Jeremy Clarkson Diddly Squat Farm restaurant refused permission
Money and celebrity can be a curse in some places. I am sure there is more to this story than those two issues but I never fail to be fascinated by the way planning decisions play out in localities.
A planned new restaurant for TV personality Jeremy Clarkson’s Oxfordshire farm has been refused permission.
Diddly Squat Farm, in Chadlington, is the site of the former Top Gear host’s Amazon Studios series, Clarkson’s Farm.
A West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) planning sub-committee declined the plan on Monday.
Clarkson said it would enhance farming and tourism in the area and the refusal meant a “very bad day for farming”.
When asked how frustrated he was, he said: “Very, and so will all the local farmers.”
Planning officers said the proposal to renovate a lambing shed into a restaurant was out of keeping with the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
The shed was built in 2020 after a new flock of sheep was bought to diversify the farm business.
It has now been merged with another local farmer’s flock, the council said.
But council officers said the building has since been used, without planning permission, as a cafe and a bar area.