An outline planning application has been made by landowner Tom Allen-Stevens and developer Spencer Cooper for seven 25M high blocks, a data centre, and two multi-story carparks at Wicklesham Quarry- a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Conservation Target Area, and Priority Habitat for great crested newts, a European Protected Species.

By making an ‘outline’ application, the landowner (who has been unable to sell Wicklesham Quarry) hopes to attract a buyer, while avoiding explaining to local people or the Planning Authority what the devastating impacts of such a development would be on Faringdon and the surrounding area.

Wicklesham Quarry is an environmentally sensitive site, and internationally famous for Earth Sciences and the history of geology. It is also OUTSIDE the development boundary of Faringdon in open countryside, and is agricultural land. The planning conditions for the quarry included undertakings by the landowner to restore the quarry and return it to agricultural use, and to preserve the natural ponds.

If this development sounds ALL WRONG to you, it is essential to MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN BEFORE 27 JULY, by submitting your objections online to the Vale of White Horse Planning Consultation. Here's the link:  https://data.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/java/support/Main.jsp?MODULE=ApplicationDetails&REF=P23/V1476/O#exactline

If you want to see what the effects would be on the landscape, look at the Landscape Report (P. 14, & Figs. 22 &24), from which the above illustration is taken. This industrial monster would loom over views towards Faringdon from the footpaths, public bridleway, and houses alongside Wicklesham Quarry, virtually obliterating them, and would dominate views from Folly Hill and Galley Hill (see above), our most important viewing points and amenity areas. At 25 metres high, and covering almost 29 acres, the seven four storey structures are many times bigger (in mass) and taller than any existing buildings in Faringdon, and would completely destroy the town’s landscape setting and rural character, creating a massive industrial overspill into open countryside.

You may want to ask the Vale Planners and Councillors the following questions: 

1. Where is the Environmental Impact Assessment that must be carried out for a Schedule 2 development (required for a Site of Special Scientific Interest or any other ‘sensitive’ site)?
2.  Where are the data for the storage of diesel fuel on the site, as back up power for the data centre?
3. Where are typical emissions data for diesel fumes resulting from the use of diesel generators, right next to houses, walkers, horses, and less than half a mile from the new school?
4. How does this proposal -with two multi-storey car parks, new traffic lanes & speed limits - meet Faringdon Council’s claim that using the quarry for industry would provide jobs for local people, and cut local traffic? Or the Town Council's promise that any development ‘must not harm the relationship between the site and surrounding landscape’?

This application bears no resemblance to Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan’s policy, and is about as honest and independent as the Neighbourhood Plan itself, which -

•  claimed Wicklesham Quarry was a ‘brownfield site’ (it is not)
• sought to make a planning provision for a County Matter (excluded development for a Neighbourhood Plan)
• failed to include key environmental data, including that this was a Conservation Target Area, Priority Habitat, and had breeding colonies of a European Protected Species
• ignored professional, independent advice on conservation from both Oxfordshire County Council and even the Sustainability Appraisal commissioned by the Town Council itself.

In our view, the weight to be attached to the neighbourhood plan must take into account these key omissions and misrepresentations, as well as the fact that the authors of this 'employment land' policy were the landowners themselves, who sat on the Steering Committee and wrote the policy as well as its flimsy 'justification'. 

If you wish to contact your local Vale District Councillors (e.g, to ask how they intend to vote,) they are Katherine Foxhall, (Green Party) katherine.foxhall@whitehorsedc.gov.uk,  and Viral Patel, (Green Party) viral.patel@whitehorsedc.gov.uk.

If you wish to know how Faringdon Council intends to respond to this application, the Chair of Faringdon Town Council is Mr Peter Castle, cllr.castle@faringdontowncouncil.gov.uk, and the Town Clerk is Sally Thurston, sally@faringdontowncouncil.gov.uk

For any comments or inquiries, please email: protectwicklesham@gmail.com