BBC motoring show Top Gear will need to find a new home after planning permission was granted to build 1,800 new homes on its infamous test track. The Secretary of State has approved planning proposals for an entire community to be built at Dunsfold, Surrey, a former WW2 aerodrome. The retired runway became home to Top Gear when the show’s format was given a major overhaul in 2002.
Filmed in a hanger beside the tarmac, the test track was devised to push the latest sports cars to their limits. It also found fame thanks to ‘a star in a reasonably priced car’, where celebrities battled for quick lap times in family hatchbacks, and as the home of ‘The Stig’, an anonymous racing driver clad in a white helmet and full racing suit.
As well as 1,800 homes, the plans include a primary school, health centre, church, shops, leisure centre and restaurants.
