The Mullin Automotive Park at Enstone Airfield, a £150 million classic car museum near Chipping Norton, has been given the go-ahead by councillors.
The 63-hectare project is the brainchild of Peter Mullin, a classic car collector from California, who built the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, CA.
The car museum will look at the history of automobiles and chart the future of mobility. It will also showcase the cars that have had an impact on our lives.
Mullin’s plan has now been approved by West Oxfordshire District Council, despite concerns about traffic and noise (via BBC).
Proposals were approved by 12 votes to seven. Approximately 180 letters were received against the plans and 220 received supporting them.
Peter Mullin’s classic car museum
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The design, by architects Foster + Partners, takes inspiration from rural estates. A cluster of workshop-type buildings with visitor facilities include a ticket office and café. Most of the site will remain green parkland.
Also proposed for the site, which is set to create 338 jobs, are 28 holiday lodges, a demonstration track circling the main building, and a pavilion to be used by Bentley.
Mullin previously said: “By any conventional measure this will not just be another car museum. We have had the automobile for just over a century, but my great grandchildren will probably never drive a motor car – at least not as we know it.
“Instead they will travel in secure autonomous pods controlled by a computer. The Mullin Automotive Park will tell the powerful story of the automobile and its role in shaping our societies, while also offering a view into the myriad possibilities that the future holds.”
The museum was first proposed in February 2018. At the time, the project faced local opposition from residents and the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
Image: Mullin Automotive Park