Clarkson's Farm TV series 'misleading', says West Oxfordshire District Council

West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) has accused the new season of Clarkson’s Farm of being 'misleading' to viewers and not representative of what happened in the planning meetings.

The second series of Clarkson’s Prime Video series shows another year on the farm , with new animals and crops as well as Clarkson’s dealings with the local council.

In a statement, a WODC spokesperson said: “The planning meeting shown in Clarkson’s Farm ran for well over an hour but was covered in a matter of minutes in the show.

"This meant that a lot of discussion from the meeting was missed, including a lot of very relevant legal planning advice and discussion that informed the decision taken by councillors."

Clarkson, who purchased the farm in 2008 and started running it himself in 2019, received a poor reaction from some villagers in Chadlington, Oxfordshire when he expanded the business to include a farm shop and restaurant.

The move prompted protests from locals who complained it caused heavy disruption and traffic jams not in keeping with the quiet rural surroundings and the restaurant was closed after an enforcement order from council officials.

A WODC spokesperson continued: "The ‘dark skies’ argument that featured in the programme was a very small part of the overall discussion and was not the reason for refusal of planning permission.

"Officers and councillors have to make some difficult decisions based on national planning related laws and guidance alongside local policies.

"Most applications have their pros and cons - as was obvious with the decisions for Diddly Squat Farm in Clarkson’s Farm.

"Indeed the Council recognised the benefits in the proposal to local farmers and the economy but the proposals did not meet other planning requirements and ultimately, having heard the whole case as opposed to edited highlights, the cllrs voted to refuse planning permission.

“Usually for applications like this, a business would speak to us so we can support it ensuring an application is compliant with planning policy.

"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.

“Throughout series 2 of Clarkson’s Farm a lot of information was not included, or appears to have been misleading for viewers, leading to the narrative promoted by the series that the council has a vendetta against Mr Clarkson.

"A good example of this was the ‘refusal’ of the farm track where the show omitted the fact that Diddly Squat Farm had applied retrospectively for work that can only be applied for in advance meaning the council had no choice under law but to refuse it.

"Also it was suggested that West Oxfordshire District Council had put cones along the road outside the farm which was not the case.

"We would like to be clear we treat each application fairly and objectively regardless of the individuals involved with the submission. This is also the case with the Diddly Squat Farm."

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