Blur star Alex James has hit out at his neighbour’s earthworks, which he says spoil the view from his Cotswolds farm.
The Britpop star has accused luxury holiday chalet park Bluewood Lodges of carrying out the ‘massive’ works in a field near his 200-acre Kingham farm without permission.
Mr James, 57, says it is ‘doing real harm to the landscape’ and has urged that the area of outstanding natural beauty be returned to its former state.
The bassist opened up his farm over the August Bank Holiday weekend to more than 20,000 revellers for his annual Big Feastival.
Performers among the 30 stages for its 15th year included Basement Jaxx, Rudim3ntal, Bastille and The Streets.
Mr James described the festival as being ‘bigger and better than ever’.
The musician won a planning battle in July to stop Bluewood Lodges from relocating a 14ft high maintenance shed to a ‘discreet parcel of land’, which the firm said was needed for ‘a more appropriate and safer setting’ away from its holidaymakers.
The five-bay shed would have stored maintenance vehicles, grounds equipment and housekeeping equipment. It would have been moved northwest closer to Mr James’s farm.
Blur star Alex James has hit out at his luxury chalet park neighbour’s earthworks which he says spoil the view from his Cotswolds farm
The musician won a planning battle in July to stop Bluewood Lodges from relocating a 14ft high maintenance shed to a ‘discreet parcel of land’ (Pictured here is hte proposed relocation of the shed)
The five-bay shed would have stored maintenance vehicles, grounds equipment, and housekeeping equipment
Mr James said in a recently launched petition to ‘save the view’ from his farm that the earthworks relate to this refused retrospective application and are ruining his ‘beautiful and unspoilt views’.
He urged people to back him ‘if you value the landscape and the views from the Farm’ and ‘show your support for the landscape being returned to its former state, with no further development’.
West Oxfordshire Council threw out the plans after planning officers said it ‘would fail to protect or enhance the local landscape’.
‘The development would fail to conserve or enhance the intrinsic character, quality and scenic beauty of the landscape and would result in unacceptable harm to the Cotswolds National Landscape,’ the decision notice reads.
Mr James had objected to the blueprints through a report produced by Cotswolds-based landscape architecture practice Portus + Whitton.
In it, he argued the barn ‘would break the skyline at certain points’ and suggested it was ‘an expansion of the holiday park into the open countryside’.
Those claims were rebuffed by architects Land Studio, who had produced a landscape visual appraisal in support of Bluewood Lodges’ application.
The Daily Mail has contacted Mr James, Bluewood Lodges and West Oxfordshire Council for comment.
It is not the first time Mr James has been embroiled in a planning row with his chalet park neighbours.
In 2022, he led a well-heeled revolt against expansion plans to place 12 holiday chalets with hot tubs near the boundary of his farm.
He described the 4m-tall wooden chalets as ‘odd, out of character and alien to the sensitive location’.
Mr James was backed by racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks and banker Hugh van Cutsem in his protestations.
Mr Brooks branded it ‘an absolute disaster’ and warned allowing the development would ‘open the floodgates for similar projects in the area’.
He added: ‘It would be an absolute disaster to our AONB if this green field development was allowed to take place. It is totally contrary to the concept of an AONB and would open the flood gates for similar projects in the area.’
Mr van Cutsem – a close friend of King Charles since the pair studied together at Cambridge University – claimed it would set a ‘dangerous precedent’.
Local councillors overruled the official recommendation to grant Bluewood Lodges 12 more chalets on the site following the outcry.
But the proposals were given the go-ahead in 2024 when a Planning Inspectorate overturned the council’s decision on appeal.
