FUTURE OF TOP GEAR IN DOUBT

JC show to lose its airfield home


Enstone: will TG move here?
BBC motoring programme Top Gear (TG) could be in trouble, according to a story in yesterday's Telegraph. At the heart of the problem is the noise and pollution caused by one J Clarkson and crew at Dunsfold Aerodrome where TG is currently located and filmed.

The problem is that Dunsfold is to be redeveloped, so the programme will have to move, with its favoured option being the airfield at Enstone, which just happens to be close to Clarkson's Cotswolds home.

However, local villagers aren't keen on the racket that'll be created, and TG doesn't yet have an alternative. Since planning permission for the kinds of usage that TG will put an airfield to takes some eight weeks, and the next series is due to start filming in May, timing is tight.

Is this the end for the JC show?




They could hold it in his mouth Its big enough JOKE

Sadly the redevelopment of the dunsfold aerodrome site was inevtiable. I grew up about 1 mile fro it and used to come home from school to see the harriers out on test runs over the fields behind our house. Even got a school trip to the aerodrom and got to see them being made.

It was a sad day when they cancelled the last airshow there after a hawker hunter came down, narrowly missing the fun fair on a test run the day before and killed the pilot, I was working 400yards away at the time on a farm!

The infastucture at the site (its the furthest south in surrey where there is mains gas - the village i lived in never had it) lends itself well to redevelopment and with the ever increasing burden on councils to create thousands of homes in the next few years it was bound to happen.

Its not like TG have had it easy, the number of local complaints and council involvement has been frequent from what I hear.

I wonder where mclaren will go to test the slr now, they also use the same site.

I'm also interested to know if all the industrial sites on the airfield will go aswell - we shall see in about a decade when its all done

Ned.

If they don't get planning permission in time they could always just book a few places at a trackday for the tests!

Imagine turning up to a trackday with the Stig lined up in a new supercar and someone famous in the Liana of doom! Hamster peering over the steering wheel of a new hot hatch and Captain Slow acting like a mobile chicane!

Mike

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Imagine turning up to a trackday with the Stig lined up in a new supercar and someone famous in the Liana of doom! Hamster peering over the steering wheel of a new hot hatch and Captain Slow acting like a mobile chicane!

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Hmmm. Looks like another case of a news paper getting things wrong. According to the BBC, they still have up to three year yet at Dunsfold:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4731958.stm

It would be a great shame if TG were to cease, I know there people out there who are not too keen on JC, but I for one enjoy the show.

The 'alternative' winter olympics program had me in stitches

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/20/ntopg20.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/20/ixhome.html



MMMM Its still a shame as how many trackday locations are noise controlled. I would think that if you bought a house near a track you shouldnt be allowed to complain.
Some id10ts buy a house in the Heathrow flight path then complain about the planes going over every ten seconds.


Theres a couple that built a house next to a railway line up here in Scotland. It wasnt used because the powerstation got its coal by road and directly from the mine head. The mine closed due to flooding so the shipped it in by rail...............and now they know why they got the land so cheap........clunk clunk clunk at two am in the morn every morn.........

[Edited on 25-2-06 by mangogrooveworkshop]

they will work around it - perhaps by testing the cars abroad or on something like the infield track at the corby oval or brands or similar.

it will kinda wreck the suzuki low cost car challenge tho....

atb

steve

[Edited on 25/2/06 by steve_gus]

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I was working 400yards away at the time on a farm!

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LOL

People who have a flight path put over their properties after living there for years, I have every sympathy for.

People who buy a house under a flight path or near a race track / railway etc have NO right to complain. They bought it, and should have checked.

I cannot abide pratts who move in next to an airport / race track / railway etc, then complain about it. They should not have bought it if they wanted peace and quiet.
Caveat Emptor springs to mind.

Eel be sorry he said that eh Mark.
Caveat Emptor springs to mind, a bit like moving to the country then complaining about the smell isn't it?

a little off topic but if the luton airport expansion goes ahead because of the proposed location and direction of the new runway there will be ALOT of flights directly over my house

You're moving to Bogside when you've finished the new shed aren't you .

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Originally posted by Messenjah
a little off topic but if the luton airport expansion goes ahead because of the proposed location and direction of the new runway there will be ALOT of flights directly over my house

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