The Grand Tour revolt in Oxfordshire: ‘Cyclists and horse riders will be killed’

The Grand Tour’s plans to film in Oxfordshire have not been well received by locals, after the show’s TV company Chump Productions faced calls for the project to be blocked because it will be ‘detrimental’ to the community.

A bunch of hysterical locals say the traffic created by the 80-strong film crew and 350 guests invited to each day’s filming could prove fatal to walkers, cyclists, and horse-riders who use the country lanes around Great Tew. They also fear that filming the £35.8 million Amazon Prime show will create excessive noise.

Frederick Hill, who was responsible for one of the eight objection letters received by West Oxfordshire Council last week, wrote: “This is a totally inappropriate use of a rural countryside estate location. People should not have to sacrifice their rural lifestyle in West Oxfordshire so that big business can make more money.”

Another neighbour, Michael Holland, obviously thought it was necessary to step things up a notch: “The Ledwell Road is already overloaded. When will the council recognise that this cannot continue, when one of the many local riders on horseback is killed?”

We think the local horse riders will be fine, unless Jeremy Clarkson decides to build a new version of his bone car using horse parts (instead of cows). Clarkson’s hatred of cyclists is also well documented, but even they have little to worry about considering he is currently recovering from pneumonia.

The Great Tew estate, owned by Old Etonian Nicholas Johnston, has been dubbed ‘the hippest 4,000 acres outside London’ by Tatler, and is home to celebrity haunt Soho Farmhouse.

But locals are revolting against the hordes of wealthy Londoners staying in the hotel’s £350-per-night faux-rustic huts. They complain the influx of Chelsea tractors has turned the country lanes into a ‘Soho racetrack’, and that Clarkson’s temporary film set will aggravate the already ‘significant’ traffic problems.