Fury in one of Britain’s most expensive villages over ‘Trojan Horse’ planning project by Beaulieu Estate to build car in park in protected area of New Forest

One of Britain’s most famous estates has been criticized by villagers for trying to implement a ‘Trojan Horse’ planning project in a protected area of ​​a national park for ‘commercial purposes’.

Residents of the Hampshire village of Beaulieu, known for its National Motor Museum, have accused the Beaulieu Estate of secretly carrying out a ‘developmental aberration’ to build a car park for special events near ancient woodland in the New Forest.

The site, which is currently pasture and has a proposed capacity of 46 parking spaces, is located just meters away from a much larger car park owned by the Beaulieu Estate.

The current site has 1,000 parking spaces, leading locals to accuse the site of a ‘Trojan Horse’ application.

Residents claimed the plans were submitted as individual applications but were part of a wider plan to ‘commercialise’ the land.

Farmland at the center of the application is currently used to park around ten cars at a time by the Countryside Education Trust (CET), which operates a treehouse study center and event space.

The 9,000-acre property is seeking to create a gravel-surface parking lot to be used as additional parking for events.

It was also suggested to lay a gravel track between the existing runway and the new parking lot.

Famous for its National Motor Museum, Beaulieu was recently named the most expensive village in England, Scotland and Wales.

Alan Titchmarsh opened the educational treehouse based on the Beaulieu Estate grounds in 2008.

The planning application states that the trust’s treehouses are being used to host ‘a limited number of weddings’ in order to ‘fund the work of the trust’.

He explains the need for car parking: ‘School groups can be dropped off by bus, while other audiences of the trust have limited access.

‘People need to walk from the National Motor Museum car parks, which is not ideal for families with cars, the elderly or the sick.’

But wealthy residents are fighting to stop development and I hope the plans will be rejected at the upcoming planning meeting.

Local villager Stephen Rigby said the limited parking spaces were designed for people unable to walk the few hundred meters uphill from the museum’s 1,000-space car park.

The 62-year-old business consultant, from Beaulieu, said: ‘What they are doing is a Trojan horse, they are using the charity, it is a very good charity, they say it needs parking.

‘And this is where the objection comes; ‘We can’t understand why the charity has gone from ten parking spaces to 46.’

Business consultant Steve Rigby, 62, claimed Beaulieu Estate would use the app for “commercial” purposes despite “claiming it was for educational purposes”.

The decision on the zoning application will be taken on Tuesday, April 21

The father of two said there was no evidence treehouses required additional parking.

He claimed the estate actually wanted to get planning permission to change Hides Field, which was that part of the land, so they could then change the use of that area.

‘This is what they want, the car park is for weddings, they will never get it for weddings, this is commercialization, so they claim it is for educational purposes,’ he said.

Mr Rigby said the land on which the car park is located had been used for crops and grazing “as far back as 500 years” and claimed the application was made to “diversify activities away from the current agricultural use of Hides Field that have no proven economic or social benefit”.

He added that the property had a ‘proven track record of development in the area’, including a 4×4 track, ropes centre, and ‘multiple commercialization initiatives’.

Mr Rigby, of the New Forest National Park Authority (NPA), which has responsibility for assessing the application, said: ‘They’re just looking at this as an individual application, saying it’s OK because it’s quite small and it’s a scrap piece of land because it’s being used as a car park.

‘It could be any agricultural land’ [for a time]. ‘They didn’t bother to investigate further what was going on.’

Mr Rigby is also concerned about the impact of the car park on a nearby site of special scientific interest (SSSI) and the potential for oil to leak into nearby rivers.

Pictured: Sign of the center run by the Rural Education Foundation

There are also fears among locals that light pollution, traffic and noise will increase, disrupting the ‘peace’ of the area in favor of commercialisation.

Local resident Andrew Dykes said in his objection: ‘Council will be aware that Hides Field is close to an SSSI; Its special merit is that the catchment of the river from Hartford House to Boarmans is not particularly polluted.

‘The proposed car park is located within this catchment area and oil and other debris from parked cars will inevitably leak into the water table and damage the SSSI.

‘The proposal will inevitably cause noise, visual interference and disturbance and, if used at night, will adversely affect light pollution in the immediate area.’

Another villager, Christina Dykes, said: ‘At a meeting of the Beaulieu District Council Planning Committee an employee of the Beaulieu estate suggested that the property would be used, for example, to park “burger vans” for Beaulieu Wildlife Day, which will take place in May 2026.

‘This also suggests an intention to use the proposed car park for the property.

‘Wildlife Day’ is expected to host 500 people and will have a huge impact on the peace and comfort of Hartford Wood. This type of use differs significantly from simple parking.

There is a large car park near the ‘Beaulieu Museum’. There is a parking lot for approximately 1000 vehicles in the museum area.

Image: Animals at Hides Field, location of proposed new car park

‘Supporting this car park would set a precedent that would allow Hides Field to be further used for commercial activities, thus potentially destroying the natural environment and encouraging a “creep” of activity.[A] to prevent.”

Fourth resident Ewa Bielecka said: ‘The current car parking application ignores previous commitments to ensure not to increase development in the area, not to change site use and not to operate after dark. “Dark evening use [is] “It is not suitable for the location.”‘

Another, Paula Blackeby, added: ‘I can only guess that Beaulieu Estate has submitted the planning application in its own name to secure permanent parking at Hides Field.

‘The application of the property is symptomatic of continued developmental expansion into agricultural land; planning permissions are often obtained for small areas and then their use is expanded based on the initial small precedent.’

The decision will be made on Tuesday, April 21.

Lord Douglas-Scott-Montagu (65) is the fourth Baron Montagu of Beaulieu and took up the post in 2015 after the death of his father, Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu.

The property has been owned by the Montagu family for over 400 years.

The Daily Mail approached the Beaulieu Estate and Rural Education Trust for comment.

Image: The pond at the bottom of Hides Field

Beaulieu was recently named the most expensive village in England, Scotland and Wales by Savills; the average house price was over £2 million.

And in 2020, estate agents revealed the most expensive villages in every county in England, saying it was the most expensive village in Hampshire, with houses in some areas reaching more than £1 million.

These spots included the most expensive average property prices of the previous five years, according to private data.

Beaulieu was named the most expensive village in the county, with an average property price of £1,179,408.