Residents living near the former RAF Upper Heyford base say fears over “forever chemicals” are changing daily habits, fuelling anxiety and eroding trust in authorities.
Recent testing of watercourses near the site found polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at levels up to 43,000 times higher than accepted environmental standards.
PFAS, commonly linked to firefighting foams used at military sites, are highly persistent and can build up in people and wildlife over time.
Despite this, development at Heyford Park is well under way. Around 1,200 of a proposed 13,000 homes have already been built over the past 15 years as part of a £5bn scheme by Dorchester Living.
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One man who has lived nearby for more than 30 years believes there is a “disproportionate” number of cancer cases close to the watercourse.
He said some residents have stopped letting their dogs enter the stream and criticised what he described as a “total lack of direct information” from Cherwell District Council and the Environment Agency.
He believes further development should be halted pending more comprehensive land and water testing.
A local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said she first heard about PFAS from another parent and initially dismissed it as “another potential carcinogenic substance like burnt sausages”.
After researching further, she is now “extremely worried”, no longer allows her children near local streams and avoids local produce.
“I could cry thinking about it,” she said. “I have had sleepless nights and quite a lot of nightmares about the contamination. Everywhere I look I can see PFAS and I second guess if I should be eating my strawberries or keeping my chickens.”
A local mother Sophie Law said she learned of the issue via a village WhatsApp group and is “extremely worried” about exposing her children to harmful chemicals.
She has installed a water filter, stopped buying local food and no longer allows her children to play near streams, describing the loss of farm-shop shopping as a “great sadness”.
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Residents praised local MP Calum Miller after he raised the issue in Parliament, prompting the Prime Minister to say ministers would meet him and “ensure suitable measures are implemented”.
Key questions remain over health risks, long-term testing and whether development will continue, as the Environment Agency failed to provide an update on Government intervention.
In a statement, the agency said it is: “currently unable to support the development at Heyford Park as the application doesn’t demonstrate the risk of pollution to water quality from wastewater and drainage can be managed safely.”
It does not assess third-party evidence, meaning nearby watercourse testing would not form part of its advice, but said it supports citizen science and could reconsider if risks are addressed.
Cherwell District Council was contacted for a comment.
