Visitors to Jeremy Clarkson‘s Diddly Squat farm chewed up grass verges with their 4x4s today as a row over a new car park intensifies among locals.
Scores of vehicles again descended on the popular Oxfordshire site this morning, with long queues forming outside the Amazon presenter’s farm shop.
But as its popularity continues to soar, the farm’s lack of suitable facilities to cater for such an influx of customers was again laid bare.
A number of cars were left on boggy mounds on the side of a road outside Diddly Squat which have deteriorated in recent days as more and more people flock to visit.
Clarkson remains locked in a planning appeal battle with West Oxfordshire District Council, which refused to grant permission for him to extend the shop’s car park in May last year.
Visitors to Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farm chewed up grass verges with their 4x4s today as a row over a new car park intensifies among locals
Scores of vehicles again descended on the popular Oxfordshire site this morning, with long queues forming outside the Amazon presenter’s farm shop
But as its popularity continues to soar, the farm’s lack of suitable facilities to cater for such an influx of customers was again laid bare
Jeremy Clarkson was seen being filmed by a camera crew on his Diddly Squat farm in Oxfordshire yesterday. The former Top Gear star is pictured with partner Lisa Hogan
A two-day Planning Inspectorate meeting was held this week to consider proposals by the 62-year-old former Top Gear presenter to accommodate 70 more vehicles.
The plans are opposed by WODC on the grounds that it would encourage more visitors to Diddly Squat farm – which sits between Chadlington and Chipping Norton – adding to traffic problems.
The council has also said allowing more vehicles would further disturb the tranquility of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Taking to Twitter, Clarkson said the recent furore ‘makes it sound like a civil war is raging’, but insisted ‘a compromise will be reached’.
It comes after it was revealed teenage workers at Diddly Squat have to wear bodycams to record abuse directed at them from angry locals over the influx of visitors.
Annabel Gray, 32, who works on a catering trailer at Clarkson’s farm, said this week that workers as young as 16 on the farm have had to have cameras installed on their uniforms.
She also responded to a complaint made in a meeting by Chadlington resident Hilary Moore who described tourists attracted to the farm as ‘motorheads’ who drive slowly on surrounding roads to ‘show off their cars‘.
But Ms Gray said this description was ‘unfair’, and that she had ‘witnessed local people’ adding to traffic issues by driving slowly too.
Jeremy Clarkson arriving to the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday
A number of cars were left on boggy mounds on the side of a road outside Diddly Squat which have deteriorated in recent days as more and more people flock to visit
Clarkson remains locked in a planning appeal battle with West Oxfordshire District Council, which refused to grant permission for him to extend the shop’s car park in May last year
A two-day Planning Inspectorate meeting was held this week to consider proposals by the 62-year-old former Top Gear presenter to accommodate 70 more vehicles
Ms Gray, who is also a farmer’s daughter, said Clarkson’s shop provides ‘important’ education for visitors, some of whom do not realise that ‘beef burgers come from a cow’.
Other villagers who support Diddly Squat farm have described it as the ‘crown jewel’ of sustainable living as they pleaded with their local council to allow the expansion plans.
It comes as camera crews were yesterday spotted back in Chipping Norton to resume filming of his hit series, Clarkson’s Farm.
It also emerged yesterday that the broadcaster has invested in a new beer trailer to serve his flagship Hawkstone lager.
Farmhand Kaleb Cooper shared a photo of the new ‘mobile bar’ on Instagram – with a photo showing a grey trailer with pink paint over the roof.
While it’s not clear what permissions Clarkson will need to set up the bar on his land, generally planning permission does not need to be sought for temporary structures that are used for less than 28 days a year.
He already sells alcohol in his shop so may not need an additional alcohol licence.
Clarkson’s struggles have prompted some local councillors to call on officials to go easy on the star, with Liam Walker – a Conservative member of Oxfordshire County Council – suggesting he was being treated differently from other developers.
Clarkson holds a newspaper and an umbrella as he arrives at Cheltenham for the Gold Cup
The plans are opposed by WODC on the grounds that it would encourage more visitors to Diddly Squat farm – which sits between Chadlington and Chipping Norton – adding to traffic problems
The council has also said allowing more vehicles would further disturb the tranquility of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Visitors walk down the road as scores of cars are parked on grass verges near Diddly Squat farm
‘Jeremy is Marmite and he knows that,’ he told MailOnline.
‘Of course the council will say all planning applications are taken at face value but I do wonder if some of my council colleagues came to it with a predetermined view.’
Clarkson is also challenging its decision to shut down his restaurant on the same plot of land because he allegedly opened it without planning permission in July last year.
It comes as a court heard how Clarkson’s sidekick, Mr Cooper, was a first responder after a ‘selfish and careless bat out of hell driver’ ploughed into a Ford Ka outside the TV star’s farm.
Mr Cooper was on hand to block off the road to traffic after Lewis Smith, 25, had ignored give way signs at a junction on the A361 near Chadlington and smashed into the oncoming vehicle with his Ford Fiesta in September 2021.
The driver of the KA, a woman in her fifties, along with Smith’s passenger, a man in his twenties, sustained serious injuries.
Smith, who, along with his passenger, was not wearing a seatbelt, was jailed for two years yesterday after pleading guilty to two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
