Jeremy Clarkson can finally extend car park at Diddly Squat farm shop
Jeremy Clarkson in victory over council as he is finally granted permission to extend car park at his Diddly Squat farm shop (but the restaurant is still refused)
- Star has been stuck in row with West Oxfordshire District Council since last year
- Planning inspector said the attraction had become ‘a victim of its own success’
Jeremy Clarkson has won his battle to provide more parking at his Diddly Squat farm.
The TV star has been locked in a row with West Oxfordshire District Council since last year, when it refused to grant permission for him to extend the shop’s parking facilities.
Since then, the site – which is the subject of the presenter’s popular Amazon series, Clarkson’s Farm – has been inundated with scores of visitors.
A lack of parking space resulted in cars being left on boggy mounds on the side of a road, damaging land and triggering outrage among some locals in the quiet village of Chadlington.
But now a planning inspector has given the green light to the extension, and for changes to use of the land – but proposals to add a restaurant on site were turned down.
Jeremy Clarkson has won his battle to provide more parking at his Diddly Squat farm
The site – which is the subject of the presenter’s popular Amazon series, Clarkson’s Farm – has been inundated with scores of visitors over the last couple of years
A lack of parking space resulted in cars being left on boggy mounds on the side of a road, damaging land and triggering outrage among some locals in the quiet village of Chadlington
RJ Perrins wrote in a report that he will grant planning permission for ‘an extension to existing parking area to formalise temporary parking and provision of new access arrangements.’
The document went on to describe Diddly Squat, and the huge influx of interest it has generated in recent years, as ‘a victim of its own success’.
Mr Perrins added: ‘It does not ask for an entrance fee or advertise as a leisure or tourist attraction, it is not comparable to say a Wildlife Park or miniature railway which are reliant upon attracting tourists and paying visitors to be viable.’
Addressing local concerns, the inspector noted: ‘I am in no doubt that this has caused a huge inconvenience for those who live nearby.
‘It was clear to me that many people visiting on the day of my final site visit had no regard to the proper use of the highway, with verges being further churned up and traffic having to stop, as visitors walked the middle of the road or cars manoeuvred into tight spaces.
‘From that snapshot in time I am not surprised, as heard in evidence, that tensions have run high between some of those living locally and some visitors to the farm shop.’
While Clarkson may celebrate his victory, the planning inspector did, however, refuse permission for a restaurant in an area of the site known as Lowland Barn.
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