Unacceptable concentrations of polyfluoroalkyl substances were traced to a former firefighter training ground on the Oxfordshire site, eclipsing previous national records found in Bentham, Yorkshire. Widespread water sampling confirmed chemical levels above environmental safety standards across the base, a school location, and more than a dozen adjacent streams. Developer Dorchester Living maintains that targeted soil tests show residential plots are safe and that a phased remediation strategy can resolve the problem. Local MP Calum Miller and residents have called for thorough testing to ensure public health is protected.
Key points
The presence of cancer-linked chemicals complicates plans to construct 9,000 homes on the…: The presence of cancer-linked chemicals complicates plans to construct 9,000 homes on the former military facility.
A joint working group including Cherwell District Council and the Environment Agency has…: A joint working group including Cherwell District Council and the Environment Agency has formed to manage the contamination.
Worried local residents have voiced serious health fears and requested personal blood tes…: Worried local residents have voiced serious health fears and requested personal blood testing following the findings.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
- Published
Chemical contamination at a former RAF base earmarked for 9,000 homes is the worst found in the UK, a report has said.
Testing at RAF Upper Heyford carried out on behalf of a developer found "unacceptable" levels of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), referred to as forever chemicals.
Fears have been raised previously that the site could be the source of pollution in nearby waterways, after earlier testing by campaigners and the Environment Agency.
Paul Silver, chief executive of developer Dorchester Living, said separate soil samples taken from residential areas showed the area was "safe for use".
PFAS are a group of thousands of man-made chemicals, some of which can cause cancer, which are often referred to as forever chemicals because they do not break down easily.
The results of the site investigations were uploaded to Cherwell District Council's website as part of a planning application.
The author of the report said they were higher than the village of Bentham, Yorkshire, "determined as having the highest level of PFAS in the UK".
The Environment Agency (EA) said military sites and…
Severe weather triggered by the storm has claimed at least nine lives and caused extensive agricultural devastation across coastal Andhra Pradesh. In response to the crisis, central disaster teams have joined state-level personnel to accelerate rescue operations across several impacted regions. Federal authorities are also preparing to deploy formal assessment teams to gauge the full extent of the destruction and allocate resources accordingly.
Decades after acquiring flood-vulnerable land to block commercial development, Hendersonville municipal leaders completed the first phase of the Lower Mud Creek Floodplain Restoration Project. The engineering effort reconnects altered waterways to absorb heavy stormwater runoff and safeguard nearly one hundred neighborhood parcels. Beyond disaster mitigation, the revitalized ecosystem introduces community greenways, native plantings, and recreational trails for local residents.
Severe weather battered Andhra Pradesh after Cyclone Arnab made landfall as a very severe cyclonic storm early Wednesday, toppling thousands of utility poles and grounding a foreign cargo vessel offshore. Prior to the impact, authorities used advanced tracking technology to evacuate more than 180,000 residents across two coastal states, which helped mitigate the disaster's overall toll. While power restoration is broadly underway, multiple districts continue to suffer from outages alongside disruptions to regional…