Oxfordshire, ENGLAND — England’s West Oxfordshire District Council awarded outline planning permission June 6 to the proposed Mullin Automotive Park– a $190 million (£150 million) project that would house part of collector Peter Mullin’s car collection on an estate setting in the Cotswolds.
Photo: Mullin Museum
The proposal for the world-class automotive museum in the heart of the British countryside — including rehabilitating the unused Enstone Airfield on part of the site — won approval after project backers agreed to fund local affordable housing projects.
According to the BBC, the governing District Council voted 12-7 to approve the museum after receiving hundreds of letters from area residents — roughly 220 in favor and about 180 opposed. In September 2018, amid growing opposition to the museum, the Council put the museum plans on hold to allow the developers to address planning issue considerations.
First proposed in November 2017, the Mullin at Great Tew would encompass about 160 acres and include a 200-car museum with 60,000 square feet of display space on four floors, as well as a Bentley pavilion, a demonstration track and 28 lodges with luxury garages offered for purchase as vacation homes.
Irish businessman Kieran Hedigan has been leading project plans with input from Mullin — chairman of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles — and from Nicholas Johnston, owner of the Tew estate that will serve as the site for the museum.
Mullin and Johnston plan to market the lodges at prices ranging from about $6.4 million to $7.6 million (£5 million to £6 million) each, with the remainder of project costs to be financed.
The Oxford Mail reported that approved plans include an additional $2.21 million (£1.74 million) of Section 106 funding, with about $1.59 million (£1.25 million) expected to go toward affordable housing. The remainder is earmarked for a local bus service, a parking lot at a nearby school and traffic calming measures in nearby villages. The developers also agreed to limit the number of events at the museum to five per year and to provide access to the museum by foot, bicycle and public transportation.
