Jeremy Clarkson has appealed decision to close restaurant in huge U-turn
Jeremy Clarkson has appealed against West Oxfordshire District Council's decision to close down his restaurant.
As seen in the second series of the Prime Video show Clarkson's Farm, the TV presenter-turned-farmer tried to open up a restaurant at Diddly Squat Farm featuring food from his and neighbouring farms.
However, this turned out to be an incredibly difficult process as he fought to gain the approval of the local community and was ultimately denied by the council.
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Clarkson then thought he'd found a 'delightful little loophole' in the regulations which would allow him to make and serve food on site, but the council said there had been an 'unlawful' change of use and ordered the restaurant to be shut down.
On 12 August 2022, he was given an enforcement notice with a six-week deadline and decided to appeal the decision, but later wrote to the council saying he 'no longer wished' to open up the restaurant.
In the letter to the council he said there would not be any more expansion of Diddly Squat Farm, meaning people could only come to the shop and the lambing barn, which in summer provided a place for visitors to eat and drink.
That appeared to be the end of the matter and the end for hopes of the Diddly Squat Farm keeping the restaurant going, but a local councillor has indicated that Clarkson has since appealed against the closure.
Taking to Twitter, Liam Walker of Oxfordshire County Council shared an appeal document which had been submitted by one 'Mr Jeremy Clarkson' and the 'Diddly Squat Farm Shop'.
The first chunk of the appeal deals with the council's enforcement notice to shut down the restaurant, while the second part focuses on another attempt to deal with parking and access at the farm.
Councillor Walker said 'all is not over yet' and revealed that Clarkson will get an answer sooner rather than later as 'the planning inspector will conduct the hearing in March'.
Back when the restaurant was open it was able to serve food to up to 40 people at a time, and also offered a VIP room where people could get sparkling wine.
The restaurant didn't actually have a menu and was a bit vague on what food they'd be serving, but you wouldn't go wrong with expecting it to be meat from Diddly Squat and some of the other farms in the area.
Dining at Diddly Squat would have cost you £49 for a standard experience, but if you wanted the VIP treatment you could stump up £69.
One of the reasons Clarkson had opened the restaurant is because he was getting into a 'highly ecological way of rejuvenating the soil' called mob grazing.
As we saw in season two of Clarkson's Farm, it involved cows steadily making their way across a field and dropping cowpats as they went, while chickens followed after to peck out the worms.
However, Clarkson said the only way this method could have been profitable is if he could sell the beef from the cows at his own restaurant.
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe raising cash for dairy farmer Emma, who appeared on season two of Clarkson's Farm, recently passed the £20,000 fundraising goal after more than a thousand people donated.
Season two of Clarkson's Farm is available to stream on Prime Video.
Topics: Amazon Prime, Food And Drink, Jeremy Clarkson, TV and Film, UK News, Clarkson's Farm
Joe Harker