Jeremy Clarkson's farm branded 'a menace and a success'

Jeremy Clarkson's farm shop has been described as both a "menace" and "a success for local people" during a planning meeting.

Villagers clashed at the meeting about the impact of the business on the Oxfordshire countryside.

The hearing relates to Mr Clarkson's appeal against the refusal by the council to grant planning permission for an extension to the car park at his shop.

The meeting continues on Wednesday.

Mr Clarkson, 62, is also challenging West Oxfordshire District Council's (WODC) move to shut down his restaurant on the same plot of land because he allegedly did not have planning permission when he opened it in July last year.

The former Top Gear presenter's attempts at running his farm are the subject of a documentary series on Amazon Prime Video.

At the meeting on Tuesday, villager Hilary Moore said the tourists who visited the farm - which sits between Chadlington and Chipping Norton - came to "show off their cars" and block roads, while Joanna Cecil, a florist at the farm, came to its defence.

Chadlington resident Ms Moore said: "I don't think the people who come are particularly respectful.

"They come in their cars with their souped-up engines - they are motorheads, they are not here to support our little farm shop.

"We have been disrupted by them in the two-and-a-half years since it's been open. It's ruining our area.

"There are farm shops all over the country that they could support instead of all converging here at the weekends.

"It's a total menace. It's a danger."

Ms Cecil told the meeting she had been working as a florist at the farm "since the very beginning", and it attracted visitors who wanted to support local farming.

"People go to the shop because it sells local," she said.

"This is what Jeremy loves: he invests in the farm, he invests in local people.

"He is making a success of it for local people, for our children, and for our future."

WODC took action against Clarkson in August saying in its enforcement notice that the "nature, scale and siting" of the restaurant on his farm was "incompatible with its open countryside location" in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

It then ordered closure of the restaurant or anything selling food that will be consumed on the farm, along with removal of the dining tables, chairs, parasols, picnic tables, and mobile toilets.

It also previously denied permission for an expanded car park at the site, despite the council's own tourism manager saying it would help improve safety and prevent problems.

Agents working on behalf of Clarkson say they are not in breach of planning laws, claiming that the council's decision is "excessive".

The John Phillips Planning Consultancy (JPPC) wrote in its appeal against the enforcement notice that existing planning permission gives the right to use the farm as a restaurant, and there has been no "material change" to the land.

WODC's lawyers argued that the "level of use of the site" has "significantly increased" due to the restaurant, and the land was "now used for a mix of purposes which go well beyond that of a farm shop".

The council has said that due to these reasons, the current planning permission "could never apply" to the new enterprises on the site.

A final decision on the plans will be published in the coming weeks.

Discussions about Clarkson's farm have been heated, and WODC said it had put extra security measures in place for Tuesday's hearing as a result of death threats sent to a councillor and member of the public who had opposed the plans.

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