Rupert Murdoch, Motors and Great Tew (Debate)

Wed 8 Feb 2023, 09:06 (last edited on Wed 8 Feb 2023, 09:06)

Not sure why this thread has been revived. It's very out of date. The planning approval that Maddie references in the last post was for outline planning permission for the Mullin Motor Park and Museum. 

Plans for the full and revised plans are here: https://publicaccess.westoxon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=RMKKA4RK0GA00

Comments and objections are open until TODAY (8/2/23).

Just for the record, given the title of this thread, the proposals were not linked to Rupert Murdoch or his plans for the Great Tew Manor House. That speculation turned out to be linked to a false story in the Daily Mail which was then repeated by numerous other papers, including the Banbury Guardian and other local newspapers. 

What is more, Rupert Murdoch decided to divorce Jerry Hall, and the divorce was finalised in summer 2022.

Wed 8 Feb 2023, 00:36

US businessman's Chipping Norton classic car museum approved https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-48524620

Wed 30 Dec 2020, 23:04 (last edited on Thu 31 Dec 2020, 18:47)

Christine raises an interesting point as the planning consent for the Mullin project allowed for payments towards the restoration of Great Tew House as a substitute for a more comprehensive s106 agreement that could have substantially benefitted local communities.

Do those payments flow to Mr Johnston, the previous owner of the Great Tew Estate or stay with the building and Mr Murdoch? Neither gentleman strikes me as being particularly needy.

Incidentally, a recent press report stated that the UK founder of Soho House Group has sold some more of his stake, with the group now about two-thirds foreign owned.

Mon 21 Dec 2020, 14:15

Looks like a Bond villain who has passed his sell by date.

Mon 21 Dec 2020, 00:33

Yes,

Will we be affected by the (assumed) increase in volume of traffic?

Sun 20 Dec 2020, 21:30

Yes, Steve is right: I wasn't wondering if Murdoch should have paid for the jab, but how come he got it at all, since all supplies come via the NHS, and  I did not know that Murdoch was living in Oxfordshire -- or indeed in the UK. 

The question that I was asking once I discovered he qualified & discovered his links to Great Tew is: is the £11m+ that was spun as helping the community by rescuing Great Tew Manor House in fact going to subsidise Rupert Murdoch's renovation project?

It was not strictly 106 funding (i.e. for social and community projects), but Enstone Parish Council asked a similar question when they thought the money would be going towards Nicholas Johnston & the Soho House empire. 

If that is what was in the end agreed (and that is what I am unsure about), they must be feeling even more disgruntled. As the Enstone Council noted, Great Tew Manor and the Motor Museum are not strictly in their parish, but they are likely to be most affected by the Mullin Motor Museum and the associated buildings on the Enstone Airfield site. 

Sun 20 Dec 2020, 20:22

I think you'll find that there are no supplies of the Pfizer vaccine in private hands. All the orders have been made by governments and in the UK the only way that anybody will get vaccines are the moment is via the NHS, and that's being done on the basis of priority of need as I understand it.

Sun 20 Dec 2020, 20:10

Moi aussi Jez.

Still doesn't answer Christine's question.  One would have thought that he might have some loose change to pay for the jab out of his own pocket. 

Sun 20 Dec 2020, 18:51

I always though Murdoch was Australian. 

"By becoming an American citizen, Murdoch gave up his Australian citizenship since neither government recognizes dual citizenship."

I must have missed that.

Sun 20 Dec 2020, 12:40

"So, Jerry, what first attracted you to the billionaire Rupert Murdoch?" 

Sun 20 Dec 2020, 11:58 (last edited on Sun 20 Dec 2020, 11:59)

Googling to discover how come Rupert Murdoch could qualify for a Covid jab on the NHS, I discovered something that I did not previously know. Although Murdoch is currently resident in Henley-on-Thames, he and Jerry Hall have bought Great Tew Manor House, and are currently doing it up at an estimated cost of £30m.

The topic of the Oxford Mullin Automotive Park also at Great Tew/Enfield Airfield came up under the thread of "Recycling bins" on the forum's main site (last post 22 November). 

On the application for the Museum, it was proposed that the developer would pay @£11m to do up Tew Park, the long-derelict Manor House at Great Tew, which was at the time owned by Nicholas Johnston of Soho House fame. Does anyone know if that was what was agreed in the end?

Rather ironic -- and also sad -- if so much of the money to be poured into the area by one American billionaire should end up in the (extremely deep) pockets of another American billionaire. The proposed restoration (with its "stunning" new domed roof) looks to fit with the overblown ambitions of the proposed motor museum. And that also makes me feel sad. 

The prospect of Murdoch moving into the area is also depressing -- although it's perhaps doubtful that he will ever move in, given his age (89) & the fact that its development is likely to take many years. On the other hand Jerry Hall (64), and perhaps some of Mick Jagger's children, might end up living in Great Tew.