Bugatti battle rocks Harry’s sleepy village
IT’S the Cotswolds village so idyllic that Harry and Meghan are reportedly on the brink of setting up home there.
Yet all is not as tranquil as it seems in Great Tew.
Plans to develop the biggest classic car museum in the world in the sleepy Oxfordshire village have torn the community apart.
On one side are Great Tew estate owner Nick Johnston and American multi-millionaire and Bugatti fan Peter Mullin. They want to build an exhibition hall to show off hundreds of vintage cars which could attract 200,000 visitors a year.
They also hope to build 28 luxury holiday homes to sell to wealthy car enthusiasts – a project that alone could raise almost £33 million.
On the other side are villagers and nearby residents including Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart and retired judge Charles Harris QC, who are campaigning to have the plans rejected.
Profits from the development will reportedly go towards restoring the dilapidated Grade II- listed manor house on Johnston’s estate rather than the affordable housing locals need.
Sir Patrick has openly criticised the plans as ‘commercial and elitist’.
Harry, who has owned several fast cars including a £72,000 Audi RS6 – and famously drove Meghan away from their wedding in a vintage E-type Jaguar – might actually enjoy a day out at the museum. But locals claim it is simply a cover for what they describe as a ‘large and lucrative housing development’ on greenfield land. There have been more than 250 complaints and the campaign is having some suc- cess. West Oxfordshire Council confirmed the scheme is now on hold as the developers consider the ‘main planning issues that needed to be addressed’.
Mr Johnston and his fellow developers declined to comment.