Nigel: ‘This is a big storm in a teacup and 99% of what is being said is completely untrue’
Kirstie Allsopp, property guru and presenter of Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location, has committed the ultimate house-moving blunder.
On the face of it the sprawling Devonshire country pile she shares with her boyfriend Ben Andersen looks like the exemplification of all her best home-buying advice. With views across the Blackdown Hills of east Devon, an official area of outstanding natural beauty, locations don’t get much better than this.
Unfortunately, nobody mentioned the neighbour — Nigel Mansell, former Formula One world champion — with plans to build a £3m motor racing venue complete with 220-seat restaurant, 25,000 sq ft two-storey administration and spectator block and Formula Three workshops just down the road from Allsopp’s idyllic retreat in the village of Dunkeswell near Honiton. As Homer Simpson might have said — D’oh! A heavily pregnant Allsopp is now joining forces with residents to fight Mansell’s plans, which she warns could transform what was a weekend karting track for a few diehard enthusiasts into a major racing venue attracting hundreds of spectators, clogging the narrow country lanes with traffic, polluting an area of natural beauty and disturbing the peaceful atmosphere that attracts the tourists and ramblers to whom local businesses owe their livelihood.
“When you see how upset everyone is, it’s no use saying, I’m 8½ months pregnant, I want to put my feet up,” said Allsopp, who hopes her celebrity status can boost the Cancel Mansell (www.cancelmansell.com) campaign. “It’s just become clear that he has very big plans and this is just not the right place for them. There are so many places all over the country which are not areas of outstanding natural beauty and which aren’t accessed by three roads, two of which have bridges that can’t take heavy loads, and one of which goes through such a beautiful, peaceful little village.”
Advertisement
Allsopp is battling against a growing trend. The popularity of amateur track days has soared in recent years, thanks in part to shows like BBC2’s Top Gear, which celebrate the joy of driving powerful cars around circuits. Those who can’t afford a high-performance motor want to experience driving one for a day, while those who can are looking for a speed-camera-free zone to test their car’s potential. It’s a trend that has given a new lease of life to neglected race tracks and disused airfields up and down the country and boosted rural employment.
But when local residents suddenly find a rundown track transformed into a crowd-pulling attraction, with all the noise and traffic that entails, they do not always welcome the reversal of fortunes. The residents of Enstone and surrounding Oxfordshire villages blocked plans earlier this year to build a race track on Enstone airfield, which would also have provided a new home for Top Gear. The track would have been conveniently close to Jeremy Clarkson’s home in Chipping Norton, but locals successfully argued against the proposals on the grounds of noise and “environmental pollution”. Clarkson mischievously suggested using the village as a location for a Top Gear competition “to find Britain’s noisiest car”.
Allsopp insists she does not want to be a killjoy. “I have two young stepsons and everything with an engine here is worshipped. I’d love to take them both karting, but this is just not the right place.”
Mansell bought the Dunkeswell karting track and the surrounding land in 2005 to help further the motor racing careers of his sons Leo, 21, and Greg, 18, who had decided to follow in their father’s footsteps. The track first opened in 1971 with permission to hold nine kart race days during the year on Sundays with practice on Saturdays.
The first stage of Mansell’s planning application has already been passed, allowing him to lengthen the track.
Advertisement
He hopes to race karts and expand into the booming market for corporate driving days. Locals argue that the “aircraft-hangar-sized” building he plans to erect would be out of place in the rural environment and that a two-metre-high sound-reflecting fence he has installed is ineffective. But Mansell insists the fears are unfounded.
“All the concerns they (those opposing Mansell’s plans) have are spurious and untrue,” he said, speaking from Florida where he was on holiday last week.
“This is not a motor racing circuit, it is a kart racing circuit. We have made fantastic gains in noise reduction with the best soundproofing fence currently on the market. It has been proved in laboratory testing how successful it is. In tests it reduced noise by 39 decibels. But, with respect, there are noise issues everywhere.”
Mansell said he planned to hold driving days for young drivers as part of his roles as president of the Institute of Advanced Motorists and of UK Youth, a charity that organises events for young people in Britain.
Advertisement
“This is my way of putting something back,” said Mansell. “The sort of karts we will be using for corporate driving days are no more noisy than a normal road car. We are not going for a Formula Three licence (as some local people have alleged) — that is complete nonsense and we wouldn’t get one.
“A small minority of people has whipped up a big storm in a teacup and 99% of what is being said is completely untrue. We are following the proper processes and we are optimistic that the proposals will be passed by the planning committee in the next couple of months.”