A grand country estate, a brewery heir, local outrage and a gargantuan pile of money sounds like a scene out of Jilly Cooper’s hit Rivals.So it is fitting that Neston Park, the Wiltshire estate that doubles as media villain Lord Tony Baddingham’s home in the Disney series, has found itself at the centre of a real-life planning battle.The estate, near Corsham, Wiltshire – aka fictional Cotchester – is owned by Sir James Fuller, heir to the Fuller’s brewery fortune and a former Conservative donor.Now over 100 locals are fighting plans to build a facility on estate land that would use 108 massive batteries to store energy produced by solar farms and wind turbines.Batteries may lack the glamour of the Baddinghams’ champagne-fuelled antics, but the locals are certainly not short of drama.One enraged resident moaned that future generations will be ‘appalled’ that the land could be used for what she calls a ‘grotesque purpose’. Another described the proposal as ‘fundamentally inappropriate’.One local was more irate, calling it a ‘non-green, profit-making proposal’ that could ‘blight the lives of residents and wildlife for decades’.And Barrie John Weeks, who has lived locally for 77 years, says he ‘never envisaged’ seeing structures of this type in the unspoilt countryside.Sir James Fuller was approached for comment last night. Pictured: David Tennant dressed a groundsman for the new series of RivalsAn anniversary mercy missionThe King’s goddaughter India Hicks, right, was so busy helping war victims in Ukraine she missed her wedding anniversary. Designer India, 59, married former advertising chief David Flint Wood in 2021 after 26 years together. She was in Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv with Amory, one of their five children, to work with the Global Empowerment Mission. They brought aid including Play-Doh for children. India Hicks attends the Penelope Chilvers X India Hicks Pink Sands collection launch in support of the Change a Girl’s Life campaign with Prince’s Trust on March 7, 2023Tess fashions her Strictly-free future It must have been a strange week for Tess Daly, who for the past 21 years would have found her September schedule packed with Strictly duties. So with a new presenting team in place for last night’s launch show, how did the 57-year-old fill the gaping chasm in her calendar?London Fashion Week is the answer. Instead of being run off her feet in preparation for the BBC ratings juggernaut, Daly found herself posing on the red carpet in an all-white trouser suit, left, at the Paul Smith, Selfridges and British Fashion Council party at 40 Duke – a new members club within the Oxford Street department store.Other guests included Dominic Cooper and model Emma Winder, though Tess outshone them all. Tess Daly joins Paul Smith and Selfridges in celebrating 40 years of collaboration at 40 Duke At Selfridges on September 18, 2026Cupid for caninesCall it puppy love! Lady Victoria Hervey, 49, has spotted an unlikely gap in the dating market – an app to help dogs to find their perfect match. The socialite, right with her Norfolk terrier D’Artagnan, has named her canine equivalent of Tinder Tailmatch and has applied to trademark the name for ‘online social networking services relating to pets and animals’, among other things. The new business will also sell merch such as dog collars and tags. Lady Victoria Hervey attends the launch of Rosewood’s Canine Luxury Experience and the Barbour Dogs Loyalty Scheme hosted by Rosewood London and Barbour at Rosewood London in July 2017Spotted Amanda Holden dining at swanky new eaterie Cafe Clement on The Strand;Gladiator II star Paul Mescal and pop-star girlfriend Gracie Abrams ‘twinning’ in matching running gear in Islington;Sir Ian McKellen eating ice-cream in the interval of How The Other Half Loves at the Old Vic;Actor Andrew Garfield and girlfriend Monica Barbaro ‘looking smitten’ in Islington;Actor Bill Nighy and Stanley Johnson – not together, obviously – at Lemonia in Primrose Hill.Forget Notting Hill: the only place the It-crowd want to be now is tending to their vegetables in the countryside, and I hear Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, right, is no different. My spies tell me the Pirates Of The Caribbean star, 63, is renting a property in East Sussex. Depp is so besotted with this part of the world that he is planning to buy a property up the road on the Kent border.Perhaps Depp, who has re-invented himself as a bohemian painter, is forming a modern-day Bloomsbury Group in East Sussex? Johnny Depp gestures during a press conference promoting his exhibition ‘A Bunch of Stuff’ Standards are slipping at celeb haunt The Fat Badger, which earlier this summer hosted King Charles and Queen Camilla on a dinner date. Luckily, the royal couple did not dine at the venue on April 16 when chaos descended, I’m told, and a violent pub brawl broke out. A witness at the usually swanky Ladbroke Grove pub tells me: ‘One man smashed a glass into another man’s face and a window was broken – it was chaos.’ One is not amused! Guests at Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolut launch at KOKO in Camden were peeved to see no goody bags – so they pocketed the perfume bottles on display. They got their comeuppance when they arrived home to find the bottles were just empty props.