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Clarkson's Farm is back on our screens via Amazon Prime Video. And things are off to a pretty torrid start for Jeremy and his team after revealing exactly what demands he was given when forced to shut down the farm restaurant.
The former Top Gear man turned his attention to farming back in 2019 after directly taking on the 1,000-acre farm in the Cotswolds that he'd owned since 2008. His exploits became the focus of a Prime Video documentary that's just been released for its third season after millions tuned in for seasons one and two.
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The end of the second season left us in a state of utopia with the sun setting over the farm's gorgeous backdrop, with Clarkson successfully opening the Diddly Squat Farm Restaurant.
He thought he had got around local planning laws, after being denied permission to build a restaurant on site. Instead, Clarkson repurposed a dilapidated lambing barn elsewhere on the farm for al fresco dining.
In the first episode of season three - which was filmed in August 2022 - Clarkson opens the season saying: "Everything seems to be familiar and wonderful but I'm afraid behind the scenes it isn't wonderful at all.
"Everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong."
The driest summer in 87 years had plagued the year's harvest, with Clarkson's crops in his own words, 'taking a battering' with fields of potatoes and sunflowers 'hopeless' when it came to the thought of even selling them.
Then the restaurant, which was given an enforcement notice by West Oxfordshire District Council to shut down immediately.
"The unlawful use of Diddly Squat Farm by reason of its nature, scale and siting is unsustainable and incompatible with its open countryside location," the notice said.
The council issued Clarkson with an enforcement notice saying it had to close 'with immediate effect' due to what he said was a 'breach of planning regulations'.
Within six weeks of the notice being issued, Clarkson was told he had to meet six specific demands when it came to the closure of the restaurant with shutting up the least of his concerns.
The first was to stop using any part of the restaurant land for sale or supply of food or drink to members of the public, and to stop food or drink being consumed on the restaurant land.
Clarkson was also told to stop using any part of the land as a restaurant or cafe.
The next demand stopped Clarkson from using any part of the restaurant land for parking; seemingly a reference to the tractor and trailer that transported diners from the farm entrance to the building.
The Diddly Squat Farm team was then told to reinstate the land around the restaurant to echo its agricultural surroundings, which included removing hardcore and any other surfacing materials like gravel and stone chippings.
"Why you can't have gravel on a farm I don't know but anyway," Clarkson said to this.
Removing all other landscaping materials was next on the list. That included wooden sleepers, wooden plank edging and wood chippings.
And the last was to remove all plants and planting containers from the farm restaurant site.
On the specific matter of the restaurant's enforcement notice, the council said: "We understand that the planning process shown in season two of Clarkson’s Farm can seem obstructive and that people will be confused by the planning decisions at Diddly Squat Farm.
"As with any other planning authority, we have a legal responsibility to make sure that planning laws and policies are followed correctly by everyone to manage development and protect local communities and the environment."
Sadly for Jezza and his team, the restaurant was denied by the national planning inspectorate when he appealed the closure by the local council.
You can watch season three of Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime Video.
Topics: Amazon, Amazon Prime, Clarkson's Farm, Food And Drink, Jeremy Clarkson, TV, TV and Film, Environment, Business
Tom Earnshaw