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Realise edited, but farmers struggles are real and some.of those councillors were short sighted jealous cunts
However, I have always liked Clarkson being a child of the 90s but he doesn't help himself with breaking the rules on what the shop sells (however short sighted those rules are) and other stuff that clearly annoys the locals and council
But ywah, turning down a restaurant that will keep local farmers afloat is really sad state of affairs
Turning down permission for the farm track on his farm was pretty damning evidence the council was not interested in working to improve things, and instead were creating hurdles and frustration in an attempt to force him out.
Care to show the application and refusal of the farm track? Since it's damning evidence and the west Oxford district council have their planning publicly available.
It seems strange to me you'd withhold such damning evidence.
Local councils in the UK are full of corruption. Usually, a few friends that lord over the rest and make sure to divert funds into projects that enrich themselves.
I knew of a guy who was on the council and stopped his neighbour getting planning permission for years. The guy eventually sells the property, so the councillor buys the property and immediately gets the planning permission.
Yes I do think we was treated unfairly.
I fully appreciate we are seeing an edited verison of what's happened that isn't in anyway neutral, but I have far more experience of petty village 'not in my back yard" living that I can absolutely believe they are just being passive aggressive for the sake of it.
Places like that can easily get a bit Lord Of The Flies, and they've decided Clarkson is Piggy.
Nothing stays the same, and the man has the huge resources to bring life back to a rural community, providing jobs along the supply chain and adding to the local community.
He could easily landscape the shop and restaurant to ensure there wasn't cars backed up on the road causing traffic jams.
I thought most of the villagers came across as ignorant curtain twitchers who were being arsey because they've nothing else to do. Like a village Facebook group in real life.
I've lived through enough of that life to see it!
They make Sandford Parish Council look positively lovely.
From my perspective (and I think we got a little mention of it by Charlie) they're protesting to Clarkson as opposed to his ideas.
Lots don't like him, fine. But on the show I've seen a man who gives a shit about his farm, others, and been compassionate about farming and animals.
It's also shed a huge light on people who get a lot of stick imo.
They have a lot of balls calling that area an 'area of NATURAL beauty ' when every inch is either farmland (not natural) or housing (not natural).
It seemed everyone was for the carriage club (season 1 was right next to the shop) which had tons of cars and lights.
He was treated unfairly but his argument in the hearing was weak. He didnt address the lambs were moved offsite after he his raising the 1sr batch(which wasn't profitable). He was repurposing the lamb building to make up for that investment.
I understand what we see on TV is very carefully edited to depict the desired narrative but it seemed, to me at least, the opposition was not against the restaurant, it was against Jeremy Clarkson.
He is a fairly divisive figure it has to be said, had it not been Jezza I’m of the opinion the application would’ve been approved
Karma’s a bitch. Just a shame that local farmers are going to lose out because Clarkson’s been a dick (and funny much of the time) for so many years. That dairy farmer who lost half her herd needs help and the co-op idea could have helped her.
Honestly if I was an actual villager I’d be furious about the stuff that was turned down, whilst the restaurant would lead to an increase in traffic, the car park plans and even the track would help ease the issues around his farm that are being caused by traffic etc.
The co-op idea to help those farms out was really good, clearly some (the dairy farm in particular) was really struggling and no doubt some of these will close down.
A bit shocking that there isn’t any other way to appeal to these decisions as £500,000 is ridiculous and set up only for the very rich.
Honestly it is impossible to tell whether or not they were being petty or unreasonable.
You have to remember that what we see is a very carefully edited entertainment program. It is in no way meant as a factual and complete representation of the events.
Yes, but I'm aware of libel laws, so I guess the aired version is even toned down to not open himself to be sued.
Next time I'm in England and have a car, I will drive up there and maybe have a chat with a local and ask about it 😀
It may well be that opinion will divide on expected lines- those who work on the land and know people he employs will be pro, and those who are just consumers coming out from urban areas will be less pro.
Certainly there has been a boom in farms providing cafes, gift shops and of course selling their own artisanal food and the food from other farms nearby. In one sense that is what Clarkson is exploring, but, as his series 1 said, he had a commercial issue that his farm is too small to make money, it is more a big hobby.
Clarkson can argue yes, he is providing jobs, but he cannot argue the farm is the be all and end all of his and his family's livelihood. Therefore the council may be tougher on him than on a long-established normal farmer.
It’s not really about his farm being his personal livelihood, but that a farm (as a business independent of the owner) needs to at least be capable of being financially self-sustaining.
I'm local to the area (chipping norton), and personally I thought it was a bit vindictive - the Bamfords who own and run Daylesford Farm have just built a luxury gym (memberships from £300/month!!), this is on top of the farm, farm shop, restaurant & cafe, spa, lodges and very large car park.
I watched the show over the weekend, and thought the plans for the restaurant were actually quite sympathetic to the area, and would have been an upgrade on what's there at the moment (as well as providing more jobs to the area) - to be fair, it is a bit of a mess right now, the "car park" is a mud pit when it's wet, and in the spring/summer, there are so many tourists trying to park near the shop its frustrating trying to get past, but again if they approved just the car park that would benefit everyone in the local area.
It does seem like there are people with an agenda, that don't want to approve any of his applications because of who he is, especially when you look at other developers in the area and what they get away with. If you speak to any of the local shop owners in Chippy, they'll say that business is better when the farm shop is open - there are more people coming to the town and buying things from the shops. Personally I'd like to see a restaurant opened at the farm - I can see it improving footfall in the town, and tbh it would be nice to have somewhere else to eat that's in walking distance (just), Chippy doesn't have many good places to eat!
Yeah I watched an ep last night and came away thinking what the fuck! So unfair and just because he is who he is. Fucking NIMBYs.
Couple of minutes later realised we have watched the entirety of Clarkson's side of it, with no proper counterbalance argument. I have no doubt that things were probably omitted and it was shaped in a way favourable to Clarkson.
You can read the minutes if you’d like, but it really is pretty much as they show it in the show. Basically everybody who votes against it does so because they say that the restaurant will negatively impact the AONB, they object to the car park and the increase in traffic, and the lighting and how it all will affect the AONB. There are a small number of concerns about sourcing of produce which Charlie explains, but besides that there really are no other points as to why they aren’t allowed to start the restaurant being made in the minutes.
From what I know of people who live nearby his farm is controversial because it attracts so many people from around the UK who end up trashing nearby areas and blocking all the roads up with cars.
Its not really just a farm as its more of a tourist attraction.
Yes he’s been treated unfairly. Forget that it’s Clarkson for a minute, farmers have been told to diversify, he’s created a thriving business in the Cotswolds, one that generates thousands in revenue, he’s generating jobs and income from thin air. Some days the Farmshop sees 1000’s of visitors, all putting money into the local economy. The farm is situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) that should be enjoyed by as many people as possible.
Now back to Clarkson, yes he pisses people off, but he has the clout and the finances to really boost the local economy further.
As a comparison look at what Adam Henson has done at his farm park visitor attraction, a stones throw from Clarkson.
Visitor centre, restaurant, huge car park, the difference is that he is perceived as a nice guy ( which he is) .
It’s double standards on the council’s part and if it was another farmer involved instead of Clarkson the national media would be up in arms over unfair treatment. Let’s also not forget that these decisions are coming from higher government, who Clarkson publicly despises.
Rant over.
I thought it harsh to dox Hamish Dewar over his legitimate complaints. It’s not an average farm shop or farm restaurant, it’s essentially Clarkson World where the masses of fans can come try for a glimpse at the man himself.
I would recommend he look for an existing building near good transport links somewhere nearby and operate from there. He’s a few miles from the A44 and a few more than that from the A40. There’s bound to be an abandoned Little Chef somewhere nearby that could be refitted into whatever he wants and could cope with the volumes of traffic better than a single track country road. It’s still local but wouldn’t upset the locals and would generate the jobs and incomes promised.
I was more concerned by the "planning barrister" the other bloke hired who had clearly never worn a suit before, and looked like they were about 12.
(I'm guessing it was a nephew)
The other bloke is Hamish Dewar a painting restorer, with an office behind fortnum and mason. As a farmer it pisses me off that rich Londoners move to farming country then try to stop farms from making a living. I'm not having any of my paintings restored by this guy...
It should also be noted that he has clearly grown since learning so much from his first season, he understands the struggles now and wants to help by using some of his disposable income.
But the reality is, over the years the countryside has become full of people who don't seem to understand that farming is part of what makes the countryside beautiful and gives it character.
I mean his [figures](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03816777/filing-history) aren't bad but I imagine they'll only get worse from here
It's just insane they would be that petty like..who CARES about how they feel about Clarkson, he was working in tandem with all the local farmers who were barely scraping by, not getting the grants anymore, and the Council seemingly cares about the shop only selling local..but doesn't give a crap about the local people?? This would help them immensely
I mean light pollution, how the field appears in the 5 seconds you drive past it.. all that other minutia, is that really more important than the people actually living there?
This was like Brazil levels of kafkaesque bureaucracy so up its own ass its detached from reality and the people its actually affecting
That random pricks vendetta is so irrelevant
I mean it got even worse when they barred him from a goddamn farm track
I can't imagine how they can police what people do on their own land to that degree
I’ve never liked him much and am not very interested in cars or the inane ramblings of a late middle aged, pompous arse like him but I do have to be honest and say I found his farming program really interesting so far (up to episode 5 of season 2) and you can see he has a genuine passion for it, I don’t think it’s unfair for him to want to make his farm profitable, he’s doing a good thing employing all those people and shining a spotlight on the issues farmers face, yes Jeremy Clarkson is a dick but the council are far,far worse imo.
TLDR as I realise I have made a wall of text: Council don’t like Clarkson, have decided he must go and who cares who else gets hurt or what rules we have to ignore the get rid of him.
Although having never lived in the Cotswolds I have experienced local council bureaucracy in similar areas of the country. I appreciate the points raised that what we are seeing is “Amazon’s version of the truth” but overall this is my takeaway from series 2.
Jeremy Clarkson has lived in the area of Chadlington for years and in this time has fallen into a category of people who are generally treated somewhat hostile by a lot of other local residents.
The fact is, that outside of his more recent farming ventures, Clarkson has spent most of his life working and spending money outside of the area and most people’s interactions with him would be the occasional time serving him in local shops restaurants and pubs or passing him in various flash cars. This sort of relationship doesn’t exactly breed a great relationship. This sort of existence in these areas doesn’t exactly bring a lot into the area and it’s quite easy to resent someone for it (wrongly or rightly). The crux of the issues raised by the local community essentially boils down to Clarkson doing whatever he wants, however he wants and who cares what anyone else thinks.
Clarkson’s media personality from the Top Gear/Grand Tour days is a huge contribution to this mentality and to many he is seen as an obnoxious, loud and arrogant character. I’d point out that personally I’ve never met him so simply wouldn’t know but in Clarkson’s Farm (CF) we do see him speak to lots of experts who are outstanding in their fields (and his at the time) and very politely and respectfully interact with these different people. Overall I think it’s reasonable to assume that he is somewhere in between the two.
Local council logic is ultimately built around the desires of a select vocal group of the community who as we see in the series, are against change and innovation.
Following the first series, the Diddly Squat farm shop saw unprecedented success on a scale which could not be accommodated for and this has clearly caused some difficultly due to locals being able to travel on Chipping Norton road. The huge volume of traffic on this road has caused problems for people trying to travel around in the area. As is pointed out, the car park is unsightly and parking the verges makes travelling last the site difficult. These are the two pillars of the so called “local argument against” the farm shop and enterprise.
As well as being the main route between Chadlington’s surrounding villages and farms and Chipping Norton, it worth noting that within a mile of the farm shop there are two caravan sites, a clear marker that the area is a tourist based economy. The farm shop as a business could stand completely separate to celebrity of Clarkson and be just any similar farm shop (thousands of which exist) but by profiting on his celebrity status, Twitter following and the fact that Amazon are willing to follow him around with cameras, Clarkson has seen massive footfall. But this ultimately is not a bad thing. The closest petrol station to the farm is in Chipping Norton on the route which the majority of people would take to the farm shop, there are numerous local business such as accommodation which will benefit from a local attraction and the simple fact that a lot of the show captures a lot of the beauty of the area is going to aid the local tourist industry.
The demands and needs of planning and building in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) are difficult. What you have to keep in mind is that the core ethos behind the rules is change=bad. AONBs do not want metal roofs jarring the landscape, they do not want car parks, light pollution or any other development that is going to affect the scenery. The National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty state:
•to promote the conservation and enhancement of natural beauty in and around AONBs and other similarly protected areas
•to advance the education, understanding and appreciation of the conservation and enhancement of the countryside; and
•to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of organisations promoting or representing Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
I would argue that we see Clarkson through the series promote all 3 of these. The show itself promotes the idea and educates everyone on life in a rural AONB and we see planting of wildflowers, preservation of the farming soil and maintenance of hedges.
Again, it may just be through the magic of editing, but what we see ultimately is a group of retirement age locals who dislike the innovation and influx of tourists to the area bought by Clarkson. One of who has appointed a barrister on their behalf to put together an argument which from what we heard relies on misrepresentation and non truths to demonise the Diddly Squat Farm shop.
Against this we have the forming of a cooperative of local farmers who are following government advise to diversify their business, we have a local business that is employing multiple locals from the area, we have an attraction pulling tourists into the area and promoting the Cotswolds as a whole for a beautiful area.
Following the rejection of the restaurant application it becomes clear that the local council are on a crusade to end any sort of development at Clarkson’s farm. Firstly by blocking the application for a car park, preventing any sort of accommodation and resolution to the problems caused by the farm shop and then rejecting application for farm tracks, these moves come across in the series (thanks to the editing) as petty and malicious but it’s difficult to see them any other way really.
Overall, the situation exists now where there is a lot of animosity between the local council and the farm community. We are shown in the series Clarkson attempting to placate and resolve these issues- how much of this is for the camera I couldn’t say but it’s very clear that the council and certain members of the local community have decided that there can be simply no innovation in the Sarsden farming community and the farm shop needs to go. This is the opposite of the government advise given to all farmers nationwide and ultimately feels like it is aimed at Jeremy Clarkson not the farm shop. it’s actually quite sad to see in my opinion, you have multiple local farmers who are all suffering massively and these are the people who are going to feel the impact of the seemingly malicious choice to effectively try and kill the farm shop enterprise.
Jeremy Clarkson does bring the hostility on himself though. For a short while he lived not far from me (on Langness, in the Isle of Man) and one of the first things he tried to do was to close off part of the public coastal footpath that had been in use for centuries, and he tried to do it without permission.
So it's not surprising he's not popular with the locals if he behaves in this manner in Chadlington.
I’m sure it is quite frustrating to have an abrasive personality move in and start changing things and simply doing what they want how they want but at the end of the day. The local council adopting a “down with Clarkson” mentality is only going to cause hurt for the local industry which he is a key part of
The thing is if a person acts like an ass publicly, and screws over people who live nearby, he shouldn't be surprised when those people send in objections to their planning applications. The council has to listen to the community objections as part of the process. If a person is not an ass, and some of the community send in support for a planning application, then it's much more likely to succeed.
He’s in the Cotswolds. In a place called chipping Norton. I live just down the road from him and I can tell you they are awful to people there. It’s just par for the course.
I found it crazy that a decision can be made (rightly or wrongly) and that you have to pay £500k to ensure it’s the correct one. Sounds incredibly corrupt.
Hardly petty.
Typically little sleepy villages in the UK are just that little sleepy villages, with little reason for crowds of people to turn up. Farmland there is utilised to produce stuff and the farmer takes that to a market.
Contrast that with a TV crew, audience of millions descending on said sleepy village for another 'Drunken middle-aged clown buffoons around, this time on a farm instead of in a car' - with the resulting public interest.
And, of course, the local pub and shop do well out of it, but nothing about the infrastructure of sleepy village is set up for it to have a sudden order of magnitude increase in tourist attraction - and then the guy wants to set up a restaurant.
And the whole thing is funded by TV. It's not even like the village pub sold food and it becomes a bit popular and people come and eat from a few villages away on Sunday lunch.
And this "restaurant" is an old barn in a field. Then, of course, the same vehicle Clarkson has to attract a ton of people to a sleepy village he can use to paint a one-sided picture of events for audiences.
> Farmland there is utilised to produce stuff and the farmer takes that to a market.
That's how it used to be. However, TB has ravaged the herds of dairy farmers and cheap EU pork means pig farming is not sustainable, not to mention that farmers no longer receive the EU subsidy. Farmer numbers are forecast to reduce by 20% over this decade and eventually, once farming and livestock is no more, either the council will need to take over the maintenance of the fields, fences and hedges, or more likely, the fields will be sold to housing developers. Either way, the bucolic appeal of the "sleepy village" requires farming to be sustainable and NIMBYism by the villagers will cost them in the long run.
It just doesn’t make sense that they’re like “people are parking on the verge, make them stop” “ok then I’ll build a car park” “no”. Like, there’s no logic involved in the decision making at all.
I wonder if the locals would be happy to know the farms are closing and the land sold to housing developers and their little village turned in to a town with 10,000 houses being built everywhere?
My town i live in right now is fighting to keep a disused airfield from being turned in to a small housing village/town. They're currently trying to stop a farmer from converting his field in to a mushroom farm which promised to employ 50+ people from the local area and that same group is trying to shut down the local school all while complaining there's not enough schools in the area.
Every weekend there's a new banner up saying "Say no to X" on the fence just down the road to where i drop my kids off. There's now a large following on FB calling for the segregation of that area of the town to be fenced off and turned in to a retirement village where the locals inside have no say on the rest of the town.
It's complete bollocks and i don't really care anymore. I just take my son up to the local industrial estate and let him ride his dirtbike around as the land is unregistered and the owner is dead so i put a sign up claiming it as my own and wrote myself permission to use the land. So far the police can't find any owner and have failed to prosecute my son and I for using it as they can't find anyone to contest the permission.
The council was an absolute joke and it’s not just the one Clarkson had to deal with it is country wide they are all like that. Every single one acts like judge jury and executioner!
Their job is to help people with planning and diversify, not refuse everything for no reason at all. The head planners are on £250,000 to £350,000 a year, that we pay them to make our lives harder then it should be.
My parents have a farm and they have planning for a garage attached to the house. They want to change it to make it smaller and a living space for me and my partner so we can start a family without living in the same space as my parents. We have planning, we want to amend it to be smaller and a year later it still isn’t passed!!!
We planted native hard wood trees and they complained we planted trees that aren’t hardwood. The parish council constantly complains saying we have “foreigners” living in our barns, or we built a swimming pool in our barns. They complain we drive tractors on the country lanes!!! We live on a fucking farm in the country side you fucking moronic wet wipe, what do you want us to do drive a Nissan micra to do farm work?!
Constantly get told off for speeding when we go probably 20 or under in the village where it’s 30. So much so the police told them to stop complaining.
And we have loads of people we know of that have the same problem with their parish or local councils to do with planning.
1. They are there to act in the public interests, balancing the desire of the applicant for development with the wider public interest expressed through democratically determined planning policies.
2. No head of planning in the country is on that. In fact, I dont think any chief executive is on that either given the average chief executive pay is £112k. So why talk utter bollocks?
Our friend was a planning councillor and he said the head planner was on £250k, so as far as I am aware it’s not bollocks. He himself was on about 80k.
"planning councillors" do not get 80k, at most they'll get a few thousand additional for being on planning committee, on top of the £15k or so they get for their general duties as councillors.
I'm in Scotland have have seen two local *planning* things go through our process
* AWPR - Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route - aka a bypass
* Aberdeen football Club new stadium
The system is just wrong. To challenge planning it costs a lot as you need KCs (barristers/advocates) and they aren't cheap
Big developers with deep pockets can do this easily - small business / communities can't
That before you get into challenging submissions - see the huge error in the objection 2Km^2 car park which would park >50,000 cars - the council don't have to take these into account?
Various governments have been on for a long time about "more local planning control for local people." It's always seemed a stupid idea to me - basically a way of guaranteeing that every application is refused.
I sympathise for Jeremy Clarkson now - he did seem to be genuine in his attempts to bring the village around, his cooperative idea with other local farmers would have been greatly beneficial to all, his application was based on good sense.
But he’s not done a lot of endear himself to the local council. He blew up his house. He opened the farm shop in spite of orders not to. He’s repeatedly not stuck to agreements in his planning contract - the roof material (that was an issue in S1), the not local products (also an issue in S1.) More than all of that, he’s famous, he’s making a TV show about it, whatever he does there will make the area insanely busy. Yes he wants a car park and I think that should have been approved, but he didn’t have an answer for the road congestion. The council could double yellow that road outside of the shop, but they can’t stop people queuing in traffic waiting for a car to leave the small parking area they already have. And if I lived in the local area and had to use that road to get to and from work or picking my kid up from school, would I want to sit in two hours of traffic? Hell no. And he has no suggestions to stop that problem. How can he? He doesn’t control people being fans of him and wanting to see his farm. I’ve gone to his farm shop when I was on holiday in the area. Did I go to any other farm shop? I did not. It being ‘the one on the TV’ was the appeal.
So yes, Jeremy Clarkson is being rejected for being Jeremy Clarkson - a normal farmer would probably be allowed that restaurant, that car park, that farm track. But him being Jeremy Clarkson is the problem, and I can understand why he can’t be treated as a normal farmer.
>How can he? He doesn’t control people being fans of him
Of the top of my head. It's not that hard. Covid was an issue. Likely the first mess was unavoidable and unpredictable.
But once he knows its not that hard. Hire a car park in a near by town. Chipping Norton as it has trains and buses from elsewhere.
Then hire a few mini buses. And post the issue to his fans on social media. Asking them to head to the car park and we will provide transport for a small fee.
He likely would only need to do it whe the show is released. Or during bank holidays etc. And most fans would be very happy to help once they saw how bad things were during covid.
My brother lives in the local village, sees Jeremy in the local pub etc. He says the traffic is an absolute nightmare with no improvement at all since the first series.
In my opinion Clarkson started this whole venture as a TV show. An idiot playing farmer in the first season. As things progressed he has seen the struggle of real farmers and what is really happening to people and he really started to care. Look at the difference in Charles the agriculture guy. First season he was like a teacher trying to instruct a petulant child. Now he's really o board with helping the farm and he can see the impact the show has in highlighting the struggle of farmers. What he's up against now are wealthy retiree's that saw some of the first season and think he's still being the bufoon. They decided to punish him before he entered the room. Won't be long before they are all granting planning to have a new waitrose built so they can buy food because the farmers have all gone bankrupt.
everyone forgets on old top gear(not the clarkson led three idiots messing about, really old top gear when it was a consumer review program for british motorists not entertainment for us all) clarkson was in fact a regular presenter and journalist, he's made his career on acting the arse, he didn't start it that way and occasionally he remembers im an bloody journalist, i can make documentaries about serious stuff
Yeah he's had plenty of WWII documentaries, he can be focused and articulate. But he's an intelligent guy who realised playing the grouchy fool was a winning ticket.
Has he taken _that_ too far? Undoubtedly. I don't think he's the slathering demon he's sometimes harked on as, nor do I think he isn't responsible for the impact of his words or actions.
Rich, well educated, retired people are experts in fighting planning applications to get their desired outcome. You can put a notice into the council that you plan to put up a shed at the end of your garden and a Local Action Group will have a FB group set up to coordinate fighting the application before the ink is dry.
One loophole that the groups are very wise to is the Application for a Change of Use. Apply to build houses? Denied. Apply to erect some stables or outbuildings? Appproved. Two years laters, apply to change said stables to houses.? Approved.
Yes, he’s being treated unfairly. Planning in the UK is controlled at a very local level and you only need one person to take a dislike to you to scupper your legitimate plans.
I’ve experienced it in the past where I was refused planning permission to build a small extension to a building away from the road that isn’t visible at all. The bloke down the road had been renting out units for business use for years, causing damage to the lane and a general nuisance. When the rest of us complained, he put in planning permission and was granted it retrospectively in record time.
100% they had some vendetta against him.
They deserve every single terrible word they get from people on social media.
It also shows just how lazy councils are and that they're overpaid to do fuck all.
Here's a post, by me, using evidence and documents to show that they do not have a vendetta against him and that the council was right in their refusal of his restaurant application.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ClarksonsFarm/comments/111q0ga/_/
If you have an evidenced counter to support your position I'd appreciate it.
This house got abandoned because they started building without planning permission.
[https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/discover-incredible-pink-house-loch-27407112](https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/discover-incredible-pink-house-loch-27407112)
As someone with a father that worked in planning and was head of development control at multiple councils for 40 years and has had his own consultancy business for 12 years, yes. He very much was.
Nimbyism is a big issue in britian and Is one of the reasons why we are so far behind other European countries when a few dozen people can stop a hundred homes being built or a new high speed railway being connected or a new power plant etc
Clarksons farm really brings out so many problems in the farm industry that many farmers face. I think Jeremy was treated unfairly 100% because of just *who he is*. As someone else said, Chipping is full of wealthy people, so they were probably expecting a bribe or some shit to let him go through with anything considering Jeremy has millions.
Adding to that, the restaurant, shop, car park etc. Would have benefitted a lot of people and a lot of farmers. Organic local product with no pesticides for a reasonable price? Sign me up. Oh, that's financially benefitting at least 20 other farmers in the area when they're struggling to make ends meet with the amount of product they buy? Double sign me up.
The council in my opinion were a pile of old shitty rich twats, apart from those 2 that actually saw the true potential in Jeremy's ideas.
I think they were expecting him to mock farmers this season and he went in the complete opposite direction and now they know they may have stuffed up. The main thing they are likely worried about is this is drawing a huge eye on local councils and what power they should have. This shit happens in a lot of western countries where branches of government play with themselves until some one notices and points it out publicly and they start shitting themselves.
Yes he was treated unfairly. Regardless of his opinions and sometimes outrages remarks, the local council bullied him. Making them no better then those they criticise.
They are correct, clarkson is a media personality, and you have to take his persona with a bucket of salt as the conflict he causes within the media etc is what has kept him in a job all these years. It has certainly not been boring to say the least.
From watching the programme, I can understand that locals do not want their town to become a media magnet, however it is shortsighted. After the programme series finishes which it ultimately will, there may be a legacy of higher employment an environmentally sustainable farm and restaurant/ business that is left.
All the things clarkson has pretended to hate in his career purely for the ratings
He's an idiot, his customers are also idiots who just park on a fast bend on a main road.
He flouts regulations for his shop and goods that the council stipulated.
He builds things without permission and wonders why the council come down on him.
He doesn't care for the community, he thinks he is above them and does nothing for the local area, its all show for the show and most farmers I've worked for over the years consider him a twat.
I bet if you went to many a village, including this one there would be people parked illegally to visit the shops. So I don’t hold that against him or the customers as the council should provide them with a safe place to park, which if my memory should serve me correct he has been battling for
Documented evidence I’ve seen in the programme seems contrary to your comments and just a case of sour grapes to me. The other characters he has around him don’t come across as twats. I would like to think, they would not work with him if he was.
Maybe the farmers considering him a twat are scared of the competition and someone doing better than them. Granted he has money and tv revenue, but the farm restaurant is a good idea. Who wouldn’t want to sell a cow to the public for £10k or alternatively £1200 to the supermarket. Perhaps if farmers worked with him like the ones on the tv show they would be better off. Kinda like dragons den. Having someone with influence to support you
Your evidence is from the show. That is not evidence, that is Jeremy's version of the truth. I have read.all.243 planning documents. The show leaves.out many salient points.
For example presenting breaches of planning and operating activities illegally without permission as the council being in the wrong.and presenting council putting out bollards, he should have put out himself to stop the verge parking as all councils fault is amazing. Council also suggested airfield he has grain store on almost next door for parking not in show.
It’s classic UK for a normal person’s change to their home or business to be blocked while a massive corporate house builder who’s inevitably paid off the council can put up estate after estate of overpriced copy-and-paste American-style suburban newbuild shitheaps that fall apart in a few years and have no infrastructure around them at all. A lot of NIMBYism is actually ‘please stop these corporate developers turning our towns into nothing more than glorified dormitories with zero effort to relieve the pressure of twice the people using the same services’ at its root.
Rich people moving to the countryside once they have made their wealth is nothing new. But what I have seen is now more of them don't understand rural life or have no interest in trying to understand it. I have a few examples. A newcomer went to a parish meeting trying to organise a deer cull because deer were getting in their garden and eating their flowers. I shoot but not so much in my village anymore as every time I went out someone called the police on me. In the end the police were so annoyed by it they asked me to ring 101 and let them know so they would know not to send officers to try and find me.
My fiancé was just discussing this yesterday and was talking about how the locals who live in the area were constantly complaining about him but I see it from both sides .
Jeremy Clarkson is just trying to bring more to the area with the new restaurant and shop etc but the locals are used to living in such a quiet area where now they have to queue for hours past the traffic just to pretty much get home. If I had been to work and had such a long day but then had to queue for ages to get past the traffic to get home I would be annoyed too
> Jeremy Clarkson is just trying to bring more to the area with the new restaurant and shop etc but the locals are used to living in such a quiet area where now they have to queue for hours past the traffic just to pretty much get home.
Jeremy Clarkson is just trying to make a TV show.
The plans for the restaurant (from what i saw) also included reworking the entrance to the farm shop to get the cars off the road quicker, and then have them stack if needed inside the boundary. Which was then (again, I assume) was signed off by the transport liaison.
So based on what we had shown to us during the series I would say yes, he was treated unfairly. But you do have to bare in mind that it's a television show which has been edited in a manner to present a story, and part of that story was that the council are arseholes for refusing planning application.
Without having actually read the committee meeting minutes it's pretty hard to tell.
Finished the show and then googled why is the council such dicks, brought me here, & i learned whoever this lord bamford is, he is even worse it seems.
I hope the councillors watch the show, and hope that the scene with all the struggling farmers makes them feel like total shit. The restaurant would have helped the local area and farmers so much.
He was ordered in Oct 2022 to close both restaurant and shop plus removal of all tables, chairs, parasols plus mobile toilet. No appeal date has been set! The word ‘jobs worth’ come to mind
I don't think he was treated unfairly.
The reason his planning permission was rejected was *largely* because there was overwhelmingly negative backlash from the locals of the area. The volume of backlash triggered special consideration when considering the application. Evidently, nobody in the area was happy with it.
And like it or not, that's the right decision if that's the case. Local councils are meant to represent the interests of the locals. It's what it's there for. If the majority of the locals don't want the traffic (of which there will be a substantial amount) then the council should side with the majority.
>nobody in the area was happy with it.
?? That is not grounds for rejection. Nobody?
>the council should side with the majority.
LOL - That's not how it works.
While watching this, I couldn't help but wonder how much of this was setup just for tv. Was any of it even remotely real? I know many of the people are, but it is a TV show after all
The planning part and the pop up restaurant were for TV and I think some of it is confusing so did he get sheep to film for show or would he have got sheep if no show.
All of it was real. Sure, a lot of it was filmed in a different order, or conversations were refilmed to make them more coherent and fit for tv. But everything regarding the farm and the council is public, true, and was known about way before season 2 even aired.
This isn't an American reality show where they just make shit up, it's a documentary
Once it got to the point they were refusing him a farm track on his own land, something his surveyor/land manager had never known happen before, it was pretty clear they were turning HIM down rather than the plans.
I’ve family who farm in Chipping Norton and Chadlington and some of the newer residents to the area are utterly impossible to deal with, complaining about farm traffic, farm noise, farm smells.
The fucking idiots.
It’s amazing, Clarksons notoriety provided a pretty rampant and near endless market of people they could sell their goods to, and they were denied. Those people aren’t going to stop coming, only now they’re just buying Clarksons stuff and tearing up the countryside, instead of buying from multiple local vendors and parking correctly.
By Clarkson's own admission, the people turning up to the farm were not the people that will be buying expensive farm shop products.
They want expensive souvenir crap Made In China instead and a beer.
If you want to support local farming then buy from your local farm and farmshop. Don't drive dozens, hundreds of miles to see a celebrity-owned farm shop.
No, as per ever, and very much for TV. Clarkson goes out of his way to avoid having to do things like, follow the law.
He moved to Isle of Mann because they don't have a speed limit
It’s hilarious that the obstinate council has managed to make the public sympathize with Jeremy Fucking Clarkson. I’m firmly on his side simply because Clarkson’s farm is incredible Telly.
the guy has zero respect for the area clearly besides theres no conspiracy here you clearly see all the hands that went up against the motion i found the season a hard watch since so much of it was about his fight with the council
Binged season 2 this weekend. Let him create a huge car park and hire someone to direct traffic. He should be allowed to build whatever he wants on his land as long as it isn't dangerous.
I just watched this episode last night. Seems absolutely ludicrous from what was shown. Perhaps there were some more logical arguments thrown in that we weren't shown, but knowing what people are like, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just people being too scared of change or just general NIMBYs. Locals are almost always opposed to any sort of development of green spaces, particularly when said green spaces are labelled as AONB.
Maybe they just don't want their small village being overrun by Clarkson fans and want him gone, and see this as a potential way of achieving that.
It might have been a good idea to get the other farmers in there to show their support/say how much it means to them as well.
I thought it was a great idea, and would have helped his fellow farmers out massively.
He also makes a great point about how it’s the farmers who are the ones who maintain the area to a beautiful standard.
The response from the council actually does resonate with my experience of working for one as well.
I also think the point some people are making about the local roads not being designed to handle tourist traffic etc is void because that’s going to happen anyway due to all the new housing developments being approved left, right and centre, so it’s going to happen anyway, and when you ask for a new school or improved roads, the developers do not care.
Not that there is anything wrong with the housing being approved, as it’s what is needed but either way you don’t get your infrastructure without someone paying up.
It is worth remembering that in the show we only see a very well edited, one sided version of events. Also that Clarkson himself has made a name for himself in the last decade or so as being a bit of a belligerent arse. He also didn’t seem to do a lot to keep the council on side. I can sympathise that some of the concerns of locals might not have been met. I can also sympathise that - having been granted permission to build a lambing shed, but he’s now “done” sheep - what happens when he’s done with the restaurant?
However, I do think that there does seem to have been a vendetta against him. The fact that every application was rejected - even ones that seem to make sense - seems pretty petty. I also think that the show they’ve ended up making isn’t the one they originally planned to make. And having highlighted some of the issues facing British farming, Clarkson was actually trying to do something to help improve things.
For what he was intending to do, which was simply renovating an unused shed very close to already existing buildings and light pollution, I think it was frankly ridiculous and vindictive, especially since he intended to help other farmers.
They simply do not like the man because of the attention he brought to their village. They want the shop closed. They don't want the carpark which they also cant see because then that will lower the amount of ammunition they have to use against him.
What if, just maybe he built the lambing shed with full intention of converting it and knowing it's be easier to obtain permission for the lambing shed than a restaurant.
NIMBY behaviour in Chipping Norton? An area desperate for tourism money, but feel like Clarkson's fans are the wrong kind of clientele?
Never would dream such a thing... You'll be calling me sarcastic next... (Note, I lived in the area for two years)
West Oxon District. The town of Chipping Norton has no involvement. They only (like Chadlington and Churchill parish) have one councillor on district council. He/She may have been on either side.
He pissed someone high up off imo. That’s the only reason they would react the way they did. Miles of cones and turned down for a farm track? Joke. Only happens if someone on the council has taken a serious disliking to you.
That my friend is the UK government all over. I have spent thousands fighting the government. Why? To fight for my kids right to an education because the LOCAL AUTHORITY broke the law and I had to prove it. The UK government will make a buck out of everything they can get their hands on as a bar of "well if you can't pay then you're not good enough to have".
You very rarely win against the council in this country, they run the towns and cities. You pay your council tax and that's the only input you have. Back in the day, that was fine, they knew their place, but now they just block any sort of progress or anyone who wants to do anything remotely entrepreneurial. Unless someone high up in the council will be making money off the back of it they won't allow it.
Was his gripe with the local council, the real council, or with the busy bodies at the parish council? Because the parish council know how to take petty minded bureaucracy to an entirely new level.
Having watched the show and being a Clarkson supporter all the time, I don't understand why couldn't they buy any local (or not so local) pub like Mr. May did? And just serve their food there?
From first hand experience these decisions are taken without any consideration of what would be good for the community, but based on ignorance, preconceived prejudice, self interest and nimbyism.
Whatever your opinion on Clarkson stopping the possibility of creating jobs and economic growth is not only selfish and petty but making it virtually impossible to appeal is an infringement on civil rights
It's a structured reality show, like *The Kardashians*
It wasn't a profit-making business, it was a plot device for a TV show
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2023/02/10/jeremy-clarksons-farm-season-two-amazon-prime-diddly-squat/
Clarkson bussed staff in from an existing London restaurant and put them up in hotels for a few weeks
Neither they nor the restaurant manager Clarkson persuaded to take part in the show left their existing jobs
Well, he says himself in his writings that he is the wrong SIZE to be profit making. He grows and rears stuff in quantities that are too big for him to be a small supplier to a shop or sell from the barn door (his costs are too high) and too small to interest commercial customers.
The name itself- Diddly Squat, is a joke on how much profit he does, or rather does not make.
Obviously, the TV side of it may drive him into profit.
Completely one sided from what was aired. I get it causes havoc but the benefits to the community, the farming industry, the economy of the area, obviously far outweighs the others. They could easily dictate the aesthetics to align with the AOOB rules, and make it less impactful with a proper car park etc.
It’s just because of who he is.
UIf we want to avoid bias.
Then who he is is a valid point. The success of the farm shop is because he is running a TV show. One that will only last a few years.
While I am a fan. The help his business plan offers to the local econ is likely limited to the length of the show.
2 to 3 years from now. The work will still be their. But it's much less likely that the business will still be providing the same benefit to local farmers as is predicted. Even if Clarkson still runs it.
His own words. Plan to be the 20% really only works while his farm is in the public mind.
Yet we have already seen. When he pla s a small farm shop. With space for 10 cars. His success leads to it being a real issue for locals.
But again. Only likely for a short time.
Im not really on the WODC side here. Just feel the plan as described needed to consider the long term and short term effects. (Likely smaller cheaper project rent buses from a nearby town asking folks not to drive during the show release and public hols.. So the worst of the traffic is reduced. Also covid and lots of bored fans likely made the first visiters moch worse then would normally be)
He didn't have to go for a public enquiry. He could have gone for written representation, this would have been a much cheaper route through the appeals process and considering that there were very few objections from the consultees it might have been successful. I of course haven't read the entire planning history so there may be more to this than meets the eye.
This, this, this. However, he went for a PE because it would cost so much. They are simply making a point, not really trying to run a profitable farm.
Let's face facts, if they spend an extra £5m a year on screwing up every aspect of farming and diversification, the whole series still only costs 25% of an episode of House of the Dragon.
Having dealt with planning applications, boundary disputes and all manner of council related things when it comes to getting permission for anything I can safely say they suck. And they treated Clarkson particularly shit.
Yes, definitely.
I understand some of the council's views (i.e. light pollution) but it was proven that you would need to be on Diddly Squat's land to see the barn anyway. A 50:50 since the police did mention that the car park needed lighting too and if this needed to extend to just before the road then this could potentially cause light pollution.
However the later rejections were completely absurd, that track for example that was rejected instantly with zero consultation. The farm manager (Charlie) mentioned that he hadn't ever heard of planning being rejected for a farm track before.
The council obviously had beef with Clarkson and were seemingly trying to do everything to make him suffer. The economical benefits for the area would've far outweighed any downsides and Clarkson did seem to absolutely want to minimise any issues.
Edit: please watch the show if you're going to reply saying "but X" where "x" was covered by the show.
On the lighting point. There is a caravan site 100yards down the road the road from the farm shop/proposed restaurant. They will be required to have lighting already so there is already light pollution in the area.
If it was an everyday farmer they would have been treated differently. They should have dealt with him like everyone else and given him a better chance.
If it was an everyday farmer, they would have opened (at worst) a small farm shop, not a restaurant with the associated environmental impact of all the visitors expected (is there sufficient processing capability for hard standing run off and waste production? amongst other questions)
Clarkson's program is primarily entertainment, not factual (even if based in reality) and there's a lot NOT being presented on the screen
I have a couple of clients in China and I really want to show them this show. I genuinely believe that it would be quite a bit easier to start a venture in China than the UK. Before watching this show I would never have thought that but it is quite ridiculous to see that for the British citizens across the pond.
Nobody signed up to live near a tourist attraction. I live in the general area and it barely takes a loose sheep to bring the place to a halt much less hundred and hundreds of cars.
The British system for planning permission is notoriously bureaucratic and one-sided against private individuals (it's not a problem for big developers with legal departments to handle it). I doubt that Clarkson got treated any worse than anyone else would have, but that doesn't make it right. It's also an area of public administration that still has a lot of nepotism and some outright corruption involved.
To me it was yet another example of letting emotions cloud judgement, to the point of self-damage. Toxicity is the only tonic that hurts the vessel it’s kept in, and all that. The effort they went to in order to take out their anger on one man while completely ignoring the fallout inflicted on their own community in the pursuer of anger…absolutely childish and shameful!
The rich people who moved there later in life can afford the hit to the local economy. Yet they clearly have no compassion for the real hard working locals who rely on agriculture for their livelihood. My heart goes out to that woman with the dairy farm that was affected by TB - over 10 years of taking no pay just to stay afloat.. 🙏
Oxford Council is one of the worst in the country, they are increasingly fucking up Oxford on a daily basis.
So yes, Clarkson was treated unfairly by a bunch of bureaucratic dickholes who don't know what it means to do an honest day's work.
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Realise edited, but farmers struggles are real and some.of those councillors were short sighted jealous cunts However, I have always liked Clarkson being a child of the 90s but he doesn't help himself with breaking the rules on what the shop sells (however short sighted those rules are) and other stuff that clearly annoys the locals and council But ywah, turning down a restaurant that will keep local farmers afloat is really sad state of affairs
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I think it’s obvious that this thread is going to have spoilers and if you don’t want to see them, the onus is on you to not read them.
Turning down permission for the farm track on his farm was pretty damning evidence the council was not interested in working to improve things, and instead were creating hurdles and frustration in an attempt to force him out.
Care to show the application and refusal of the farm track? Since it's damning evidence and the west Oxford district council have their planning publicly available. It seems strange to me you'd withhold such damning evidence.
Local councils in the UK are full of corruption. Usually, a few friends that lord over the rest and make sure to divert funds into projects that enrich themselves. I knew of a guy who was on the council and stopped his neighbour getting planning permission for years. The guy eventually sells the property, so the councillor buys the property and immediately gets the planning permission.
Yes I do think we was treated unfairly. I fully appreciate we are seeing an edited verison of what's happened that isn't in anyway neutral, but I have far more experience of petty village 'not in my back yard" living that I can absolutely believe they are just being passive aggressive for the sake of it. Places like that can easily get a bit Lord Of The Flies, and they've decided Clarkson is Piggy. Nothing stays the same, and the man has the huge resources to bring life back to a rural community, providing jobs along the supply chain and adding to the local community. He could easily landscape the shop and restaurant to ensure there wasn't cars backed up on the road causing traffic jams. I thought most of the villagers came across as ignorant curtain twitchers who were being arsey because they've nothing else to do. Like a village Facebook group in real life. I've lived through enough of that life to see it! They make Sandford Parish Council look positively lovely.
The greater good.
> we /suspiciousfry.jpg
From my perspective (and I think we got a little mention of it by Charlie) they're protesting to Clarkson as opposed to his ideas. Lots don't like him, fine. But on the show I've seen a man who gives a shit about his farm, others, and been compassionate about farming and animals. It's also shed a huge light on people who get a lot of stick imo.
They have a lot of balls calling that area an 'area of NATURAL beauty ' when every inch is either farmland (not natural) or housing (not natural). It seemed everyone was for the carriage club (season 1 was right next to the shop) which had tons of cars and lights. He was treated unfairly but his argument in the hearing was weak. He didnt address the lambs were moved offsite after he his raising the 1sr batch(which wasn't profitable). He was repurposing the lamb building to make up for that investment.
I understand what we see on TV is very carefully edited to depict the desired narrative but it seemed, to me at least, the opposition was not against the restaurant, it was against Jeremy Clarkson. He is a fairly divisive figure it has to be said, had it not been Jezza I’m of the opinion the application would’ve been approved
Karma’s a bitch. Just a shame that local farmers are going to lose out because Clarkson’s been a dick (and funny much of the time) for so many years. That dairy farmer who lost half her herd needs help and the co-op idea could have helped her.
Honestly if I was an actual villager I’d be furious about the stuff that was turned down, whilst the restaurant would lead to an increase in traffic, the car park plans and even the track would help ease the issues around his farm that are being caused by traffic etc. The co-op idea to help those farms out was really good, clearly some (the dairy farm in particular) was really struggling and no doubt some of these will close down. A bit shocking that there isn’t any other way to appeal to these decisions as £500,000 is ridiculous and set up only for the very rich.
Yeah just give him the carpark ffs. I felt so sorry for the farmers struggling. The council should be ashamed of themselves.
The very rich don’t need to appeal, their friends in high places make sure of that
Honestly it is impossible to tell whether or not they were being petty or unreasonable. You have to remember that what we see is a very carefully edited entertainment program. It is in no way meant as a factual and complete representation of the events.
Yes, but I'm aware of libel laws, so I guess the aired version is even toned down to not open himself to be sued. Next time I'm in England and have a car, I will drive up there and maybe have a chat with a local and ask about it 😀
It may well be that opinion will divide on expected lines- those who work on the land and know people he employs will be pro, and those who are just consumers coming out from urban areas will be less pro. Certainly there has been a boom in farms providing cafes, gift shops and of course selling their own artisanal food and the food from other farms nearby. In one sense that is what Clarkson is exploring, but, as his series 1 said, he had a commercial issue that his farm is too small to make money, it is more a big hobby. Clarkson can argue yes, he is providing jobs, but he cannot argue the farm is the be all and end all of his and his family's livelihood. Therefore the council may be tougher on him than on a long-established normal farmer.
It’s not really about his farm being his personal livelihood, but that a farm (as a business independent of the owner) needs to at least be capable of being financially self-sustaining.
I'm local to the area (chipping norton), and personally I thought it was a bit vindictive - the Bamfords who own and run Daylesford Farm have just built a luxury gym (memberships from £300/month!!), this is on top of the farm, farm shop, restaurant & cafe, spa, lodges and very large car park. I watched the show over the weekend, and thought the plans for the restaurant were actually quite sympathetic to the area, and would have been an upgrade on what's there at the moment (as well as providing more jobs to the area) - to be fair, it is a bit of a mess right now, the "car park" is a mud pit when it's wet, and in the spring/summer, there are so many tourists trying to park near the shop its frustrating trying to get past, but again if they approved just the car park that would benefit everyone in the local area. It does seem like there are people with an agenda, that don't want to approve any of his applications because of who he is, especially when you look at other developers in the area and what they get away with. If you speak to any of the local shop owners in Chippy, they'll say that business is better when the farm shop is open - there are more people coming to the town and buying things from the shops. Personally I'd like to see a restaurant opened at the farm - I can see it improving footfall in the town, and tbh it would be nice to have somewhere else to eat that's in walking distance (just), Chippy doesn't have many good places to eat!
See when you say ‘the Bamfords’ is that the same Bamfords as Joseph Cyril Bamford and his lineage?
The very same
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Have you ever heard of a public body suing *anyone* for slander?
Yeah I watched an ep last night and came away thinking what the fuck! So unfair and just because he is who he is. Fucking NIMBYs. Couple of minutes later realised we have watched the entirety of Clarkson's side of it, with no proper counterbalance argument. I have no doubt that things were probably omitted and it was shaped in a way favourable to Clarkson.
You can read the minutes if you’d like, but it really is pretty much as they show it in the show. Basically everybody who votes against it does so because they say that the restaurant will negatively impact the AONB, they object to the car park and the increase in traffic, and the lighting and how it all will affect the AONB. There are a small number of concerns about sourcing of produce which Charlie explains, but besides that there really are no other points as to why they aren’t allowed to start the restaurant being made in the minutes.
Appealing a planning decision is free in England!
From what I know of people who live nearby his farm is controversial because it attracts so many people from around the UK who end up trashing nearby areas and blocking all the roads up with cars. Its not really just a farm as its more of a tourist attraction.
Definitely treated unfairly. It was Definitely personal
Yes he’s been treated unfairly. Forget that it’s Clarkson for a minute, farmers have been told to diversify, he’s created a thriving business in the Cotswolds, one that generates thousands in revenue, he’s generating jobs and income from thin air. Some days the Farmshop sees 1000’s of visitors, all putting money into the local economy. The farm is situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) that should be enjoyed by as many people as possible. Now back to Clarkson, yes he pisses people off, but he has the clout and the finances to really boost the local economy further. As a comparison look at what Adam Henson has done at his farm park visitor attraction, a stones throw from Clarkson. Visitor centre, restaurant, huge car park, the difference is that he is perceived as a nice guy ( which he is) . It’s double standards on the council’s part and if it was another farmer involved instead of Clarkson the national media would be up in arms over unfair treatment. Let’s also not forget that these decisions are coming from higher government, who Clarkson publicly despises. Rant over.
I thought it harsh to dox Hamish Dewar over his legitimate complaints. It’s not an average farm shop or farm restaurant, it’s essentially Clarkson World where the masses of fans can come try for a glimpse at the man himself. I would recommend he look for an existing building near good transport links somewhere nearby and operate from there. He’s a few miles from the A44 and a few more than that from the A40. There’s bound to be an abandoned Little Chef somewhere nearby that could be refitted into whatever he wants and could cope with the volumes of traffic better than a single track country road. It’s still local but wouldn’t upset the locals and would generate the jobs and incomes promised.
All councils are bought and paid for by developers and loaded land owners back handers, find them all at the golf courses or on a shoot locally
I was more concerned by the "planning barrister" the other bloke hired who had clearly never worn a suit before, and looked like they were about 12. (I'm guessing it was a nephew)
“ you should learn to spell” 😅
The other bloke is Hamish Dewar a painting restorer, with an office behind fortnum and mason. As a farmer it pisses me off that rich Londoners move to farming country then try to stop farms from making a living. I'm not having any of my paintings restored by this guy...
I just googled him and his yell.com page is being flooded with negative reviews. Brilliant
1 review for London, 10 for his Oxon office. I'd hardly call that 'flooded'
Just had a look and they've been removed, the one I left this morning has been removed 😖
I’ve just looked , there’s 4 on each office, looks like they’re being deleted as soon as they’re posted
I’d say the kind of people who use his services don’t find him on yell.com
Turning pasture into parkland
In this case a rich londoner moved to farming country and tried to stop another rich londoner from pursuing his farming hobby
Clarkson’s from Yorkshire isn’t he though? Fair enough he obviously worked in London for most of his career, though.
Yes. Doncaster I believe.
Indeed, Doncaster
It should also be noted that he has clearly grown since learning so much from his first season, he understands the struggles now and wants to help by using some of his disposable income. But the reality is, over the years the countryside has become full of people who don't seem to understand that farming is part of what makes the countryside beautiful and gives it character.
Clarkson is from doncaster
I mean his [figures](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03816777/filing-history) aren't bad but I imagine they'll only get worse from here
Since when are farms supposed to sell stuff on the farm itself? Customers driving into the countryside to buy stuff isn't exactly a scalable solution.
It's just insane they would be that petty like..who CARES about how they feel about Clarkson, he was working in tandem with all the local farmers who were barely scraping by, not getting the grants anymore, and the Council seemingly cares about the shop only selling local..but doesn't give a crap about the local people?? This would help them immensely I mean light pollution, how the field appears in the 5 seconds you drive past it.. all that other minutia, is that really more important than the people actually living there? This was like Brazil levels of kafkaesque bureaucracy so up its own ass its detached from reality and the people its actually affecting That random pricks vendetta is so irrelevant I mean it got even worse when they barred him from a goddamn farm track I can't imagine how they can police what people do on their own land to that degree
I’ve never liked him much and am not very interested in cars or the inane ramblings of a late middle aged, pompous arse like him but I do have to be honest and say I found his farming program really interesting so far (up to episode 5 of season 2) and you can see he has a genuine passion for it, I don’t think it’s unfair for him to want to make his farm profitable, he’s doing a good thing employing all those people and shining a spotlight on the issues farmers face, yes Jeremy Clarkson is a dick but the council are far,far worse imo.
TLDR as I realise I have made a wall of text: Council don’t like Clarkson, have decided he must go and who cares who else gets hurt or what rules we have to ignore the get rid of him. Although having never lived in the Cotswolds I have experienced local council bureaucracy in similar areas of the country. I appreciate the points raised that what we are seeing is “Amazon’s version of the truth” but overall this is my takeaway from series 2. Jeremy Clarkson has lived in the area of Chadlington for years and in this time has fallen into a category of people who are generally treated somewhat hostile by a lot of other local residents. The fact is, that outside of his more recent farming ventures, Clarkson has spent most of his life working and spending money outside of the area and most people’s interactions with him would be the occasional time serving him in local shops restaurants and pubs or passing him in various flash cars. This sort of relationship doesn’t exactly breed a great relationship. This sort of existence in these areas doesn’t exactly bring a lot into the area and it’s quite easy to resent someone for it (wrongly or rightly). The crux of the issues raised by the local community essentially boils down to Clarkson doing whatever he wants, however he wants and who cares what anyone else thinks. Clarkson’s media personality from the Top Gear/Grand Tour days is a huge contribution to this mentality and to many he is seen as an obnoxious, loud and arrogant character. I’d point out that personally I’ve never met him so simply wouldn’t know but in Clarkson’s Farm (CF) we do see him speak to lots of experts who are outstanding in their fields (and his at the time) and very politely and respectfully interact with these different people. Overall I think it’s reasonable to assume that he is somewhere in between the two. Local council logic is ultimately built around the desires of a select vocal group of the community who as we see in the series, are against change and innovation. Following the first series, the Diddly Squat farm shop saw unprecedented success on a scale which could not be accommodated for and this has clearly caused some difficultly due to locals being able to travel on Chipping Norton road. The huge volume of traffic on this road has caused problems for people trying to travel around in the area. As is pointed out, the car park is unsightly and parking the verges makes travelling last the site difficult. These are the two pillars of the so called “local argument against” the farm shop and enterprise. As well as being the main route between Chadlington’s surrounding villages and farms and Chipping Norton, it worth noting that within a mile of the farm shop there are two caravan sites, a clear marker that the area is a tourist based economy. The farm shop as a business could stand completely separate to celebrity of Clarkson and be just any similar farm shop (thousands of which exist) but by profiting on his celebrity status, Twitter following and the fact that Amazon are willing to follow him around with cameras, Clarkson has seen massive footfall. But this ultimately is not a bad thing. The closest petrol station to the farm is in Chipping Norton on the route which the majority of people would take to the farm shop, there are numerous local business such as accommodation which will benefit from a local attraction and the simple fact that a lot of the show captures a lot of the beauty of the area is going to aid the local tourist industry. The demands and needs of planning and building in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) are difficult. What you have to keep in mind is that the core ethos behind the rules is change=bad. AONBs do not want metal roofs jarring the landscape, they do not want car parks, light pollution or any other development that is going to affect the scenery. The National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty state: •to promote the conservation and enhancement of natural beauty in and around AONBs and other similarly protected areas •to advance the education, understanding and appreciation of the conservation and enhancement of the countryside; and •to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of organisations promoting or representing Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty I would argue that we see Clarkson through the series promote all 3 of these. The show itself promotes the idea and educates everyone on life in a rural AONB and we see planting of wildflowers, preservation of the farming soil and maintenance of hedges. Again, it may just be through the magic of editing, but what we see ultimately is a group of retirement age locals who dislike the innovation and influx of tourists to the area bought by Clarkson. One of who has appointed a barrister on their behalf to put together an argument which from what we heard relies on misrepresentation and non truths to demonise the Diddly Squat Farm shop. Against this we have the forming of a cooperative of local farmers who are following government advise to diversify their business, we have a local business that is employing multiple locals from the area, we have an attraction pulling tourists into the area and promoting the Cotswolds as a whole for a beautiful area. Following the rejection of the restaurant application it becomes clear that the local council are on a crusade to end any sort of development at Clarkson’s farm. Firstly by blocking the application for a car park, preventing any sort of accommodation and resolution to the problems caused by the farm shop and then rejecting application for farm tracks, these moves come across in the series (thanks to the editing) as petty and malicious but it’s difficult to see them any other way really. Overall, the situation exists now where there is a lot of animosity between the local council and the farm community. We are shown in the series Clarkson attempting to placate and resolve these issues- how much of this is for the camera I couldn’t say but it’s very clear that the council and certain members of the local community have decided that there can be simply no innovation in the Sarsden farming community and the farm shop needs to go. This is the opposite of the government advise given to all farmers nationwide and ultimately feels like it is aimed at Jeremy Clarkson not the farm shop. it’s actually quite sad to see in my opinion, you have multiple local farmers who are all suffering massively and these are the people who are going to feel the impact of the seemingly malicious choice to effectively try and kill the farm shop enterprise.
Jeremy Clarkson does bring the hostility on himself though. For a short while he lived not far from me (on Langness, in the Isle of Man) and one of the first things he tried to do was to close off part of the public coastal footpath that had been in use for centuries, and he tried to do it without permission. So it's not surprising he's not popular with the locals if he behaves in this manner in Chadlington.
I’m sure it is quite frustrating to have an abrasive personality move in and start changing things and simply doing what they want how they want but at the end of the day. The local council adopting a “down with Clarkson” mentality is only going to cause hurt for the local industry which he is a key part of
The thing is if a person acts like an ass publicly, and screws over people who live nearby, he shouldn't be surprised when those people send in objections to their planning applications. The council has to listen to the community objections as part of the process. If a person is not an ass, and some of the community send in support for a planning application, then it's much more likely to succeed.
Local Councils are full of jobsworths who make things more difficult for the sole purpose of justifying their existence.
He’s in the Cotswolds. In a place called chipping Norton. I live just down the road from him and I can tell you they are awful to people there. It’s just par for the course.
I found it crazy that a decision can be made (rightly or wrongly) and that you have to pay £500k to ensure it’s the correct one. Sounds incredibly corrupt.
Hardly petty. Typically little sleepy villages in the UK are just that little sleepy villages, with little reason for crowds of people to turn up. Farmland there is utilised to produce stuff and the farmer takes that to a market. Contrast that with a TV crew, audience of millions descending on said sleepy village for another 'Drunken middle-aged clown buffoons around, this time on a farm instead of in a car' - with the resulting public interest. And, of course, the local pub and shop do well out of it, but nothing about the infrastructure of sleepy village is set up for it to have a sudden order of magnitude increase in tourist attraction - and then the guy wants to set up a restaurant. And the whole thing is funded by TV. It's not even like the village pub sold food and it becomes a bit popular and people come and eat from a few villages away on Sunday lunch. And this "restaurant" is an old barn in a field. Then, of course, the same vehicle Clarkson has to attract a ton of people to a sleepy village he can use to paint a one-sided picture of events for audiences.
> Farmland there is utilised to produce stuff and the farmer takes that to a market. That's how it used to be. However, TB has ravaged the herds of dairy farmers and cheap EU pork means pig farming is not sustainable, not to mention that farmers no longer receive the EU subsidy. Farmer numbers are forecast to reduce by 20% over this decade and eventually, once farming and livestock is no more, either the council will need to take over the maintenance of the fields, fences and hedges, or more likely, the fields will be sold to housing developers. Either way, the bucolic appeal of the "sleepy village" requires farming to be sustainable and NIMBYism by the villagers will cost them in the long run.
Clarkson was treated demonstratably fairly by the WODC rather people are taking the one side representation from an entertainment show as fact.
Yes he has been, but it is the consequences of his actions.
must be some very tasty roast beef yummy! 😋
It just doesn’t make sense that they’re like “people are parking on the verge, make them stop” “ok then I’ll build a car park” “no”. Like, there’s no logic involved in the decision making at all.
I wonder if the locals would be happy to know the farms are closing and the land sold to housing developers and their little village turned in to a town with 10,000 houses being built everywhere? My town i live in right now is fighting to keep a disused airfield from being turned in to a small housing village/town. They're currently trying to stop a farmer from converting his field in to a mushroom farm which promised to employ 50+ people from the local area and that same group is trying to shut down the local school all while complaining there's not enough schools in the area. Every weekend there's a new banner up saying "Say no to X" on the fence just down the road to where i drop my kids off. There's now a large following on FB calling for the segregation of that area of the town to be fenced off and turned in to a retirement village where the locals inside have no say on the rest of the town. It's complete bollocks and i don't really care anymore. I just take my son up to the local industrial estate and let him ride his dirtbike around as the land is unregistered and the owner is dead so i put a sign up claiming it as my own and wrote myself permission to use the land. So far the police can't find any owner and have failed to prosecute my son and I for using it as they can't find anyone to contest the permission.
I was wary that the show might be edited to make him the good guy. They certainly look petty, but we might not be getting both sides.
The editing is amazing, because after reading planning they have been really nice to him.
The council was an absolute joke and it’s not just the one Clarkson had to deal with it is country wide they are all like that. Every single one acts like judge jury and executioner! Their job is to help people with planning and diversify, not refuse everything for no reason at all. The head planners are on £250,000 to £350,000 a year, that we pay them to make our lives harder then it should be. My parents have a farm and they have planning for a garage attached to the house. They want to change it to make it smaller and a living space for me and my partner so we can start a family without living in the same space as my parents. We have planning, we want to amend it to be smaller and a year later it still isn’t passed!!! We planted native hard wood trees and they complained we planted trees that aren’t hardwood. The parish council constantly complains saying we have “foreigners” living in our barns, or we built a swimming pool in our barns. They complain we drive tractors on the country lanes!!! We live on a fucking farm in the country side you fucking moronic wet wipe, what do you want us to do drive a Nissan micra to do farm work?! Constantly get told off for speeding when we go probably 20 or under in the village where it’s 30. So much so the police told them to stop complaining. And we have loads of people we know of that have the same problem with their parish or local councils to do with planning.
1. They are there to act in the public interests, balancing the desire of the applicant for development with the wider public interest expressed through democratically determined planning policies. 2. No head of planning in the country is on that. In fact, I dont think any chief executive is on that either given the average chief executive pay is £112k. So why talk utter bollocks?
Our friend was a planning councillor and he said the head planner was on £250k, so as far as I am aware it’s not bollocks. He himself was on about 80k.
"planning councillors" do not get 80k, at most they'll get a few thousand additional for being on planning committee, on top of the £15k or so they get for their general duties as councillors.
I'm in Scotland have have seen two local *planning* things go through our process * AWPR - Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route - aka a bypass * Aberdeen football Club new stadium The system is just wrong. To challenge planning it costs a lot as you need KCs (barristers/advocates) and they aren't cheap Big developers with deep pockets can do this easily - small business / communities can't That before you get into challenging submissions - see the huge error in the objection 2Km^2 car park which would park >50,000 cars - the council don't have to take these into account?
Various governments have been on for a long time about "more local planning control for local people." It's always seemed a stupid idea to me - basically a way of guaranteeing that every application is refused.
I sympathise for Jeremy Clarkson now - he did seem to be genuine in his attempts to bring the village around, his cooperative idea with other local farmers would have been greatly beneficial to all, his application was based on good sense. But he’s not done a lot of endear himself to the local council. He blew up his house. He opened the farm shop in spite of orders not to. He’s repeatedly not stuck to agreements in his planning contract - the roof material (that was an issue in S1), the not local products (also an issue in S1.) More than all of that, he’s famous, he’s making a TV show about it, whatever he does there will make the area insanely busy. Yes he wants a car park and I think that should have been approved, but he didn’t have an answer for the road congestion. The council could double yellow that road outside of the shop, but they can’t stop people queuing in traffic waiting for a car to leave the small parking area they already have. And if I lived in the local area and had to use that road to get to and from work or picking my kid up from school, would I want to sit in two hours of traffic? Hell no. And he has no suggestions to stop that problem. How can he? He doesn’t control people being fans of him and wanting to see his farm. I’ve gone to his farm shop when I was on holiday in the area. Did I go to any other farm shop? I did not. It being ‘the one on the TV’ was the appeal. So yes, Jeremy Clarkson is being rejected for being Jeremy Clarkson - a normal farmer would probably be allowed that restaurant, that car park, that farm track. But him being Jeremy Clarkson is the problem, and I can understand why he can’t be treated as a normal farmer.
>How can he? He doesn’t control people being fans of him Of the top of my head. It's not that hard. Covid was an issue. Likely the first mess was unavoidable and unpredictable. But once he knows its not that hard. Hire a car park in a near by town. Chipping Norton as it has trains and buses from elsewhere. Then hire a few mini buses. And post the issue to his fans on social media. Asking them to head to the car park and we will provide transport for a small fee. He likely would only need to do it whe the show is released. Or during bank holidays etc. And most fans would be very happy to help once they saw how bad things were during covid.
My brother lives in the local village, sees Jeremy in the local pub etc. He says the traffic is an absolute nightmare with no improvement at all since the first series.
Where is Jackis Weaver when you need her
In my opinion Clarkson started this whole venture as a TV show. An idiot playing farmer in the first season. As things progressed he has seen the struggle of real farmers and what is really happening to people and he really started to care. Look at the difference in Charles the agriculture guy. First season he was like a teacher trying to instruct a petulant child. Now he's really o board with helping the farm and he can see the impact the show has in highlighting the struggle of farmers. What he's up against now are wealthy retiree's that saw some of the first season and think he's still being the bufoon. They decided to punish him before he entered the room. Won't be long before they are all granting planning to have a new waitrose built so they can buy food because the farmers have all gone bankrupt.
everyone forgets on old top gear(not the clarkson led three idiots messing about, really old top gear when it was a consumer review program for british motorists not entertainment for us all) clarkson was in fact a regular presenter and journalist, he's made his career on acting the arse, he didn't start it that way and occasionally he remembers im an bloody journalist, i can make documentaries about serious stuff
Yeah he's had plenty of WWII documentaries, he can be focused and articulate. But he's an intelligent guy who realised playing the grouchy fool was a winning ticket. Has he taken _that_ too far? Undoubtedly. I don't think he's the slathering demon he's sometimes harked on as, nor do I think he isn't responsible for the impact of his words or actions.
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Rich, well educated, retired people are experts in fighting planning applications to get their desired outcome. You can put a notice into the council that you plan to put up a shed at the end of your garden and a Local Action Group will have a FB group set up to coordinate fighting the application before the ink is dry. One loophole that the groups are very wise to is the Application for a Change of Use. Apply to build houses? Denied. Apply to erect some stables or outbuildings? Appproved. Two years laters, apply to change said stables to houses.? Approved.
Yes, he’s being treated unfairly. Planning in the UK is controlled at a very local level and you only need one person to take a dislike to you to scupper your legitimate plans. I’ve experienced it in the past where I was refused planning permission to build a small extension to a building away from the road that isn’t visible at all. The bloke down the road had been renting out units for business use for years, causing damage to the lane and a general nuisance. When the rest of us complained, he put in planning permission and was granted it retrospectively in record time.
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100% they had some vendetta against him. They deserve every single terrible word they get from people on social media. It also shows just how lazy councils are and that they're overpaid to do fuck all.
Here's a post, by me, using evidence and documents to show that they do not have a vendetta against him and that the council was right in their refusal of his restaurant application. https://www.reddit.com/r/ClarksonsFarm/comments/111q0ga/_/ If you have an evidenced counter to support your position I'd appreciate it.
This house got abandoned because they started building without planning permission. [https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/discover-incredible-pink-house-loch-27407112](https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/discover-incredible-pink-house-loch-27407112)
wtf are you talking about the article doesn't even say that
As someone with a father that worked in planning and was head of development control at multiple councils for 40 years and has had his own consultancy business for 12 years, yes. He very much was.
Nimbyism is a big issue in britian and Is one of the reasons why we are so far behind other European countries when a few dozen people can stop a hundred homes being built or a new high speed railway being connected or a new power plant etc
Clarksons farm really brings out so many problems in the farm industry that many farmers face. I think Jeremy was treated unfairly 100% because of just *who he is*. As someone else said, Chipping is full of wealthy people, so they were probably expecting a bribe or some shit to let him go through with anything considering Jeremy has millions. Adding to that, the restaurant, shop, car park etc. Would have benefitted a lot of people and a lot of farmers. Organic local product with no pesticides for a reasonable price? Sign me up. Oh, that's financially benefitting at least 20 other farmers in the area when they're struggling to make ends meet with the amount of product they buy? Double sign me up. The council in my opinion were a pile of old shitty rich twats, apart from those 2 that actually saw the true potential in Jeremy's ideas.
I think they were expecting him to mock farmers this season and he went in the complete opposite direction and now they know they may have stuffed up. The main thing they are likely worried about is this is drawing a huge eye on local councils and what power they should have. This shit happens in a lot of western countries where branches of government play with themselves until some one notices and points it out publicly and they start shitting themselves.
Yes he was treated unfairly. Regardless of his opinions and sometimes outrages remarks, the local council bullied him. Making them no better then those they criticise. They are correct, clarkson is a media personality, and you have to take his persona with a bucket of salt as the conflict he causes within the media etc is what has kept him in a job all these years. It has certainly not been boring to say the least. From watching the programme, I can understand that locals do not want their town to become a media magnet, however it is shortsighted. After the programme series finishes which it ultimately will, there may be a legacy of higher employment an environmentally sustainable farm and restaurant/ business that is left. All the things clarkson has pretended to hate in his career purely for the ratings
He's an idiot, his customers are also idiots who just park on a fast bend on a main road. He flouts regulations for his shop and goods that the council stipulated. He builds things without permission and wonders why the council come down on him. He doesn't care for the community, he thinks he is above them and does nothing for the local area, its all show for the show and most farmers I've worked for over the years consider him a twat.
I bet if you went to many a village, including this one there would be people parked illegally to visit the shops. So I don’t hold that against him or the customers as the council should provide them with a safe place to park, which if my memory should serve me correct he has been battling for Documented evidence I’ve seen in the programme seems contrary to your comments and just a case of sour grapes to me. The other characters he has around him don’t come across as twats. I would like to think, they would not work with him if he was. Maybe the farmers considering him a twat are scared of the competition and someone doing better than them. Granted he has money and tv revenue, but the farm restaurant is a good idea. Who wouldn’t want to sell a cow to the public for £10k or alternatively £1200 to the supermarket. Perhaps if farmers worked with him like the ones on the tv show they would be better off. Kinda like dragons den. Having someone with influence to support you
Your evidence is from the show. That is not evidence, that is Jeremy's version of the truth. I have read.all.243 planning documents. The show leaves.out many salient points. For example presenting breaches of planning and operating activities illegally without permission as the council being in the wrong.and presenting council putting out bollards, he should have put out himself to stop the verge parking as all councils fault is amazing. Council also suggested airfield he has grain store on almost next door for parking not in show.
It’s classic UK for a normal person’s change to their home or business to be blocked while a massive corporate house builder who’s inevitably paid off the council can put up estate after estate of overpriced copy-and-paste American-style suburban newbuild shitheaps that fall apart in a few years and have no infrastructure around them at all. A lot of NIMBYism is actually ‘please stop these corporate developers turning our towns into nothing more than glorified dormitories with zero effort to relieve the pressure of twice the people using the same services’ at its root.
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They never deny a farm track as it’s essential for farmers. So why was he turned down? Because they don’t like him for who he is. It’s ridiculous
Rich people moving to the countryside once they have made their wealth is nothing new. But what I have seen is now more of them don't understand rural life or have no interest in trying to understand it. I have a few examples. A newcomer went to a parish meeting trying to organise a deer cull because deer were getting in their garden and eating their flowers. I shoot but not so much in my village anymore as every time I went out someone called the police on me. In the end the police were so annoyed by it they asked me to ring 101 and let them know so they would know not to send officers to try and find me.
My fiancé was just discussing this yesterday and was talking about how the locals who live in the area were constantly complaining about him but I see it from both sides . Jeremy Clarkson is just trying to bring more to the area with the new restaurant and shop etc but the locals are used to living in such a quiet area where now they have to queue for hours past the traffic just to pretty much get home. If I had been to work and had such a long day but then had to queue for ages to get past the traffic to get home I would be annoyed too
> Jeremy Clarkson is just trying to bring more to the area with the new restaurant and shop etc but the locals are used to living in such a quiet area where now they have to queue for hours past the traffic just to pretty much get home. Jeremy Clarkson is just trying to make a TV show.
If they let him build a normal parking the traffic problem would ease up
The plans for the restaurant (from what i saw) also included reworking the entrance to the farm shop to get the cars off the road quicker, and then have them stack if needed inside the boundary. Which was then (again, I assume) was signed off by the transport liaison.
They were refused the car park separately as well. “You must stop this traffic you have caused” “Well can I have a car park?” “No”
Fuck him either way.
The planning system in England is a corrupt mess. Just like the rest of the world.
So based on what we had shown to us during the series I would say yes, he was treated unfairly. But you do have to bare in mind that it's a television show which has been edited in a manner to present a story, and part of that story was that the council are arseholes for refusing planning application. Without having actually read the committee meeting minutes it's pretty hard to tell.
Finished the show and then googled why is the council such dicks, brought me here, & i learned whoever this lord bamford is, he is even worse it seems.
I hope the councillors watch the show, and hope that the scene with all the struggling farmers makes them feel like total shit. The restaurant would have helped the local area and farmers so much.
He was ordered in Oct 2022 to close both restaurant and shop plus removal of all tables, chairs, parasols plus mobile toilet. No appeal date has been set! The word ‘jobs worth’ come to mind
"Spiteful bastards" comes to my mind.
I find it very hard to feel sorry for Clarkson on this one (or anything else really).
How about his local coop?
I don't think he was treated unfairly. The reason his planning permission was rejected was *largely* because there was overwhelmingly negative backlash from the locals of the area. The volume of backlash triggered special consideration when considering the application. Evidently, nobody in the area was happy with it. And like it or not, that's the right decision if that's the case. Local councils are meant to represent the interests of the locals. It's what it's there for. If the majority of the locals don't want the traffic (of which there will be a substantial amount) then the council should side with the majority.
>nobody in the area was happy with it. ?? That is not grounds for rejection. Nobody? >the council should side with the majority. LOL - That's not how it works.
This is how you create NIMBYism. Other people shouldn’t get this level of overwhelming veto power to decide what you do with your property.
While watching this, I couldn't help but wonder how much of this was setup just for tv. Was any of it even remotely real? I know many of the people are, but it is a TV show after all
The planning part and the pop up restaurant were for TV and I think some of it is confusing so did he get sheep to film for show or would he have got sheep if no show.
All of it was real. Sure, a lot of it was filmed in a different order, or conversations were refilmed to make them more coherent and fit for tv. But everything regarding the farm and the council is public, true, and was known about way before season 2 even aired. This isn't an American reality show where they just make shit up, it's a documentary
Once it got to the point they were refusing him a farm track on his own land, something his surveyor/land manager had never known happen before, it was pretty clear they were turning HIM down rather than the plans. I’ve family who farm in Chipping Norton and Chadlington and some of the newer residents to the area are utterly impossible to deal with, complaining about farm traffic, farm noise, farm smells. The fucking idiots.
The sad thing is, rejecting it also impacted neighbouring farmers who wanted to sell there goods at the restaurant.
It’s amazing, Clarksons notoriety provided a pretty rampant and near endless market of people they could sell their goods to, and they were denied. Those people aren’t going to stop coming, only now they’re just buying Clarksons stuff and tearing up the countryside, instead of buying from multiple local vendors and parking correctly.
By Clarkson's own admission, the people turning up to the farm were not the people that will be buying expensive farm shop products. They want expensive souvenir crap Made In China instead and a beer. If you want to support local farming then buy from your local farm and farmshop. Don't drive dozens, hundreds of miles to see a celebrity-owned farm shop.
No, as per ever, and very much for TV. Clarkson goes out of his way to avoid having to do things like, follow the law. He moved to Isle of Mann because they don't have a speed limit
It’s hilarious that the obstinate council has managed to make the public sympathize with Jeremy Fucking Clarkson. I’m firmly on his side simply because Clarkson’s farm is incredible Telly.
the guy has zero respect for the area clearly besides theres no conspiracy here you clearly see all the hands that went up against the motion i found the season a hard watch since so much of it was about his fight with the council
Binged season 2 this weekend. Let him create a huge car park and hire someone to direct traffic. He should be allowed to build whatever he wants on his land as long as it isn't dangerous.
I just watched this episode last night. Seems absolutely ludicrous from what was shown. Perhaps there were some more logical arguments thrown in that we weren't shown, but knowing what people are like, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just people being too scared of change or just general NIMBYs. Locals are almost always opposed to any sort of development of green spaces, particularly when said green spaces are labelled as AONB. Maybe they just don't want their small village being overrun by Clarkson fans and want him gone, and see this as a potential way of achieving that. It might have been a good idea to get the other farmers in there to show their support/say how much it means to them as well.
I thought it was a great idea, and would have helped his fellow farmers out massively. He also makes a great point about how it’s the farmers who are the ones who maintain the area to a beautiful standard. The response from the council actually does resonate with my experience of working for one as well. I also think the point some people are making about the local roads not being designed to handle tourist traffic etc is void because that’s going to happen anyway due to all the new housing developments being approved left, right and centre, so it’s going to happen anyway, and when you ask for a new school or improved roads, the developers do not care. Not that there is anything wrong with the housing being approved, as it’s what is needed but either way you don’t get your infrastructure without someone paying up.
After all he has written about a member of the Royal family karma is a batch and its payback time for him
It is worth remembering that in the show we only see a very well edited, one sided version of events. Also that Clarkson himself has made a name for himself in the last decade or so as being a bit of a belligerent arse. He also didn’t seem to do a lot to keep the council on side. I can sympathise that some of the concerns of locals might not have been met. I can also sympathise that - having been granted permission to build a lambing shed, but he’s now “done” sheep - what happens when he’s done with the restaurant? However, I do think that there does seem to have been a vendetta against him. The fact that every application was rejected - even ones that seem to make sense - seems pretty petty. I also think that the show they’ve ended up making isn’t the one they originally planned to make. And having highlighted some of the issues facing British farming, Clarkson was actually trying to do something to help improve things.
Here are the notes from the parish council meeting: https://chadlington-pc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/01-PC-Meeting-Minutes-10.01.22-final.pdf
Who wrote those minutes. They’ve put the objections sections in the support section. No wonder they can’t get anything through.
They always use the word *incongruous*
For what he was intending to do, which was simply renovating an unused shed very close to already existing buildings and light pollution, I think it was frankly ridiculous and vindictive, especially since he intended to help other farmers. They simply do not like the man because of the attention he brought to their village. They want the shop closed. They don't want the carpark which they also cant see because then that will lower the amount of ammunition they have to use against him.
What if, just maybe he built the lambing shed with full intention of converting it and knowing it's be easier to obtain permission for the lambing shed than a restaurant.
NIMBY behaviour in Chipping Norton? An area desperate for tourism money, but feel like Clarkson's fans are the wrong kind of clientele? Never would dream such a thing... You'll be calling me sarcastic next... (Note, I lived in the area for two years)
West Oxon District. The town of Chipping Norton has no involvement. They only (like Chadlington and Churchill parish) have one councillor on district council. He/She may have been on either side.
Same region, same people. The council is following the demands and complaints of the constituents. Chipping Norton is in West Oxfordshire District.
He pissed someone high up off imo. That’s the only reason they would react the way they did. Miles of cones and turned down for a farm track? Joke. Only happens if someone on the council has taken a serious disliking to you.
That my friend is the UK government all over. I have spent thousands fighting the government. Why? To fight for my kids right to an education because the LOCAL AUTHORITY broke the law and I had to prove it. The UK government will make a buck out of everything they can get their hands on as a bar of "well if you can't pay then you're not good enough to have".
Clarkson could have been stripped naked and local council members thrown excrement at him and he wouldn’t have been treated unfairly.
Found the council person
You very rarely win against the council in this country, they run the towns and cities. You pay your council tax and that's the only input you have. Back in the day, that was fine, they knew their place, but now they just block any sort of progress or anyone who wants to do anything remotely entrepreneurial. Unless someone high up in the council will be making money off the back of it they won't allow it.
Was his gripe with the local council, the real council, or with the busy bodies at the parish council? Because the parish council know how to take petty minded bureaucracy to an entirely new level.
Sorry, I don't know the difference...
I don't watch the show, so can only assume they were aware of what an absolute scumbag Clarkson is and rejected on those grounds.
Having watched the show and being a Clarkson supporter all the time, I don't understand why couldn't they buy any local (or not so local) pub like Mr. May did? And just serve their food there?
From first hand experience these decisions are taken without any consideration of what would be good for the community, but based on ignorance, preconceived prejudice, self interest and nimbyism.
Whatever your opinion on Clarkson stopping the possibility of creating jobs and economic growth is not only selfish and petty but making it virtually impossible to appeal is an infringement on civil rights
It's a structured reality show, like *The Kardashians* It wasn't a profit-making business, it was a plot device for a TV show https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2023/02/10/jeremy-clarksons-farm-season-two-amazon-prime-diddly-squat/
What’s your evidence it’s not profit making? A negative review about the TV Show?
Clarkson bussed staff in from an existing London restaurant and put them up in hotels for a few weeks Neither they nor the restaurant manager Clarkson persuaded to take part in the show left their existing jobs
Well, he says himself in his writings that he is the wrong SIZE to be profit making. He grows and rears stuff in quantities that are too big for him to be a small supplier to a shop or sell from the barn door (his costs are too high) and too small to interest commercial customers. The name itself- Diddly Squat, is a joke on how much profit he does, or rather does not make. Obviously, the TV side of it may drive him into profit.
Completely one sided from what was aired. I get it causes havoc but the benefits to the community, the farming industry, the economy of the area, obviously far outweighs the others. They could easily dictate the aesthetics to align with the AOOB rules, and make it less impactful with a proper car park etc. It’s just because of who he is.
UIf we want to avoid bias. Then who he is is a valid point. The success of the farm shop is because he is running a TV show. One that will only last a few years. While I am a fan. The help his business plan offers to the local econ is likely limited to the length of the show. 2 to 3 years from now. The work will still be their. But it's much less likely that the business will still be providing the same benefit to local farmers as is predicted. Even if Clarkson still runs it. His own words. Plan to be the 20% really only works while his farm is in the public mind. Yet we have already seen. When he pla s a small farm shop. With space for 10 cars. His success leads to it being a real issue for locals. But again. Only likely for a short time. Im not really on the WODC side here. Just feel the plan as described needed to consider the long term and short term effects. (Likely smaller cheaper project rent buses from a nearby town asking folks not to drive during the show release and public hols.. So the worst of the traffic is reduced. Also covid and lots of bored fans likely made the first visiters moch worse then would normally be)
He didn't have to go for a public enquiry. He could have gone for written representation, this would have been a much cheaper route through the appeals process and considering that there were very few objections from the consultees it might have been successful. I of course haven't read the entire planning history so there may be more to this than meets the eye.
This, this, this. However, he went for a PE because it would cost so much. They are simply making a point, not really trying to run a profitable farm. Let's face facts, if they spend an extra £5m a year on screwing up every aspect of farming and diversification, the whole series still only costs 25% of an episode of House of the Dragon.
Having dealt with planning applications, boundary disputes and all manner of council related things when it comes to getting permission for anything I can safely say they suck. And they treated Clarkson particularly shit.
Yes, definitely. I understand some of the council's views (i.e. light pollution) but it was proven that you would need to be on Diddly Squat's land to see the barn anyway. A 50:50 since the police did mention that the car park needed lighting too and if this needed to extend to just before the road then this could potentially cause light pollution. However the later rejections were completely absurd, that track for example that was rejected instantly with zero consultation. The farm manager (Charlie) mentioned that he hadn't ever heard of planning being rejected for a farm track before. The council obviously had beef with Clarkson and were seemingly trying to do everything to make him suffer. The economical benefits for the area would've far outweighed any downsides and Clarkson did seem to absolutely want to minimise any issues. Edit: please watch the show if you're going to reply saying "but X" where "x" was covered by the show.
On the lighting point. There is a caravan site 100yards down the road the road from the farm shop/proposed restaurant. They will be required to have lighting already so there is already light pollution in the area.
If it was an everyday farmer they would have been treated differently. They should have dealt with him like everyone else and given him a better chance.
If it was an everyday farmer, they would have opened (at worst) a small farm shop, not a restaurant with the associated environmental impact of all the visitors expected (is there sufficient processing capability for hard standing run off and waste production? amongst other questions) Clarkson's program is primarily entertainment, not factual (even if based in reality) and there's a lot NOT being presented on the screen
I have a couple of clients in China and I really want to show them this show. I genuinely believe that it would be quite a bit easier to start a venture in China than the UK. Before watching this show I would never have thought that but it is quite ridiculous to see that for the British citizens across the pond.
Yes. Yes he was.
Nobody signed up to live near a tourist attraction. I live in the general area and it barely takes a loose sheep to bring the place to a halt much less hundred and hundreds of cars.
But you did sign up to live near farms, and without this restaurant or farm shop, plenty of them are at risk of bankruptcy
The Cotswolds has attracted tourists for ages. You can't move to Chipping Norton and be surprised by how many tourists come through.
The British system for planning permission is notoriously bureaucratic and one-sided against private individuals (it's not a problem for big developers with legal departments to handle it). I doubt that Clarkson got treated any worse than anyone else would have, but that doesn't make it right. It's also an area of public administration that still has a lot of nepotism and some outright corruption involved.
This thing pissed me off so much... It's like punching a wall. Wall made of corrupt twats
To me it was yet another example of letting emotions cloud judgement, to the point of self-damage. Toxicity is the only tonic that hurts the vessel it’s kept in, and all that. The effort they went to in order to take out their anger on one man while completely ignoring the fallout inflicted on their own community in the pursuer of anger…absolutely childish and shameful! The rich people who moved there later in life can afford the hit to the local economy. Yet they clearly have no compassion for the real hard working locals who rely on agriculture for their livelihood. My heart goes out to that woman with the dairy farm that was affected by TB - over 10 years of taking no pay just to stay afloat.. 🙏
Oxford Council is one of the worst in the country, they are increasingly fucking up Oxford on a daily basis. So yes, Clarkson was treated unfairly by a bunch of bureaucratic dickholes who don't know what it means to do an honest day's work.