You can comment through Oxfordshire County Council’s planning website- here’s the link to Application MW. 0140/23. https://myeplanning.oxfordshire.gov.uk/Planning/Display/MW.0140/23/
This is not yet a full planning application, but it’s still vitally important to let the County Council know your views NOW. (Keep a copy of your comments for the full application whenever it comes.)
It’s the same proposal made previously to the Vale of White Horse D.C. in July 2023, which they decided not to process: seven 25 metre high buildings plus multi-storey carparks covering 17.5 acres; for offices, research & development, light & heavy industry, storage and distribution.
Most of the information supplied is in the ‘screening request’ document, which you can read online. However, this time there’s even less detail – no mention of a data centre, for example, in spite of the fact that a data centre, logistics warehouses, or virtually any industrial use, would be covered by the use classes listed. No landscape impact assessment is included, concealing the huge scale and appearance of the buildings, and there is no intention to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment- which would involve the public.
Mango Planning, the applicant’s agent, has argued that an Environmental Impact Statement should not be required, and the County Council has written a letter agreeing. By not admitting they intend to sell the land for uses including a data centre they aim to conceal the horrendous potential impacts on air quality, human health and the natural environment, as well as on the landscape itself.
The agent actually claims this gross and inappropriate development in a Site of Special Scientific Interest, high value landscape and Conservation Target Area, surrounded by farmland, footpaths and bridleways, would have ‘relatively limited impact’, and that ‘localised impacts can be mitigated’.
IF YOU DISAGREE, LET OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL KNOW!
Here’s the link to the documents submitted: https://myeplanning.oxfordshire.gov.uk/Planning/Display/MW.0140/23/#undefined
Wicklesham Quarry and the land south of the A420 between Faringdon, Galley Hill, Ringdale and Fernham form a pristine area of the Mid-Vale Ridge, a key area for biodiversity and geodiversity in West Oxfordshire Heights Conservation Target Area, and one of the country’s earliest Sites of Special Scientific Interest, listed in 1950.
Wicklesham Quarry is a ‘Geological Conservation Review Site’ with fossils that exist nowhere else in the world. It is of international importance, a principal site in the history of science, and an important site for geological research, for which access to the base is essential. Many questions regarding this remarkable site have yet to be answered. It has finally been returned to agricultural use according to planning conditions, at the centre of a much loved landscape for the people of Faringdon and surrounding villages who enjoy the footpaths, views, wildlife and natural environment, and who run, walk, and ride here on a daily basis, in all seasons.
Environmental destruction of Priority Habitat
The applicants actually hope to strengthen their case by claiming that the ponds- which had to be preserved as part of the Restoration Scheme - have dried up! Yet, in spite of clear evidence of attempts to trash the ponds and fill them in, photographed by a County Council Monitoring Officer, the County Ecologist in 2018 found DNA of the Great Crested Newts, for whom the quarry’s residual ponds are still a breeding habitat. Fed by the water table, the mature ponds were formerly 1 metre deep, and .25 metre, and held water all year round, but in 2019, three years after the destruction, they were described as ‘shallow depressions’. This unforgiveable vandalism was carried out under the nose of the County Council, which was responsible for their preservation. Since then County Council Directors have been in denial of the destruction carried out on their watch, and failed to cooperate with a police investigation. Are local people supposed to trust this Council now?
We are hardly surprised at this shameful destruction. In 2009 the landowner published his 'Justification' for building an industrial estate in the quarry, stating the “quarry floor [will be built up] by a depth of one metre” to counteract “the high water table”, and “the pond at the western end of the quarry will be filled in”. Now, that’s something else the screening application forgot to mention…
In our view, Oxfordshire County Council has no remit to determine this application. The Council has repeatedly failed in its responsibilities to local people, wildlife and the vulnerable ecology of Faringdon’s unique and historic environmental site. Without a High Court case brought by local people in 2017, the Restoration and Aftercare Schemes would never have been carried out.
We will continue to fight to Protect Wicklesham Quarry from Development. Please help us!
Get in touch if you would like photographs, surveys, reports, or further information about the SSSI, ponds, Restoration Scheme, GCNs, etc. You can also find information by clicking on ‘more updates’ at the bottom of the main petition page. Email: protectwicklesham @gmail.com