‘Jumping’ the A420 to get permission for a vast commercial/ industrial development on Wicklesham Quarry SSSI outside Faringdon was the barrier the applicants needed to overcome to create a precedent and justification for the next stage in a plan that includes 2,500 houses on Wicklesham Farm. One of a series of misdirections given to County Councillors in the Officer’s Report to the planning meeting on 19 January was that setting a precedent was 'not a material consideration’. IT IS!

The plan to build 2,500 houses on Wicklesham Farm south of the A420 was submitted for inclusion in the 2041 South and Vale Local Plan. Now that Faringdon’s settlement boundary has been broken and its globally unique Site of Special Scientific Interest is set to be trashed by roads and buildings- the applicants believe nothing can prevent them building on the rest of Wicklesham Farm.

In the 2 minutes members of the public were allowed to address Councillors - during which I said:‘The aim of a major development on this site, outside the town and ‘far in excess’ of Faringdon’s ‘objectively assessed need’* is to create a precedent for building on the whole of Wicklesham Farm, an area the size of Faringdon south of the A420’ - one councillor was heard to say ‘We don’t have to think about that’.

ASK YOUR LOCAL COUNCILLORS TO WRITE TO LOCAL MP CHARLIE MAYNARD  TO ASK FOR HIS SUPPORT FOR THE REQUEST TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO CALL IN THIS APPLICATION. HUNDREDS OF LOCAL RESIDENTS, FOUR PARISH COUNCILS AND ALL LOCAL DISTRICT AND COUNTY COUNCILLORS OBJECTED TO THIS DEVELOPMENT. WE ARE NOW REQUESTING THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO CALL IT IN AND ORDER A PUBLIC PLANNING INQUIRY.

Besides misdirecting Councillors that setting a precedent was ‘not a material consideration’, the Council’s Legal Officer WRONGLY advised Committee members that ‘the neighbourhood plan is part of the Local Plan.’ She repeated this, making it clear she had no idea what she was talking about. The Case Officer then instructed Councillors to ‘give full weight to the neighbourhood plan’.

These serious misdirections reflect errors, omissions and inaccurate statements throughout the officer’s report, in what appears to be an intention of trying to push through an application for a major, strategic development on an unallocated site, in conflict with the spatial strategy and policies of the Local Plan, and in conflict with national policy.

Requirements of the County Council’s Validation List were missing from the application - including TVERC’s Biodiversity Report, a full flood risk assessment, and an assessment of harmful impacts on the Vale Way footpath, which will be cut off from long distance views of the Midvale Ridge. The application contains NO INFORMATION on how parking will be provided for a 29,570 sq m development- after the Landscape Officer ordered two multideck car parks to be removed.

• Councillors were not told:
• of the District Council’s repeated refusals to include Wicklesham Quarry as a strategic employment site in successive Local Plans, including the 2031 Local plan;
• that a neighbourhood plan policy cannot be the principle of development for a major strategic development on an unallocated site;
• that neighbourhood plans must support, and not seek to undermine the strategic policies of a Local Plan- including policies for Landscape, Conservation, and Development on unallocated sites;
•  of objections by the Geological Society and the Paleontological Association and other scientific experts.

• But Councillors WERE told:
• to ‘give full weight to the neighbourhood plan’;
• that it was ‘part of the Local Plan’;
• that building on top of the Site of Special Scientific Interest, Conservation Target Area and Midvale Ridge National Character Area was ‘sustainable development’;
• to ignore the applicant’s demonstrated intention to create a precedent in order to justify building on the whole of Wicklesham Farm. 

The same local developers who built supermarkets on what was supposed to be a ‘high quality business park’ on the edge of town – the 4&20 site - and asset-stripped the town of its town centre supermarket, several independent food retailers, the last bank, market place restaurant, and two historic pubs- - are about to turn Wicklesham Quarry into a huge, unsightly urban extension of Faringdon, claiming – irony of ironies – that they will deliver the town’s revival!

Building on Wicklesham Quarry means almost the whole Site of Special Scientific Interest will be delisted. Wicklesham Quarry is also a Conservation Target Area in Oxfordshire’s Biodiversity Action Plan, with over 30 Priority Species listed in TVERC’s Biodiversity Report, and located on the ‘valued landscape’ of the Midvale Ridge National Character Area. All these national policy designations and priorities are set to be trashed.

Here are a few of the comments made by County and District Council Officers – which County Councillors were encouraged to IGNORE:

• The form and scale of the proposals is discordant with that of the market town of Faringdon or its rural surroundings.
• The proposal would introduce lighting to a dark, rural location, which would further add to landscape and visual impacts… Noise and motion would be introduced to the site by the development and traffic.
• The development would fundamentally change and significantly affect the nature and expanse of views from a number of public vantage points. It would ‘jump’ the A420, which currently forms an effective southern edge to the expansion of Faringdon and introduce large incongruous built-form into the countryside affecting the setting of Faringdon.
• Whilst rock faces would be retained, their context would fundamentally change in character. The viewing corridor retains a narrow sight line to Folly Hill, but would fundamentally change the experience of this view.
• The scheme does not meet local planning policy requirements. 
• Previous comments still apply. The development is in conflict with local planning policy in particular VLP 2031 policies 37 (Design & Local Distinctiveness) and core policy 44 (Landscape), and Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan policies 4.5 b) and 4.7 e). 
• The application seeks approval for the principle of the development and its height, scale and massing, which is of key concern in landscape and visual terms…. The depth of the quarry is not 8m but varies from 3m to 8m… Landscaping is proposed within the quarry, rather than on the edge where it would be most effective.’
• Urban development of Wicklesham Quarry would cause ‘significant harm to landscape and amenity’, and to ‘the character and appearance of the Midvale Ridge’. 

ACT NOW AND HELP US TO GET THIS DISASTROUS DECISION CALLED IN. Contact your local councillors and ask them to request support from your MP by contacting the Secretary of State to request a call in of this application: ref. MW.0151/23- Wicklesham Quarry. 

*It is the role of the District Council as the Strategic Planning Authority to determine ‘objectively assessed need’ for employment land, and to set out how  sufficient land will be brought forward through the lifespan of the Local Plan. (National Planning Policy Framework paras 20-23)

Please get in touch with any comments or queries: protectwicklesham@gmail.com