The following letter was sent to me by a friend who saw it, I believe, on
the Oxford Pagan Circle newsgroup pages:

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Some Oxford people might be interested in the following issue:

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George Stag
West Oxfordshire County Council
April 17, 2000


Dear Mr Stag

Re: Cornbury Estate/Wychwood Forest (Map reference 347172)
Further to our telephone conversation today, please could you 
formally investigate the following complaint, as a possible planning 
or convervation violation.

A possible violation of planning and conservation law has occurred in 
Wychwood forest on the route of the 'Palm Sunday' Walk from Leafield 
to the 'holy well' in heart of the forest, along historical trackways 
and sites of outstanding natural beauty.  New 'industrial style' 
fences have been erected on both sides of the public footpath across 
the dam and for about a quarter of a mile either way.  As these 
fences are about eight to ten feet in height and topped with barbed 
wire, they would requite planning permission as they obstruct the 
historic views of the lake and are not built in an appropriate style. 

New buildings are also being built within sight of the footpath, new 
roads laid, the woodyard redeveloped, part of the ancient grove 
cleared and the basin and site of the ancient holy well (the focus of 
the historic palm Sunday walk), rebuilt in an inappropriate manner.  
Some of this development may be acceptable when the destroyed 
vegetation has time to regenerate, although the historic way to the 
well has been changed without consultation.  The primary concern is 
the nature of the new fencing which has also extended to areas that 
were not previously fenced.  After a brief talk with your planning 
department, no planning application was found; (if one were 
subsequently found I would like to formally object to that).  But in 
the absence of planning permission or a conservation consultation, I 
would like to formally request that your department investigates a 
possible breach of planning and conservation law.

Yours sincerely




Chris Morgan

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You may want to phone West Oxford DC and register your own thoughts - 
the owners of the cornbury estate recently lost a court action over 
the footpath and this may well be their spiteful response.  If you 
know the site you might be shocked when you next visit.

Mogg


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