A new police inquiry has been launched into the destruction of the protected habitat at Wicklesham Quarry, following a complaint by the Campaign to Protect Wicklesham Quarry from Development. The investigation by the Professional Standards Department (Professional.Standards@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk) will look at how the original inquiry was carried out and why no charges were brought. As the evidence is reviewed in the course of this inquiry, we hope that charges will be brought against the perpetrators of the destruction at Wicklesham Quarry SSSI. The details of the case will now also be brought to the attention of the Environment Agency. As described below, the Agency has recently successfully prosecuted a very similar case.

As shown in evidence to Oxfordshire County Council members on 2nd July, Wicklesham's ponds, which are a Priority Habitat and protected both by law and planning conditions, have been filled in, and trees and vegetation stripped. There is nothing to indicate that the mature ponds were ever there, apart from slight depressions and dry grass and scrub. According to a witness from Enzygo Ltd, there have been no great crested newts in the quarry since 2016, where previously there were 'good' breeding populations, surveyed in 2009 and 2013.

An investigation into wildlife crime at Wicklesham Quarry in 2016-17 was dropped after County Council Officers told the police that they had "no significant concerns" about Grundon's restoration - even though a Monitoring Officer had reported the damage to the ponds, and the County Council knew that Grundon had failed to apply for a statutory Mitigation Licence from Natural England. In our view, the County Council's failure to cooperate with a prosecution amounted to collusion with the landowner, as our call for a new investigation alleges. The conduct of the police and the County Council will now form a focus of this investigation.  

The timing of actions and omissions at Wicklesham Quarry, and the County Council's desire to conceal its failure to ensure the restoration was carried out correctly and in a timely way, were critical in this collusion. By failing to seek a Mitigation Licence, Grundon concealed the destruction that had already been carried out, keeping Natural England in the dark until it was already too late. Our complaint states "A licence was only applied for almost a year after the destruction had been carried out, and the deadline for restoration had already expired. Natural England had no opportunity ever to see the ponds that were supposed to be protected, because they were already gone. It would be a travesty of justice if this evasion of a legal duty were to prove a successful method of carrying out wilful environmental destruction with impunity."

Last month Hereford Magistrate's Court fined John Jones Civil Engineering & Groundworks Ltd £50,000 and ordered them to pay £50,000 costs, for illegally depositing soil, stone and rubble into "two hollows" at Bage Farm, Madley. The Environment Agency, which brought the prosecution, states: "The hollows were a habitat for great-crested newts, a European protected species. The depositing of the waste had resulted in the disturbance, injury, and killing of some of the newt population." 

In our view, the wholesale destruction of Wicklesham Quarry's Priority Habitats (one of the ponds was over a metre deep) by the landowner and/or operator is both undeniable and blatantly unlawful, and the failure by the police to bring charges, and Oxfordshire County Council's determination - from Director level down - to sweep the matter under the carpet, constitute a serious breach of their duty to protect the environment and prosecute wildlife crime. The Environment Officer in Essex has stated that the Bage Farm prosecution in July 2018 "sends out a clear message that we will not hesitate to take action to ensure the protection of the environment."

The reasons why the same action has not been taken in Oxfordshire regarding Wicklesham Quarry SSSI will now, we hope, be thoroughly investigated. Please keep watching your updates to follow the Campaign's actions on this. A new "deadline" - the fourth so far, we think - for the completion of the Restoration Scheme is 31st August 2018. We are determined that Oxfordshire County Council will not collude with the destruction of Priority Habitat at Wicklesham Quarry, by signing it off with a shrug as being of "no significant concern".

The Campaign will be calling on supporters to back the call for action by the Environment Agency in the coming days. Details of how to do this follow.

Please remember to share links to the petition updates on your Facebook page. As more local people learn about this travesty, they continue to sign the petition. Dozens of people are now following Wicklesham’s Facebook updates. Thank you for your support. We shall continue to fight to Protect Wicklesham Quarry from Development.