First: Wicklesham Quarry, next: the Midvale Ridge - Come on Faringdon! TOGETHER WE'LL WIN THIS CASE!
Above: lovely rainy landscape at Wicklesham Quarry SSSI with the unconfined aquifer* at ground level (Thanks, Sarah!)
FIRST: WICKLESHAM QUARRY SSSI - SECOND: THE MIDVALE RIDGE.
IF WE STOP THE FIRST WE WILL PREVENT THE SECOND.
The Friends of Wicklesham Quarry will bring a legal challenge to Oxfordshire County Council’s decision to allow Faringdon’s most important environmental site to be concreted over for a vast industrial/ commercial development that FARINGDON DOES NOT NEED OR WANT.
The same developer (owner of Wicklesham Farm) has SUBMITTED PLANS FOR 2,500 HOUSES on the Midvale Ridge south of the A420. #
* WE NEED THE SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE OF FARINGDON & THE WESTERN VALE TO HELP US WIN THIS CASE.*
PLEASE MAKE A DONATION TODAY TO:
- Account name: FRIENDS OF WICKLESHAM QUARRY
- Account no: 13348663
- Sort Code: 30-54-66
Hundreds of local people OBJECTED to Oxfordshire County Council about
- The obliteration of our internationally famous Site of Special Scientific Interest- almost the whole of which WILL BE DE-NOTIFIED
- the destruction of the ‘valued landscape’ of the Midvale Ridge – a National Character Area
- irreversible damage to the rare ecology of Wicklesham Quarry and to West Oxfordshire Heights Conservation Target Area
NONE OF THESE ISSUES WERE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT!
County Councillors made this decision -
- with NO Environmental Impact Assessment - in spite of dozens of objections
- with NO mandatory survey & assessment of the SSSI
- with NO required Biodiversity Report by TVERC.
County Council Officers -
- IGNORED Natural England’s advice and MISREPORTED it to Councillors.
- FAILED to tell Councillors that the UK’s leading scientific bodies – the GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY and the PALEONTOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION –objected to the development.
- TOLD Councillors that Faringdon was ‘in the Southeast Vale’ (It's NOT!)
- ADVISED Councillors that the ‘neighbourhood plan’ was ‘part of the Local Plan’ (It's NOT!)
These are just a FEW of the major flaws in this planning travesty. WITH YOUR SUPPORT WE WILL WIN THIS CASE & PROTECT FARINGDON'S GLOBALLY UNIQUE SSSI AND THE LANDSCAPE OF THE MIDVALE RIDGE.
Please help us by making a donation today! Thank you for your support!
- https://www.change.org/p/the-vale-of-white-horse-district-council-and-secretary-of-state-michael-gove-protect-wicklesham-quarry-from-development/u/34836752
- Proposal for 2,500 houses - see pages 242-403: https://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/01/JLP-Reg-18-Part-1-Responses-H.pdf