On Friday 21 July the Vale of White Horse District Council pulled the plug on a planning consultation in which over eighty local people had already taken part. The consultation had a week to run, and it was already clear: residents of Faringdon and the Western Vale had voiced undiluted outrage and rejection for a proposal consisting of seven 25 metre high buildings including a data centre, and two multi-story car parks, on this vulnerable and important site on agricultural land, on the Mid-Vale Corallian Ridge.

People who contacted the Planning Department were told the applicant had ‘withdrawn the application.’ Shortly after posting a celebratory update, we learned this was not the case. An email sent by VOWHDC to people who had submitted comments online stated that ‘on further investigation’ they decided they could not accept this application because it involved a ‘county matter’. This refers to the landowner’s planning conditions set by Oxfordshire County Council to restore Wicklesham Quarry to agricultural use, which include a 5-year Agricultural Aftercare Programme. Twelve months remain to be carried out. The email stated the application would have to be resubmitted to Oxfordshire County Council.

‘On further investigation’?? How could the Vale accept and send to consultation an application without establishing the basic fact that Wicklesham Quarry is still under Agricultural Aftercare? In 2017 they faced a Judicial Review in which one of the grounds was that Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan could not seek to override the quarry's planning conditions, because they were a ‘county matter’! Have they forgotten?

Furthermore, the claim that they cannot determine this application is bogus, in our view.  It is a major application for industrial/ office development that is outside Oxfordshire County Council’s remit for Minerals and Waste developments. An application that involves both Minerals and Waste Policies (including planning conditions) (County Council) and the Local Plan (District Council), as here, has to be decided on the basis of co-operation between the two planning authorities. The LPA whose policies are most relevant – in this case, the Vale District Council – is supposed to determine the application. (Published guidance and examples support this principle.) What is going on between these two planning authorities?

What we DO KNOW is that the public’s rights to information, and to participate in democratic, legal processes concerning local development, have been treated with contempt by the developer, Faringdon Town Council, and the District Council.                                                                                                               

• No pre-application public consultations were held; 
• Faringdon Council excluded residents from a presentation by the developer; 
•  neither residents, businesses, nor the school across the road were notified.

The Council has treated this major proposal as if it were a small extension on a neighbour’s house: apart from statutory consultees, the only properties notified were owned by the applicant himself!

Local people came together to pay for thousands of leaflets and spent 3 days distributing them, in order to let the residents of Faringdon know (as many as we could) AT THE LAST MINUTE about this proposal for a major development on their doorstep, in an area of unique environmental value – a SSSI and Conservation Target Area, with Priority Habitat and a European Protected Species. We did this because neither the developer, the Town Council, nor the Vale District Council publicised the proposal or sought local views before it was submitted.

Environmental Impact Assessment

Before submitting this application, the applicant sought a ‘screening opinion’ from the Vale Planning Department, and was advised that no Environmental Impact Assessment was needed. We do not agree. This is a Schedule 2 development*

• for an industrial development (B2/B8) far in excess of 0 .5 ha
• multistorey car parks,
• in an area where such development does not accord with the Development Plan: an unallocated site in open countryside, on agricultural land;
• It is also an area of significant environmental value: a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Conservation Target Area, with Priority Habitat and a European Protected Species  - all of which are likely to be significantly harmed by the proposed development. 

*Town & Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017

For all these reasons we will argue that this proposal at Wicklesham Quarry requires a full EIA, involving public consultation, before any application is re-submitted.

We also believe that an application for ‘outline’ planning consent is wholly inappropriate, and all ‘reserved matters’ should be fully set out from the start– the development’s use of resources such as water, electricity, and diesel-fuelled generators; impacts on local infrastructure and services; pollution, artificial light and noise; effects on traffic, loss of local amenity, impacts on the countryside, wildlife and local people. 

There is only one reason to make an 'outline' application- to AVOID admitting the horrendous effects such a development would have on Faringdon and its surrounding countryside. This ‘outline’ application is about trying to sell the site and maximise profit, regardless of any possible future use. As dozens of objections have made clear, it demonstrates complete disregard for the location, natural resources and the quality of life of residents of Faringdon and the surrounding villages.

Wicklesham supporters are warmly invited to a BRING-AND-SHARE SUPPER at Little Coxwell Village Hall on FRIDAY 28 JULY at 7.00pm. Please bring a bottle of your favourite tipple and one dish to share (hot or cold, sweet or savoury). I look forward to seeing you!

Contact: protectwicklesham@gmail.com