Above: Some of Faringdon's already-allocated strategic 'employment land' in 2014 from the map in Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan, including the 4&20 site (corner of Park Road & the A420), which remained undeveloped from 2006-2015.

Whether you are a supporter of the campaign to Protect Wicklesham Quarry from Development or not – everyone in Faringdon should be interested in knowing the answer. Who was the neighbourhood plan really intended to benefit? The residents of Faringdon - or the developers who formed the Employment Land Group, wrote policies for their own land and even wrote their own ‘evidence’??*  Please help me by dropping your own email to Faringdon Council:  townclerk@faringdontowncouncil.gov.uk

(*If you want to read this 'evidence', you can find it on Faringdon Council’s website- an appendix to the neighbourhood plan titled Our Future Our Faringdon, written by one of Wicklesham Farm’s owners, a member of the Steering Group. Alternatively, drop an email to protectwicklesham@gmail.com and I’ll send it to you.) Below is the email I will be sending to Faringdon Council. PLEASE HELP ME BY SENDING YOUR OWN EMAIL.

Dear Faringdon Town Clerk,

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION UNDER FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT/ ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS

Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan’s Policy 4.5B relating to Wicklesham Quarry states:

‘Employment development will be supported on this site if no other suitable sites closer to the town centre are available, providing there is demonstrable need’.

• As the Council is aware, ‘proportionate, robust evidence should support the choices made’ by a Neighbourhood Plan (Paragraph 040 Neighbourhood Planning Guidance). Since this is also a stated condition of the policy, please can you tell me what proportionate, robust evidence there is of ‘demonstrable need’ for a major, strategic development on top of Wicklesham Quarry Site of Special Scientific Interest?

(1) Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan does not provide any evidence of ‘demonstrable need’. There are numerous errors and erroneous assumptions in the Evidence Base and Appendix ‘Our Future Our Faringdon’, a document not based on substantive data, and which was not subject to scrutiny in the neighbourhood plan examination. The Vale of White Horse District Council, to whom Faringdon Council presented this evidence in the Stage 2 Examination of the 2031 Local Plan on Matter 10 – Strategy for the Western Vale, stated:-

‘the Council considers that no clear or persuasive evidence has been submitted to the Council to demonstrate or indeed promote any alternative sites specifically for strategic employment use in this Sub-Area.’

The Council referred specifically to Wicklesham Quarry, and once again rejected it as a strategic employment site. 

• In short, Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan contains no evidence of ‘demonstrable need’ or any 'clear and persuasive evidence' to justify the use of Wicklesham Quarry as employment land.

(2) In 2015, the author of ‘Our Future Our Faringdon’ was involved in the change of use from employment to retail use of land she owned, the 4&20 site, between Park Road and the A420, because there was 'no demonstrable need' for this employment site, while claiming in her role in Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan’s Steering Group that Wicklesham Quarry was essential to the town’s economic needs.

The same developer who applied for change of use of the 4&20 site in 2015, claiming Faringdon did not need this employment land, is now seeking permission for a 29,500 square metre development on top of Wicklesham Quarry SSSI - an area larger than all Faringdon's existing strategic employment land. His evidence is the Neighbourhood Plan, which the District Council found to be neither 'clear nor persuasive'. 

•  In conclusion therefore, what 'proportionate, robust evidence' can Faringdon Council give of any ‘demonstrable need’ for a major development on top of Wicklesham Quarry, which is a principal condition of Policy 4.5B?

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Yours sincerely

* https://www.gov.uk/guidance/neighbourhood-planning--2

The applicants, who have recently submitted yet another batch of around nine documents, continue to rely on Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan’s Policy 4.5B- in spite of the fact that the neighbourhood plan has been ruled by the High Court to have failed to meet the Basic Conditions. In addition to our previous substantive objections on numerous grounds, we shall examine the failure of the application to meet the ‘conditions’ contained in the neighbourhood plan policy, in order to submit further solid objections in the present consultation- which I warmly encourage Wicklesham supporters to do - yet again! The present consultation goes on for around 3 weeks.

PLEASE HELP ME BY SENDING YOUR OWN EMAIL TO FARINGDON COUNCIL ASKING FOR THE EVIDENCE OF ‘DEMONSTRABLE NEED’ FOR A MAJOR DEVELOPMENT ON TOP OF WICKLESHAM QUARRY, AS REQUIRED BY POLICY 4.5B.

Further posts in the coming weeks will look at whether this planning application meets ANY of the so-called ‘conditions’ contained in the unlawful* Policy 4.5B. You may be interested in an earlier update on The Employment Land Scam Part 2, which contains additional background on Faringdon Council’s historic role in supporting the ambitions of local landowner-developers: https://www.change.org/p/the-vale-of-white-horse-district-council-and-secretary-of-state-michael-gove-protect-wicklesham-quarry-from-development/u/33413100

• *Only a neighbourhood plan that meets each of a set of basic conditons can be put to a referendum and can be made. Paragraph 065
• A neighbourhood plan must be in general conformity with, and plan positively to support, the strategic policies of the development plan. Paragraph: 036 

Please get in touch with any comments or questions: protectwicklesham@gmail.com, and please let me know what response you receive from Faringdon Council.