Upper Heyford PFAS pollution

Posted: 26th June 2026

A fire-fighting practice area has come under suspicion in investigations to find the source of “forever chemicals” (PFAS) at Heyford Park in North Oxfordshire. Fire-fighting foams were used at the former airbase, including an “Adjacent Fire Practice Pond” which emptied into storm-water drainage.

Recently, the Gallos Brook stream at the site was found to have the UK’s highest concentration of PFAS. No PFAS testing was carried out before the RAF disposed of the site in the mid-1990s; since then, extensive house-building has taken place, and a new town with a further 9,000 homes is proposed.

Documents supplied by the Ministry of Defence to local MP Calum Miller concede that the site was known to represent a “potentially serious risk to the environment”, but that rather than remove contaminated soil, the MoD decided simply to “provide information to potential developers”.

Miller has called for targeted testing to identify the source of PFAS, and “a coordinated response” to involve the Environment Agency, the MoD and the UK Health Security Agency. He called an April public meeting “an urgent wake-up call… I was shocked by what I heard”. Cherwell District Council has stressed “there is no evidence to suggest an immediate risk to the health of residents”, but says it will “take a precautionary and evidence-led approach” when judging future planning applications for Heyford Park. 

Oxford Clarion 26th June 2026.

PFAS in UK: The Gallos Brook Disaster

THIS IS VERY SERIOIUS – Please read

https://www.militarypoisons.org/latest-news/the-gallos-brook-disaster

Contamination at Upper Heyford and also mentioned – Fairford.