Another planning application has been submitted for the enormous industrial infrastructure development at Wicklesham Quarry SSSI, this time to Oxfordshire County Council, after the Vale withdrew it in July on the basis that it was a ‘county matter’. IT’S NOW OR NEVER. Local people must make their views heard to stop this horrific proposal. Faringdon and the Western Vale villages must come together to fight this- before it’s TOO LATE. Wicklesham Quarry is an internationally famous Site of Special Scientific Interest, a ‘type site’, with fossils that exist nowhere else in the world. Building on the base will mean the end of scientific research at this unique site. It is also a Conservation Target Area in Oxfordshire’s Biodiversity Action Plan, and has Priority Habitat and a European Protected Species. Wicklesham Quarry SSSI is Faringdon's most important environmental and scientific site.
Please come to a meeting for local supporters on WEDNESDAY 15TH NOVEMBER at 7.00pm, at Little Coxwell Village Hall. Wicklesham Quarry needs you!
Yet again, no information is being given to Faringdon residents to enable them to take part in the public consultation. IF WE DON’T LET PEOPLE KNOW, NO ONE WILL! The deadline for public comments is 7th DECEMBER 2023. You can see the application documents and submit comments here: https://myeplanning.oxfordshire.gov.uk/Planning/Display/MW.0151/23/#undefined There is helpful guidance on what kind of comments you might want to submit, and the petition updates are all accessible on the main page for more detailed information.
Don’t let Faringdon sleep-walk into an environmental nightmare.
PLEASE HELP! COME TO THE PLANNING MEETING ON 15TH NOVEMBER AND BRING A FRIEND! The more people who can help out, the less each of us will have to do. Even if you can only spare an hour, YOUR contribution will help to protect Faringdon and the Western Vale.
What are the dangers? The proposal is for seven 80’ high blocks and 2 multi-storey carparks, for unspecified industrial uses, barely ¼ mile from the new school and housing, south of the A420.
The applicants, Spencer Cooper and landowner Tom Allen-Stevens, claim ‘reference to a data centre has been removed from the description of development and will no longer form part of any proposal’. Is it the ‘reference’ they’re removing or the data centre? Average sized data centres use as much water and electricity as medium-sized towns. They release toxic chemicals into the drainage system, and in a power cut, they run on a back-up system of diesel-fuelled generators, releasing black clouds of particulate diesel fumes into the air.
Only three weeks ago the use of diesel-fuelled generators and data centre were confirmed in the application for a Screening Opinion. Now the developers state the data centre - or rather ‘reference’ to it- has been dropped. Will it suddenly reappear? The fact that ‘all matters are reserved’ apart from access, means no one can know what uses will be made of the site, or the consequences for air and water pollution, energy use or infrastructure. Hiding the uses that could be made of this vast site should concern us all, since it suggests they don’t want us to know. This planning application asks the council for a blank cheque to develop a site of over 42,000 square metres- for who knows what purpose?
This development would be disastrous for traffic on the A420 and in Faringdon, bringing a huge amount of additional traffic into the most congested area of Faringdon - the roundabout between Park Road and the A420. As local residents know all too well, Park Road is frequently backed up, creating gridlock in the town centre.
The enormous structures shown in the masterplan will block views between Faringdon and Galley Hill, and loom over the footpaths and bridleway that many people use on a daily basis, as well as houses alongside Wicklesham Quarry. This development would destroy a pristine area of the Mid-Vale Ridge, deface the landscape setting of Faringdon, and create huge urban sprawl into a much-loved area of countryside.
This proposal relies on Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan that the High Court ruled in 2017 failed to meet the 'Basic Conditions' and was in conflict with the Local Plan - because of the policy relating to Wicklesham Quarry SSSI. The judgment states:
“Neither the examiner nor the District Council were lawfully satisfied that the FNP satisfied the basic condition that the making of the plan was in general conformity with the strategic policies contained in the development plan”.
So why is this happening? The Vale of White Horse District Council went ahead with a referendum in 2016, even though they knew a Judicial Review had been granted. They subsequently adopted the Neighbourhood Plan. The result is a legal anomaly, but we will make sure Councillors understand what is at stake.
Faringdon Council has failed to correct the glaring ‘errors’ in the neighbourhood plan, such as the claim that Wicklesham Quarry is a ‘brownfield’ site, because these and similar claims persuaded (some) Faringdon residents to vote for the plan. Faringdon residents have since told the Town Council they were ‘misled’ by the Neighbourhood Plan.
Why not contact Faringdon District and County Councillors and ask them what they are doing to put right this environmental injustice and travesty of local democracy – BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
Faringdon District Councillors are: Bethia.Thomas@whitehorsedc.gov.uk and lucy.edwards@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
Bethia Thomas is also a County Councillor: bethia.thomas@oxfordshire.gov.uk
If you can’t make 15th November but want to help, please drop an email to: protectwicklesham@gmail.com Wicklesham needs you!