Jeremy Clarkson Hits Out At Neighbours Who Crushed His Diddly Squat Restaurant Dreams

Jeremy Clarkson has blasted the people who 'destroyed' his restaurant dreams after spending 'thousands' of pounds on planning.

The TV star, who owns an Oxfordshire farm called Diddly Squat Farm, had filed for permission to convert a lambing shed into a restaurant.

But that was refused following backlash among locals which resulted in the council planning officers recommending that it shouldn't be built.

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The 61-year-old has now hit back at the people who helped get the plans rejected in the form of his Sunday Times column.

In the article, Clarkson first outlined everything he had done to ensure he was ready to get the restaurant up and running after gaining support from some locals.

He had bought cows, build hen houses and even fitted toilets to the building.

Writing in the column, he said: "It was horrific. They didn’t seem to have any facts to hand and one of them wondered why I couldn’t open the café on someone else’s farm.

"Mostly, though, they seemed to be extremely bothered by the fact that the barn was in an area of outstanding natural beauty, not understanding perhaps that it’s only beautiful because farmers keep it that way.

"They also seemed concerned about how much lighting would be needed and how this would affect the night skies. Not as much as nearby RAF Brize Norton does, I thought, but I wasn’t allowed to speak."

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Clarkson then brought up a fella called Phil who, he says, made a speech about how the eatery would cause 'great harm' to the area.

Referring to Phil, he wrote: "Of course I get where he’s coming from. Nobody has ever left university saying, 'I want to run a subcommittee at my local council'. So I understand that he’s constantly disappointed with how life has turned out for him. As a result he will see this vote as a tremendous victory for the downtrodden little man who took on, and beat, the man off the telly."

Towards the end of the column, Clarkson went on to confidently predict that the decision will go in his favour, saying: "Of course, eventually, this unholy mess will all be untangled and the decision will be overturned, but in the meantime I’m going to have to keep everything going by living in the murky, grey area of legal loopholes and cunning wheezes.

"I’m good at this, though. It’s all I learnt at school, really, getting round the rules rather than abiding by them."