Visitors to Clarkson's Diddly Squat shop can get 'better quality' from rival ... trends now
Jeremy Clarkson's fans are only visiting his farm shop because of his fame and could get better quality products and value somewhere else, his local council has said.
In an ongoing row with West Oxfordshire district council, Clarkson, 62, has launched an appeal against its rejection of his planning application to install 70 car parking spaces at the Diddly Squat shop as well as a café.
Clarkson has argued that the car parking spaces are necessary in order to avoid customers parking on the main road.
This month Clarkson revealed that the council has also blocked him from selling copies of Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm - a book based on his experiences running the 1,000-acre Cotswold farm - despite writing it at his kitchen table.
Jeremy Clarkson's fans are only visiting Diddly Squat Farm Shop because of his fame and could get higher quality products somewhere else, his local council has claimed
Clarkson, 62, has launched an appeal against its rejection of his planning application to install 70 car parking spaces at the Diddly Squat shop as well as a café
Pictured: Book cover for Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm
At the appeal hearing the Top Gear presenter said: 'We really do need on-site parking and lavatories,' according to The Times.
He said: 'I cannot understand why (the council) doesn't want me to sell my farming books in the shop.
'They claim they weren't made locally but I wrote them at my kitchen table, and you literally can't get more local than that.
'It would be helpful if we could sell a few tee shirts too.'
The council has argued that Clarkson breached planning conditions after he changed the use of the land from a shop shop to a 'tourist attraction' with parking for 'up to perhaps 200 vehicles'.
It said the shear amount of visitors to the shop 'exceeds what would arise from a bona fide farm shop', harming the natural beauty of the area.
In a statement it said: 'It is the venue itself that draws [customers], not the shop or the cafe and probably not even the view. They have passed farm shops with a wider variety of better quality, better value items.'
West Oxfordshire district council has been contacted by MailOnline for comment.
Diddly Squat Farm Shop was opened back in 2020. He had bought the farm in 2008 but it was run by a local until he retired in 2019, at which point Clarkson took over.
The farm is the focus of his hit TV show, Clarkson's Farm.
The Amazon Prime series recorded its best year yet in 2022 ahead of the season two premiere.
During the programme Jeremy works on his 1,000 acre plot of land, located between Chipping Norton and Chadlington in the idyllic Cotswolds countryside in Oxfordshire.
Clarkson bought the farm in 2008 but it was run by a local until he retired in 2019, at which point the 62-year-old ex-Top Gear star chose to take over
After just three years of trading, the TV personality's farm has already amassed £1.34 million in assets and 17 employees, while in 2021 the business had just £44,000 in assets and six employees.
Clarkson's girlfriend Lisa Bentick, with whom he runs the farm, said in a statement that the shop has helped many local producers to survive economic hardship.
She said: 'Throughout the incredibly difficult times, when there as a constant barrage of detrimental correspondence from the council, it was only knowing how we were helping others that kept me from spiralling down into a pit of despair.'
In a previous letter to officials, Clarkson wrote: 'I'm proud of what we have done here and I'm extremely proud of Lisa for what she's achieved at the shop, in sometimes very trying bureaucratic circumstances.'
Clarkson has faced recent
