I have today sent the following email to Nicholas Perrins, Head of Strategic Planning at Oxfordshire County Council.

"Dear Mr Perrins,

This application has been lodged with the Council for about a year, and subject to several rounds of scarcely amended documents without being determined. 
As respondents to successive consultations have pointed out, each new batch of documents invariably fails to address clear and substantial objections on the grounds of :-

• traffic and the impacts on the road network;
• flawed calculations and inadequate information on the loss of biodiversity;
• flawed impact assessments on landscape, amenity, and properties adjacent to Wicklesham Quarry, the existence of which has not even been acknowledged.

In addition, the applicants fail to address:-

• the manifest harm to a nationally designated Site of Special Scientific Interest;
•  harm to the character and appearance of the landscape of the Midvale Ridge;
•  and the loss of an important site of bio and geodiversity within West Oxfordshire Heights Conservation Target Area.

These are just some of numerous significant areas of objection to which the applicants have markedly failed to respond. They similarly ignore substantial objections to (a) the principle of seeking to use a neighbourhood plan to override the Spatial Plan and strategic policies of the Local Plan; (b) the fact that the site is outside the development boundary of the town, and (c) the proposal is for a major strategic development. 

It seems clear that the reason the applicants choose to ignore these many objections is that there is nothing they can do to remove or alleviate them. 

Local people are increasingly questioning why this application has not already been determined, and exactly how long the County Council considers it is acceptable for this excessively prolonged period of successive minor amendments and consultations to be drawn out. Is there a limit to the number of repeated, minor amendments you are willing to entertain? 

It should be abundantly clear by now that the applicants are either unwilling or unable to address the areas of objection to which I have referred, and that, in the interests of flagging public confidence, the application should be determined without further delay. 
Please can you advise me whether you have now drawn a line under any further amendments to this application? And when it will be determined in the interests of the public? Many local people are deeply involved with, and affected by, the future of Wicklesham Quarry SSSI, Faringdon's most important environmental site, and the more protracted this process has become, the more disenchanted and distressed many people feel, and the more the planning system itself risks losing public confidence.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Kind regards,

Dr Anna Hoare"