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Topics: Jeremy Clarkson, UK News
Jake Massey
Topics: Jeremy Clarkson, UK News
Jeremy Clarkson has suffered a setback in his bid to build a restaurant at his farm.
The TV presenter's attempts to farm his 1,000 acres of land in the Cotswolds was the subject of Amazon Prime series Clarkson's Farm, and the show proved to be a huge hit.
Since its release last June, people from across the country have flocked to Chipping Norton to visit his Diddly Squat farm shop, and keen to cash in, Clarkson plans to convert a lambing shed into a restaurant.
He also wants to build a 70-space car park to accommodate visitors, but council planning officers have recommended that neither should be built, amid backlash among locals.
They concluded that the proposal wouldn't be in keeping with the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
"By reason of its design, scale, siting and nature of the use within the AONB, the proposed development would have a visually intrusive and harmful impact on the rural character, scenic beauty and tranquillity of the area," the officers said.
Clarkson has admitted that the influx of tourists has caused traffic problems, but he argued that it had also boosted the local economy.
Speaking on Jeremy Vine's radio show, he said: "I absolutely sympathise with people in the village.
"There is more traffic, yes, but there is more business - the village shop is doing better, the cafe in the village, the pub in the village - they are all doing better.
"They are swamped with people but they are swamped with people spending money."
The 61-year-old continued: "I had no idea that the show was going to be as successful as it was.
"Then thousands and thousands of people descended - we weren't ready for it, the village wasn't ready for it."
If approved, the restaurant would serve breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, but the council said the 'divisive and contentious' proposal had received 53 letters of objection.
In November, Chadlington Parish Council held a public meeting to establish its position on the application, but a vote was inconclusive.
A West Oxfordshire District Council planning sub-committee will decide the application on Monday.
Clarkson's Farm was renewed for a second series last summer, so we can look forward to watching the broadcaster struggling to get to grips with a new field all over again.
Speaking to LADbible when the show was first released, Clarkson said: "It's like when I lift the bonnet on a car. It's all just witchcraft, I have no idea what's going on.
"If I put you on a farm and said, 'Right, run that', nobody has a clue. You go and buy a loaf of bread, you have no idea, no idea how it was made. None of us do... Definitely a fish out of water is what I was."