Clarkson to close on-farm restaurant amid planning row with council

Jeremy Clarkson, as well as other prominent rural figures, recently demanded a slash in rural regulation (Photo: Amazon Prime)
Jeremy Clarkson, as well as other prominent rural figures, recently demanded a slash in rural regulation (Photo: Amazon Prime)

Jeremy Clarkson has reportedly shut down his on-farm restaurant following a long-running planning row with the local council.

The former Top Gear presenter said in a letter to West Oxfordshire District Council that he "no longer wished" to open a restaurant, The Mirror reports.

Mr Clarkson, who farms at his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat Farm, said he had been "thwarted by the enforcement notice."

In July 2022, the council served an enforcement notice for the on-farm restaurant, which he had appealed against.

According to the council, the café and restaurant, the latter opening six months after the application was rejected - had breached planning laws.

Diddly Squat is featured in the popular TV series Clarkson's Farm, which first aired in 2021 on Amazon Prime.

The programme's second season will air next month and a third series is currently in the pipeline.

The news comes after Clarkson spearheaded calls for the government to halve the volume of regulation affecting rural businesses before the next general election.

In a letter to the prime minister, Clarkson, along with other celebrities, said rural businesses were being hit with a 'bureaucratic bulldozer'.

The letter - which accused the government of seeking to 'micromanage every acre' - was also been signed by nearly 5,000 other people living in the countryside, including 2,000 farmers.

"For years the bureaucratic bulldozer has been trampling over the countryside infuriating millions of us," the rural figures said in the letter.

"Downing Street has to put it into reverse gear if it wants the support of rural voters. Those signing this letter would be satisfied if the rules affecting the countryside are halved before the next election?"

The celebrity campaigners said they were "sick of the mountains of regulations which seek to micromanage every acre".

"We have had enough of know-nothing officials imposing rules out of a misplaced belief in their own competence," the letter added.

"They breed paperwork for a living while the rest of us have real work to do: cultivating soil, looking after sick animals and bringing in the harvest?"