Faringdon Council has been promoting green field land for development, including Wicklesham Quarry, for the past twenty years. The fact that there was no evidence of demand for two previous sites (former Rogers Concrete and the 4&20 site) has not stopped Faringdon Council from continuing to promote ‘employment land’ on behalf of the same landowners. These owners have REFUSED OFFERS and then claimed the land was not needed, in order to seek more profitable uses. There is even more reason to think exactly the same thing would happen to Wicklesham Quarry, an area of almost 30 acres, about the same size as the whole industrial area of Park Road. This unique and irreplaceable Site of Special Scientific Interest urgently needs your support! The consultation closes at midnight on 20th October. (Link below)

In 2012, two reports seeking to promote Wicklesham Quarry for employment use were submitted to the independent Employment Land Review carried out by URS Ltd on behalf of the Vale of White Horse District Council. The authors of these reports were Sarah Allen-Stevens and Councillor M. Wise – subsequently members of Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan’s ‘employment land group’. Their reports were rejected. Having been turned down in two Employment Land Reviews, the alliance between Faringdon Council and Wicklesham Farm’s owners became the core strategy of a neighbourhood plan, with the intention of seeking to override the strategic policies of the Local Plan. The Neighbourhood Plan was subsequently ruled to be unlawful, because it failed to meet the 'basic conditions'.

Faringdon Town Council (a Parish Council) habitually adopts a stance of opposition to the District Council. Its latest statements on Oxfordshire County Council’s planning portal are examined below. Ironically, the Town Council recently objected to a planning application for a single rural worker’s dwelling within the curtilage of Step Farm, Highworth Road, stating:

‘the proposal is outside the town development envelope and FTC want to avoid an unwanted precedent being set for further development along this road.’  (Planning & Highways Committee Minutes, June 2025). In fact, the Step Farm application, supporting agricultural employment, is wholly in line with the Local Plan. 

Faringdon Council’s inconsistency is staggering, considering its support for a 29,570 square metre development which is (i) on top of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, (ii) outside the development boundary, (iii) on a site that has been repeatedly rejected for employment use. In Faringdon, ‘development boundaries’ appear and disappear depending on circumstances, and who is in favour with Faringdon Council.

• FARINGDON COUNCIL’S LATEST CLAIMS

Faringdon Council’s latest comments on OCC's Planning Portal in support of an enormous commercial/ industrial development on our unique Site of Special Scientific Interest are typically misleading. The Council claims:

 ‘the emerging Local Plan has no proposals for the development of Faringdon to complement the 83% increase in housing that has occurred over the last 25 years.’         Is this correct? NO! READ ON.

Office of National Statistics figures

• POPULATION – over 10 years
• In 2012 the population of Great Faringdon Parish was 7,427. (Great Faringdon Parish extends from Radcot to Ringdale Hill - half-way to Fernham).
• In 2022 the population of the Parish of Great Faringdon was 8,748.

The population increase over ten years was therefore 18%, or 1321 individuals.  (ONS Data from Faringdon Community Profile, Oxfordshire Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) 2024)

• HOUSEHOLDS – over 20 years
• In 2001 Faringdon Parish had 2,627 households
• In 2021 there were 3,346 households- an increase of 27.4% in 20 years.

None of this resembles Faringdon Council’s unattributed claim of an ‘83%’ increase in houses. The neighbourhood plan contains similar, wildly exaggerated calculations of population growth. It claims that ‘planned housing developments, approved or under construction, [are] likely to add another 22% to the current (December 2013) population taking it to almost 10,000,’  and that ‘additional sites allocated in the Vale’s emerging Local Plan will increase this number to around 11,000’ (FNP p. 13).

• THE POPULATION FIGURES IN FARINGDON NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN ARE TOTALLY INACCURATE.
• THE 2022 POPULATION OF FARINGDON PARISH WAS 8,748 – NOT 11,000 - A DIFFERENCE OF AROUND 25%.

Local people who have requested information under Environmental Regulations for evidence of 'DEMONSTRABLE NEED’– which is a condition of the neighbourhood plan policy to build on top of Wicklesham Quarry SSSI -  have been referred to these sections of the neighbourhood plan. It is clear that Faringdon neighbourhood plan does NOT provide evidence of ‘demonstrable need’, in fact- it makes wholly incorrect claims and miscalcalculations.

Neither is it the case that the District Council has failed to make robust, independent estimates of the need for employment land. The truth that Faringdon Council and local landowners do not want to admit is that FARINGDON HAS BEEN OVER-SUPPLIED WITH EMPLOYMENT LAND OVER SEVERAL DECADES.

• MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT ‘EMPLOYMENT LAND’

Faringdon Council’s ‘Evidence Base’ is full of similar miscalculations and misunderstandings, as is the document ‘Our Future Our Faringdon’. Both were written by the Steering Group members cited above.

• The Neighbourhood Plan documents fail to recognize that around half of all jobs are NOT on employment land.

In 2021 Faringdon’s workforce was 4,419 (ONS). 3 of the largest employment sectors were Health and Social Work, Education, and Public Administration, Defence and Social Security. Together they accounted for 35% of the jobs of Faringdon’s workforce – and NONE of these jobs or sectors requires ‘employment land’.

If Construction and the Accommodation and Hospitality industry are added to these three, the total number covers 48% of all the jobs people do in Faringdon, that do NOT require ‘employment land’. These are only five of a total of 99 possible employment sectors listed in the ONS 2021 data on Faringdon. Many others also do NOT require ‘employment land’. Faringdon neighbourhood plan’s 'Evidence Base' makes no allowance for the fact that many new and existing jobs DO NOT NEED ‘employment land’.

Faringdon Council’s neighbourhood plan’s ‘Evidence’ was put forward to argue for the inclusion of Wicklesham Quarry as a strategic employment site in the 2031 Local Plan in 2016. The Vale dismissed it as ‘neither clear nor persuasive’, and the Examiner supported the District Council. 

LET’S MAKE SURE THAT OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL SEES THROUGH THE FAKE CLAIMS AND MISCALCULATIONS OF FARINGDON NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS/ OBJECTIONS BY MIDNIGHT 20TH OCTOBER.  THIS MAY BE OUR LAST CHANCE! https://myeplanning.oxfordshire.gov.uk/Planning/Comment/MW.0151/23/ OR SEND THEM BY EMAIL TO planning@oxfordshire.gov.uk

You can find all earlier updates with much more information on Wicklesham Quarry by scrolling to the bottom of the page. Keep in touch by email: protectwicklesham@gmail.com

Thank you for supporting this unique Site of Special Scientific Interest. Local people have fought to defend it since 2014, and WE NEED YOUR VOICE!