th September 2016. Not only did they fail to do so, but significant damage to the ponds was recorded, and Grundon failed to obtain a Mitigation Licence that they clearly knew was required, since they themselves had commissioned the Enzygo Report and produced the Restoration Plan drawings. Unfortunately, I believe Natural England's failure to flag up and thereby protect Wicklesham Quarry's Priority Habitat and European Protected Species during the Neighbourhood Plan consultation has encouraged the destruction that has since occurred, I recognize, quite unintentionally. This habitat and protected species are undoubtedly inconvenient facts in relation to Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan's allocation of Wicklesham Quarry as a 20 acre industrial estate. Oxfordshire County Council may well have little desire to see further public attention brought to bear on Wicklesham Quarry. However, in view of the evidence the County Council itself has gathered, and the quarry operator's clear disregard for wildlife protection in this case, I sincerely hope that Natural England will make every effort to remedy this situation by supporting a prosecution in what is a particularly blatant case of willful damage and disregard of the law for economic motives."