Under-fire council issues statement on Clarkson's Farm season three

A council which again comes under fire in the new series of Clarkson’s Farm has insisted Mr Clarkson is treated no differently from anyone else.

In the first episode of the new series Mr Clarkson can no longer afford to keep all of his cows after West Oxfordshire District Council tells him has to close down his newly opened restaurant.

The council also threatens to enact an enforcement notice on the farm shop to stop it selling non-local food.

No sooner had the show aired on Friday than West Oxfordshire District Council published a statement on its website, insisting it had "a responsibility to make sure that national and local planning laws and policies are followed correctly by everyone.

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"We must be fair and so we apply the same laws and rules to Diddly Squat Farm in the same way as any other business."

The statement points out the council has approved many planning applications for the farm including the lambing shed, a barn and the farm shop.

But, it said, it "had little choice" but to take enforcement action to close the restaurant and "other ongoing breaches of planning law or changes on the site which didn't have planning permission" following complaints from the public.

And, it said, following Mr Clarkson's appeal against the refusal the planning inspector agreed with the council that the restaurant had been opened without the correct planning permission.

The statement goes on to claim that the council did not stand in the way of Mr Clarkson opening a temporary car park - which was also refused but granted after an appeal.

"We encouraged Diddly Squat Farm to make an application for a temporary car park long before the appeal," it says.

The council insists it supports local farming and farm diversification schemes and "will be happy to work with Diddly Squat on any future plans.

"Our door has always been open and will remain open should they choose to work with us."

Clarkson's Farm Season 2 also featured the Top Gear presenter's long-running planning disputes with West Oxfordshire District Council.

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Disgusted fans rallied to Mr Clarkson's defence and one councillor received death threats due to the show's portrayal of planning meetings.

WODC hit back and said the scenes were 'misleading' and filming of Mr Clarkson storming out did not accurately represent what really happened.

They also accused him of ‘failing to engage’ with the process.

They said: “We would have been happy to do that in this case, however, Diddly Squat Farm did not engage with us nor follow advice from our planners when pulling together the application.”

Clarkson's Farm season 3, part 1 is available to stream on Amazon Prime now. Part 2 is released on May 10.