Jeremy Clarkson ordered to close dining areas at Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire over alleged planning law breach
Jeremy Clarkson has been ordered to shut the restaurant and cafe at his farm in Oxfordshire over what the local council says is a breach of planning laws.
The 62-year-old broadcaster is appealing after receiving an enforcement notice from West Oxfordshire District Council in August.
Clarkson‘s Diddly Squat Farm in Chadlington has become well known since the launch of the Clarkson’s Farm TV series in June 2021.
Pic: Amazon Prime Video
He opened the farm restaurant in July – six months after an application was rejected by the council.
In its enforcement notice over the “material change of use”, the authority said the parking, toilets, and traffic are “visually intrusive and harmful to the rural character, scenic beauty and tranquillity” of the Cotswold AONB (area of outstanding natural beauty).
“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 stated.
Clarkson was told to shut the restaurant, or anything selling food to be consumed on the farm, and also ordered to remove dining tables, chairs, parasols and picnic tables.
The notice was due to come into effect on 12 September subject to an appeal, which the former Top Gear presenter lodged a few days beforehand.
Agents for Clarkson say the council’s decision is “excessive” and that the developments at the property are not in breach of planning laws.
In their appeal, the John Phillips Planning Consultancy said there has been no “material change” to the land and that the sale of food and use of tables and chairs is all “lawful”.
“The appellant will demonstrate that the proposals would not be visually intrusive or harmful to the rural character of the area or the scenic beauty or tranquillity,” of the area, their grounds of appeal notice said.
They also said it would take longer than the six weeks given by the council to remove the items.
Clarkson bought the farm in 2008 but it was previously run by a villager. However, in 2019 he decided to give it a go himself.
Following the success of Clarkson’s Farm, which followed his antics for a year and was renewed for a second series, visitors have flocked to the shop there to buy products such as Cow Juice, rapeseed oil, chutneys and jams.
Some neighbours have been left annoyed by the amount of shoppers who have queued for hours to purchase goods, according to previous reports.
In September 2021, Clarkson admitted the farm had “swamped” the village, but he told Jeremy Vine: “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 Planning Inspectorate, a government agency, has said his appeal is valid and accepted it, with final comments from both the council and Clarkson to be submitted by the end of November.
A date for a hearing is yet to be set.
Sky News has contacted representatives for Clarkson for comment.
Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.
Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenter posted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.
She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.
“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”
She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”
In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”
When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.
She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.
Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”
McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.
McCall with 2002 Big Brother winner Kate Lawler. Pic: Rex Features
With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.
“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”
Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
McCall with her MBE, alongside her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson. Pic: PA
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.
The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.
Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.
The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.
The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
The author on her 21st birthday. Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”
Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert in 1993. Pic: PA
Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.
At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.
She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.
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The couple were married for 55 years until he died from a stroke in 2019.
Following a private funeral in New York, the author will be buried alongside her late husband at the city’s Westchester Hills Cemetery.
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