DESPITE the recent spate of media reports about Richard Hammond living in Abergavenny, it’s old news to those who have spotted the former Top Gear star mooching around Waitrose and hanging about town since late last year.

Yet as nice as it is to have a celeb giving the area their stamp of approval by spending millions to live here, there are concerns!

A handful of agitated residents fear that once Hammond’s former partner in crime, Jeremy Clarkson, gets wind of just how lovely Abergavenny and its wider environs are, the born-again farmer might just decide to snap up a property of his own in the area.

The Chronicle has been contacted by a spokesperson for a group calling itself Not In Our Backyard (NOB), who explained, “Look, let’s get one thing straight. We’re not NIMBYS and have no problem with Mr Hammond living in the vicinity as long as he keeps things civilised. “Celebrities have a right to live where they choose. It’s just that once you get one, others tend to follow.

“We’re private types around here and like to keep things behind closed doors. The last thing we want is the Abergavenny area to become Monmouthshire’s version of Beverly Hills, Holland Park or Sandbanks.”

The NOB spokesperson added, “Apart from the occasional sighting in the frozen aisle at the local supermarket, Mr Hammond has kept a very low profile. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Mr. Clarkson.

“Since he has set up camp at Diddly Squat Farm, Chipping Norton has turned into an absolute circus. That ghastly farming show he’s involved in makes an absolute mockery of any true son of the soil.

“Imagine if, for instance, he eyes the Abergavenny area as rich for a similar sort of TV special. It would be the absolute ruination of us. “The traffic, noise, excessive property development, and undesirables it would bring in its wake would be intolerable.

“It cannot and will not be allowed to happen! One former Top Gear presenter is enough, thank you!”

The Chronicle would like to stress that there is no evidence that Jeremy Clarkson is planning to visit, let alone buy a house in the Abergavenny area anytime soon, but NOB believes it is essential to remain vigilant.

The spokesperson said, “Obviously, a lesser known celebrity such as James May would be content to buy a house in an inferior town such as Crickhowell or Usk, but for a braggart like Clarkson, what better boast than an NP7 postcode?”

The spokesperson added, “I’ve got nothing against Clarkson on a personal level, and his hair doesn’t bother me at all. I just know where he goes, chaos follows.”

Clarkson, Hammond, and May are, of course, no strangers to the Abergavenny area. Many will remember the day in 2012 when they rode into town on supercharged and heavily modified disability scooters like the three horseman of the arthritis for a Top Gear special.

A local scooter user remembers that Richard Hammond challenged her to a race, which she won - twice!

Clarkson was so pleased with the result, he gave her a pickled onion from the jar he brought especially from the butcher’s.