Grundon has made another application to alter the planning conditions for restoring Wicklesham Quarry SSSI- having failed to carry out the agreed scheme or meet deadlines for the past four years. This time, they want conditions to be lifted in order to reflect what they have actually done- simply allowing it to be passed, in other words.

For the reasons given below, this campaign will oppose Grundon’s application, and we urgently request all Wicklesham supporters to submit an online objection by 14th May 2019 to Oxfordshire County Council (link below). Your objections will ensure the application will be heard by the Planning and Regulation Committee, giving us an opportunity to address Councillors. We shall tell Committee Members that the restoration of Wicklesham’s important environmental features, including the habitat of a European Protected Species - is in their hands. Click on the link below to access the planning application  MW.0038/19 and online forms.              http://myeplanning.oxfordshire.gov.uk/swiftlg/apas/run/WPHAPPDETAIL.DisplayUrl?theApnID=MW.0038/19&theTabNo=3&backURL=%3Ca

Grundon now claims the only condition they have not met is the required gradient of soil in the quarry base. This, they say, is a minor alteration that will have no impact on the development plan or other environmental policies. However, the elephant in the room is the former ponds. Grundon fails to acknowledge the undeniable fact that the ponds are no longer there, and continues to pretend they exist- their only concession to their overnight disappearance in 2016 being that they now describe them as “seasonal”!

Since they have never applied to have the original planning conditions relating to the preservation of the ponds lifted, we shall argue that the current application must be rejected. Either they must restore the ponds to the condition they were in up to 2016, or apply to have the condition lifted. Restoration means- at the very least- clearing out the soil imported by Grundon Ltd that was used to fill them in. 

Local people have watched Oxfordshire County Council’s failure to uphold environmental protection policies over the past five years with incredulity and disgust. Now supporters are asking “What ‘season’ will the ‘seasonal’ ponds actually reappear? Is anyone likely to live long enough to see it?” It is obvious to everyone- as it was to County Councillors last year - that the ponds have been filled in, and these protected habitats of a European Protected Species no longer exist. The Enzygo consultant who addressed the County Council in July 2018 admitted there were no longer any great crested newts, or any of the other amphibian species formerly recorded in the quarry, since there was no longer any water.

Since Grundon has never applied to have the conditions relating to the preservation of Wicklesham’s protected ponds lifted, they are still valid and the restoration cannot legitimately be passed. Pond 2- formerly 1.5 metres deep, with a metre depth of water – was described last year by the county ecologist as being a dry, ”shallow depression”. We believe that by failing to give Councillors the opportunity to scrutinise their actions Grundon has sought to perpetrate a calculated deception. Last year County Council Officers displayed diagrams to Councillors showing the ponds as they were to be preserved, as if they actually existed. On seeing our photographs of the dried up, shallow ditches, full of grass, Councillors’ comments included: “Why hasn’t Grundon been prosecuted?” “What have our officers been doing?”  “This landowner cannot be trusted”.

However, last year they allowed Grundon to vary their planning conditions, on the basis that leaving 2 soil bunds in situ would make no difference to the ponds. This time we hope it will be different.

We shall remind Councillors of the Deputy Director’s statements back in 2015, when Wicklesham supporters objected to Grundon’s repeated efforts to avoid restoring the quarry by annual planning applications. Deputy Director Bev Hindle told Councillors “There is public concern that the activity on the site goes on and on without restoration being achieved.”

He stated: “The two ponds … will remain as part of the restoration plan. However a licence is required from Natural England to complete quarry restoration works to ensure that habitat is retained and improved.” Mr Hindle's recommendations were incorporated into the planning conditions:

“No works shall be carried out other than in accordance with the approved mitigation and enhancement scheme section 6 (Mitigation Measures) of the Extended Phase 1 Habitat Survey Report dated September 2012, the Reptile Method Statement submitted 28 February 2013, the Tree Planting & Grassland Mix dated 28 February 2013 and section 1.8 of the 2013 Great Crested Newt Refresher Surveys (enzygo 2013) report dated 5 July 2013.”

As this campaign reported, Grundon failed to obtain a Mitigation Licence, breaching its planning conditions once again, and did not apply for one until many months after the ponds had already been trashed.

Please make your objection online and show Oxfordshire County Council the strength of public support for Wicklesham Quarry SSSI.            http://myeplanning.oxfordshire.gov.uk/swiftlg/apas/run/WPHAPPDETAIL.DisplayUrl?theApnID=MW.0038/19&theTabNo=3&backURL=%3Ca

Thank you for your continued support. You can contact the campaign by emailing protectwicklesham@gmail.com