Jeremy Clarkson ordered to shut down Diddly Squat restaurant
TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been ordered to shut down his restaurant less than three months after opening it on his Oxfordshire farm without planning permission.
The former Top Gear host opened the Diddly Squat Farm’s restaurant to rave reviews in July, but an ongoing planning row with the local council could see its doors shut permanently.
Despite Clarkson claiming a “loophole” meant he didn’t need planning permission to open the restaurant, it emerged on Thursday that the West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) issued him with an enforcement notice to shut it down in August.
WODC claimed in the enforcement notice that the toilets, parking area, and dining space installed on the farm were “visually intrusive and harmful” to the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The 62-year-old has appealed the notice, with agents at the John Philips Planning Consultancy working on his behalf saying the venue wasn’t in breach of planning laws and that the council’s decision was “excessive”.
The notice comes after the council denied Clarkson’s application to create the restaurant on his farm in late 2021.
In July, he shared that he had found a “delightful little loophole” that allowed his plans to come to fruition, though the site of the restaurant had changed.
While he never revealed which loophole he was referring to, the appeal lodged with council referenced permitted development rights under Town and Country Planning Order 2015, which allows landowners to bypass normal regulations if they meet certain criteria, such as changing the use of agricultural buildings to a flexible commercial use.
One particular section, known as Class R, allows for agricultural buildings to be used as farm shops without permission as long as the shop doesn’t exceed 150 square meters and was in agricultural use in 2012.
A “lambing shed” in a field on Clarkson’s farm has since been converted to seat seven tables of four outside, with the appeal stating that the existing planning permission gave them the right to use the farm as a restaurant and that there had been no “material change” to the land.
However, the council said the restaurant was an “unlawful use of Diddly Squat Farm” and that it was “unsuitable and incompatible with its open countryside location”.
The notice ordered that the restaurant be closed and that dining tables, chairs, parasols, picnic tables, and the mobile toilet be removed.
WODC told The Telegraph that the farm “continues to operate outside the planning permissions granted” and that “advice has been ignored”.
“Council officers have worked with the owner and planning agents of the business, over many months, to investigate breaches in planning control, advising on how the business can be operated in a lawful way and trying to reach a solution,” a spokesman said.
“It is the responsibility of the Council to ensure that planning laws and processes are followed correctly.”
The spokesman added that the council would “detail the breaches of planning control” as well as why the enforcement notice should be upheld and Clarkson’s appeal be dismissed.
They noted that the local Cotswalds community had felt a “significant impact” from Clarkson’s activities.
Although Clarkson bought the farm in 2008, it was operated by a local until the presenter retired in 2019 and decided to see if he could run it himself.
Image: The Telegraph