CONTROVERSIAL motormouth Jeremy Clarkson has added Bournemouth’s traffic to the never-ending list of things he hates.

In a typical rant he slated slow-moving traffic, road signs to “places you have never heard of” and claimed the town is full of old people who “went there when they were young but simply couldn’t get out again.”

The Top Gear star used his column in The Sun to slag off journey times in the town but said local radio station The Coast kept him sane because “they broadcast the contents of my iPod.”

It is hard to tell whether Clarkson, who regularly pokes fun at his own taste in music, clothes and just about everything else, was paying a compliment to the station or not.

He said: “Some people say Tokyo is the world’s largest city but they are wrong, because it’s Bournemouth. The last time I was in Tokyo I got from one side to the other in less than an hour. “To get from one side of Bournemouth to the other on Monday night took me more than twice that.

“The south coast metropolis is often billed as a safe place for people to retire – rubbish. It’s full of old people who went there when they were young but simply couldn’t get out again.

“All the sign posts point to places you have never heard of and the traffic has to be seen to be believed.”

But there wasn’t much in the way of support for Clarkson on the streets of Bournemouth yesterday.

Shirley Davies, 52, a shop worker from Boscombe said: “He’s always slagging off everywhere he goes. It doesn’t surprise me to be honest. Wherever you go, the traffic is bad, so I don’t know why he’s picking Bournemouth to have a go at.”

Builder Simon Howe, 19, of Kinson added: “People always say it’s bad here, but as long as it’s not rush hour, I don’t think it’s that bad. There’s a lot worse places to drive than Bournemouth.”

However taxi driver, Tim Longworth, 46, of Parkstone, said: “He’s got a good point. It’s a nightmare to get anywhere here.

“Petrol is so expensive too, so it costs us a fortune to do our job.”