Forget horses. How about my kingdom for a driverless car?
A HUGE testing track for new driverless cars is set to be built on a corner of the battlefield where King Richard III was killed.
Councillors are expected to approve this week the controversial application to construct a 300-yard-wide circular track partially on the site of the historic Bosworth battlefield in Leicestershire, where the decisive confrontation of the Wars of the Roses took place in 1485.
The £26 million plan also involves building a 400-yard approach road, a twostorey control tower and a storage facility.
It will allow high-tech autonomous vehicles to be tested at up to 155mph on the 83-acre site owned by Horiba Mira Ltd, and will create at least 250 jobs.
But concerns have been raised about the impact of the development on the battlefield, where a pivotal moment in English history took place.
Richard III was the last King to be killed in battle and his death – leading to the Tudor dynasty – was immortalised by William Shakespeare with the line: ‘A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!’
Historic England said: ‘An assessment has demonstrated the development proposal would cause some harm to the significance of the registered battlefield.’
But Hinckley & Bosworth Council concluded: ‘The public benefits to be delivered by the proposal are considerable and outweigh the less than substantial harm caused.’