There is a potential public health scandal waiting for those who continue to build (and have already built) on highly contaminated land at Upper Heyford.

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of synthetic, non-degradable chemicals widely used in industrial and consumer products for their water-, heat-, and stain-resistant properties. When people live or work around large concentrations of these “forever chemicals,” long-term exposure and accumulation in the body can lead to severe health risks, including kidney and testicular cancers, liver damage, thyroid disease, and immune system disruption. Over 15,000 personal injury lawsuits are currently consolidated in a U.S. federal court (a Multidistrict Litigation, or MDL)

There are links here (BBC News 25/6/26, 20/5/26, 12/6/26 and 23/6/26) to earlier BBC News coverage of the situation, but many of us are still waiting for updates from OCC, CDC and The Environment Agency.

Developers—including Dorchester Living, Barratt Redrow, David Wilson, and Richborough—continue to push forward with the £4.7 billion project to build 10,000 new homes and related facilities. In doing so, they seem to ignore calls to pause for critical testing, safeguarding, and remediation to protect both current residents and prospective buyers. 1300 homes have already been built on this site and residents have called for action. Developer profit must not be put ahead of public and environmental safety.

Dorchester Living have even made an application this summer (avoiding public objection and comment) relating to 62 houses and a sports centre which will be within 200 metres of sites which have been tested and found to have significant levels of toxic PFAS contamination in surface water. The site is also within 300 metres of a stream where 42,174ngl of PFAS was recorded (43,000 times the safe level).

The Gallos Brook Team has been carrying out testing on more sites with readings which demonstrate the wide spread concerns, not only to those living and working in Upper Heyford, but further afield in Ardley, Bucknell, Baynards Green and Stoke Lyne. Look out for our next update, where we will share the readings. This area is possibly subject to unprecedented development (13 proposals within a 5 mile radius of Bicester) and each of these sites (downstream of the northern bomb stores at RAF Upper Heyford) are likely to have soil and water running through them which contain high levels of PFAS “forever chemicals”.

WHAT YOU CAN DO?

Email: planning@cherwell-dc.gov.uk stating your reasons for objecting to Dorchester Living’s most recent application (reference 26/01163/REM) on the grounds of PFAS testing and remediation and public and environmental safety being of local and national importance.

Email our MP: calum.miller.mp@parliament.uk to ask for him to raise this issue in parliament again. We will not go quiet about this when human lives and the environment are being affected.